February 21st, 2010 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
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I’m going to make a button to wear at work. t’ll say “I’m really only a dick at work”.
I’ve written before about my ‘game face‘ and how it’s not me, not really. It’s a Business Me, and it’s how I get through life at work.
(Is that a cop-out? Do I do it because it makes me more efficient, a better doctor, smoother, faster, or do I do it because it builds a bit of a wall between me and my real self and lets me get through the day without getting emotionally attached to every patient and their family?) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
February 21st, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Paging Dr. Mortis, Dr. Rigor Mortis!
This is a sample section from a new book I’m writing on the transition from residency to practice.
When you die:
A) The house of medicine will collapse, and only recover by remembering your compassion and sacrifice.
B) Patients and staff will wail in sack-cloth and ashes
C) Someone may name a procedure or drug in your honor
D) People will walk over your dead body, take your vacant day-shifts and go through your pockets for change.
The answer is D. Although I’m using some hyperbole, the point is that when you die, some people will be sad; your loved ones will miss you. But life will go on. The hospital will not close, and the sick will not stop being sick. So conduct your life with this in mind. Medicine, for all it’s wonder and value, must not be a rock on which you wreck yourself. Let it enhance, not overwhelm, your life. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
February 20th, 2010 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Dog attacks are a major public health concern worldwide. In the United States, dogs bite more than 4 million people each year, occasionally resulting in fatalities. In an issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (2009;20:19-25), Ricky Langley from the Division of Public Health in Raleigh, North Carolina published an article entitled, “Human Fatalities Resulting From Dog Attacks in the United States, 1979-2005.”
The statistics are instructive. In the years studied, there was an average of 19 deaths each year from dog attacks. Not surprisingly, males and children less than 10 years of age had the highest rate of death from dog attacks, with Alaska reporting the highest death rate. The number of deaths and death rate from dog attacks appear to be on the rise, perhaps for no other reason than there are more people and more dogs, in both absolute numbers and in proximity.
I am a dog lover (of friendly dogs), but am aware both as an owner and as an emergency physician that dogs will sometimes bite people, sometimes with serious consequences. Read more »
This post, Killer Dogs And US Dog Bite Statistics, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
February 19th, 2010 by Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
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There’s an adage I often think about: “A physician’s job requires the expression of confidence. The researcher’s role is to express doubt.”
This was never more apparent than when I transitioned from the research environment into the clerkships of medical school. The language of decision-making had abruptly changed — in the lab, a year’s worth of experiments is summarized with “seems” and “suggests,” and every assertion is carefully calibrated to acknowledge uncertainty and a high standard for proof.
As a student on clerkships, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the residents’ ambitious plans for patients: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
February 17th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, True Stories
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Seems like I’ve been on a real run of chest pain patients lately. Which is fine — it’s part of the gig. I did have a very interesting pair the other night. They were seen in sequence, right next to one another, in room 7 and room 8. They were both totally healthy women in their mid-fifties. And they were both over-the-edge, crazy, crawling-out-of-the-gurney anxious.
Anxiety is an awful red herring in the work-up of chest pain. People who are having an anxiety attack often if not always manifest some chest pain (pressure, tightness, whatever) as a prominent symptom of their anxiety. On the other hand, someone having a heart attack who is experiencing chest pain will also be anxious — and for good reason! Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
