Dr. A Show 61: The Enrico Show

Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 9pm Eastern Time (0200 GMT)

The Doctor Anonymous Show is happy to welcome our buddy Enrico to the guest host's chair this week. If you didn't already know, I was unavailable to host the show this week. And instead of canceling the show, Enrico graciously stepped up to the plate to help me out. Thanks so much Enrico.

Enrico was the host of Grand Rounds 5.11 this week and did a fine job at that. Scheduled to be on the show to participate in a roundtable discussion will be Val Jones, Ramona Bates, Mother Jones, and possibly Bongi. Join them as they talk about ME (hehe), Grand Rounds, the medical blogosphere, new media medicine, and whatever else comes up.

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 Enrico 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. Hope these tips are helpful!

Kevin MD: USA Today Op-Ed

New Media Medicine is proud to have people like Kevin Pho out there trying to educate the press and our patients on a national scale through his op-ed pieces. On December 3rd, 2008, Kevin wrote a piece called Ease ER Overload. Here's an excerpt:

Emblematic of soaring health care costs, which are projected to reach $3 trillion by 2011,is the nationwide crisis of emergency department overcrowding. More than $18 billion is wasted annually on unnecessary visits to the ER,with volume rising by 32% and wait times almost doubling to one hour during the past decade.Relieving this strain will be critical to any health care reform.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not just the uninsured who are utilizing emergency services. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that patients with health insurance were primarily responsible for the increase of emergency services over the past decade. Lack of access to an available doctor is the major reason.

He analyzes the issue of emergency department crowding from a primary care perspective. What's the answer? Well, you'll have to read the article yourself to find out. Great job as always Kevin and thanks for keeping the primary care point of view out there on the national stage.

Dr. A Show 61 Preview

In a very controversial move (hehe), I am allowing a guest host this week to take over my show. Who? Well, the only and only, the legend that we know as Enrico who is the host of Grand Rounds this week. It's my show, but I haven't been privy to any of the pre-show prep (just kidding).

From what I hear, "The Enrico Show" is going to have a star-studded panel of medbloggers (something I could never do - again just kidding). What the heck will they be talking about? Well, me of course! If you haven't heard, I was originally going to cancel this week's show because I was unavailable during show time. But, thanks to Enrico, there will be a show, and it will be fabulous and incredible, and ground-breaking, and history making (can I hype it up anymore?)

So, tune in Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 9pm eastern time (0200 UTC/GMT) for The Doctor Anonymous Show with guest host Enrico from the blog Mexico Med Student. This should be a good show. See you there!

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!)