Grand Rounds 4.49 is now up and running over at Rural Doctoring. (If you haven't already, catch RD's appearance on Doctor Anonymous Show 42). She has a Shakespearean Grand Rounds this week. And, if you can believe it, I actually wrote something for GR this week and it was actually accepted. Thanks for including my post this week!
Even if the body is beginning to feel the wear and tear of the fifth age, our Shakespearean justice has nothing to fear. Doctor Anonymous shares news of innovative health care interventions currently in trials in South Africa.
If you don't know what Grand Rounds is, it is a weekly compilation of the best posts from the medical blogosphere that moves to different sites each week. And, who doesn't like reading about medicine and science? Next week, Grand Rounds moves to the blog of Laurie Edwards called A Chronic Dose.
Thanks so much to Ramona for being on the Show 45 tonight! (Don't forget to rate the show on the BlogTalkRadio site) I really appreciate it! I encourage everyone to check out her blog Suture For A Living. You could tell from her voice in the beginning that she was very nervous. But, as the interview progressed, she really hit her stride talking about how she chose medicine as a career, and surgery and a specialty, and plastic surgery as a sub-specialty. (See video post above)
Her blog not only talks about surgery and medicine, it talks about her favorite hobby which is quilting. I admit that I know nothing about quilting, but I know that Ramona would be happy to teach me and anyone else who is interested - she's great like that! She had a great post on Thursday talking about Women in Surgery. I encourage you to check that out as well.
Thanks also to those who called in to say hello including Dr Val, Rural Doctoring, Enrico, and Mary. The last 20 minutes of the show was really cool in that we had six people on the call at the same time - two of which were outside the United States. Thanks to Vijay for calling in live from India and thanks to Bongi for calling in at 4am his time in South Africa. This is truly an international show and tonight we proved that!
After tonight's show, I did a short post show session on my Ustream channel. We had a great time over there as well. I even recorded part of that session. You can check it out here. You can also check out the video below.
Finally, I just checked out the numbers and tonight we had the highest number of live listeners in a while for the blogtalkradio show. And, even a good number of people for the post show. And, that's thanks to all of you. Next week, that's right, it's the one year anniversary of The Doctor Anonymous Show. Who knows what will happen and who will call in? Sheesh!
Kevin Pho from the Kevin MD blog is one of the leading voices in new media medicine. He's also a friend of the blog and of the show. (Check out Kevin's appearances on Dr A Show 20 and Dr A Show 32). On a more regular basis now, Kevin writes op-ed pieces for newspapers.
"Why should I care if doctors get a pay cut?" my patient recently asked me. Therein lies the delicate dilemma physicians face today. While the common perception is that the medical profession is well-compensated, there are serious implications in targeting physician pay to control medical spending.
The piece goes on to explain why targeting physician payment costs are a fallacy in trying to decrease health care spending in the United States. And, of course, going after the physician is a popular notion when you have entities like popular culture, the malpractice attorneys, the insurance companies, and anyone else going after physicians. But, here is the key statistic.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are more significant drivers of health costs, including new prescription drugs, technology and administrative needs. Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt estimates that physicians' take-home pay represents roughly 10% of national health care spending. Cutting physician pay by 20% would only reduce spending by 2%.
Great job Kevin with this op-ed. I'm not gifted enough nor do I have the talent or the patience to write strong opinion pieces like this one on policy and financial issues like this one. I know that I will be referencing this piece when talking to some of my patients today. Thanks Kevin for being one of the voices out there for us bloggers out here!
If you do listen live, you can even take part in the chat room. It is truly "The show within the show." You can even call in and say hello. A great opportunity to interact with medbloggers you've only read about. And, you will be able to see me on the live webcam during the show! See you tonight!
For first time Blog Talk Radio listeners: *Although it is not required to listen to the show, I encourage you to register on the BlogTalkRadio site prior to the show. I think it will make the process easier.
*To get to my show site, click here. As show time gets closer, keep hitting "refresh" on your browser until you see the "Click to Listen" button. Then, of course, press the "Click to Listen" button.
*You can also participate in the live chat room before, during, and after the show. Look for the "Chat Available" button in the upper right hand corner of the page. If you are registered with the BTR site, your registered name and picture will appear in the chat room.
*You can also call into the show. The number is on my show site. I'll be taking calls beginning at around the bottom of the hour. There is also a "Click To Talk" feature where you do not need a phone to call into the show - only a microphone headset. Hope these tips are helpful!
The Doctor Anonymous Show is proud to welcome Dr. Ramona Bates from the Suture For A Living blog on show 45 on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time. She is a surgeon working in Little Rock, Arkansas and her blog is a mix of medicine and her favorite hobby which is quilting.
Ramona has been a long time friend of the show and supporter of my blog. And, for that, I am very grateful. In her most recent blog post, you can sense some nervousness.....
And last, but not least for this week's Shout Outs is the Dr Anonymous' Blog Talk Radio show. I am this week's guest. It is Thursday night! I'm counting on all the help I can get from "my friends". The show starts at 8 pm CST (or 1 am GMT). I hope you will join us. So I'll leave you with this from Joe Cocker.
Am I that mean of a host? hehe Just kidding. I know a lot of Ramona's friends visit this blog. So, if you can, stop by for Show 45 and say hello. We're going to have a great time talking about medicine, blogging, new media, social networking, and anything else that comes to mind. Also, check out the video post above!
Yes, you read that right. That is the title of an article posted on a South African news site. And, the story is actually from London. Curious, but I did not see this story anywhere in BBC News. Oh well. Anyway...
The nursing staff of patients with the neurological disorder called Huntington's Disease treated four British men to lap dances at Divas Gentlemen's Club in Newquay, Cornwall, in south-west England. Quoting from the article, "Their hosts included an entertainer with pink hair and a former topless model."
"The girls were very nice - we all had a lap dance individually. I'd like to go again," one of the patients, Stephen Pitt, 54, was quoted as saying. The report also mentioned an earlier case in which a 90-year-old woman at another care home in Cornwall was served fish and chips by a waiter in a thong.
Now, I'll never, ever say this again. But, if this is what socialized medicine looks like? Well, sign me up and bring in the ladies!
I know that you're out there somewhere reading this. I see that you haven't sent out a Twitter in over a week, and we're worried about you. I know that you're going through a tough time right now. And, I just wanted to let you know that your friends are out here to help in any way that we can. We miss you and hope that you come back soon.
Dr. A
Update: About an hour after this was posted, an appearance was made on Twitter. "Have decided to crawl out of my hole--wow, the lights are bright out here. I have no idea how to catch up, but here I am. 1 minute ago from web" Welcome back!
Yes, that's right! This is a headline at BBC News. Well, actually not. The article is entitled "Chewing Gum Aids Bowel Recovery." Here's the deal. When anyone has surgery of their bowel, the normal course is to wait until the bowel starts working again. Which can take a few hours to a few days - there is no real way to predict.
What this study showed is that those patients who chewed gum started their bowels moving sooner than those who did not chew gum. Why is that important? Well, it will decrease recovery time and potentially decrease the number of days in the hospital. And, we all want that, right?
Now, I have to admit something to all of you. When I first glanced at this story, I first thought, "How can chewing and swallowing the gum help following bowel surgery?" Didn't you have that thought as well? No? Ok, well it kind of sounded funny when I wrote it. I guess that's what happens when one doesn't edit. Did I also tell you that I'm trying to get back to writing blog posts? I know, I'll keep working on it.
I know that it's Monday morning as I write/post this, but I couldn't think of another title for the post. Anyway, this was the first weekend that I had absolutely nothing scheduled. Can you believe that? Probably for the entire summer, I've had something on the calendar whether it be related to Boards, Podcamp Ohio, meetings, soccer, etc. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to do all that stuff - except maybe for Boards. It was just great not to do anything for an entire weekend.
Other than Twitter, I was completely unplugged from the internet (kind of). I was considering actually writing a blog post or two. But, that didn't happen. I've been a slacker when it comes to writing blog posts lately - especially when it comes to submitting something for Grand Rounds. I've been in a GR slump for the past few months and I really want to get back and start writing again - it's just tough.
Other than watching a bunch of olympics coverage, I really didn't do much other than catch up on things to do around the place - which I have been neglecting for a while now. And, of course, got a lot of sleep. It's really a wonder how good you feel after getting adequate sleep - I should do that more often.
Anyway, this is an attempt at trying to get back to writing blog posts again. I've said this before. It's tough when life/work gets in the way of blog writing and other new media stuff. Of course, nothing gets in the way of twitter! BTW, do you like the new twitter counter button in the sidebar? Kind of cool, huh?
Great discussion tonight about New Media Expo and Podcamp Ohio. The intersection between medicine and new media always fascinates me. And, this show was more the latter. One of the reasons for that is I'm very excited about the Podcamp Ohio project that I'm involved with. I agreed to host one show a month until Podcamp Ohio next summer. Check out Dr. A Show 44 here. You can even download the show here (don't forget to rate the show!)
It's always great re-connecting with the people that I met at Podcamp Ohio. Thanks to Brandice, Mitch (he and his wife just had a baby), Angelo (he announced on the show that he and his wife are expecting and due early next year), and Daniel for calling into the show. We even had a someone call in to ask about how to start a podcast. Great stuff!
In the last part of the show, I talk about the blog post I read this week from Emergiblog. In it she talk about a possible opportunity to have a panel of medbloggers at the BlogWorld event next month in Las Vegas. I'm so bummed that I cannot attend this event. However, I really hope this happens and that there is a medblog panel next month.
Hopefully, this will lead to a full-blown medblogger track at next year's BlogWorld and possibly medblog topics at other new media events. I've been toying with the idea of doing a medical related session at Podcamp Ohio 2009, but still undecided.
Following the show, I had a little after show party over at ustream. I even recorded part of it. Check it out over here. Thanks again for everyone who joined the show live or on the archives. Have a great weekend! (See video post above)
