A List of Hospitalist Blogs

Below is the list of a few prominent (and not so prominent but still interesting) blogs authored by hospitalists:

Wachter's World. Author: Robert M. Wachter, MD is Professor and Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The term "hospitalist" was first coined by him in 1996 in the NEJM article The Emerging Role of "Hospitalists" in the American Health Care System.

DB’s Medical Rants. Author: Robert M. Centor, MD, Chief, Division of GIM
University of Alabama at Birmingham and President of SGIM.

Notes from Dr. RW. Author: R. W. Donnell, a hospitalist in Northwest Arkansas.

The Hospitalist Blog. Author: Adam D. Singer, MD, Chairman, CEO and founder of IPC, one of the nation’s largest private practice hospitalist companies.

Fat Doctor. Author: Anonymous, DO.

The Happy Hospitalist. Author: Anonymous, MD.

RangelMD.com. Author: Chris Rangel, MD, a hospitalist in Texas.

Clinical Cases and Images - Blog (the blog you are reading now)

Please feel free to add any other notable hospitalist blogs in the comments section below.


Riding the Hospitalist Boom to an IPO. WSJ.

Related:
Definition of "Hospitalist" Added to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 11/17/2005.
SHM Annual Meeting and Cleveland Clinic Hospitalist Section, 5/31/2007.
What I Learned from Making the Website of the Cleveland Clinic Hospitalists, 8/11/2006.
Bob's Favorite Links: Robert Wachter shares his own list of favorite blogs. I am happy that CasesBlog tops the list currently as of 11/21/2007.
Image source: sxc.hu

Updated: 03/31/2008

12 Germiest Places in America According to Health Magazine

The Health Magazine lists the 12 germiest places in America or the so called "dirty dozen":

1. Kitchen sink
2. Airplane bathroom
3. A load of wet laundry
4. Public drinking fountain
5. Shopping cart handle
6. ATM buttons
7. Playgrounds
8. Bathtub
9. Office phone
10. Hotel-room remote
    
    

Purell (TM) and other alcohol-based hand sanitizers are reportedly effective against most common bacteria including MRSA (pictured above). Hand sanitizers are heavily used by politicians during election season, when they have to shake countless hands and remain healthy.

How some hotels clean drinking glasses (video):



References:
Purell, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In Clean Politics, Flesh Is Pressed, Then Sanitized. The New York Times, 2006.
Performance feedback of hand hygiene, using alcohol gel as the skin decontaminant, reduces the number of inpatients newly affected by MRSA and antibiotic costs. J Hosp Infect. 2004 Jan;56(1):56-63.
Google Scholar search for "Purell and MRSA."
Image source: Electron micrograph of MRSA, Wikipedia, CDC, public domain.

Related:
Where's Your Germiest Place? Dr. Wes.

Clinical Cases: Tension Pneumothorax and Missed CHF Exacerbation

People involved professionally in medical education (CME administrators, journal editors) sometimes ask me if there is any value in information posted on medical blogs since most blogs are "one-man show" and data is not independently verified. These points are valid but I believe some blogs can enhance the educational experience by providing unfiltered, real-life description of clinical cases which will rarely be found in medical textbooks. See two examples below:

Bread and Butter. M.D.O.D.
Heart of 140 bpm was the key that something more was going in this young man with chest pain who turned out to have a potentially life-threatening tension pneumothorax. We had a patient with unexplained sinus tachycardia in 120s on our inpatient service and although her pneumonia was getting better, I insisted on further investigation to look for underlying cause of tachycardia. TTE was normal but TEE showed large aortic valve vegetations and valve perforation which required a surgical repair. Vitals signs are called like that because they are truly of vital importance.

Related:
Clinical Cases and Images: Tension Pneumothorax.
The Pressure Is On. The Happy Hospitalist, 02/2008.

Dyspneic. DB’s Medical Rants.
Robert Centor describes a case of CHF exacerbation which was mislabeled as COPD exacerbation. A focused physical examination (and a BNP of 1300) helped make the correct diagnosis.

Related:
Clinical Cases and Images: COPD vs. CHF Exacerbation.

Updated: 03/01/2008

Next Huge Challenge in U.S. Healthcare According to Dr. Wes

"Our next big challenge will be caring for the chronic health needs of the over-85 crowd."

And it looks like there will be fewer doctors to do it.

"After all, after expenses, some have estimated the average annual primary care physician earns about $80,000 per year - less take-home pay than many nurse practitioners.

To amplify staffing concerns, physician recruitment and retention has recently become a global issue. An Indian colleague of mine has commented that many foreign medical physicians who immigrated to the US to find profitable jobs are now moving back to their home countries. Why? Because technology in even remote towns has met or exceeded that of the US and the economics of their health care systems are far more lucrative for them. This, then, leaves many US hospitals and training programs woefully understaffed for many primary care specialties."

Read more in The Next Huge Challenge. Dr. Wes.

Topics Discussed During the Internal Medicine Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in October/November 2007

October is one of my inpatient teaching months and we decided to assemble a list of topics for feedback and later reference. This is a list of the topics discussed during the internal medicine rotation with residents and medical students at Cleveland Clinic:

SIADH - causes and diagnostic criteria, click for cases 1, 2 by Dr. Bauml
Aortic Stenosis and Preoperative Evaluation for Noncardiac Surgery by Dr. Lin
New guidelines for prevention of bacterial endocarditis by Dr. Kuntjoro
Guidelines for treatment of DVT/PE by Dr. Dimov
Treatment of hyperkalemia and hypokalemia - what questions to ask nurses when called about high or low K+, when to to give IV K+ instead of PO K+, etc. by Dr. Lin and Dr. Gundroo
Different IV catheters and related complications by Dr. Kuntjoro and Dr. Dimov
Primary amyloidosis: diagnosis and treatment by Dr. Kuntjoro
POISE trial and perioperative guidelines for beta blocker use by Dr. Dimov
Statins After Bypass Lower Stroke Risk by Dr. Zimbwa
Contrast-induced nephropathy by Dr. Salem
Indications for LP in patients with dementia by Dr. Tenforde
Difference between temporary and permanent IVC filters by Dr. Robertson. Source: UpToDate 15.3
New definition of AMI. Source: Dr. Wes and Circulation
Rashes due to drug allergy by Dr. Lin
Podcasts in medicine by Dr. Dimov

To be covered in the future:

5 Tips to Stay Up-to-Date with Medical Literature
RTA type 1, 2, 4 by Dr. Dimov
Perioperative evaluation for noncardiac surgery by Dr. Dimov
Hyponatremia
Treatment of hyponatremia with ADH receptor antagonists by Dr. Dimov
Web 2.0 in Medicine (Google Presentation) by Dr. Dimov

The list will be updated periodically as new topics are added by the end of the month. As you can see from the links above, a blog can be used as an educational portfolio for both personal learning and teaching.

Further reading:
Topics Discussed During the Internal Medicine Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in September 2007
Using a Blog to Build an Educational Portfolio. CasesBlog, 1/2007.
Becoming a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Web 2.0 Projects. CasesBlog, 10/2006.
DB’s thoughts on being a clinical educator. DB’s Medical Rants, 11/2007.
Attending Rounds. DB’s Medical Rants, 02/2008.

Updated: 02/03/2008

Stephen Colbert Interviews Dr. Jerome Groopman

Jerome Groopman, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has been a staff writer in medicine and biology for The New Yorker since 1998. His latest book is How Doctors Think.

Link via Blog, MD.

BBC Podcasts Are Worth Listening To

NPR and its podcast directory are great but somehow I have always liked BBC a little bit better. BBC 4 has a streaming Listen Again page and recently launched a comprehensive podcast directory. Subscribing is YouTube-style easy -- you can copy the URL directly, or subscribe via Google Reader/iGoogle or iTunes. Below is the list of some podcasts you may find interesting:

Medical Podcasts

Medical Matters

Health Check

Science Podcasts

Best of Natural History Radio

Material World

One Planet

Travel Podcasts

Crossing Continents

Excess Baggage

Other Podcasts

Best of Today

Radio 4 Choice

Image source: Medical Matters, BBC.