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Updated 3/2017-- photos and all links (except to my own posts) removed as many are no longer active and it was easier than checking each one.

Chronic Babe blog is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds! You can read this week’s edition here.

It's the end of the year, and while most folks are resolving to lose a few pounds or see their nieces more in the new year, our bloggers are trying to make sure their patients are healthier...that we learn to use robots to teach patients to manage pain...that health care legislation works well for millions...we are an ambitious crew. Editrix Jenni Prokopy is proud to present Vol. 7, No. 13 of Grand Rounds, the last edition of 2010, chock full of fun and compelling new year's health care resolutions. Enjoy!……….

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Dr. Marya Zilberberg, Healthcare,etc., does a fantastic job of explaining “Why medical testing is never a simple decision.”

………..The case illustrates the pitfalls of getting a seemingly innocuous test for what appears to be a humanistic reason -- patient reassurance. Yet, look at the tsunami of harm that followed this one decision. But what is done is done. The big question is, can cases like this be prevented in the future? And if so, how? I will submit to you that Bayesian approaches to testing can and should reduce such complications. Here is how.
First, what is Bayesian thinking? ……….

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I am an advocate of organ donation, but when using living donors everything must be done to do it safely. It is not a good thing for a healthy person to end up unhealthy, disabled, or dead when donating to help a friend or loved one. We are reminded of this in the news article by Elizabeth Cohen: When liver donations go wrong

…….Four living liver donors have died in the United States since 1999, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, including Arnold and another patient who died earlier this year at the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts. About 38% of liver donors have some kind of complication, according to the Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation Cohort Study, a project to disseminate information about living donor liver transplants. Some experts think some of these deaths and complications could have been prevented if there was a change the way hospitals exchanged information about complications with organ donations. ……….

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Via Kerri, Six Until Me: What NOT to Say to the Parent of a Kid with Diabetes.
 

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From twitter:  RT @tbtam RT @THCBstaff Using An App to Confront Your Metastatic Melanoma http://bit.ly/hKHPFt

The Health Care Blog post,  Using An App to Confront Your Metastatic Melanoma, is written by George D. Lundberg, MD.

If you or anyone else you know has had a malignant melanoma, you and that other person, and your respective physicians, should click http://therapy.collabrx.com to access the Targeted Therapy Finder--Melanoma (ttf-melanoma). It is free and does not require registration.  …..

The app is based upon the science of the original Melanoma Molecular Disease Model (MMDM) in Cancer Commons built by David Fisher and Keith Flaherty of Harvard Medical School and Smruti Vidwans and colleagues on our staff.   …….

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The Alliance for American Quilts is hosting another quilt contest. This is the 5th annual contest. I entered the past two years. You can see my finished quilts here and here.

This year's theme, "Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion," is as open-ended as the last and celebrates cooperative relationships that work towards a common goal.

Important: This year's deadline is much earlier: March 7, 2011. The reason: all entries will be exhibited at the American Quilter's Society show in Paducah, April 27-30. Our grand prize winner this year will have their choice of any Handi Quilter quilting machine!! Visit the "Alliances" homepage for full details and the downloadable entry form.