Tales of Hoffman

From the Mouths of Babes...

My indignant seven-year-old daughter while watching the almost unbearable American Idol Christmas Special: "How can these people be singing Christmas songs BEFORE Thanksgiving? Don't they have ANY respect for Pilgrims?"

More New Medicine Blogs

I've been accumulating a few more medical blogs in my "Favorites" and waiting for some time to add them to the blogroll. Well, no time like the present! Magdalen News is written by Laura Waters Jackson, a hospital chaplain. What a great opportunity to get a completely different perspective on what's going on in healthcare. I'll be tracking her site closely (too bad it doesn't yet have an RSS feed...). CORRECTION: As per her comment below, Laura's site DOES have an RSS feed, I just coudn't find it on her site. It's at: http://www.magdaleninstitute.org/weblog/index.rdf -- great!

The first time I read Spankys Place, authored by an ER Nurse that goes by the name Azygos, I thought I had wondered into another dimension where brutal honesty mixed with incredible humor was the way of the world. Talk about your unique perspectives. If you've every wondered what's going on inside the head of that nurse who is providing you fantastic care but somehow holding it all together with a calm, measured, exterior, get a load of this blog.

Written by an IT Analyst who works in a hospital setting, Anticlue is another good way to see how the "other half lives." And by other half, I mean those of us who think about how technology impacts healthcare. It just started up in October, but so far, so good.

Please patronize these new entries to the blogroll.

One Bad Cat

Going to see "The Cat in the Hat" tomorrow morning as part of a fundraiser for my kids' school. I'm really looking forward to it.

Next Medscape Live Event: Tonight

I've been keeping you up to date with Medscape's live webconferences. It's a pretty new thing for Medscape and it's really interesting to see how the attendees can view slides and hear the presentation as it happens and then submit questions through a text entry box. Simple technology, but effective.

Tonight's session is called: Pain Is the Fifth Vital Sign: The Role of Primary Care in Pain Management. If you have some time tonight at 7pm EST, come check it out. You can even answer a few questions at the end of the session and earn CME (physicians) or CE (Nurses). Not a bad way to spend an hour online...

Tech Vendors, Repent!

Via Boing Boing Blog, the County of LA is not telling folks not to use the terms "Master" and "Slave" in their documents because it could be offensive. Snip:

The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived.
As such, it is the County's expectation that our manufacturers, suppliers and
contractors make a concentrated effort to ensure that any equipment, supplies
or services that are provided to County departments do not possess or portray
an image that may be construed as offensive or defamatory in nature.

One such recent example included the manufacturer's labeling of equipment where the words ''Master/Slave'' appeared to identify the primary and secondary sources.
Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not
an acceptable identification label.
We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify
and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment or components
thereof that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature before
such equipment is sold or otherwise provided to any County department.

Does this mean you also can't refer to cable ends as "Male" and "Female". What the heck? Arnold, where are YOU on this issue?

One take on Drug Op-Ed

db, who is more qualified than most (he works with the UAB School of Medicine on CME, I believe) to respond to Relman's Op-Ed cited below, has a reasoned response.

Hey Doc, Got a "Drug Problem?"

In an Op-Ed piece in todays New York Times, Arnold Relman, former editor at NEJM writes a pretty strong indictment of the pharmaceutical industry's sponsorship of Continuing Medical Education (CME) for physicians under the headline "Your Doctor's Drug Problem."

As for the doctors attending these industry-sponsored educational programs, they like the slick presentations, which often use industry-supplied teaching materials. They also like the low or nonexistent fees, the free food, and the numerous small gifts given out at the commercial exhibits that often accompany big education events. And naturally they are confident that their own independence is wholly unaffected by all of this — although surveys reveal that they are less sanguine about other doctors' ability to resist industry's blandishments.

Now, I'll be right up front here and point out that Medscape is one of the leaders in providing CME to physicians, so it's probably best if I not comment directly on this topic lest it be interpreted as any kind of official response from my employer (and for the record...nothing on this site is official in any way). But I know that a lot of outspoken, blogging (and non-blogging) docs read this site and I'm curious as to how they react to this piece. How do you feel about this topic, docs? Do you think you and your colleagues have this "drug problem?"

The Ultimate Donation?

OK, I've often felt as though work is bleeding me dry, but today it's really true. Actually, I'm going to be donating blood through a program that's taking place right here in our office. It'll actually be the first time I've ever given blood and I can't believe that I haven't done it up till now. Kudos go to the folks here in the office who set up this program. Without the convenience of being able to do this in one of our conference rooms, I probably would not have done it.

Which Diet Really Works?

Actually, according to a new study announced at the American Heart Association Conference that looked at Atkins (low carb), Weight Watchers (moderate fat), "The Zone" (moderate carb) and Ornish (low-fat vegetarian)...they all do. So don't wait about the weight. Just pick one and do it. Here's the lowdown from Medscape Medical News.

Docnotes at AMIA

Jacob is doing some neat "off-the-cuff" blogging from AMIA (The American Medical Informatics Association conference). His last two posts, here and here, provide some interesting tidbits about the constantly evolving effort by the AAFP to either Open Source or set standards for a standard Electronic Medical Record product. When this was first announced about a year ago, I weighed in with my skepticism, and I'm happy to see that they are seemingly starting to move from a spot where they would be actually creating a product to a spot where they would be setting some standards for the commercial (or non-commercial) vendors to follow. Supposedly there's an announcement forthcoming around around nine as of yet unnamed companies that have already passed the AAFP's "ACID" Test (Affordability; Compatibility; Interoperability; and Data Stewardship), who will be involved in this project.

Color me "still skeptical." It sounds good in theory, but this type of top-down attempt at creating a standard rarely works. The killer EMR will come eventually, but it won't be pre-formed by a committee.