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By Elaine Schattner, MD, on December 15th, 2010 Some weeks ago I discovered Happy’s hilarious Xtranormal videos on his anonymous blog. Yesterday I laughed watching the Hospitalist vs the ER:
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I can’t tell you much about who the Happy Hospitalist is. His is one of the few anonymous blogs I read. Based on the apparent relevance of cars and parking lots in his everyday life, I doubt he’s anywhere close to Manhattan. On politics – a tangent on the said Hospitalist’s site, most often I’m not on the same page. But on the ins and outs, and ups and downs of hospital care and personalities at work, most often he’s spot on — with instructive, occasionally deep, specifics and humor.
At the footer of Happy’s blog, beneath an image with a picture of two perky dogs in a vehicle, a caption reads: “IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU NEED TO FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO. GO
See more Watching the Happy Hospitalist’s Xtranormal Videos
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on December 8th, 2010 
A series of clicks this morning brought me to an interesting web finding in a Wiki-like Dead Media Archive that links to NYU’s Steinhart School of Media, Culture, and Communication.
Dead Media Archive, NYU Steinhardt School of Media, Culture and Communication
And there rests the Notificator, said (by me) to be Twitter’s great-great-great grandfather, with details:
On September 9, 1932, the London Times printed an article following up on a “correspondence in The Times proposing that British railway stations might, like those in Japan, provide facilities for messages from one person to another to be displayed.” An electrical engineer had written to the paper, agreeing, and noted a device that he had heard of; an “automatic machine…to be installed at stations and other suitable sites, and on the insertion of two pennies facilities were given for writing a message that remained in view for two hours after writing.”
The
See more Twitter, The Notificator, and Old Social Media News
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on December 1st, 2010 
A link to a video, the Too Informed Patient came my way several times lately. You can find the curious clip on NPR’s Marketplace site:
The Too Informed Patient from Marketplace on Vimeo.
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The skit depicts the interaction between a young man with a rash and his older physician. The patient is an informed kind of guy – he’s checked his own medical record on the doctor’s website, read up on rashes in the Boston Globe, checked pix on WebMD, seen an episode of Gray’s Anatomy about a rash and, most inventively, checked i-Diagnose, a hypothetical app (I hope) that led him to the conclusion that he might have epidermal necrosis.
Not to worry, the patient informs Dr. Matthews, who meanwhile has been trying to examine him (“say aaahhh” and more), he’s eligible for an experimental protocol. After some back-and-forth in which the doctor, who’s been quite courteous
See more A Video About a Patient Who Might Have Too Much Information
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on November 10th, 2010 
A few weeks ago I found some doctors singing on YouTube. They made me laugh and perhaps, even, feel better.
Doctors in Cyberspace
I contacted the singing doctors to check, among other things, that they’re still in business. It turns out that Drs. Barry Levy and Greg LaGana both graduated from Cornell University Medical College just a few years back, in 1971. They’ve been performing together for years and still do.
“Why rant and rave when a laugh will do?” said the New York Times about the pair, in 2004.
Now, they have a YouTube channel. Of the five videos available, my preference is Doctors in Cyberspace (above) but that’s probably because I’m partial to the “I Feel Pretty” melody from West Side Story. Health Care Business, to the tune of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” comes in at a close second and, based on the number of
See more Doctors Singing On YouTube
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on November 3rd, 2010 Some months ago I came upon a unique blog, Ars Medica, by Paul O’Connor. The title means “medical arts” in Latin. O’Connor studied medicine before delving into the humanities. Now he writes and gives a seminar on Literature & Medicine at Trinity College in Dublin.
The site’s theme is portrayals of physicians, medicine and illness. There are short book reviews, essays on film and among other items lately, work posted by students. I am particularly drawn to a recent post on reading poetry to people with dementia.
Worth a visit!
Related Posts:I Hope My Doctors Aren’t Blogging Too MuchShout Out: Dr. Val Jones Hosts Grand Rounds at USA TodayWhy Should Physicians Blog or Use Twitter?Med-Blog Grand Rounds Takes a Virtual TourAnnouncement for Next Week’s Med-Blog Grand Rounds
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on October 27th, 2010 The Santiago Times reports that the rescued Chilean miners donned suits and pink ribbons, the latter in honor of breast cancer awareness month, at a ceremony at the the presidential palace, la Moneda.
Sure, the pink scene’s getting to be a bit much around here. But I don’t belittle this gesture; the miners’ intentions are surely well-meaning, and in places like northern Chile where they lived and worked, BC doesn’t get the overblown attention it does here, at least not yet. Not even close.
So kudos to the miners, from this one blogger in NYC.
Related Posts:A Note on the Komen FiascoA Confused Message on Breast Cancer In a Restaurant WindowGlad to Spot a Pink RibbonPink’s OK With MeEnd of October, Breast Cancer Fatigue
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on October 20th, 2010 A student clued me in on an old take on therapeutic phlebotomy: the classic 1978 SNL skit, Theodoric of York (Season 3, episode 18), stars Steve Martin (as the barber, Theodoric of York.). It also features Dan Aykroyd (as William), Gilda Radner (as Broom Gilda), Jane Curtin (as Joan), John Belushi (as a hunchback) and a youthful Bill Murray (as a drunkard).
Theodoric of York
It’s a very funny skit when it’s not too gory, with some insight into the history of medicine.
But it’s also a sad reminder about the early deaths of Belushi, a promising actor who died at 33 years from heroin and cocaine toxicity, and of Radner, a wonderful comedian who died at 42 years from ovarian cancer.
As for modern, therapeutic phlebotomy -
In the U.S. and most other places, trained physicians, nurses and other providers perform this procedure routinely using sterile techniques and
See more Classic Saturday Night Live on Bloodletting, and Barbarism
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on October 6th, 2010 Pajak, a graduate student at the University of Georgia, merges art and science in a novel way: she composed a new work, the Sounds of HIV, based on the virus’s genetic sequence.
See more The Music of H.I.V.
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on September 22nd, 2010 (Snakes on the Net, and OR games!)
Today ML read in the WSJ that a 3-foot long yellow corn snake popped up in a 19th floor Bronx apartment yesterday. It seems the resident was so surprised to find the snake in his toilet, and shaken, that he dialed 911 more than once.
a corn snake (Wikimedia)
Medical tidbit: according to the Journal, corn snakes are not usually harmful to humans.
The above would have been the most curious Internet medical finding of the day, except for an ad I found on a blog for a short adventure called OR Games. (The video is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark, a medical supply company.)
Serious stuff tomorrow!
Related Posts:Celebrating Thanksgiving, Appreciating LifeShoutout: A Website with a Directory of Cancer BlogsCyberchondria Rising – What is the Term’s Meaning and History?A Note on ‘Trial by Twitter’ and Peer Review in 2012On Deaths in the New York City Triathlon, and Pushing Ourselves to Limits
By Elaine Schattner, MD, on March 17th, 2010 
Am I pro– or con– colonoscopy for routine screening, you might wonder. Well, that depends. Am I pro– or con– famous singers and other celebrities extolling the benefits of particular medical interventions? Well, that depends, too. But I’m sure I prefer “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Also “Leaving on a Jet Plane” fills me with imperfect memories of 6th grade.
See more Peter Sings Colonoscopy
By Elaine Schattner M.D., on January 17th, 2010 Into my Google Reader this morning came a post from Biophemera (an intriguing blog at the interface of art and science). Scientist-artist Jessica Palmer offers a provocative clip featuring Alex Lundry, a self-described conservative political pollster, data-miner and data visualizer… One of the first rules of medicine is knowing your sources…
See more Beware the Power of Data Handling in Politics (and Medicine)
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connections…