This is part 1 of a series on data organisation. Which is part of a multi-series of posts on digital resources for mental health professionals.

This is part 4 of a series on digital safety and security for mental health professionals, read part 1, part 2, part 3.

Losing data can be frustrating. I've learnt the hard way that syncing data to another computer or to a cloud provider (e.g. Dropbox) is not a good way of backing up data. Corruption in a single file can spread to synced copies¹.

3-2-1 Backup Strategy

My search for backup software …

I was invited to attend the annual workshop by the AUC's Access to Knowledge for Development Center A2K4D.

I was in the audience of a panel titled Data Governance for AI in the Health Sector which was more about data unavailability than AI. Prof. Fatima Roumate raised an important point about the sovereignty of data and systems, Meriem Ben Tarjem addressed the emigration of doctors as being one of the most pressing issues in Tunisian …

This is part 3 of a series on digital safety and security for mental health professionals, read part 1, part 2.

Encrypted Communication

End-to-end encryption (E2EE)¹ is a welcome layer of security for communicating with patients. Signal was the first IM application to offer this. Signal is also very good for audio and video calls.

Whatsapp offers E2EE but it is developed by Meta which is not to be trusted.

Try to set Whatsapp …

This is part 2 of a series on digital safety and security for mental health professionals, read part 1 here.

Password Managers

• 🖥️ Always use a password manager. They help you generate very secure passwords.
• 🗂️ Create a different password for each account. Reusing passwords between services is unsafe. For example, if you reuse a password between a social network and email. If one of them is compromised, these passwords will be traded online and attackers will …

As psychiatrists we are required by law to keep our patients' information confidential. Knowing that their data is secure, patients feel comfortable disclosing personal details crucial for accurate diagnosis and treatment.

According to where you work you are required to follow certain laws regarding data protection. In Egypt, things are limited. We depend on paper records and IT departments aren't as resourceful. Occasionally you have to write a medical report on your laptop. Sometimes, patients …

يتواصل معي مرضى مصريون مقيمين في الخارج لحجز جلسات عبر الإنترنت للكشف والعلاج، والسبب المتكرر في طلب المساعدة هو شعور المرضى بأن طبيب نفسي من خارج ثقافتهم لن يستطيع مساعدتهم.

وبالرغم من انتشار الجلسات عبر الإنترنت بعد الجائحة وتقبل المرضى لها وظهور أدلة على فاعليتها في تقليل أعراض الإكتئاب وقدرتها على مساعدة المريض على الإلتزام بالعلاج إلا أنني لا أستطيع الكشف على مرضى خارج جمهورية مصر العربية لأسباب التالية:

• روشتة العلاج لن تقبل …

This is part 3 of a post with some basic advice for psychiatry registrars that I send out every year. Read the first part and second part.

Reflective Practice (RP) 🪞

We have been running monthly RP groups at our hospital and it has been very popular. I learned about it from an RCPsych newletter and thought that this was a good idea to get trainees to share, reflect and learn from their encounters.

The value …

This series of posts is based on a presentation I gave in 2022 before the LLM / ChatGPT hype started. I wanted to post it here but I felt the need to give the hype cycle its course first on the off chance that may be there is something valuable there. My conclusion is to stay away from "AI" for so many reasons but the most important one is that it isn't a safe technology for …

This is part 2 of a post with some basic advice for psychiatry registrars that I send out every year. Read the first part here.

For Journal Club Presentations 🔬

• 🚫 Don't write the name of your supervisor on your slides if they didn't review your presentation.
• 😍 Ask your supervisor to review your presentation ahead of time.
• ✉️ Don't surprise your supervisor. Inform them about your presentation few days in advance.
• 🔬 When critiquing an article, mention the date …