Shout Outs

 Updated 3/2017--photos and all links  removed as many are no longer active and it was easier than checking each one.

Kerri, Six Until Me, is this week's host of Grand Rounds. I submitted one of my posts from last week. You can read this weeks grand rounds here.   She does the old card system.  Great work!

Check out Happy Hospitalist's post on The Anatomy of Heart Cath, Medicare Style". He breaks it all down, then comments on it.

A nice post on case reports and HIPAA rules over at Clinical Cases and Images--Blog.

Some recent posts on "never events":

• Dr Val's Can Infections be Prevented in the Hospital Setting
• Buckeye Surgeon's Diane Suchetkas Continuing Anti-Doctor Crusade (be sure you read the comments)
• White Coat Rants' More on Medicare Never Events
• Ian Furst (Wait Times & Delayed Care) -- Never Events
• Plastic Surgery 101 suggests look before you leap (in logic) on hospital infections
• PSP blog writes WSJ on Hospital Infections:  "FUD's Up!"

Then there are a couple of interesting items on organ donations:

This WSJ article: Pay for Organ Donation Gains Traction, but Not at Kidney Foundation by Jacob Goldstein. I think I agree with the Kidney Foundation --

“Offering money for organs can be viewed as an attempt to coerce economically disadvantaged Americans to participate in organ donation,” the paper says.

And this Reuters news article is troublesome to me. I am with the Institute of Medicine here. Just waiting less than 2 minutes without brain death seems so wrong to me.

"Quick Harvesting of Hearts Raises Ethics Questions"

BOSTON (Reuters) - Doctors who waited just 75 seconds after the final heartbeat before removing the hearts of dying newborns for transplants said on Wednesday they improved their odds of success but have also raised ethical questions about organ harvesting.........

The technique is controversial because the waiting time recommended by the Institute of Medicine has been five minutes, unless the patient is brain dead. The three babies were not, although all had severe brain damage.

I'd like to give a head's up to Rural Doctoring's Next Big Idea.

And last, but not least for this week's Shout Outs is the Dr Anonymous' Blog Talk Radio show. I am this week's guest. It is Thursday night! I'm counting on all the help I can get from "my friends". The show starts at 8 pm CST (or 1 am GMT). I hope you will join us.

Tips for first time Blog Talk Radio listeners (from Dr A):

For first time Blog Talk Radio listeners:
*Although it is not required to listen to the show, I encourage you to register on the BlogTalkRadio site prior to the show. I think it will make the process easier.
*To get to my show site, click here. As show time gets closer, keep hitting "refresh" on your browser until you see the "Click to Listen" button. Then, of course, press the "Click to Listen" button.
*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the "Chat Available" button in the upper right hand corner of the page. If you are registered with the BTR site, your registered name and picture will appear in the chat room.
*You can also call into the show. The number is on my show site. I'll be taking calls beginning at around the bottom of the hour. There is also a "Click To Talk" feature where you do not need a phone to call into the show - only a microphone headset. Hope these tips are helpful!