Getting Better: 200 Years of Medicine
This 45-minute documentary explores three remarkable stories of medical progress that have taken place over the course of the long history of NEJM. In 1812, we had no understanding of infectious disease, surgery was unsanitary and performed without anesthesia, and cancer was unrecognized. Two centuries later, this film tells the story of research, clinical practice, and patient care, and of how we have continued to get better over the last 200 years.
Can a Hospital Say, "Only Thin Doctors Can Work Here"?
Interesting ethics article especially in light of news of the “Fat Forecast” that by 2013, 42% of the US population may be obese.
When the Chef is Also a Doctor
What a great marriage between public health and medicine. I wish I would’ve known about the Healthy Kitchens/ Healthy Lives conference. I would’ve loved to attend! Healthy cooking is one of my other hobbies, and I hope to incorporate it into my work as a physician as well.
Are Doctors Happy?
Like medicine, happiness takes practice. But when it comes to happiness, some say the deck is stacked against doctors. Left unchecked, physician unhappiness can lead to major problems, including disruptive behavior, burnout, medical errors, health problems, addiction, depression, and failed relationships. It takes ambition, perfectionism and drive to make it into — and out of — medical school and while those qualities may be very useful for achieving goals, they don’t tend to foster happiness and satisfaction.
Being a doctor also calls for critical thinking and a degree of pessimism, O’Connor says: doctors aren’t trained to look at the sunny side of life. They look for what’s wrong with a patient, not what’s right.
While the people who choose to become doctors may have an abundance of these qualities, “Medical training sharpens them to a needle point,” he says. The result: physicians often graduate from medical school with a degree, a tendency to be brutally hard on themselves, and a profound inability to relax.
So how’s a doctor to find happiness? The same way everyone should, says O’Connor: work on it. Find a way to be happy in the now.
I’m still working on ways to relax. It’s odd that even in this very relaxed fourth year of medical school, I find ways to fill all my time. I have become very used to being busy and utilizing my time efficiently, that it’s often difficult to just do nothing.
I certainly hope that I will be happy at work and outside of work.
A Drumbeat on Profit Takers
Dr. Arnold S. Relman and Dr. Marcia Angell, both former editors of The New England Journal of Medicine, continue to advocate against the “commercial exploitation of medicine.”
From another friend. I am excited to be finally finished this year, especially since I just certified my rank list and now have to wait impatiently for my life (for the next 3 years) to be decided for me. But man, that pic really reminds of long nights of studying of the past, present and future.
Got this from a friend. Actually very true especially the unnecessary highlighting by medical students!
Thank goodness for electronic medical records.
How (Not) to Communicate New Scientific Information: a Memoir of the Famous Brindley Lecture
“In 1983, at the Urodynamics Society meeting in Las Vegas, Professor G.S. Brindley first announced to the world his experiments on self-injection with papaverine to induce a penile erection. This was the first time that an effective medical therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED) was described, and was a historic development in the management of ED. The way in which this information was first reported was completely unique and memorable, and provides an interesting context for the development of therapies for ED.”
Interesting memoir on Dr. Brindley’s lecture sent to me by my brother. I’m surprised I’d never heard of this before since it’s pretty hilarious.
Let Food Be Thy Medicine: Trash the vitamins, eat better food!
From my food blog…
Best Evidence Review of Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rates in Older Women
Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack LJ, Park K, Jacobs Jr DR. Dietary supplements and mortality rate in older women. Arch Intern Med. 2011;171:1625-1633.
- Nearly half of older adults routinely use dietary supplements,…
Don't Quit This Day Job
Interesting opinion article on female physicians going part time and how it affects patients and the public.
“About 30 percent of doctors in the United States are female, and women received 48 percent of the medical degrees awarded in 2010. But their productivity doesn’t match that of men. In a 2006 survey by the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, even full-time female doctors reported working on average 4.5 fewer hours each week and seeing fewer patients than their male colleagues. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that 71 percent of female pediatricians take extended leave at some point — five times higher than the percentage for male pediatricians.”
What do you think about this?
"Take the world apart and figure out how it works." - Built to Spill, 1994.
