Tales of Hoffman

Medical Weblog Awards

I think it's great that Michael, over at echojournal is organizing the first Medical Weblog awards. As a matter of fact, it's such a good idea that I've figured out a way to help out. I've gotten the folks over at Medscape/WebMD to agree to give a free 12 month subscription to the online versions of either ACP Medicine or ACS Surgery, two of the best, constantly updated medical references there are, to each winner. Glad to be a part of it. Read the announcement here.

Would You Like Butter with That Human Plasma Protein?

In what must win the award for biggest non-sequitur to appear in a press release headline this year....

Fun City Popcorn, Inc. Enters Into Merger Agreement With Lev Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The ECG Shirt

Hard to tell whether this is serious or not, but it looks like some company in Europe is going to sell what they are calling an "ECG Shirt". It's got some foil sensors built into the fabric and it monitors your heart rate, all the while sending periodic updates via Bluetooth to your cell phone -- where it can be stored or sent automatically to your health professional.

Insert your joke about Dick Chaney here....

(via Engadget)

The Lost Month

It's been a damn interesting month since I last posted regularly. I love blogging and all, but certain things happen and all of the sudden, making these posts tend to fall to the bottom of the list.

My focus the past few weeks has been taken up with an "upclose and personal" brush with our healthcare system. I don't want to go into all the details (they would just bore you anyway), but let's just say it started with intense chest pains and ended with a prescription for Nexium. In between, there was a hairy visit to the emergency room, an overnight stay for "monitoring," a brush with Nuclear Cardiology, and a gastroscopy that I'm not sure went the way it was supposed to (you're not supposed to be awake and remember the whole thing, are you?).

In any event, I'm pretty much back to normal and Tales of Hoffman should start returning to regular posting -- just without the spicy food.

One thing I will say however, is that just about every medical professional I met along the way was incredibly nice and supremely competent (except maybe the person who was supposed to make sure I was sufficiently sedated during the gastroscopy!). In addition, it's really nice to tell people that I work at Medscape and have them reply, "Oh, I use that site!" Once I heard that, I started feeling better already.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, getting Medical Blog Grand Rounds onto Medscape...expanding the Medscape Podcasts....and the truly important stuff: coaching soccer, helping with homework, hanging out with my wife.....it's good to be back.

Medical Blogger Session at BloggerCon III

Enoch -- who moderated the session -- posts his transcription/notes. Looks like a good, wide-ranging session, which is just what I expected. Now we just need the next BC back on the East Coast!

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm still here... ;-)