Best of Medical Blogs - weekly review and blog carnival

The “Best of Medical Blogs - weekly review and blog carnival” is a weekly summary of the best posts from medical blogs. Feel free to send your suggestions to my email at clinicalcases@gmail.com. Best of Medical Blogs (BMB) is published every Tuesday, just like the old Grand Rounds.

Cultivate followers on social media if you want to communicate science

From the blogs Soapbox Science http://goo.gl/cPQq1 and Medical Museion http://goo.gl/QmEU7:

Social media platforms can be very limiting. For example, can you define genotype and phenotype in 140 characters or less? If you want to use social media to communicate effectively, you need to drive readers somewhere.

Writing a blog gives substance to your social media presence. You have the opportunity to talk about science in a meaningful way, which ultimately helps people better understand the world around them. Answering those questions is probably why you got into science in the first place. Don’t be afraid to share what you’ve discovered.

Are doctors afraid to be wrong?

From the surgeon blogging at Skeptical Scalpel: "I once did some expert witness work for a malpractice insurance company. There is rarely a case that does not have many opportunities for second-guessing. When you know the outcome, you can always find something in the medical record that could have been done differently.

The current medicolegal and patient safety climate creates a feeling among physicians that any error is going to be extensively scrutinized. This results in a situation analogous to an athlete trying not to lose a game instead of trying to win. For those of you not familiar with sports, that strategy usually fails. Fear of being wrong can lead to excessive testing too." http://goo.gl/FWTbC

When did we stop teaching the basics to medical students and residents?

Dr. Centor of the blog db's Medical Rants likes the ACGME 6 core competencies just fine, but also suggests a simpler list http://goo.gl/2sqip:

1. Take a complete, relevant, accurate history
2. Do an appropriate physical examination
3. Order the correct laboratory tests and interpret them fully and accurately
4. Order the correct images and interventions and interpret them

Happy 5th Blogiversary!

Former plastic surgeon and blogger extraordinaire Dr. Ramona Bates reflects on her 5 years of blogging and the medical blogging community. http://goo.gl/0EVJW

How blogging has helped me academically. According to Dr. Centor: Because I write most days, my writing has improved dramatically http://goo.gl/GLNsL

Social media and medicine - Stanford University Grand Rounds

Graham Walker was one of the first medical bloggers. He went on a hiatus during his emergency medicine (EM) residency, and has now found new reasons to blog as an EM attending at Stanford University medical center. This is his talk on social media and medicine at Stanford University Grand Rounds: http://youtu.be/qtkggenLmlE



Dr. Walker: "My talk on the dissemination of medical information over time, how the internet and social networking are changing medicine, and how to use digital tools to be a better clinician at the bedside."

Here is Graham's list of Digital Tools to Improve the Specialty.

Paper-based Charts: How Soon We Forget http://goo.gl/Vspmp - Dr. Wes: Suddenly, I don't miss paper charts anymore.

Dr. Wes: How Bad Is Azithromycin's Cardiovascular Risk? http://goo.gl/yVgfo - Are "Big Data" linked to "Big Error"?

Comments from Twitter:

Seth Trueger @MDaware: some great stuff in there

Skeptical Scalpel @Skepticscalpel: Thanks for including me.