Grand Rounds

If you haven't checked it out already, Grand Rounds Vol 5 Number 11 is now up and running over at Mexico Med Student by our buddy Enrico. His theme is "Death and Transfiguration." He also has music files between sections. In addition, he has a new wordpress theme. So, he pulled out all the stops for this week's GR. Why this week's theme? He explains why below:

Death and Transfiguration is a “tone poem,” literally, a musical literary depiction. In this case, it is of a dying artist on his deathbed in his last moments, and what is experienced up to, including and after death. A patient in a bed knowing it can be the end is certainly scared, and perhaps even confused.

Thanks to this week's Grand Rounds host for including my post this week:

Doctor Anonymous shares his thoughts as part of yesterday’s official observance of World AIDS Day. It is, as he pointed out, the 20th anniversary of the event, and we have made incredible strides in that time.

I admit that I haven't mentioned GR in a while. I have to admit that I've been a lazy medical blogger in that I haven't written anything for this fabulous blog carnival in a while. 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 called "Sharp Brains."

Quilt Charity Auction

For those of you who don't already know, our blog friend Dr. Ramona Bates, in addition to being a world-class surgeon, is also the creator of elaborate quilts like the one seen above. The inspiration for this quilt comes from our favorite traveling crustacean who is, of course, Zippy the Lobster.

Today, on Ramona's blog, Suture for a Living, she announced that the quilt above is being put up for auction for the charity called the Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation. The quilt measures 41 inches by 41 inches. For the story of the quilt and the rules for the silent auction, click on over to today's post called "Silent Charity Auction." This is a great quilt, by a great doc, for a great charity. Bid on it today! It'll make a great holiday gift!

World AIDS Day 2008

If you didn't already know, December 1st is World AIDS Day. In doing a little background checking on this, it's hard to believe that 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. From a medical standpoint, I think that we've made some great strides in this area. From a social and cultural standpoint, I remember the attitude around in the mid-1980s to HIV/AIDS - mainly because medicine didn't know a lot back then. Tapping into the pulse of America back at that time inspired movies like Philadelphia and And The Band Played On.

Even though HIV/AIDS education has come a long way in 20+ years, HIV/AIDS advocates still are driving toward more research and more education. And, I don't fault them for that. For this post, I'd like to highlight a letter to the editor from the Cleveland Plain Dealer from November 30, 2008:

I am a 20-year survivor living with AIDS, and another World AIDS Day (Monday) is fast approaching. Food trays once left at hospital room doors of those dying from AIDS are now being served. The preventative measure of "gown ing-up" has come and gone. However, the stigma of AIDS has stayed unchanged. Sadly, there are conflicting AIDS transmission fears and infection rates spiraling out of control.

I am blessed in that I am still here, with thinning hair, bifocals and my AARP card in hand. I am living proof of the incredible medical strides made in managing HIV/AIDS. I am blessed in living to see nieces and nephews come into my world and bring forth great-nieces and great-nephews. I am blessed in that I continue to continue. I still grieve for the many friends I've lost to AIDS.

This year, another 56,000-plus Americans will become needlessly infected with HIV/AIDS. We know how to prevent HIV infection. We need to wage a War on AIDS in America. We know how to win it.
Robert W. Toth -- Cleveland, OH

As I said above, from a medical point of view and patient/social education point of view, I think that we've done a pretty good job with HIV/AIDS education in the United States. Can more be done worldwide? Of course, more can be done - especially because numbers of those affected by HIV/AIDS are continuing to increase. If anything else, World AIDS Day keeps people aware, and I think it has done a good job at doing that.

Update: Thanks to Dr. Val for mentioning this post on her Getting Better site today. I appreciate it!

Addicted to Medblogs Interview

If you haven't checked out the blog called Addicted to Medblogs, you definitely have to. The blog profile states, "I am a bored attorney who spends too much time reading medblogs at work." And, it's been around for about as long as my blog has been around.

One of the many entertaining features are the interviews with prominent bloggers in New Media Medicine. MBA (MedBlogAddict) calls the featured interviews "calendar docs." I was more than pleasantly surprised when I got the e-mail that I would be the November Calendar Doc. You can see from my picture up there twittering that MBA caught me at a good time to have an interview.

And, what an interview! Played 20 questions - literally - Well actually not, there were more than 20 questions. But, these were the most hard hitting, thought provoking, insightful questions that I have ever been asked. So, you definitely have to check out my Dr. November post over at Addicted to Medblogs. Thanks so much for asking me to do this. It was really fun! (Comments turned off here. Leave all comments over there - hehe)

Update: Thanks so much to Annie and Burl Live for talking about my interview on their show November 29, 2008. The discussion on this starts near the end of the show at about 1 hour 38 minutes into the show. You can also download the entire show here or listen using the player above.

Black Friday Unboxing

Streaming live video by Ustream

No, not me, silly. Our buddy Daniel Johnson Jr and his family woke up at 3am this morning and went out to eat with his family at 4am before getting in line at the store at 5am. Little did they know that the store they were at opened at 6am - Yeesh. In the video above, he unboxes the stuff that was purchased (mostly tech stuff - cool). And, even shares a gift that will be given to his daughter at Christmas (don't tell her - hehe). So, enjoy! What's your Black Friday story?

Mumbai thoughts from Indian Physician

Our good blog friend Vijay is a radiologist in the state/province of Tamil Nadu in India. Like the rest of us, he learned of the situation in Mumbai via twitter. And, those of us who know Vijay were sending supportive "tweets" when we were watching all the live coverage on television/internet.

Vijay recorded a Scan Man Speaks podcast yesterday to share his thoughts on the situation. Podcasts are so cool in that it really brings the blog off the page - and lets you hear the passion and emotion of the writer. The podcast is about 20 minutes long and you will need iTunes to listen to it. The last five minutes of the recording are very good. I also encourage you to subscribe to the Scanman twitter feed to get the thoughts of a citizen of India during this tragedy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know it's a little early, but I wanted to spread my Thanksgiving wishes to all my friends (at least before I forgot to record/post something this week). Enjoy the video post above. Think of it as my video greeting card to all of you :) (For those of you with webcams out there, I challenge you to record your own Thanksgiving video post - hehe)

But seriously, I am very much thankful for all of you out there who support my blog and the show. I feel that I have gotten to know some of you very well - even though I have never met you in person. The internet is kind of weird like that, isn't it? I'll be spending the day with the folks. We'll be having turkey, telling stories, watching football, and doing the other things that dysfunctional families do on holidays - HA! (Did I mention that Christmas is one month from now? Yeesh!)

New Media Medicine & 2009 Economy

GeekBrief.TV #468 from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.

One of the most frequently asked questions that I hear from new media medicine people is this - "How is anyone going to make any money at this gig?" We use buzz words like "monetization" and "search engine optimization." Actually, other people really knows what those terms mean. I use them to try to sound smart at the new media parties hehe

Anyway, with the economic downturn that we're in now, is this a bad time to be in the new media medicine industry? Actually not, says, tech and new media guru Leo Laporte on this edition of GeekBrief TV. Leo is probably the most well known in tech podcast circles. He does audio podcasts as well as live video streaming while recording his podcasts.

In this interview, he discusses the opportunity we have right now to get ready for when the economy turns upward. What can we do right now? First, of course, ride out this downturn. But, second, this is the time to try to build audience. Because, if you have or will seek advertising, when things turn upward, you want to have a good group of readers, listeners, subscribers to present to potential advertisers when ad dollars come back to new media. I encourage you to check out the video above to at least give you an inside glimpse of new media.

GeekBrief TV covers New Media Medicine

Geek Brief Live #469 from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.
I watch and listen to a lot of tech podcasts. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the leading tech video podcasts, GeekBrief TV, cover a recent medical conference which highlighted new media. Cali Lewis, the host of the podcast, stated that this is the first GeekBrief devoted to all med techie stories. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see this. Hopefully, as the medical blogosphere, er, New Media Medicine, continues to grow and mature as a sector of new media - coverage for all the great stuff we do will continue.

I also encourage you to check out Cali's entire presentation at this conference via iTunes U. In this presentation she opens with how she and her husband began with only an idea and how it evolved to one of the most popular tech video podcasts out there. Then, they record this video podcast right in front of the live audience. Finally, they review some of the equipment that they use (very cool for me to see). Thanks to GeekBrief for covering a little medicine in their show. I hope to see more med topics!

Show 60 Wrap-up

Thanks so much to my guest Mr. Michael Carroll from the UHC Medicare Solutions website. (see video post above) The topic of Medicare is very complicated and I think he did a great job explaining the site and the information that could be found on it. I, on the other hand, feel that I possibly could have done a better job at interviewing. Don't know why, but did feel nervous beforehand. Maybe it was because it was a different type of interview than I've done in the past. Who knows. (Download show 60 here)

Following the interview, thanks to Enrico, MJRN, and Kim for calling in and making the show entertaining for me and for those in the live chat room. Did announce that not only is Enrico hosting Grand Rounds in two weeks, he will also be guest hosting my show in two weeks. Meanwhile, I will be a guest on The Guys Podcast in two weeks. Thanks to Enrico for stepping in for the hosting duties.

Also, I was happy to announce that Kim will also be guest hosting my show - probably in January sometime. So, I'm very happy that the show is going to be branching out and welcoming guest hosts. This will add a whole new dimension to the show - and hopefully more engaging, entertaining, and informative for you.

Finally, also wanted to announce that there will be a Podcamp Ohio show on December 11th. And, The Doctor Anonymous Christmas show will be December 18th. I have some ideas in my head on the show format. Plus, finding possible guests for the show will also be fun. But, for now, Happy Thanksgiving next week to all my USA readers/listeners. There will be no show next week. The next show will be December 4th with Enrico. Have a great weekend!