Grand Rounds 2:44 Is Up

Submitted by tonyplant on July 25, 2006 - 12:55.

This week's edition of Grand Rounds is hosted and selected by Giskin, AJ and Beth from Medical Humanities. I am fascinated by this insight into the working week and interests of people who make a direct difference to the quality of life of others. Like everything else, good medicine relies on techno-stars but depends upon good communication and co-operation.

All of human life is there, and the narrative is framed around a fabulous selection of gardening images, notes and insights. The explain their metaphors:

So often matters medical are portrayed in the language of war: the fight against disease, the battle against cancer. These are the metaphors that have dominated medical discourse in the mainstream media. Yet, the military metaphor is not inevitable. Health-care professions tend their patients with the devotion and attention that gardeners lavish on their plants, hoping to keep them healthy.

There is a poem about the search for a pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for NF1. There are difficult stories, ranging from the subtle indications that someone is living with spousal abuse to the arrests following controversy about the management of some patients in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

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Grand Rounds 2:42 Is Up

Submitted by tonyplant on July 11, 2006 - 15:08.

This week's edition of Grand Rounds is hosted and selected by a Transplant Co-ordinator (TC) from Donor Cycle. I am utterly fascinated by the medblog insight into the working lives of people whose jobs make an obvious and direct difference. This week's online peek into the diverse world of medical researchers, healthcare workers, patients and policy makers is as interesting as ever. Like everything else, good medicine relies on techno-stars but depends upon good communication and co-operation.

All of human life is there, from why childbirth is like baseball through to the role of bingo and a female posse of friends in helping a widower to remain chipper.

I commend Grand Rounds to you.

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Paediatric Grand Rounds 1:6 Is Up

Submitted by tonyplant on July 2, 2006 - 12:08.

Paediatric Grand Rounds 1:6 is up, courtesy of Shinga of Breath Spa for Kids.

Paediatrician Clark Bartram of Unintelligent Design initiated a Paediatric Grand Rounds because children's health issues involve so much more than treating them as small adults.

There is a rich complexity of topics from breast-feeding, through to social policies that affect children and research towards biological pace-makers that are maintenance-free. There are some truly touching and moving posts and some funny ones. Enjoy PGR 1:6! add new comment | medblogs | Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds 2:39 Is Up

Submitted by tonyplant on June 27, 2006 - 14:54.

This week's edition of Grand Rounds is hosted and selected by Stuart Henochowicz from Medviews. I am utterly fascinated by the medblog insight into the working lives of people whose jobs make an obvious and direct difference. This week's online peek into the diverse world of medical researchers, healthcare workers, patients and policy makers is as interesting as ever. Like everything else, good medicine relies on techno-stars but depends upon good communication and co-operation.

All of human life is there, from the need for Border Patrol Agents to learn how to cope with a birth in progress to Keith Carlson and how he works with the families of patients who have become friends and who have died.

I commend Grand Rounds to you.

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Paediatric Grand Rounds 1:5 Is Up

Submitted by tonyplant on June 18, 2006 - 17:11.

Paediatric Grand Rounds 1:5 is up, courtesy of Clark Bartram at Unintelligent Design.

There are several controversial topics in this collection of posts. It certainly is one thing to talk to adults about lifestyle choices that have an impact on their health, it is another to discuss adult behaviours and adult-supported lifestyle choices that have a profound impact on children's health. Here, I particularly have in mind Flea's post about a drug-seeking mother and Shinga's response on the consequences of a chaotic home life on children's health; plus Megan's account of finding gallstones in two young patients.

There are several excellent posts on parents perspectives (scroll down to the June 5th entry) and perspectives on neuro-developmental disorders. There are illustrations of contents of a newborn's nappy that might startle the unwary parent and a touching video made for a child recovering in PICU after a kidney transplant.

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Grand Rounds 2:37

Submitted by tonyplant on June 6, 2006 - 19:04.

This week's edition of Grand Rounds is hosted and selected by Dmitriy Kruglyak from the Medical Blog Network. I am utterly fascinated by the medblog insight into the working lives of people whose jobs make an obvious and direct difference. This week's online peek into the diverse world of medical researchers, healthcare workers, patients and policy makers is as interesting as ever. Like everything else, good medicine relies on techno-stars but depends upon good communication and co-operation.

Dmitriy was interviewed for Medscape by Nick Genes of Blogborygmi.

Just as Web-logs have expanded openness and participation in journalism and software, Kruglyak hopes that his network of bloggers helps to spur the transformation of the healthcare industry. He's an ambitious -- and at times polarizing -- figure in the medical blogging community, but he's moving forward and may just change the way people think about medicine.

Read the interview for the full story.

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Grand Rounds 2:36 Is Up

Submitted by tonyplant on May 30, 2006 - 15:49.

Grand Rounds 2:36 is up: this week it is hosted by a nephrologist who blogs on Kidney Notes. It's pathetic, I'm one of the most squeamish people that you could hope not to be the only person around the day you cut yourself or be in need of some First Aid, but I am utterly fascinated by the medblog insight into the working lives of people whose jobs make an obvious and direct difference.

There is the usual mix of the hilarious (a urologist discusses a surgical procedure with a porn star that may interfere with his 'money shot'), the poignant (what happens to patients can make you cry), the controversial (it's Dr Crippen on a controversy that arose from a controversy about home-births, need I say more?) to the thoroughly fed up (most stupid reason for duty calls and I have this problem that I want you to fix).

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Grand Rounds 2:35 Is Up!

Submitted by tonyplant on May 23, 2006 - 18:02.

Grand Rounds 2:35 is up. If there is an online male-equivalent for the real-life magazines that crowd the Women's Interest sections of supermarkets or newsagents, then Grand Rounds is it for me. It's pathetic, I'm one of the most squeamish people that you could hope not to be the only person around the day you cut yourself or be in need of some First Aid, but I am utterly fascinated by the insight into the working lives of people whose jobs make an obvious and direct difference.

Thanks to the host, Dr. Emer of Parallel Universes, I have enough reading to dip in and out of for a full week. It is fascinating and has a clever layout along the style of a journal frontispiece. Dr. Charles has developed a protocol for identifying the Charles Sign. The Cheerful Oncologist extols the virtues of exercise (in a roundabout sort of way). Why taking medicine to treat heart-disease is seen as preferable to patients changing their lifestyle habits. There's an encounter between a jazz musician who doesn't like doctors and the doctor whom he consults. All in all, it is a fascinating read.

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Grand Rounds 2:33 Is Up!

Submitted by tonyplant on May 9, 2006 - 15:01.

Tara Smith of Aetiology has released Grand Rounds 2:33. It is an extensive selection of the best of medical, scientific and allied health care interest blogs. You can learn all sorts of fascinating gems about the side-effects of various drugs and their delterious effects on your sex life; speculation that there may or may not be a bacterial link to the development of several common chronic illnesses; why happiness is good for us; a close encounter with a body-snatcher, and an edge-of-the-seat account of just what it takes to see a doctor in Alaska (dog-sledding is involved).

There is enough weird, wonderful, thought-provoking and educational stuff in there to keep you informed and entertained for hours. Go and look - you won't be sorry!

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