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“Killer” Grand Rounds From Down Under

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Grand RoundsBetter Health’s Grand Rounds this week is hosted by the ever-so-crafty Life in the Fast Lane team of Australian physicians at the Utopian College of Emergency for Medicine.

These docs “take great pleasure in sharing their medical experiences, clinical knowledge and insights into waiting-room medicine with health-conscious technophiles to facilitate the learning process by providing diverse and hopefully entertaining reading material.” It’s always worth a read (and a chuckle), no doubt.

With the theme of “Killer Posts” (just a hint — hate to blow the surprise), this edition of Grand Rounds is sure to educate in more ways than one! Experience it HERE.

On The Battlefield Against Diabetes

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We.  Are.  DIABETES WARRIORS!

I have no idea how it happened, but yesterday was a crummy day, diabetes-wise. Somehow, early in the evening, I heard the Dexcom singing from the kitchen countertop, and BSparl and I went over to investigate.

“High.” With a long line at the very top of the Dexcom screen.

“Hi to you, jerkface,” I said, pulling out my meter to see just what the greeting was about. And I saw a sticky 451 mg/dl blinking back at me.

What the fern?” I couldn’t figure out how I ended up so high, especially since after lunch I was 174 mg/dl and flatlined on the Dex.

And I was so angry. How does this happen? Did I eat the wrong thing? Take a shallow bolus? Is the pump ferning with me? Could the insulin have spoiled? Did I just lose track of everything and my numbers went berserk on me? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*

Good Looks In Medicine: Does It Matter?

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Handsome-Mechanic-Now-On-Duty-Sign-AdvertisementI found this sign while driving past a mechanic’s shop the other day. Of course, now I get it. How do women pick their mechanic? This sign explains it all. Just look for the “Handsome Mechanic ‘Now On Duty'” sign. I wonder if it works for doctors, too.

Be honest. If your doctor had exceptionally good-looking physical features by most people’s standards, would you be more likely or less likely to keep him or her as your doctor? Would you be more likely or less likely to think of them as highly intelligent? Would you be more likely or less likely to sue them when something goes wrong?

We know that babies respond to good-looking parents differently even as newborns. So why would we expect adults to respond to handsome mechanics and doctors any differently?

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

Why Heart Patients Should Order Their Pizza Delivered

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… because the pizza deliveryman might just save your life. From The Associated Press:

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Ordering a pizza may have saved George Linn’s life.

Linn’s wife says he had just gone into cardiac arrest Friday when the pizza deliveryman knocked on the door of their Colorado home to bring their order. Kami Linn says she opened the door to “some burly-looking dude” and immediately asked for help.

The deliveryman, Chris Wuebben, happened to be a paramedic recently returned from Iraq.

Kami Linn says Wuebben performed CPR on her husband and revived him. Other paramedics who later arrived then took over. George Linn remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit.

Kami Linn says her husband has a history of heart problems.

-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Get Yourself Into A “Medical Jam”

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Thanks to the PSP Blog which linked to the “Culture Map” article by By Douglas Newman — Medical jams: From plastic surgery to cancer to sex changes, it’s been rocked about.

Newman has put together the following list with audio links included in his article. I hope you will pop over and give them a listen. Do you have any to add to the list? 

“Heart Doctor” by Lee “Scratch” Perry

This late period track by the legendary (and legendarily kooky) Lee “Scratch” Perry finds the reggae/dub artist and producer doling out “advice” to his patients…

“A Nurse’s Life is Full of Woe” by Billy Bragg

An unreleased track taken from the sessions of Talking With the Taxman About Poetry, “A Nurse’s Life is Full of Woe” finds Bragg taking on the plight of the working class…

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*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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