A play in 3 acts’; Weighing the Risks vs. Benefits of Research
Act I. Can women intubate? Two South Korean authors asked whether physician gender has a significant impact on intubation success, and found that “Female physicians are not inferior to male physicians in performing emergency endotracheal intubation.” Act II. It’s not about American women – South Korea is really sexist. The article had a swift and … Continue reading
Brute force vs. Skill: A play in 3 acts
Act I. Can women intubate? A study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine showing that “Female physicians are not inferior to male physicians in performing emergency endotracheal intubation.” Act II. It’s not about American women – South Korea is really sexist. Blogpost giving some background after the backlash on Twitter. “Why did they … Continue reading
Mortality Predictions in COPD patients: LIVE Score vs. COPD Exacerbation frequency
Summary of our two recently published articles on COPD and risk stratification: LIVE Score prediction of mortality and COPD exacerbation frequency in three cohorts. COPD exacerbation frequency and mortality and COPD exacerbation frequency prediction in three cohorts. LIVE score, which incorporates data on multimorbidity in COPD patients, is better predictor likely because mortality and healthcare … Continue reading
Hospital at Home
Mr. Smith was a sixty-eight year old man who came to the Veterans Affairs hospital where I was a medical student complaining of chest pain. “With chest pain, it’s all about the story,” my resident, the physician in charge of our team, said. We talked to him to find out what he was doing when … Continue reading
Ebola
“If I get a call about smallpox from the ER I’m not coming in,” an Infectious Disease doctor said to a colleague in the hospital where I was working. It was the early days of 9/11 and anything seemed possible. “Are you all OK with providing care for Ebola patients?” our section chief asked. Our ICU is the … Continue reading
Code
“They need you in room 13” she said when I answered the phone and I ran back to the ICU. The patient was coding and for each minute that felt like an hour, we tried, and failed, to save her. She wasn’t breathing, her heart wasn’t working, and despite the 30 people gathered in the room, … Continue reading
Time to bring back morbidity and mortality conferences
My post on the changing culture of medicine as reflected in the way we talk about our errors in M&Ms is up at kevinMD. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/07/time-bring-back-morbidity-mortality-conferences.html
Morbidity & Mortality Conference, a post mortem
When things go wrong in medicine, as they invariably do, we try to figure out what went wrong, and why. We try to learn if there’s anything we could have done better and what we should do next time. It used to be, in the days of the Giants, that the physician responsible for the patient … Continue reading
My post on Bronchial Thermoplasty is up on KevinMD today
My post on Bronchial Thermoplasty, a new treatment for asthma, and evidence in medicine is up at KevinMD.com today. http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/04/bronchial-thermoplasty-asthma-widely.html
