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Guest Blog Post At AppleQuack: Technology Saves Lives

Thanks to Dr. Cris for hosting me during my “homeless” period. Dr. Cris blogs from Australia:


Thanks to DrVal for providing this cartoon by way of a guest post. She is currently blogless and is taking a round the world blog tour. Look out for Val at a medblog near you!

Guest Blog Post At Dr. Rob’s: Why Can’t I Lose Weight

Thanks to my dear friend Dr. Rob for allowing me to “crash” at his blog during my period of homelessness. Here’s an excerpt from one of my posts:

The Law Of Conservation of Mass

Students of physics, and doctors who were not asleep during all of their pre-med classes, will recall their professor’s lecture on the “law of conservation of mass.” This law of physics states that: “matter cannot be created or destroyed, although it may be rearranged.” This is the primary reason why no one can truly lose weight. The law of conservation of mass means that even if you do lose weight, someone else has to gain it, because matter (fat) cannot be destroyed, only rearranged…

To read the rest of the post, click here.

Guest Blog Post At Paul Levy’s: Dirty Americans

Thanks to Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel/Deaconess hospital in Boston, for hosting me at Running A Hospital. Here is an excerpt of my post:

I took a beginning Spanish course at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, about ten years ago. One day I was at a local grocery store, picking through some apples and oranges when I noticed several women looking at me with utter disgust. I couldn’t imagine what was bothering them and returned their gaze with an innocent shrug.

“Sucio!” [dirty] uttered one under her breath. And the women shook their heads and pushed their shopping carts away from me in a huff.

My mind went into overdrive trying to figure out what I could possibly have done that was so utterly distasteful…

To read the rest of the post, please click here.

Guest Blog Post At Wait Times & Delayed Care: Length Of Stay Initiatives

Thanks to Ian Furst for hosting me during my period of blog homelessnes. Here’s the post that he featured at his blog:

Thanks to Dr. Val for making a guest appearance at Wait Times. Val is a former Candian now living south of the border. When you make it to Waterloo (or Toronto) I’ll have some back-bacon on a bun and a pint of Canadian waiting for you.

Check out Ian’s blog here.

Guest Blog Post From South Africa: Haunted By Inaction

Many thanks to Dr. Bongi at All Things Amanzi for hosting me at his blog in South Africa. Here’s an excerpt from my post:

When I was a medical student rotating at a hospital that shall remain unnamed, I witnessed a medical error that has haunted me ever since. I was partnered with a team of residents in the inpatient pediatric unit, and late one night a two month old baby was accidentally infused with an entire bottle of Foscarnet instead of normal saline. The nurse who gave the infusion was working as a locum tenens – a traveling nurse who spent a few months here and there filling in for others at various hospitals…

To read the rest of the story, please click here.

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 Cartoon

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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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