Shout Outs

 Updated 3/2017-- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many are no longer active and it was easier than checking each one.

Pallimed.org is the host for this week’s  Grand Rounds.  You can read this week’s edition here.

I am not sure if Nick(@blogborygmi) realized this when he approached me about a date to host, but this is the last edition of Grand Rounds for Volume 6.  A hospice blog as final chapter to a great year of medical blogging, there are things in life that are more serendipitous than this of course.  But of course here at Pallimed (@pallimed), we do cover things beyond just the last few days of life. So feel free to take a look at our 1,000 other posts.

On to the best of the medical blogosphere!  No themes here but I did ask (like GruntDoc) to include a post of  other than your submission to help broaden our reach this week…….

……………………………………….

Kim, Emergiblog, is the host of the latest edition of Change of Shift (Vol 5, No 6) which is in its 5th year!   You can find the schedule and the COS archives at Emergiblog. (photo credit)

I can’t believe two weeks has passed already, but the calendar says that, indeed, it is time for the latest edition of Change of Shift!

Quite the eclectic collection of stories this week!

Before you begin, I just want to remind everyone that I still have discount codes available for BlogWorld/New Media Expo 2010. We’ll be getting together in Vegas next month! Check the button on the top bar for details.  I’d love to meet as many nurse bloggers as possible!

And now, I am proud to present……..

……………………………….

Great Diane Rehm Show this past Thursday on Thalidomide and the FDA

Fifty years ago, a newly appointed medical officer at the FDA stood up to corporate pressure and refused to approve thalidomide, the drug already used for morning sickness in other parts of the world. The case transformed how Americans think about medicine and the FDA's drug-testing policy. Diane and guests explore how thalidomide is being used today and discuss how Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey saved thousands of babies from the perils of thalidomide.

I have posted about Thalidomide in the past.

…………………………

Orac has written a thoughtful response to the New York Time story  by Amy Harmon:    New Drugs Stir Debate on Rules of Clinical Trials.  His post is titled:  Balancing scientific rigor versus patient good in clinical trials

A critical aspect of both evidence-based medicine (EBM) and science-based medicine (SBM) is the randomized clinical trial. …..

The ethics of clinical trials, however, demand a characteristic known as clinical equipoise. Stated briefly, for purposes of clinical trials, clinical equipoise demands that there be a state of genuine scientific uncertainty in the medical community over which of the drugs or treatments being tested is more efficacious and safer……

In oncology clinical trials, as in clinical trials for treatments of any life-threatening disease, there is always a tension between wanting the "cleanest" possible results versus doing the best for each individual patient. It is a balancing act that relies on the ethics of physicians and a combination of hope and altruism in the patients who become subjects in such trials. … How to maximize the good for as many patients as possible is the goal, but, as we have seen, this is a goal that is not so easily accomplished, just as clinical equipoise is a concept that is easy stated but not so easily applied. PLX4032 teaches us that.

…………………………..

This is worth reading (and listening to):  New York Times article by The Voices of Schizophrenia by Tara Parker-Pope (photo credit)

Few mental illnesses are as complex and confusing as schizophrenia, a mental disorder in which people may experience hallucinations or delusions, hear voices or have confused thinking and behavior.

Although the word “schizophrenia” means “split mind,” the disorder does not cause a split personality, as is commonly believed.

The latest Patient Voices segment by Karen Barrow, a Web producer, offers rare insights into schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, a related condition that combines thinking and mood problems, as seven men and women share their experiences.  ………….

To hear these and other stories of schizophrenia, click on the Patient Voices audio link. And then please join the discussion below.

……………………………..

I love Jimi Hendrix’ music, so really enjoyed this piece on NPR last week:   Send My Love To Linda: An Untold Jimi Hendrix Story

January 16th, 1970.

The greatest rock guitarist to ever play the instrument, Jimi Hendrix, has eight months and two days to live. He spends part of the day at New York City's Record Plant laying down some tracks. After a few busted takes, Jimi launches into one of the most amazing instrumentals that few people have ever heard.

Hendrix called the piece "Sending My Love to Linda," and ……. Despite being a Hendrix fan, I had to go back and find out more about who this Linda was……….

………………………………….

Dr Anonymous show this week will be a follow-up school name change & value of alumni.   The show begins at 9 pm EST.