(This post is my rapid response published online by BMJ on 13 Feb 2012 in response to the journal’s paper published 23 Jan 2012) How much of a social media profile can doctors have? The answer is – as much of a profile as they have in real life. There is no distinction between social […]
MedicalMoots
MedicalMoots : deconstructing current medical news
YourAllergyBits : allergy, asthma and immunology topics
EvenFourLines : stuff
Any undiagnosed chronic medical problem is coeliac/celiac disease until proved otherwise
February 11, 2012 by
In 1969, when I was a medical student, an important cause of unexplained symptoms was syphilis. If you couldn’t figure out what caused the rash/neurological problem in your final year clinical exam, and if you didn’t suggest a syphilis test, you failed. Syphilis had protean manifestations. After Proteus, the greek God who could change […]
DANGER! GERMS! EVERYWHERE!
December 3, 2011 by
Social media is agog with warnings about germs. Nothing new. Movies from Nosferatu (1922) to Contagion (2011) prey on human loathing and disgust of microbes. OK, there are important nasty strains, pandemic flu, resistant Staph, but here we are talking about a surge in paranoia about everyday exposure to germs. Witness the fetish for using […]
The Case For Reductionist Medicine..or..Let’s Not Jumble The Message
November 13, 2011 by
Reductionist Medicine is based on a piecemeal scientific dissection of disease to determine the cause of symptoms and the treatment. Lots of people don’t like this approach. Why? humans are complex organisms complex organisms are not simple if you only look for simple causes then you ignore the whole person if you ignore the whole […]
Band-Aid: A Temporary Solution – Or Is It?
October 30, 2011 by
It’s the commonest metaphor I hear at work: “Doctor, I am sick of band-aid solutions. I want to know the cause of (here insert symptom/disease) and I want to fix it” Let’s start out with the most famous and useful band-aid in all of medicine. Insulin. Just read the description in Medical News Today: “(In 1922) […]
I Said I Want A Second Opinion
October 16, 2011 by
Boy, are they ugly tomatoes. I was picking a few from our veggie patch last season, and with a name like Rouge de Marmande, you would expect them to look glorious. Aristocratic, even noble, perfectly formed, symmetrical, evenly coloured. But no, this variety of tomato is real ugly. They vary in shape from elliptical to drum-shaped […]
