In presenting the new numbers on Thursday, the centers urged journalists to stop using annual averages like 36,000 or 24,000 and to use more vague estimates like “tens of thousands of people may die.”

via Estimate of Deaths in Typical Flu Season Is Lowered – NYTimes.com.

Well, good.  That’s good news, and being able to scale the threat against you personally is a good thing.

This doesn’t mean, by the way, that you don’t need a flu shot.  You Do.  (I get mine).

In another of the things I had no idea about, there’s a market to assist FMG’s in getting US residencies, which makes sense.  Allegedly this guy was willing to go that Extra Mile for his clients.

Full marks for creativity, but…

Mr. Everest allegedly provided an employee at the hospital with forged letters from a California hospital to show that the applicants had been accepted into a second-year program. And he gave her a check for $4,000, followed by another check for $2,000. She reported him to hospital officials, and later told him she knew the letters were forged. He then allegedly gave her $6,000 for time to get a letter from a different hospital—which was also forged—and gave her $3,000 more before he was arrested.

via Hospital Bribe Alleged – WSJ.com.

Geez.

CAIRO — A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday.

via Saudi judge considers paralysis punishment – World news – Mideast/N. Africa – msnbc.com.

Every time I think my country is screwed up, I read this sort of thing, and feel better about it.  And kudos to the hospital that just said no (apparently).

via HotAir

FORT WORTH — The vision of an M.D. school in Fort Worth took another big step Thursday when the University of North Texas regents voted unanimously to proceed with plans to establish a program at the UNT Health Science Center.

Already, $25 million has been raised for start-up costs, said Dr. Scott Ransom, president of the health science center.

“This is a win, win, win,” he said, adding that about 90 donors have contributed to the program and many more commitments have been made. “This is a huge deal for Fort Worth, Texas.”

via University of North Texas regents OK plan for M.D. school at Health Science Center | Health |….

Fort Worth’s worst kept secret marches onward.

So, what’s the over/under on FW still having a DO school in 10 years?

Remember this?  The Chair of the Arkansas Medical Board being critically injured with a car bomb?

A multi-disciplined physician is on trial for the crime:

LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Medical Board chairman, his face scarred and embedded with bits of tire, testified Wednesday that he lost an eye, his sense of smell, teeth and some hearing when a bomb went off in his driveway.

Dr. Trent Pierce testified against Dr. Randeep Mann, who prosecutors say planned the attack as retaliation for the medical board taking away his license to write prescriptions. Pierce took the stand after a jail inmate told jurors Mann had offered him $50,000 to kill Pierce to keep him from testifying.

Wow.  I’m glad he pulled through.  And I wonder at the (alleged) depravity of those who should have insight.

HT: Glenn

Update: I’m informed by the informative Ramona that neither physician is from Little Rock, actually.  (I thought that due to the by line of the original article).  So, Non-Little Rock (Big Rock?) docs…

I’ve internalized all the dogma of medicine, for good and bad.

When I was an EMT, green as a twig in an ER, I’d learned the basics: for any wound with hair employ the razor, and get the hair away from the laceration so the doc could do a good closure.

So, employment week 3, eyebrow lac? Shaved that sucker clean off. ED doc freaked out, and I learned some Dogma: don’t shave eyebrows, they don’t grow back.  Heard it later, too.  All the way through training, in fact.

Hmm. My now older-guy eyebrows would like to disagree…..

I shave my face, nearly daily. All the hair comes back. I have women in the home, who bemoan their razor-rituals.  I see younguns with cuts deliberately made in their brows, with blithe unconcern they might be permanently bald there…

I’ve never, ever seen a person come in with one normal and one shorn-off brow, never. (I’ve seen people with shaven brows and penciled in, unlikely shaped, eyebrows but that’s an interesting choice).

So. Myth of EM? I think so. I seek the wisdom of the learned crowd.

All Emergency Docs fear the “hey, remember that patient…” conversation with a colleague. It’s hardly ever ego-stroking news.

I had one of those tonight. “Hey, remember the patient…” and, yes I did. Yes, I missed something. The patient wasn’t harmed, and my excellent colleague took care of the problem, just wanted me to know. That the patient will be fine was reassuring, if not exculpating.

I appreciated that my colleague told me. Having been on both sides of that conversation, it’s uncomfortable for the sender as well as the receiver. Also, the knowledge will help me slightly tweak one aspect of my care. (If the vagueness of this bugs you, it bugs me, too. Thank a room full of lawyers).

So: Not Perfect. I’ve never professed to be, and frankly don’t hope to be, as that’s a setup for failure and disappointment. I have in my sights a somewhat lower goal: do the best I can, and make as few mistakes as possible. People are human, and make mistakes. Doctors are human. Do the math.

DANBURY, Conn. — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Danbury Hospital for failing to provide its employees with sufficient protection against workplace violence. The hospital has been fined $6,300.

The announcement comes on the heels of the March 2010 attack, when nurse Andy Hull was shot three times by 86-year-old Stanley Lupienski, a patient at the hospital.

via OSHA Faults Hospital for Workplace Violence Violations – News – Campus Safety Magazine.

Yes, $6,300 isn’t much money, I agree.  But, I’d imagine,  it’s not good for admin careers…

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has released an iPhone app called “NEJM This Week”

via NEJM This Week iPhone App at MedGadget.

Very nice!

A Cartoon Guide to Becoming a Doctor: The med student gunner: profile.

Nice one…

via Doc_Rob on twitter…

From Wachter’s World, which he prefaces with:

As a member of the executive committee of the American Board of Internal Medicine, I can’t provide too much of the inside scoop, so I’ll mainly point you to the published descriptions of a remarkable case: that of one Dr. Arora, who ran an ABIM board review course with a difference.

Good for the ABIM.  If you need to cheat to pass the Boards, you don’t need to be Board Certified.

Philadelphia, PA, June 9, 2010 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) took formal action today to sanction 139 physicians for soliciting or sharing confidential examination questions used to certify doctors in internal medicine and its subspecialties. ABIM has also initiated legal action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania last week against five physicians who were among the most egregious offenders.
…
Through an extensive investigation, ABIM established that the physicians being sanctioned shared or solicited actual ABIM examination questions – a significant breach in the professional standards ABIM requires of all of its board-certified physicians and any physician taking the exam for certification. Hundreds of questions were compromised and immediately removed from the ABIM exam question pool.

via ABIM News | News | American Board of Internal Medicine.

(emphasis added)

For the test to mean something, it has to be, you know, a test.  Not a test where you remember the question and know that answer, but a test wherein, when faced with a question, you know the substance of the material, are able to apply reasoning skills and arrive at the correct result.

I’d think the hospitals these docs practice at (and the states that license them) would be very interested in the circumstances surrounding their loss of board certification.  They could very conceivably lose more than their boards…

Yikes!

Hospital uses armed man in unannounced drill

Test of security procedures results in frightening moments

By Marshall Allen

Saturday, May 29, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

How’s this for an ill-conceived emergency preparedness drill? An off-duty cop pretending to be a terrorist stormed into a hospital intensive care unit brandishing a handgun, which he pointed at nurses while herding them down a corridor and into a room.

There, after harrowing moments, he explained that the whole caper was a training exercise.

via Hospital uses armed man in unannounced drill – Saturday, May 29, 2010 | 2:01 a.m. – Las Vegas Sun.

Wow.  Terrorizing the nurses in the name of preparedness.  Wong on so many levels it’s mind-boggling.

Hat Tip: reader Eric B

The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism is to be struck off the medical register.

via BBC News – MMR doctor struck from register.

I think that means he’ll lose his license to practice in England.

Also, if you think this is just some blather, see the graph at the bottom of the article to see skyrocketing Measles rates due directly to the scaremongering done by this doctor.

Via Respectful Insolence.

Michael Ostrovsky, over at MedGadget, had a terrific idea, and I’m glad to be even a small part of it:

Welcome to My Medical Museum Competition!
We want you to visit your local medical museum, and tell us about it.

Chances are, you live near a medical museum. Maybe it’s an overlooked building downtown, or a hospital library. Inside, you’ll find bizarre specimen, important documents, and yes, medical gadgets.

This contest is an opportunity to showcase your local medical museum’s treasures for the world to see, as well as to describe your local medical history and explain how clinicians and scientists in your area contributed to medicine.

…

The Grand Prize is a brand-new Wi-Fi 32GB Apple iPad.

via My Medical Museum | Home.

This looks like an excellent opportunity!  So, go visit your local medical library, write it up and sumbit it!  (Over there, though, not here…).

I am an Emergency Physician and every day I go down the rabbit hole into the insane world of American Medicine.

via M.D.O.D.: My Favorite Year.

He’s over at MDOD.  Hasn’t lost his touch with the truth.