Grand Rounds-Indian Edition

For people who are new to this concept "Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet. Each week a different blogger takes turns hosting Grand Rounds, and summarizing the best submissions for the week. The schedule for Grand Rounds is available at the Better Health Blog and at Blogborygmi.com. Both Dr. Val Jones and Dr. Nick Genes coordinate the schedule for Grand Rounds.”

I had the honour of hosting these grand rounds earlier in 2005, and yours truly was the host for the 21st edition of this rounds.  Medblogging has surely come a big way since then. In my own blog for past 7 years now, I have been sharing interesting radiological cases, current updates, resident-professor series (where we explain the case as if in a class room) and quizzes at times.  Another change which I have observed in recent years is the impact of facebook on blog traffic. I think we need a more active medical grand rounds page on facebook. My suggestion- we should all share each edition of grand rounds on our facebook pages as well as our blogs for more viewership. My thanks to all those who submitted to this edition and  Grand Rounds Surely Rock. 


Incidentally next week in India we are celebrating Diwali, Diwali popularly known as the "festival of lights", is an important festival in India. In the rradition and story of Deepawali lies the significance of the victory of good over evil; and it is with each Deepawali and the lights that illuminate our homes and hearts, that this simple truth finds new reason and hope. Wish you all Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali.  Keep MedBlogging!!

In this edition of the grand rounds in addition to the compilation of the prominent posts from the blogosphere, I will add a touch of tourism for all those who know little about India. If someone in India is asked to name two most prominent things or figures in India- most probable answer will include- Taj Mahal and Mahatma Gandhi.  I will start with one and end the rounds with other.

The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural styles. In 1631, Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal empire's period of greatest prosperity, was grief-stricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died  Construction of the Taj Mahal began in 1632. The court chronicles of Shah Jahan's grief illustrate the love story traditionally held as an inspiration for Taj Mahal.

Source information and images-Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

Editor’s Pick

Dr Charles who had incidentally submitted to my previous edition of grand rounds as well has submitted a post containing two medical poems from a poetry contest on his site.

Healthcare Insurance and Business Section

1. Henry Stern in his blog InsureBlog has his comments on AMA Ad campaign titled Commercial Hypocrites
2. From Beyond the Clinical there is a post which talks of three Levers of Healthcare Profit which you need to Pull Them to Stop Losing Money. It is about what to do when the line in your waiting room goes out the door, appointments are delayed, reimbursement decreases and regulations increase.
3. John A. Hartford Foundation blog Health has requested input from readers as to the most pressing problems in health and aging as the foundation formulates a new strategic plan.
4. The Happy Hospitalist has post about What can doctors learn from the airline industry?
5. From Colorado Health Insurance Insider has a thought provoking post which asks- Are some clinics artificially inflating their billed amounts just so that they can say that Medicare is dramatically underpaying them?  Who knows.  It’s hard to see how costs for the same basic set of services could actually vary by that much from one location to another. Aptly titled- The Opposite of Transparent

Health 2.0

1. Jan Gurley has a  submission about a presentation and demonstration at Health 2.0 from Mindbloom called 'The Farmville of health'
2. Laika's MedLibLog has post about Evidence Based Point of Care Summaries.  It goes on like- For many of today’s busy practicing clinicians,      keeping up with the enormous and ever growing amount of medical information, poses substantial challenges. Its impractical to do a PubMed      search to answer each clinical question and then synthesize and appraise      the evidence. Incidentally, she is our host for the next grand rounds. Call for submission for the next rounds is here.
3. Dr. Bertalan Mesko from Webicina.com has an interesting post Social Media and Medicine in India 

Physician’s Section

1.    According to ACP Internist-more research suggests that chocolate seems to lower the risk of stroke, according to a Swedish study that found that women who ate 66.5 grams each week, or about two chocolate bars, had a 20% lower risk.
2.       Val Jones has post about sports vision - and it links to her recent podcast interview with medical experts who describe eye exercises for athletes (who knew there were such things?)
3.  Another teaching post on Ankylosing Spondylitis (and spondyloarthritis) for both patients and educators.
4.    From Medrants this week is a post called Diagnostic Skepticism – the most valuable trait,  author talks about diagnostic errors encountered as an internal medicine attendee- Sometimes the patients have received an incorrect label from the emergency department; sometimes another internist or subspecialist has provided the wrong label; sometimes their primary care physician has mislabeled the diagnosis.
5.    Dr Pullen in his post Keeping Perspective: A Key Role for the Family   Physician, believes that one of the most important things he offers to his  patients is help in keeping perspective when making medical decisions.
6.    Michael Kirsch in his post asks a very pertinent question- Why are antibiotics prescribed so casually and so frequently?

Surgeon’s Section

1. Elaine Schattner from Medical Lessons in her submission talks of differences between Prostate and Breast Cancer Screening and says that mammography and PSA testing can't be lumped together in a simple dismissal of all forms of cancer screening.
2. Paul S. Auerbach, MD in his post talks of The Concept of Risk in outdoor activities with interesting starting line- "Risk more than you can afford to lose, and learn the game!"

Medical Students & Intern’s Section

1. Relatively new blog about funny things in intern year and residency has an interesting post called statement of will.
2. Another post about the first surgical case in which author was allowed to scrub in on during my Surgery clerkship.

Mental Health

1. Barbara Kivowitz has on her blog beautiful post regarding sharing your worry
2. Will Meek PhD has a post describing the  dependency needs, which are basic needs we all have that we cannot provide ourselves. These include companionship, affection, and emotional support. This post discusses these needs, and what can happen if they are not adequately met.
3. There is this post about upcoming series of book discussions with the authors of some of the best brain health books selected by AARP.
4. Here is a post from Sam Ko, MD in the topic of WORK-LIFE balance

Patient’s Section

1. Faun and Me, is the true story about losing author’s good friend Faun to metastatic breast cancer. This narrative is an example of the seriousness of metastatic disease in light of all the feel-good positive pink ribbon campaigns this month.
2. From the Society for Participatory Medicine's blog: there is a post called “When I became a patient, I felt my identity slipping away.”

Miscellanous Posts

1. The Covert Rationing Blog this week has a post that illustrates how, in the US, “diversity” is the uber-virtue, from which all the subsidiary virtues (faith, hope, charity &c.) must necessarily spring.
2. There is a post from Jessie Gruman, called “Contagion: Action! Adventure! The Value of Science?” which uses the recent movie Contagion as evidence of why our Federal government, scientific research, and science-based knowledge are so important, especially in real-life health care situations.
3. Toni Brayer, MD from  EverythingHealth has a post about  land mines and associated global problem that all nations should be addressing.
4. Pranab Chatterjee has a critical summary of the second episode of the new season of House MD, focusing on the veracity of the medical contexts presented in it to create the drama. Although the show in itself is a huge commercial success, unfortunately, this particular episode was rather disappointing

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience — a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence — Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Source information and images-Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi