Shout Outs

Updated 3/2017 -- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active.

A Blog Around the Clock  is the host for this week’s  Grand Rounds.  You can read this week’s edition here.

The summer is almost over, but we can try to remain in the summery mood just a little bit longer. Perhaps we can go to a medical conference held at a lushious tropical island resort, listen to presentations, chat in the hallways, and then have great fun at the bar in the evenings. And call is Grand Rounds. No coats and ties allowed – this meeting is supposed to be fun!….

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Gruntdoc has written a sobering post:  Every driver is drunk – bet your life on it

A mentor recently mentioned, in passing, that he stopped riding motorcycles when cell phones came out, as he noticed the average driver distraction level had gone way up.  He said ‘its like everybody’s drunk’.  ….

I, like C&D, would like to point out that this doesn’t make driving under the influence okay, it doesn’t.  What it does do is put into perspective the astonishing diminution of skill with divided attention between driving and texting.  

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Another one from tweeter.  This one from @EvidenceMatters gives the link to an article in the Guardian by Ben Goldacre:

Costly life-[conserving] drugs: You have to draw the line somewhere. @bengoldacre on recent coverage of NICE & Avastin http://j.mp/byVdJQ

The article is well worth reading as it takes journalists and politicians to task:

…….Journalists can exploit these impossible decisions for outrage, and the pleasure of leading a popular campaign, but so can politicians………You're always going to draw the line somewhere, and if you paid £200,000 for six weeks of life there would still be more you could do.

Whoever draws that line, wherever it falls, is always going to be pilloried and despised. When you're writing about such an incredibly easy and emotive target, it might be fair to at least use a representative anecdote for illustration, instead of Barbara Moss.

And for a thorough review of the topic read David Gorsk’s (Science-Based Medicine) post:  Avastin and metastatic breast cancer: When science-based medicine collides with FDA regulation

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Dr Charles is hosting the first annual 2010 Charles Prize for Poetry.  Have you submitted one yet? Today is the last day to enter.   The entries have been amazing!

Open to everyone (patients, doctors, nurses, students, etc.). Limit 1 or 2 entries per person.

Poems should be related to experiencing, practicing, or reflecting upon a medical, scientific, or health-related matter……

Contest closes August 31st.

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KevinMD’s guest post by Shawn  Vuong  asks  Does a stereotypical surgical personality exist?

…… The stereotypical surgical personality is said to be “decisive, well organised, practical, hard working, but also cantankerous, dominant, arrogant, hostile, impersonal, egocentric, and a poor communicator.”

I think that I am decisive, organized, practical, and hard working. But am I cantankerous, arrogant, hostile, impersonal and egocentric? I hope not. I can admit that my communication probably needs work. I think I’ll give my self the benefit of the doubt, and rate my communication and ‘average’ instead of ‘poor’.

So there it is, I am half the surgical personality according to the stereotype (in my eyes — maybe everyone else thinks I am hostile and egocentric and thus fit the stereotype perfectly).  ……..

I don’t think I have the stereotypical surgeon personality, but maybe I’m delusional.  I am decisive, organized, practical, and hard working.  I can be arrogant, but mostly not.  I am usually pleasant and not cantankerous.  I try to be kind, not hostile.  I try to be a good communicator though I know I have much improvement to be done in that area.

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If you like jigsaw puzzles, then perhaps you’ll like this one that features a quilt from 1932:

This week's Top 100 Puzzle was created by Jennie C. Trein in 1932.  It is called Sunday School Picnic. Jennie was quite a woman.  She made her first quilt at 10 and completed over 100 in her lifetime.  Quilting wasn't her only passion, she played the piano and cornet, sang in the church choir for over 60 years, taught bible classes to children and made over 300 rugs.

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Dr Anonymous doesn’t appear to have a show scheduled for this Thursday.