Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017-- photos/video and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active. and it was easier than checking each one. 

Dr. Joseph Kim , Medicine and Technology is this week's host of Grand Rounds. You can read it here (photo credit). It’s the “old school” edition.

Welcome to Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 50 @ Medicine & Technology. This week, I've asked medical bloggers to reflect on the theme of "medical safety and technology." We all want to see safer hospitals and avoid medical errors. Advances in technology may allow us to practice safer medicine if we leverage it appropriately. Technology may also improve public health and safety.

From Better Health comes a post by Dr Toni Brayer, High Blood Pressure & Eye Damage. She share this great photo of retinal damage from high blood pressure.

The retina shows blurring of the optic disc (in the middle left) and the white areas are called “cotton wool spots”. The blurry part at the bottom is a partial retinal detachment.

From the Literature, Arts and Medicine Blog comes a very nice post, Is Medical Uncertainty Necessary?. 

I would submit that in daily medical practice, there is a constant measure of low-level uncertainty. …………

One of my favorite poems is David Gewanter’s "My father’s autopsy," because it captures so much of what, in medicine, is science, and what of it is art……..

A story, "The Save," recently published in Pulse, Voices from the Heart of Medicine tells this story. The surgeons devote themselves to reattaching a limb that the patient has deliberately sawed off. They ignore the psychiatric disorder that led to this self-mutilation and then are shocked when the patient tears off the repaired limb after surgery………….

How do you handle the issue of cell phones in the exam or waiting room? Here’s Dr Gwen’s on the issue: Please Note: “No Cell Phones” signs are for everyone…even you!

I have a new pet peeve. It’s called the “willful violation of posted no cell phone zone” callers. It drives me completely bonkers!

I thought about it the other day when I was waiting in a big down town Boston physician’s office waiting room. All the waiting rooms in this facility are very nicely appointed with comfortable chairs, magazines, and water bubblers. They have quiet, all-ages music piped in overhead at a reasonable level. On the walls are the following signs:….

• “No-cell phone zone”…depicted in words and with this symbol (photo credit)………

If you don’t know about this wonderful Corpus Clock, Chronophage, check out this video:

Happened to catch this episode of Here and Now (NPR) about modern-day slavery.

Anti-slavery advocate Kevin Bales is co-author of the new book “The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today,” which argues that slaves are all around us, hidden in plain sight in the U.S.  Bales is also president and co-founder of the advocacy group, “Free the Slaves.” We also speak with Given Kachepa, a 23-year-old Zambian who was brought to this country by a missionary who enslaved him and other young boys in a choir in Texas.

This week is Dr Anonymous’ guest is Brandice Schnabel author of Columbus Groove. Come joint us. The show starts at 9:30 pm EST.