HEALTH MEDIA: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

What is the minimal webmaster competence for running a medical blog?

"What is the minimal webmaster competence for running a medical blog?", asked a relatively new blogger recently. My suggestions are listed below.

Keep it simple, and free

If your blog content is great and compelling, you don't need much HTML, CSS, etc. knowledge. Knowing HTML doesn't hurt, of course, but it's not essential.

Keep it simple, and free. Many doctors are wrongly advised to spend time and money on custom installations of WordPress, hosting, and social media consultatants when all they need is a free Google/Blogger blog with a custom domain name.

"Blogging is teaching, whether it’s yourself or others, and that’s the best feeling in the world"

Speaking from personal experience, my blogs reached more than 8 million page views and I've never used outside help for blog launch or maintenance. I don't think my blog content is that great or original apart from a few mind map diagrams, mnemonics and social media how-to articles - it's just my personal digital netbook that I share with the world.

I typically publish one post per day during the week at CasesBlog and AllergyNotes. They are scheduled 2-3 months in advance, and publish automatically, unless I edit them the day before they are due for posting.

"Blogging is teaching, whether it’s yourself or others, and that’s the best feeling in the world" http://goo.gl/hCpF8

Comments from Google Plus and Twitter:

Ahmad Gandour, Jan 25, 2012: This is a great advice i will consider starting a blog in the near future .you really post interesting post i check your post every day in the morning while i am checking journal watch and BEJM news letter thanks for these great post .

Ves Dimov, M.D., Jan 25, 2012: Thank you for your interest. I typically publish one post per day during the week at CasesBlog and AllergyNotes. They are scheduled 2-3 months in advance, and publish automatically, unless I edit them the day before they are due for posting.

Ahmad Gandour, Jan 25, 2012: Thanks for the info i booked marked the both pages i am going to check it every day

Ves Dimov, M.D., Jan 25, 2012: You can subscribe to the RSS feeds - this way there is no need to visit the website every day - the new post gets delivered to your RSS reader (Google Reader) or email.

Ahmad Gandour, Jan 25, 2012: Done :)

Jill Celeste, Jan 25, 2012: Blogger is the perfect tool for a doctor. Great post!

Heidi Allen @dreamingspires: What is the minimal webmaster competence for running a medical blog? casesblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-i… Keep it simple and free. Teach yourself and others

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Friday, April 27, 2012

Diabetes drug injected once a week gets F.D.A. approval: Bydureon (long-acting exenatide)

From the NYTimes:

The FDA twice declined to approve long-acting exenatide (Bydureon) in 2010, with its most serious concern being that the drug might contribute to heart rhythm abnormalities. There are safety concerns involving thyroid cancer and pancreatitis.

Bydureon is a longer-lasting version of Amylin’s existing drug Byetta, which is injected twice a day. Another company, Alkermes, supplied the technology that slowly releases Bydureon inside the body.

Bydureon, Byetta and Victoza are drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists, which mimic the effect of glucagonlike peptide- 1, a hormone that increases insulin production when blood sugar is high.

Figure: Action of DPP-4 inhibitors. Note that DPP-4 normally inactivates GLP-1. DPP-4 inhibitors block DPP-4 which in turn leaves GLP-1 active. Click to enlarge the figure. I made the figure with Gliffy in 2006 . The diagram Action of DPP-4 inhibitors is now widely used in many articles on Wikipedia, with my permission.

The main ingredient in both Bydureon and Byetta is exenatide, a hormone derived from the saliva of the Gila monster, a poisonous lizard found in the Southwestern United States and Mexico.

Wholesale price of Bydureon would be $323 for 4 doses, or about $4,200 a year. That is between the roughly $3,400 for the low dose of Victoza and $5,000 for the high dose.

References:

Diabetes Drug Injected Weekly Wins F.D.A. Approval. NYTimes.

Comments from Twitter:

Vaughn Eyvazian @Vaughnsays: Increase that pt compliance!

Reinaldo B. @basanezrx: but nobody stays in the lowest dose of Victoza in my experience, and that's why most ins companies pay for Byetta instead. A shame :(

Thursday, April 26, 2012

6 Reasons Why Doctors Blog

Here are the 6 Reasons Why Doctors Blog, according to Dr. John M., a cardiologist and electrophysiologist:

Here are the top six reasons why I and other doctors choose to author medical blogs:

1. The Practice of Medicine inspires
2. To educate
3. To better mankind
4. To give a look behind the curtain
5. To archive useful information
6. To display our humanness

My comment is here:

Thank you for the wonderful post and sharing insights, John.

Blogging "To better mankind" is beyond reach for me, I think. However, I hope that my blogs helped "To educate" at least some of the readers who flipped through more than 8 million pages since 2005...

Doctors are highly-qualified experts who limit their impact only to patients they see - if they don't publish, give lectures - and blog. In most cases, benefits far outweigh the risk and doctors should be encouraged to at least give it a try.

I tried to describe a practical and time-efficient approach here:

Social media in medicine: How to be a Twitter superstar and help your patients and your practice
http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/social-media-in-medicine-how-to-be.html

Blogging also keeps you grounded and humble. Critical comments prompt you to back your clinical opinion, expressed in a blog post, with solid scientific references and that's a good thing.

Comments from Google Plus:

Gary Levin, Jan 22, 2012: Ves, I agree with all of the above and welcome to G+ Let's hangout sometime soon. I will send you an invite..

Sherri Vance, Jan 22, 2012: Dr. Ves, I love your blogs. As for reasons why MDs should blog, I think the view behind the curtain (#4) is the most important. Given that our nation is weighing a myriad of conflicting viewpoints on how to fix our healthcare system, understanding these issues from the doctor's viewpoint is vital. Thanks!

Carlo V Caballero-Uribe, Jan 26, 2012: Excelllent. I am sharing this post with my residents and students. They will discuss about it in a seminar. Many of #hscm its centered on engagement with patients and public its ok but engagement with your students and peers in several ways that social media offers its very important

As some example some of our use include:
Twitter for journal clubs
Google plus circles to clinical cases discussions
Google docs to edit papers
Slideshare for seminars presentations
Below in the link its a post about it in my blog. Sorry its in spanish but the translator helps.
Thanks for your posts and example.

http://carvica1.blogspot.com/2011/12/como-podemos-usar-las-redes-sociales-en.html

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Children’s ability to "roam" has been destroyed, and they congregate on social media sites

From the the NYTimes:

Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at Microsoft and an assistant professor at New York University: “Children’s ability to roam has basically been destroyed. Letting your child out to bike around the neighborhood is seen as terrifying now, even though by all measures, life is safer for kids today.”

Children naturally congregate on social media sites for the relatively unsupervised conversations, flirtations, immature humor and social exchanges that are the normal stuff of teenage hanging-out, she said.

Moreover, grown-ups’ panic about teenage online behavior distracts from the potential benefits.

Let kids be kids - unstructured play time may be more important than homework, suggests a childhood psychologist. "Children have lost 8 hours per week of free, unstructured, and spontaneous play over the last 2 decades due to homework. Decrease in unstructured play time is in part responsible for slowing kids’ cognitive and emotional development. Today’s 5-year-olds had the self-regulation capability of a 3-year-old in the 1940s; the critical factor seems to have been not discipline, but play."

Video: A life cycle in 90 seconds:

References:

Cracking Teenagers’ Online Codes. NYTimes, 2012.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Unfaithfulness in men may be associated with higher risk of cardiovascular events

The authors of this study from Italy performed an extensive Medline search for “unfaithfulness,”“extramarital affairs,”“infidelity,” and “men.”

How common is unfaithfulness in men?

As expected the results were variable. Some surveys reported that 1.5–4% of married men had extramarital coitus in any given year, others that 23.2% of men have cheated during their current relationship.

Lifetime prevalence of unfaithfulness was between 15% and 50%.

What are the factors related to unfaithfulness?

Men with extramarital affairs more frequently have a dysfunctional primary relationship.

Parenthood and conflicts within the family are associated with a higher risk of having an affair.

Unfaithful men display a higher androgenization, larger testis volume, higher sexual desire, and better sexual functioning.

What are the clinical implications of unfaithfulness in men?

Some studies have suggested that having an extramarital affair could have a negative impact on cardiac morbidity and mortality. Unfaithfulness in men seems to be associated with a higher risk of major cardiovascular events.

References

Fisher AD, Bandini E, Rastrelli G, Corona G, Monami M, Mannucci E, and Maggi M. Sexual and cardiovascular correlates of male unfaithfulness. J Sex Med, 2012.

Image source: OpenClipart.org, public domain.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Friday, April 20, 2012

Mayo Clinic Offers Dietary Supplements, Stress Management, Massage and Acupuncture in the Mall of America

Cleveland Clinic has a Wellness Institute. In another push to the realm of wellness, Mayo Clinic now offers one-on-one consults with Complementary and Integrative Medicine physicians on campus and where the customers are - right in the Mall of the America. See this 3-part video series below:

Brent A. Bauer, M.D. Dr. Bauer is a physician in the Department of General Internal Medicine and supervisor of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Research program at Mayo Clinic.

Nancy Drackley, a physical therapist, massage therapist, and supervisor of massage therapy at Mayo Clinic.

Tony Chon, M.D, a physician in the Department of General Internal Medicine and a member of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine team at Mayo Clinic, discusses acupuncture.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

"You take what you need and you leave the rest, But they should never have taken the very best"

"You take what you need and you leave the rest, But they should never have taken the very best" is a refrain from The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, one of the best known songs of The Band.

Levon Helm, the revered drummer and singer of group the Band who kept the band's heart for more than three decades, died "peacefully" on April 19.

From CNN:

Born in Elaine, Arkansas, in 1940, the son of a cotton farmer, Helm rose to fame in the late 1960s and 1970s as a member of The Band, a folk rock group.

His soulful, drawling vocals highlighted many of the group's hit recordings, such as "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," and "Up on Cripple Creek."

Helm, 71, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998. He fell on hard times as cancer took his voice and medical bills threatened his house.

"You got to pick one -- pay your medical bills or pay the mortgage. Most people can't do both, and I'm not different," he told CNN in 2010.

So The Barn, as the residence is known around Helm's adopted hometown of Woodstock, New York, became the setting for what he called a "last celebration." Not quite. Instead, The Barn became the center of an unlikely and unrivaled rock 'n' roll revival.

It was there that Helm regularly hosted the Midnight Ramble, weekly concerts that attracted sell-out crowds and all-star support. The result not only paid the bills but also led to a creative resurgence for Helm, with his collaborations producing back-to-back Grammy-winning albums: 2007's "Dirt Farmer" and 2009's "Electric Dirt."

"If I had my way about it, we'd probably do it every night," Helm said. "I never get tired of it."

From Wikipedia:

Helm remained with "The Band" until their 1976 farewell performance, The Last Waltz, which was recorded in a documentary film by director Martin Scorsese (an excerpt is embedded above). Many music enthusiasts know Helm through his appearance in the concert film, a performance remarkable for the fact that Helm's vocal tracks appear substantially as he sang them during a grueling concert.

In the late 1990s, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer suffering hoarseness. Advised to undergo a laryngectomy, Helm instead underwent an arduous regimen of radiation treatments at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Although the tumor was then successfully removed, Helm's vocal cords were damaged, and his clear, powerful tenor voice was replaced by a quiet rasp. Initially Helm only played drums and relied on guest vocalists at the Rambles, but Helm's singing voice grew stronger. On January 10, 2004, he sang again of his Ramble Sessions. In 2007, during production of Dirt Farmer, Helm estimated that his singing voice was 80% recovered.

The Midnight Ramble was an outgrowth of an idea Helm explained to Martin Scorsese in The Last Waltz. Earlier in the 20th century, Helm explained, traveling medicine shows and music shows such as F.S. Walcott Rabbit's Foot Minstrels, featuring African-American blues singers and dancers, would put on titillating performances in rural areas. This was also turned into a song by the Band, "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show," with the name altered so the lyric was easier to sing.

"After the finale, they'd have the midnight ramble," Helm told Scorsese. With young children off the premises, the show resumed: "The songs would get a little bit juicier. The jokes would get a little funnier and the prettiest dancer would really get down and shake it a few times. A lot of the rock and roll duck walks and moves came from that."

Helm has refused to play The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down since 1976 even though he continued to hold "Midnight Rambles" concerts several times a month at his private residence in Woodstock, New York.

References:

Fans remember Levon Helm as he faces final stages of cancer. CNN.
Levon Helm, co-founder of The Band, dead at 71. CNN.
Levon Helm, icon of Americana music, 'in the final stages of cancer'. Guardian.
Fauquier ENT Blog: Levon Helm, Singer/Drummer for The Band, Dies of Throat Cancer http://goo.gl/tDgxL
Levon Helm. Wikipedia.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The 21 genetic conditions that should be reported by patients if found incidentally during whole-genome sequencing

Illustration: DNA associates with histone proteins to form chromatin. Image source: Wikipedia.

There are no established guidelines on which genetic variants should be presented to physicians as incidental findings from whole-genome sequencing. A recent study showed that genetic specialists agreed that pathogenic mutations for 21 common genetic conditions should be disclosed by patients.

For adult patients

APC-associated polyposis
Fabry disease
Familial hypercholesterolemia
Galactosemia
Gaucher disease
Glycogen storage disease type IA
Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer
Homocystinuria
Li-Fraumeni syndrome
Lynch syndrome
Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1
Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2
MYH-associated polyposis
Phenylketonuria
Pompe disease
PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome
Retinoblastoma
Romano-Ward (long QT syndrome)
Tyrosinemia type 1
Von Hippel-Lindau disease
Wilson disease

For pediatric patients (child)

PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome
Retinoblastoma
Romano-Ward (long QT syndrome)
Von Hippel-Lindau disease

Collecting family history predicts cancer risk better than 23andMe genetic testing, according to a recent study from the Cleveland Clinic:

References

Exploring concordance and discordance for return of incidental findings from clinical sequencing. Green RC, Berg JS, Berry GT, Biesecker LG, Dimmock DP, Evans JP, Grody WW, Hegde MR, Kalia S, Korf BR, Krantz I, McGuire AL, Miller DT, Murray MF, Nussbaum RL, Plon SE, Rehm HL, Jacob HJ. Genet Med. 2012 Apr;14(4):405-10. doi: 10.1038/gim.2012.21. Epub 2012 Mar 15.

Genome sequencing to add new twist to doctor-patient talks. American Medical Association, 2012.

How to talk to patients about genetic testing http://goo.gl/kkW4m

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Understanding Healthcare Power of Attorney - Cleveland Clinic video

This is very important: Advance directives are legal documents that provide instructions about who should oversee your medical treatment and what your end-of-life wishes are, in case you are unable to speak for yourself.

Advance directives include:

- Health Care Power of Attorney
- Living Will

Everyone over the age of 18 should consider assigning Health Care Power of Attorney to someone.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Battling depression with "battery-powered brains" - CNN report on deep brain stimulation (DBS)

CNN reports on treating severe depression with electrodes inside the brain:

The procedure -- called deep brain stimulation, or DBS -- targets a small brain structure known as Area 25, the "ringleader" for the brain circuits that control our moods.

Area 25 is relatively overactive in depressed patients. One hypothesis is that in patients who do not improve with treatments for depression, Area 25 is somehow stuck in overdrive.

DBS had been used since 1997 as a treatment for movement disorders, including essential tremor, Parkinson's disease and dystonia.

References:

Treating depression with electrodes inside the brain. CNN, 2012.

Friday, April 13, 2012

iPad App for Education of Heart Patients After Surgery - Mayo Clinic Video

From Mayo Clinic YouTube channel: "Being in the hospital after major surgery is no fun. On top of dealing with pain, patients have uncertainty. They also have to worry about getting all the information they need to support their recovery. That's not always easy in the hospital; things happen quickly and doctors and hospital staff are often really busy. Doctors at Mayo Clinic may have a solution to this issue. They're giving iPads to heart surgery patients to see if a new iPad app can make hospital stays easier and more satisfying."

Our research presented during the 2011 ACAAI meeting showed that 95% patients thought the iPad was helpful for coming to understanding of their condition:

PATIENT PERCEPTION OF A POINT-OF-CARE TABLET COMPUTER (IPAD™) BEING USED FOR PATIENT EDUCATION - P318

A. Nickels*, V. Dimov, V. Press, R.Wolf, Chicago, IL.

Background:

During the fall of 2010, the Internal Medicine/Pediatrics program at University of Chicago introduced Point-of-Care Tablet Computers (iPad™) for clinical use. iPads™ are intended to improve access to EMR, work flow, resident and patient education, and access to electronic clinical tools. The graphic display and ease of interface makes the iPad™ a potentially powerful tool to achieve these goals. This pilot study is designed to gauge the initial patient perception of the iPad™ when used for patient education.

Methods:

8 questions, physician administered, patient survey of Allergy Immunology patients or their parents. Preloaded iPads™ with education materials (“mind map” diagrams, clinical pictures) into the photo software were used to clinically education the patients. Simple percentages and Fisher’s exact non-parametric test were used for statistical analysis. Results: 20 patients surveyed (11 resident/9 attending). For those survey items without 100% agreement, there was no statistically significant difference in responses based on level of training (p≥0.45). 100% [0.861, 1] of participants liked the iPad™ being used to help explain their children’s condition, 95% [0.783, 0.997] of participants did not find it distracting. 100% [0.8601, 1] found it helpful. 100% [0.861, 1] would like it to be used again to help explain medical information. 95% [0.784, 0.9974386] thought the iPad™ was helpful for coming to understanding of their condition. Limitations of this study include a convenient sample, physician-administered survey, and observer bias.

Conclusion:

Patient perception was very positive toward the use of a Point-of-Care Tablet Computer (iPad™) in a clinical setting. While limited to only two operators, level of training did not have an effect on patient perception. Confirmation of the results may be required before wider implementation.

Source: Patient Perception of a Point-of-Care Tablet Computer (iPad) Being Used for Patient Education. A. Nickels, V. Dimov, V. Press, R. Wolf. American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) 2011 Annual Meeting.

http://www.annallergy.org/supplements

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Will traditional scientific journals follow newspapers into oblivion, asks former BMJ editor

Richard Smith is a former editor of the BMJ and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group. He is well-known for provocative editorials. Here is an excerpt from one, published recently in The Scientist:

"Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scientific journals, has seen broadly stable revenues (€2,236 million in 2006, €2,370 million in 2010) but growing profits (€683 million in 2006, €847 million in 2010).

Scientific journals remain very profitable. Few industries manage a profit margin of 35.7% (that for Elsevier in 2010), but then few industries are given their raw material—in this case, scientific studies—not only for free, but also in a form that needs minimal processing."

It is nice to see that the current and a former editor of the two most famous British medical journals, The Lancet and BMJ, are now on Twitter:

Why has the Cochrane Collaboration never quite taken off in the US?
— richard horton (@richardhorton1) April 5, 2012

Any symptom in an elderly person should be considered to be a drug side effect until proved otherwise. Jerry Avern
— Richard Smith (@Richard56) April 2, 2012

References:

Reading Into the Future | The Scientist, 2012.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

87% of people older than 50 took one or more drug, according to Australian survey

A postal survey included a random sample of 4,500 Australians aged ≥ 50 years between in 2009-2010 and the response rate was 37%.

Medications use was very common, 87% of participants took one or more drug (called medicines in Australia) and 43% took five or more in the previous 24 hours.

Complementary medicines were used by 46% of participants.

The most commonly used medications were:

- antihypertensive agents, 43% of participants
- natural marine and animal products including fish oil and glucosamine, 32%
- lipid-lowering agents, 30%

Doctors recommended 79% of all medications and 93% of conventional medications.

Much medicines use was to prevent future disease by influencing risk factors.

In a 2011 study, 4 medication classes were linked to 67% of drug-related hospitalizations:

- warfarin, 33%
- insulins, 14%
- oral antiplatelet agents, 13%
- oral hypoglycemic agents, 11%

High-risk medications were implicated in only 1.2% of hospitalizations.

50% of these hospitalizations were among adults 80 years of age or older. 65% of hospitalizations were due to unintentional overdoses.

Classification of adverse reactions to drugs: "SOAP III" mnemonic (click to enlarge the image):

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) affect 10–20% of hospitalized patients and 25% of outpatients.

Rule of 10s in ADR:

10% of patients develop ADR
10% of these are due to allergy
10% of these lead to anaphylaxis
10% of these lead to death

References:

A national census of medicines use: a 24-hour snapshot of Australians aged 50 years and older. Tessa K Morgan, Margaret Williamson, Marie Pirotta, Kay Stewart, Stephen P Myers and Joanne Barnes. MJA 2012; 196 (1): 50-53, doi: 10.5694/mja11.10698

4 medication classes linked to 67% of drug-related hospitalizations

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Virtual dissection table, stretcher-sized multi-touch screen, a powerful tool for training medical students

Onstage at TED2012, Jack Choi demonstrates a powerful tool for training medical students: a stretcher-sized multi-touch screen of the human body that lets you explore, dissect and understand the body's parts and systems.

Jack is the CEO of Anatomage, a company specializing in 3D medical technology. See the TED video embedded below:

Comments from Twitter:

Mike Cadogan @sandnsurf: NEED! ...Virtual dissection table, stretcher-sized multi-touch screen bit.ly/IIeko3

Monday, April 9, 2012

"Wonder drug" dogs are the only animals that look at right side of human face where emotions are expressed

People who have dogs as pets are much less likely to have a heart attack. If they do have a heart attack, they are 2-3 times more likely to survive it.

Mitochondrial genetics studies have shown conclusively that dogs have descended from wolves. Dogs' genes are 99.8% the same as the wolf genes, yet dogs behave in a fundamentally different way.

Over more than 100,000 years dogs have evolved to recognize human emotions. It has been a collaborative process all along. Humans are able to recognize 6 types of dog barks expressing emotions and "intentions" such as fear, excitement, aggression and so on. Dogs are the only animals that specifically look at the right side of the human face where emotions are expressed (see the NOVA video and website below).

Dogs follow directions while chimpanzees, the apes evolutionary closest to humans, do not. The smartest dog can learn 300 different words which is the vocabulary size of a 2-year-old child.

The "400 mnemonic":

400 million dogs worldwide
400 breeds of dogs have been developed by humans

According to a Cleveland Clinic psychologist, "dogs could be called wonder drugs":

"Dogs can provide people with many things. Protection, friendship, and unconditional love top the list, but they may also provide health benefits, too."

How smart are dogs, and what makes them such ideal companions? Dogs Decoded: Nova. Netflix.

Comments from Twitter:

Heidi Allen @dreamingspires: I want one!

References:

Dogs Decoded transcript and more. NOVA.

Image source: Yellow Labrador Retriever, Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Handwritten Video Tutorials in Medicine

Please note: The information in the following videos has not been verified by me. The purpose of this post is just to present the idea of this approach to medical education, not to recommend the content of the videos.

Here is the third video tutorial on electrocardiogram (ECG): ECG 3 - Segments, Intervals & Diseases:

Here is what the completed PDF looks like at the end of the drawing:

http://www.handwrittentutorials.com/pdf/pdf_69.pdf

Topics of the videos

Anatomy
Endocrinology
Immunology
Mathematics
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Physiology

References

Handwritten Video Tutorials in Medicine http://goo.gl/ZxFhb and http://goo.gl/R8xse

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Mosquito biting activity increases 500 times during a full moon phase, and they prefer blondes with smelly feet

Mosquitoes appear to prefer blonde people with smelly feet. Did you see the moon last night? Got mosquito spray? Mosquito biting activity increases 500 times during a full moon phase! There are more striking facts in this video excerpt from National Geographic.

The video is part of the Amazing Animals YouTube playlist by National Geographic:

Medical Geek Humor on Twitter

The tweets below are part of the series Medical Geek Humor on Twitter - they recall a TED moment from 2009:

@loic Bill Gates released mosquitoes at #TED we're all leaving the room and getting sick about 4 hours ago from web

@stevewhitaker Don't worry about the buggy mosquitos Gates released at #ted. Microsoft's working on a patch that's due out next year. about 14 hours ago from twitterrific

AllergyNotes Releasing mosquitoes by Bill Gates into a startled crowd at TED described as "an amazing TED moment" http://is.gd/iu0o about 12 hours ago from web

AllergyNotes Gates spreads malaria message with mosquitoes http://tinyurl.com/cxwo2e 12 minutes ago from TweetDeck

pyknosis Nice to hear Bill Gates picked up a hobby during his retirement: entomology. http://is.gd/izJn (Not surprised he likes the blood-suckers.) 14 minutes ago from web

pyknosis Don't get me wrong. Not saying B Gates is a bad person. He's not. He just created and championed software that can suck the life out of you. 12 minutes ago from web

pyknosis BTW, now that I understand the context, I think this is a winner of a tweet: http://is.gd/izK5 11 minutes ago from web: "If Steve Jobs had released mosquitoes, everyone would be wanting one."

If you are included in this post but would like to have your tweet removed for any reason, please email me and will comply with your request the same day.

Comments from Twitter:

Vijay @scanman: Mosquitoes are mini-vampires

Tariq @ucisee: Mosquito biting activity increases 500 times during a full moon phase - "appear to pref blonde with smelly feet."

Kathy Mackey @mkmackey: Ha! No one likes full moon!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Social media and me - Rheumatologist shares his experience

This is a presentation by Dr. Ronan Kavanagh, Rheumatologist, Blogger, and Social Media in Healthcare advocate at Western Rheumatology, Galway, Ireland. His website is at ronankavanagh.wordpress.com

Socmed and me

View more presentations from Ronan Kavanagh

Comments from Twitter:

Dr. Ronan Kavanagh @RonanTKavanagh: @DrVes Thanks! You may notice I pinched a slide idea of two from you. Thanks for that too...

Monday, April 2, 2012

Blood Management Summit and App - Transfuse 2012

Announcement: Blood Management Summit - Transfuse 2012 will be held on April 19-20, 2012 at the JW Marriott in Scottsdale, Arizona.

This conference has been developed with collaboration between Mayo Clinic and Hartford Hospital, building upon the success of three previous national conferences. "Transfuse 2012" is a unique multi-disciplinary conference focused on exploring the current state-of-the-art techniques and programs to reduce allogeneic blood utilization in hospitals. This international conference will feature national and international blood management experts from China, New Zealand and Australia along with a unique iPad app launch and one-of-a-kind hands-on animal lab.

Mayo Clinic's Mark H. Ereth, M.D. introduces the conference and the iPad app in this 3-minute video:

This conference is designed for all physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists, perfusionists, nurses and leaders in quality and patient safety. The conference is a CME accredited activity for physicians, nurses and perfusionists.

The Conference Website is: http://www.mayo.edu/cme/anesthesiology-2012r780

One of the course directors is Dr. Ajay Kumar, Chief of Division of Hospital Medicine at Hartford Hospital, and a good friend of mine. Another friend from the time I worked at Cleveland Clinic is also on faculty, Dr. Moises Auron.

It should be a great conference. Go check it out.