Ramblings of an Emergency Physician in Texas

Archive for October 22nd, 2005

The Agony of ‘BlackBerry Thumb’

Posted by GruntDoc on 22nd October 2005

Now I’m glad I didn’t get one:

The Agony of ‘BlackBerry Thumb’: “Orthopedists have been treating tennis elbow and repetitive stress wrist injuries for years now, but the advent of handhelds and video games with their tiny keypads is taking its toll on another body part: the thumb.”

Well, not really. I’d like to have one but have utterly no justification for it. Plus, I like my thumbs sans aches.

via Wired News.

Posted in Medicine, Web/Tech | 1 Comment »

LSU Medical, Nursing and Dental continue despite Katrina

Posted by GruntDoc on 22nd October 2005

Wow. Students, and their teachers, can be incredibly resilient:

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) — The sun is barely up, but the movie theater parking lot holds dozens of cars.

There’s no early matinee. The cars belong to Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans — nursing students waiting for class to start.

So in Theater 4, nursing management will be followed by “Serenity.” After the Research in Nursing class, “Elizabethtown” is showing in Theater 6. An anatomy exam in 7 precedes “The Gospel.” And in Theater 11, Mothers and Childbearing Families (aka obstetrics) is followed by the Wallace and Gromit movie “The Curse of the Were Rabbit.”

“It’s just like an auditorium-style classroom,” says Jenelle Johnson, 24. “They use PowerPoint. But we can smell popcorn on our way out.”

While New Orleans’ universities will not reopen until spring semester, LSU’s medical school cranked up again just a month after Katrina, setting up shop in the state capital. Tulane’s med school opened a week later, in Texas.

“We were amazed at their resilience,” says Joe Keyes, senior vice president of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The vast majority of medical students — LSU’s 2,800 and Tulane’s 2,600 — stayed with their schools. The dental school reports only one of its 316 students transferred.

That’s an exceptional statistic, and says a lot about their students. And, it’s good.

Posted in Medicine | Comments Off

Michael Yon This Sunday on Pundit Review Radio

Posted by GruntDoc on 22nd October 2005

Your Sunday evening war reporting:

With so much happening in Iraq, from the trial of Saddam to the voting on the Constitution, we are happy to announce that Michael Yon will be back on the Pundit Review Radio this Sunday evening. Michael’s work is the most insightful and compelling of any reporter in Iraq, in our opinion. His ability to bring the good, bad and ugly, in the proper perspective, is unrivalled.

Anyone who follows his work undertsands that this is going to be something special.

When: Sunday, October 23, 9pm EST
Where: Streaming Live at Boston’s Talk Station, WRKO

PunditReview has done these before, and they’re supposed to be good.

Sounds interesting. No pun intended.

Posted in Announcements | Comments Off