Microsoft’s own Peter Neupert has some good thoughts on technology and the H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) today:

With the media hype machine driving minute by minute coverage, it’s hard not to think about devastating epidemics and pandemics of the past—typhoid fever, smallpox, etc…—illnesses that spread uncontrollably and killed millions.

While we should be concerned, we should also remember just how far we’ve come in facing these challenges. Today, the Internet, blogs, instant messaging, and other technologies can disseminate information about new threats and new medical knowledge faster than ever before.  Technology gives us the opportunity to face these crises better than we have in the past.

Check out some of what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is doing in social media for an example of this good work: www.cdc.gov/socialmedia.

We on the Windows Team are excited about a small role we’re playing here putting Center for Disease Control and Prevention health tips and World Health Organization news updates at the top of people’s browsers through a new Swine Flu Web Slice for Internet Explorer 8, now available at www.ieaddons.com. Education and awareness is key to helping prevent the spread of this threat and in furthering medical knowledge around the globe and we’re hopeful this solution on Internet Explorer 8 can play a role in helping people stay up-to-speed.

UPDATE: Check out this blog post from Microsoft Evangelist Giorgio Sardo on how he made the Swine Flu Web Slice for Internet Explorer 8.

We can see the vast improvement of technology in healthcare these days. Other than speeding up the diagnostic procedures, computer aids have helped provide accurate and faster analysis of tests and procedures pertinent towards being able to tell what is exactly wrong with a person who feels something wrong with him.

We see computers in the medical world today. Ranging from the usual laboratory procedures to the advanced imaging needed by radiological services, pinpoint accuracy is what computers are able to provide. Some of them don’t even have to be the high end ones at that. You would be surprised that most of these computers make use of old computers like the first storm of Pentium computers.

A lot of this is due to the fact that not all programs used by medical technology require a Windows platform. Most of them can make do with the standard DOS OS and are usually compiled with old school programs such as FoxPro. Though these programs may sound outdated, it is how they are able to provide medical reports to physicians and specialists that is important. Today, you can get results in an hour rather than waiting a whole day to know what the test results were able to show.

Technology in the medical field is sure to advance all the more. With computer technology fast showing what it can do to assist us, it should not be surprising how far we can achieve more towards monitoring and safeguarding our lives. And we have computers and peripherals to thank for all of it.

VeriChip, maker of implantable RFID-powered identification microchips, are being accused of withholding information from the public with regards to the dark side of their “lifesaving” chips. Don’t say you haven’t been warned: the signs have been there for a decade, available for all to see. No, you needn’t be a doctor, radiologist, or nano-technician to have seen them and heeded their warning, you just had to watch a couple of episodes of one of the 90s most popular hit TV shows ever: The X-Files.

Apparently Chris Carter’s insanely-popular X-Files (and its cult following) had more than just the plot lines down right, it seems that The Truth really is out there after all! A startling article on on MSNBC today reveals that implanted “medical” microchips used for the purpose of the identification of cats, dogs, horses, and the elderly really can cause cancer after all, just like their TV counterparts.

 For those of you not yet enlightened by Chris Carter’s science-ficitional work of art, here’s the gist of what happened (which is, by no means whatsoever, to be considered a substitute to actually watching the X-Files!). In the X-Files TV series, FBI Special Agent Dana Scully (played by Gillian Anderson) was kidnapped by “aliens” who had a unique identification microchip implanted in the base of her neck. Seasons later, Agent Scully discovers the microchip and has it removed, triggering a malignant nasopharengeal tumor to develop (in her nasal cavity). Later on in the storyline, Agent Scully’s cancer is healed by finding a replacement microchip (and we later discover that the microchip can cure cancer and most other bodily illnesses).