Friday, June 29, 2007

MedlinePlus Works Well on Small Device Browsers like N95

My Nokia N95 runs the Symbian OS. Epocrates only runs on Palm and PocketPC devices.  Epocrates online seems not to know what to do when a small device browser accesses it. I can log in, but the site is really unusable on a small screen (I've written to Epocrates to suggest they consider adding support for small devices/screen).  So where do I get drug information?  From the government!

I just discovered that the National Library of Medicine's Medline Plus does play well with small screens/browsers.  Below is a screenshot of the Medline Plus page on Opera for Handheld Devices:




Compare this to the page view on the N95's built-in browser:

Makes the $29 for Opera worth it, don't you think?


Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Ether Way on the Preop Interview

Right on, brother:

"Long ago, my preop interview became less pre-flight check-list and more gut-check and sniffing for smoke. (I'll write more about sniffing for smoke in another post) Paradoxically perhaps, the most important thing to me is to bond to the patient; it's the second part of that WCW observation. I might do eight or ten cases in a day; the consequence of treating my work as a technical exercise is the risk of inattention and the sort of boredom that drives the desperate discontent that I see in so many of my colleagues."
[The Ether Way]

Sermo: Finally a good online forum for physicians

I just stumbled upon Sermo, a web community for physicians only:

"Here, physicians aggregate observations from their daily practice and then - rapidly and in large numbers - challenge or corroborate each others opinions, accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments. You can then apply the collective knowledge to achieve better outcomes for your patients."

Now, if they'd only have RSS feeds....



Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Status Report on Google Modules

A while ago Seth Dillingham wrote two Google modules for me: Allowable Blood Loss and BMI Calculator. Well, I still have a hard time finding them on Googles own module site, but I can find them both on googlemodules.com--the 'Unofficial Google Modules Site'.

I wanted to pass along another use for the allowable blood loss calculator--estimating surgical blood loss. Anesthetists are asked to estimate the volume of surgical blood loss that occurs during a procedure on their anesthetic record. Surgeons will often attempt to influence that figure downward by volunteering their own estimate of blood loss (often not grounded in reality) in the hope of getting me to go along with it.

In large blood loss cases where I've been following the hematocrit I use the formula to calculate the actual blood loss. For example, if a 100 kg male started with a hematocrit of 0.40 and wound up with a hematocrit of 0.32 I calculate their blood loss as 1600 cc. No arguments.



Saturday, February 18, 2006

Inside the Brain

"What happens in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease? This tour explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer's affects it."



Friday, June 17, 2005

Medical Simulation Weblog

I found a neat new weblog called SimBlog. Associated with the Society for Medical Simulation, it appears to be edited by Jeff Taekman, formerly of Penn State and the person I came to Hershey to work with. Jeff had moved to Duke by the time I arrived, and is now the Associate Dean for Technology in Education there.



Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Dear Journal Editor

Orac has written a public letter to scientific journal editors that is a must read for anyone who has ever published (or tried to publish and been rejected--me!). The post is part of Tangled Bank XXV (Like Grand Rounds, but with an emphasis on science):

"We have again rewritten the entire manuscript from start to finish. We even changed the goddamned running head! Hopefully we have suffered enough by now to satisfy even you and your bloodthirsty reviewers. Besides the fact that we included five new figures of brand new data (with six panels each, yet), we still cannot believe that you were unable to see the merit of our work..."



Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Four Drug Rep Tricks Plus One Of My Own

Polite Dissent is a blog I just discovered thanks to Grand Rounds. He/she has the same take on some of the techniques used by drug detail people as I do:

  • False agreements
  • Fake Thanks
  • Bring the Boss
  • Appeal to Authority

I'll just add my own to this very good list: use the people around you as billboards. It seems the people who make a paralytic called rocuronium have dropped off a thousand or so yellow operating room caps that say "Roc Solid" (Roc is our abbreviation for rocuronium, aka Zemuron). Many OR nurses and techs are now wearing these caps. My reaction? Even if I was planning on using rocuronium for the case, I'll draw up some tasty vecuronium or cis-atracurium instead. And besides, the vecuronium people gave me a nice nerve stimulator once...


Grand Rounds XXV: Respectful Insolence

Grand Rounds XXV is up at Respectful Insolence. Just don't have a mouth full of coffee when you read it.



Saturday, February 19, 2005

MayoClinic.com Anesthesia Information

James T. Li, M.D. has written two 'Ask a Specialist' pieces at MayoClinic.com that are relevant to patients having anesthesia. I've read them both and do hereby confer upon them the WakingUpCosts seal of approval:

  • Anesthesia: Options and considerations
  • Anesthesia: Safe for people with asthma?


Monday, February 14, 2005

Grand Rounds XXI At Sumer's Radiology Site

Sumer's Radiology Site: Grand Rounds XXI



Tuesday, February 8, 2005

medmusings: Grand Rounds XX

All the way from Singapore......medmusings: Grand Rounds XX

June, 2007
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Feeds and Categories

Blog Roll

Google Modules
   Body Mass Index
   Allowable Blood Loss

Anesthesiology
   The Ether Way
   Westmead Anaesthesia Blog
   Anesthesioboist
   Book of Joe
   Anesthesiamania
   i'm so sleepy
   GASMAN

Medicine
   Aggravated DocSurg
   Retired Doc
   Finger and Tubes
   Running A Hospital
   Medviews
   Doctor
   Chance To Cut
   Medlogs
   Medpundit
   RangelMD
   DB's Medical Rants
   EchoJournal
   Palmdoc Chronicles
   Blogborygmi
   The Well-Timed Period
   WebMD

Journals
   NEJM
   JAMA
   A&A
   Anesthesiology

Geeks Like Me
   Seth Dillingham
   Jonathan Greene