Festivities all around, let’s have some fun! See if you can dodge the doosra’s.
BMJ, Christmas 2014
GI featured article, Page 1 Cakes, chocolates, cheese, milk, meat- I’m being fed on sumptuous servings of these the past 10 days. Not wanting to know the truth about the inevitable, I’ve not checked my weight of late. To all my worldwide accomplices in the year-end indulgence, this article might be of interest. When somebody loses weight, where does the fat go? Check if you’ve thought about the possibilities.
Surgery featured article, Page 1 The war between the anesthetists and surgeons is further fueled by this article Operating theater time, where does it all go? by concluding “anesthetists are the worst specialty group when predicting how much time they will require to complete an operation or procedure”. According to an anesthetist who was one year senior to me during my graduation days, they’re actually trained in such techniques (see illustration- courtesy his website madmedicine.co.in)
Social Media
Blog: Rectal Tone of Anesthesiologists Varies with Patients’ Oxygen Saturation– claims this article, whose author is planning on scientific validation of his findings by doing a rat study. (Disclaimer: I have no grudge against anesthesiologists. Articles are mentioned in this blog purely on the basis of their scientific merits or demerits. The latter, mostly)
LinkedIn: List of 10 TED talks that (could potentially) change healthcare. Do watch them at leisure.
Twitter: This tweet provided the link to Dr Sashi Tharoor’s speech at the 2014 graduation day, CMC Vellore. This is for the benefit of those not invited to the ceremony (that would be more than 90% of us working in the institution)
Best of the year
Mother of all mockeries: Dr.Ketan Desai, the corruption tainted former president of MCI, is the president elect to the World Medical Association. If you didn’t know, WMA is the vanguard of the Declaration of Helsinki, which is THE guiding document on Ethical Practices in medical research…snap. ‘Ketan Desai’ + ‘Ethical’: is there a better oxymoron?
Future-is-here: 3D printed prostheses for mass production, hardware printed in space by sending an email from earth. Yesterday the BMJ ran an editorial on how 3D printing could affect clinical practice. This is no longer science fiction. 5 years from now, much of our Prosthetic and Orthotic fabrication process could be in the form of quick, customized 3D prints. Let’s wind-up with this tinge of optimism.
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From among the blizzard of season’s greetings, my favorite from a friend: “Every moment is sacred, nature has no calendars”. Every serene moment of this year’s white Christmas exemplified this!
Rehab Journal Review 