August 6th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Communication, ED, Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Room, ER Doctor, General Medicine, Gun, Individuality, Medical Humor, Revolver, Self Protection, Smartphone
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I have a new “smartphone.” It’s a Droid from Verizon. Pretty cool. I like what it can do, though it tends to enable me tendency to chronically check my email. I like the features, between ease of texting, voice dialing, etc. But it’s big, compared to me dear departed flipphone, whose corpse lies in state in my pickup truck.
But I noticed one day, as I reached around my side, that the large phone now on my hip felt remarkably like my revolver. Odd feeling that. I was in public and I remember panicking, wondering if I had forgotten to conceal my concealed weapon for some reason.
And as I pondered this, I realized that both represent fundamental differences in the way we view individuality. Maybe it’s a stretch, but I’m a writer so I’m supposed to stretch. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
August 6th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor
Tags: Coping Skills, ED, Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Room, ER, Games of Cope, Healthcare Providers, Hospital Games of Chance, ICU Bingo, ICU Medicine, Intensive Care, Managing Stress, Medical Humor, Medical Staff, Stress Management, Workplace Humor
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Ever wonder how ICU nurses get through their daily grind? Why, with ICU Bingo, of course.
How does ICU Bingo work? It works just like regular bingo. Every nurse receives their own Bingo card with different ICU diagnoses. And every time they take care of one of these conditions, they get to “x” it out. Fill out a line or any other predetermined design pattern, and you are the ICU Bingo winner, and you win a prize.
This is quite similar to my 2010 March Madness Hospitalist Bracket, only in this case the game is Bingo. As you can see, this nurse has already cared for a GI bleed, a homeless man, a drug overdose, chest pain, DKA, alcohol withrawal, subdural hematoma, a prisoner, and someone with super-morbid obesity. That’s ICU medicine for you.
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*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
August 6th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Humor, News, Research
Tags: Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Defibrillator, ED, Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Room, ER, Medical Humor, Medical Technology, QRS, Shay Carmon, Toast/e/r
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This clever and funny Toast/e/r (“ER” included in the name) is by designer Shay Carmon. Note the QRS complex grill:
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Concept page: Toast/e/r…
(via Gizmodo)
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
August 6th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Humor, Medical Art, Opinion
Tags: Anatomical Snuff Depression, Anatomy, De Quervain's Tenosinovitis, Finkelstein Test, General Medicine, Hand, Internal Medicine, Medical Humor, Physical Exam, Primary Care, Scaphoid Fracture, Snuff Box
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It’s time we get away from all of the serious nonsense and back to something I am far more comfortable with: Taking otherwise-useful information and twisting it into utter nonsense. Yes, it’s time to journey back to the wonderful world of the physical exam.
My ongoing mission is to explore the human body from my unique (albeit moderately unstable) perspective. For an overview of my previous posts on the physical exam see this post which features Dick Chaney on a Segway (reason enough to click on the link). Please visit a psychiatry blog to aid in recovery once you have done so.
My most recent post in this fine series covered the topic of psychics and about the examination of the hand. It was mainly about psychics examining the hand, but I did slip in a little doctor stuff to keep the cops off of me. But then I got a call from the department of homeland security and they said that if I didn’t shape up, I’d no longer be able to use the picture of Dick Cheney on the Segway. It’s hard to resist such harsh tactics. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
August 5th, 2010 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion, Research
Tags: Andreas Marx, Biology, Chemical & Engineering News, Chemistry, Dr. Carmen Drahl, Five Favorite Drugs, Five Favorite Molecules, General Medicine, Medical Humor, Pharmacology, Princeton, Remote Desert Island, ScienceOnline2010, Sole Occupant, Survival, Thomas Mayer, University of Konstanz
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This post follows a lengthy conversation I had with my wife, a physician-scientist, about this very topic.
Many of you who attended the ScienceOnline2010 conference here last January probably met Carmen Drahl, the Princeton-trained chemist who now writes for Chemical & Engineering News and their appropriately-named drug discovery blog, The Haystack, as well as their Newscripts feature.
For the latter, Dr. Drahl pointed us toward a recent “Crosstalks” paper in Chemistry & Biology by Thomas U. Mayer and Andreas Marx of the University of Konstanz (and her interview with the authors) who mused as follows from their abstract:
Which five molecules would you take to a remote island? If you imagine yourself as a castaway on an island you might pick water, glucose, penicillin, and ethanol in combination with aspirin. However, as a scientist, you may ask yourself which molecules impressed you most by their chemical or biological property, their impact on science, or the ingenuity and/or serendipity behind their discovery. Here, we present our personal short list comprising FK506, colchicine, imatinib, Quimi-Hib, and cidofovir. Obviously, our selection is highly subjective and, therefore, we apologize up front to our colleagues for not mentioning their favorite compounds.
The authors pose two different questions: a) Which molecules, drug or not, would you take as the sole occupant of a desert island? and b) Which drugs most impress you with their chemistry, biology, or impact on science? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*