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My ankle
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Big Man Doctor
“This phrase (dai fu) has two meanings. When pronounced dai and fu with a neutral and soft tone, it means doctor. When pronounced da and fu, it means senior official. Both are rather archaic.”
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Lister
In 1865, Joseph Lister (originally from Essex) applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution onto the compound leg fracture of an eleven-year-old boy at Glasgow Infirmary – after six weeks, the boy’s bones had fused back together, without suppuration. He subsequently published his results in The Lancet. His inspiration had been Pasteur’s work on germs. …
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Medical rhetoric
Isaiah Berlin would recognise the expert who “knows”: “Happy are those … who have, by their own methods, arrived at clear unshakeable convictions about what to do and what to be that brook no possible doubt. I can only say that those who rest on such comfortable beds of dogma are victims of forms of…
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Germ theory
Girolamo Fracastoro – from Verona, theorized that epidemics were caused by invisible “seeds”, spread by fomites (Latin for tinder), not themselves dangerous but able to enhance transfer of disease. Cf Miasma theory (bad air – like “Malaria”). Took another 100 years before Van Leeuwenhoek found microorganisms under his microscope, scepticism continued even through the 19th…
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Epipens vs nasal epinephrine?
EpiPen(R), the leading auto-injector product, is on track to become a billion dollar product in 2014 according to its distributor Mylan Inc. In 2013, G2B Pharma and SNBL (Japan) conducted a successful proof of concept study which showed that nasally administered G2B011 demonstrates rapid and high absorption comparable to EpiPen(R), and has the potential to…
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Rigor
Just realized what a rubbish word this is… If you are American, you know this is simply strict discipline. But to Brits, the word is rigour. A rigor is an episode of shivering or trembling associated with fever. Except when used to mean muscle stiffness viz rigor mortis. In which case, you pronounce it differently.
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Patient centred medicine vs e-Health
e-Health is great for providing statistics on process and performance, even if that is not its main aim. We have e-Health projects on electronic case records, patient appointment/admission management, digitial dictation etc. David Loxtercamp points out that the combination of performance targets and data will shape increasingly to what and to whom we listen. An…
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Induction for new doctors
Arrive early but not so early that you show up your educational supervisor. Read induction manual in advance. Volunteer to manage rota (demonstrates leadership and altruism, but results in xmas/hogmanay shifts, which to be fair you were going to have to work anyway. To be popular with nurses, balance knowledge with humility, and ask their…