Misconceptions about oxygen by alternative medicine practitioners

An article called “Simple ‘4-7-8? breathing trick can induce sleep in 60 seconds” claims that this trick can get you to go to sleep within 60 seconds. All you have to do is the following:

? Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
? Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
? Hold your breath for a count of seven.
? Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
? This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths

An integrative medicine expert, Dr. Andrew Weil, said it works because it allows the lungs to become fully charged with air, allowing more oxygen into the body, which promotes a state of calm.

“Promotes a state of calm” is nonsense. Let’s concentrate on the science. Does it allow more oxygen into the body? Ich dont think so.

The air we breathe contains about 21% oxygen. Nearly all oxygen in the blood is carried by hemoglobin. No matter how many deep breaths you take, you cannot get the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (normally > 92%, closer to 98% in healthy people) above 100%. This is explained in more detail in a previous post of mine about why athletes don’t benefit from breathing pure oxygen after exertion.

This simple trick would be hard to remember but might work through the power of suggestion. It doesn’t cost anything, and unless you hyperventilate and pass out (but youll be in bed anyway), it is harmless.

The next misconception about oxygen is neither inexpensive nor harmless.

Two naturopathic “doctors” have been accused of injecting a woman with oxygen or perhaps purified water that had been taken from an Octozone machine. The oxygen was supposed to destroy any pathogens in the woman’s blood. In the process of trying to kill the pathogens, the injection killed the patient who paid $500 for the treatment.

The naturopathic duo left town and were at large for several months before eventually being caught and charged with homicide.

An autopsy found her death was due to an air embolism.

According to a recent review of the subject, “Traditionally, it has been estimated that more than 5 mL/kg of air displaced into the intravenous space is required for significant injury (shock or cardiac arrest) to occur. However, complications have been reported with as little as 20 mL of air (the length of an unprimed IV infusion tubing) that was injected intravenously.”

Pure water should never be injected IV either because it causes blood cells to die from hemolysis.

How about we just take our oxygen the old-fashioned way—normal breaths and never intravenously?

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What to do with abnormal PSA results in a young man

A 45-year-old man in excellent health with no family history of prostate cancer had a screening PSA done three years ago which was in the range of 4.0 ng/mL. He has been followed by a urologist, and the test was repeated several times without much change.

In June of this year, his PSA was 4.6 and the free PSA was 0.6 for a ratio of 0.13. He was given a course of antibiotics for presumed prostatitis, and repeat testing a month later showed a PSA of 3.8 with a free PSA of 0.5. Because the PSA was less than 4, a ratio was not calculated.

The patient obtained copies of the reports. The from June one states the following: "When total PSA is in the range of 4.0-10.0 ng/mL, a free PSA/total PSA ratio of less than or equal to 0.10 indicates a 49% to 65% risk of prostate cancer depending on age. A free PSA/total PSA ratio of greater than 0.25 indicates a 9% to 16% risk of prostate cancer depending on age." It does not comment on the significance of a ratio of 0.13, which I have looked up. The cancer risk is in the area of 20%-25%. However, no source gave estimates for men under the age of 50.

On examination, his urologist can feel no nodules. He has recommended that the patient undergo an MRI of the prostate.

Stating that an MRI is not indicated in a man of his age with his history, the patients insurance company will not pay for the test and suggested a trans-rectal ultrasound. The urologist advised the patient not to have an ultrasound due to his age and the potential for complications. A hospital quoted him an out-of-pocket price of $2500 for the MRI.

The urologist has told him that random biopsies may not be accurate and there is a risk of complications.

When he had his first PSA done three years ago, I had expressed surprise and wondered why it had been offered to him. The patient said his internist told him he should have the test.

He is concerned about these recent results and has asked me for advice which I am not qualified to give.

What would you advise?

Follow-up August 6, 2014

Numerous urologists responded on Twitter with more than 60 tweets about this post. Suggestions for the next step were as follows: trans-rectal ultrasound (TRUS) and biopsy as mentioned by Dr. Cooperberg below; going ahead with the MRI; repeating the PSA in 3 months; go for a second opinion by a recognized expert in prostate cancer.

One urologist emailed me to point out that even if the patient has cancer, it is probably not an aggressive type because his PSA has not risen in 3 years.

Another urologist gave me the name of an expert in the patients geographic area. 

The patient has already scheduled an appointment for a second opinion.

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Effects of acupuncture on pain and inflammation in pediatric appendicitis

A paper [full text here] from The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine says that "acupuncture may be a feasible and effective treatment modality for decreasing subjective pain and inflammation" in pediatric patients with appendicitis.

They studied six adolescents with appendicitis and administered acupuncture for pain control prior to surgery. Pain was assessed using three analog scales, and inflammation was measured using serial white blood cell (WBC) counts and C-reactive protein levels (CRP). CRP is a nonspecific indicator of inflammation in the body.

Figure 2 from the paper summarizes the results.

You can see that after 20 minutes of acupuncture, all three pain scores and WBCs declined. However, CRP continued to rise. Conspicuously absent from the figure and the text of the paper are any statistical analyses. This is due to the lack of a significant difference in any of these values because of the limited number of subjects studied.

The authors were undeterred and concluded "Although CRP as a general marker of inflammation stayed roughly the same on sequential blood draws, the median WBC showed a modest and noticeable drop. The implication of this finding is that the effectiveness of acupuncture may have a biophysiological basis." Look at the figure and decide for yourself if the WBC drop is really more noticeable than the CRP rise.

While the authors did mention some limitations of the study including the lack of statistics, they didnt discuss impediments to using acupuncture in patients who present to an emergency department. Whether patients were given antibiotics before or during the acupuncture session was not stated.

Even if the technique actually works [which is certainly not proven by this paper], how practical would it be to have an acupuncturist on call? Would she take in-house call? If not, how long would it take for her to get to the hospital? Would insurance pay for acupuncture? Would the acupuncturist be subject to work hours limitations?

The authors are not proposing acupuncture as a definitive treatment for appendicitis. So what is the clinical value of reducing inflammation? An even better way to reduce inflammation [and pain] is to remove the diseased appendix.

I know how difficult it is to publish papers and continue to do all the clinical and administrative work of an academic physician. As I have said on several occasions, many of my published papers were simply not very good.

But acupuncture to decrease inflammation in appendicitis patients? I doubt youll be seeing an on-call acupuncturist any time soon.

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Are today’s surgery residents poorly trained What can be done about it

A surgical resident writes

I’m sure you have read several recent studies suggesting that current general surgery residents are poorly trained and unprepared for independent practice at the completion of residency.

My questions for you:

1. In general, do you agree that current general surgery residents are poorly trained and unable to operate independently at the completion of residency?

2. What should we do differently? I personally don’t feel that “more simulation activities”, which many have suggested, is an adequate solution.

Thank you for the excellent questions.

I have been out of the surgical education loop for a few years and no longer have first-hand experience, but the literature does indicate that some surgical residency graduates are not ready to practice by themselves.

In 2013, I blogged about an Annals of Surgery paper reporting as many as one third of subspecialty general surgery fellowship directors felt that about one-third of incoming fellows were deficient in several areas and unable to independently perform a laparoscopic cholecystectomy or 30 minutes of a major case unsupervised.

Click on the table to enlarge it. You can see the responses of the program directors.

This paper was criticized by some because the fellowship directors surveyed were not subspecialtists recognized by the ACGME. The implication was that fellows in these programs might not be representative of all surgical graduates. However, many of them were minimally invasive fellowship programs which continue to be highly sought after.

Does it really matter? Some general surgery graduates apparently can’t operate by themselves.

In 2011, I blogged about a paper that reported 27% of all graduating surgical residents surveyed were not confident performing surgery by themselves. That was approximately the same percentage identified by the fellowship program directors.

Regarding what can be done about the issues of confidence and traing, I agree with you about simulation. You can simulate all you want, but being alone at 2 AM with a patient who is bleeding out cannot be adequately simulated.

The American College of Surgeons created a Transition to Practice Fellowship in 2013. They later change the name from a fellowship to a program. Of course, I blogged about this too. As far as I know, not many hospitals are involved. How many graduating residents have enrolled in this fellowship program is unknown.

Henry Buchwald, a prominent senior surgeon, recently advocated establishing “open surgery” fellowships and wrote, “I submit that it would behoove our training programs to return open surgery schooling to their curricula.” However, he doesn’t explain how this could be done or where one would go to do a fellowship and open surgery.

Life imitates art. In a post last year, I cited the visionary surgeon Leo Gordon who saw it coming in 2002. He predicted the need for a "macrolaparotomy" course, and said it could be run by the newly created "American Board of Open Surgery."

The lack of confidence stems from the gradual increase in supervision of residents over the last 15 to 20 years. In yet another blog post, I pointed out that many of today’s residents rarely if ever operate independently during residency training. To realize you are on your own as a full-fledged surgeon without ever having performed a case by yourself must be frightening.

With all the ACGME regulations, medicolegal concerns, and extensive scrutiny surgeons and trainees are subjected to, I don’t see this problem going away anytime soon.

All you can do as a surgical resident is to try to scrub on as many cases as possible and take care of as many patients as you can. With luck, you may have faculty who have enough confidence in themselves to allow you some autonomy and decision making in the OR and when managing patients pre-and postoperatively.

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See what these classy ladies posted on Instagram

Lol...Like, seriously?

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What is an acceptable rate of VTE prophylaxis

According to the paper “Hospital Performance for Pharmacologic Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis and Rate of Venous Thromboembolism: A Cohort Study” that appeared online in JAMA Internal Medicine last month, a rate of 70% for all eligible patients is good enough.

The retrospective study looked at rates of prophylaxis for VTE at 35 Michigan hospitals.

Of the 20,794 eligible patients included in the analysis, 1,658 either died or were transferred to higher or lower levels of care leaving 19,136 evaluable patients, 226 (1.2%) of whom suffered a VTE during either the hospitalization or the 90-day follow-up period.

Based on rates of prophylaxis administered, the hospitals were divided into three groups with 85.8% of patients receiving adequate prophylaxis in high-performance hospitals, 72.6% in moderate-performance hospitals, and 55.5% in low-performance hospitals.

From the results section of the paper: "Compared with patients at hospitals in the highest-performance tertile, the hazard of VTE in patients at hospitals in moderate-performance (hazard ratio, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.74-1.62) and low-performance (hazard ratio, 0.96, 95% CI, 0.63-1.45) tertiles did not differ after adjusting for potential confounders."

The authors concluded that "Efforts to increase rates of pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis in hospitalized medical patients may not substantively reduce this adverse outcome."

Heres the problem. They defined adequate rates as patients receiving pharmacologic prophylaxis during 80% or more of hospital-days such as "1 of 1 dose for daily regimens, 2 of 2 doses for twice daily regimens, or 2 of 3 doses for 3 times daily regimens.”

This means that patients could be classified as receiving appropriate prophylaxis but miss nearly half of their doses. For example, a patient in hospital for 5 days who got 2 of 3 doses for 4 days and missed all 3 on one day would be classified as having received appropriate prophylaxis. Why do the authors give full credit for delivering such low quality care? Why is missing any doses acceptable?

Does missing doses matter?

"Yes," at least in surgical patients, says this JAMA Surgery paper "Correlation of Missed Doses of Enoxaparin with Increased Incidence of Deep Vein Thrombosis in Trauma and General Surgery Patients."

Missing more than one dose of enoxaparin increased DVT risk significantly, and the more doses that were missed, the more DVTs occurred.

Of the 202 patients studied, 119 (58.9%) missed at least one dose of prophylactic enoxaparin. The overall incidence of DVT was 15.8%, but 23.5% of the patients who missed at least one dose developed a DVT compared to 4.8% of patients whose prophylaxis was never interrupted. Patients were aggressively screened for DVT accounting for a higher incidence than most centers report.

Missing 2-4 doses increased the odds ratio of suffering a DVT to 8.49, missing 5 to 8 doses raised it to 10.13, and the odds ratio rose to 14.73 if 9-17 doses were missed.

Among all 35 hospitals in the internal medicine paper, the rate of DVT prophylaxis for eligible patients was only 70%. The authors of that paper seem to think that is not worth improving. Wouldnt 100% compliance be a better goal?

What do you think?

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Proof of payment

I use mostly Ad Fly and LinkBucks. These are just some of the payments made to my paypal account. Its not much, but its certainly pretty good recurring income for just posting some links on a low traffic website years ago.

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What comes after the Heimlich maneuver

At the end of an otherwise informative article about the nuances of performing a Heimlich maneuver, New York Times science reporter Jane E. Brody recommends that if all else fails, a cricothyrotomy should be attempted.

She goes on to briefly explain how the procedure is done. In the right hands, a cricothyrotomy is safer and easier to perform than a formal tracheostomy. However, for a layperson who has never seen either procedure done, does not know the relevant anatomy, and has never put a knife to anyones skin, it is highly unlikely to be successful.

Ms. Brody includes a link to website with some static drawings of the procedure. The site is called Aarons Tracheostomy Page and it bills itself as "The Internets leading tracheostomy resource since 1996."

Heres an excerpt from that description of the operation:

"3. Take the razor blade or knife and make a half-inch horizontal incision. The cut should be about half an inch deep. There should not be too much blood." Yes, there should not be too much blood, but sometimes there is.

Both the Times article and the reference repeat the medical urban legend that the barrel of a ballpoint pen can be used as a breathing tube.

A 2010 paper found that due to high resistance to airflow, most ballpoint pens are not adequate airways, and the two that were acceptable (the Baron retractable ballpoint and the BIC Soft Feel Jumbo) are unlikely to be on hand. An earlier paper also reported similar high airflow resistance with ballpoint pens.

A small study involving inexperienced junior doctors and medical students found that they were able to successfully perform cricothyrotomies in only 8 of 14 cadavers. Injuries to the thyroid and cricoid cartilages were common.

Remember these important points—cadavers dont need an airway in a hurry and they dont bleed.

Evidence of successful cricothyrotomy by bystanders is lacking. A 2010 review of American soldiers killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2006 noted that five of those who died appeared to have had attempts at cricothyrotomy, all of which failed.

I once was asked to see a patient whose "cricothyrotomy" done in an ED by an experienced emergency physician and a resident turned out to be a laryngotomy. The tube was inserted directly into the larynx.

To the uninitiated, surgery looks easy. Last year I blogged about Malcolm Gladwells outrageous claim that just about any college graduate could become a cardiac surgeon.

I suppose one might say "What have you got to lose? The patient is dying. Try the cricothyrotomy." I can’t stop you. But be certain it is necessary, and realize your chances of success are extremely low.

If you’re considering it, at least look at some of the many instructional videos available online.

Warning: Graphic. There is some blood. Here’s one by an ED doc. In a non-hospital setting, you would not have all the help and equipment he had. Here’s another, this time by a surgeon—with lots of help and equipment. Both patients were relatively thin.

Now imagine doing it with a pocket knife and a ballpoint pen on an obese person. Still think it’s easy?

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OR delays Whos responsible and what can be done

Every two or three years, someone, usually a hospital administrator, decides that delays in operating room turnover time need to be looked into. A committee of 20 or 30 stakeholders (love that term) is appointed and assigns someone the job of measuring the time between cases and identifying reasons for delays. In years when turnover time is not being studied, first case starting delays are on the agenda.

In my nearly 24 years as a surgical department chair, one or the other of these issues was investigated at least 10 times. We were never able to conclusively determine the exact causes of delays or solutions to the problem, and we returned to business as usual.

An article in Anesthesiology News about a paper that looked at causes of operating room delays in over 15,500 cases at a single hospital got my attention.

The number one reason for delays was that the nurses did not have the operating room ready for the patient. Nursing also was responsible for the third most common cause "preop prep (IVs, meds, etc.)."

Surgeons were the reason for the second most common problem, "notes, consent, patient marking not complete." A few more of the top 10 included surgeons running two rooms, surgeon unavailable, and my favorite, "last case ended early." I’m not sure how a case ending early causes a delay in starting the next case. Usually we are blamed for underestimating the length of time we need to do an operation.

Anesthesiologists were cited for only one of the 10 most common reasons for delays—placement of an IV line or regional block.

Not surprisingly, the study was done by anesthesiologists using data they collected.

When I expressed skepticism about this on Twitter, I was accused of implying the research was fraudulent. Not so. Some of my best friends are anesthesiologists. In fact two of my medical school roommates became anesthesiologists. Fraud is not the issue. Its a matter of perspective.

For example when the nurses investigate OR delays, the problem never seems to be nursing.

Im not saying that surgeons dont cause delays. A task force once found that one of my surgeons was late for his first case every time he operated because he had to take his kids to school.

Another surgeon would disappear between cases and was always late for his next one. No one knew where he went. Some thought he may have been calling his broker or perhaps having an affair.

Here’s what the anesthesiologist researchers may have overlooked.

In effort to avoid delays, I would often ask for an anesthesia consult on complicated inpatients booked for surgery a day or two later. On nearly every occasion, the anesthesiologist who saw the patient was not the one assigned to do the case. The consulting anesthesiologist never said a certain lab test was necessary, but in the holding room, the one who was going to put the patient to sleep said it was. A spirited discussion, phone calls, and a delay ensued.

Sometimes a day surgery patient who arrived 2 hours ahead of schedule wasnt interviewed by anesthesia until the scheduled time of the case.

Then there was my patient whose operation was postponed for 6 hours because she had a piece of hard candy in her mouth when she got to OR. The anesthesiologist said it was the equivalent of having a full stomach. Read the full story here.

Can delays be shortened by working together? A 2014 paper in the Journal of Surgical Research by a surgeon and four anesthesiologists found that “various events and organizational factors created an environment that was receptive to change.” The authors were able to decrease their general surgery OR turnaround times from 48.6 minutes to 44.8 minutes, a statistically significant (p < 0.0001) but hardly clinically important difference.

Let me hear your experiences with OR delays.

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How to get the answers you want from a survey

This isnt about religion or politics, two subjects I tend to avoid. This is about surveys and how they can mislead.

I received this survey in the mail last week. It is from CatholicVote.org and is touted as the "largest survey of Catholics ever conducted on the issue of ObamaCare."

CatholicVote.org promises that the results will "send a strong and clear message to every politician running for election or reelection in the 2014 midterm congressional elections, that the overwhelming majority of Catholic voters demand ObamaCare be repealed."

Judging from the way the questions are framed, I think the message will be clear.

Here are a few examples:

From Section B "ObamaCares War on Christianity and Morality"

Question #2: Do you think ObamaCare is violating the Constitutions First Amendment protections for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience by forcing pro-life Americans to purchase health coverage that includes abortion inducing drugs?

A) Yes, this is certainly a violation of the Constitutions First Amendment protections.
B) No, this is not a violation of the Constitution
C) Not Sure
D) Other

Question #4: As a state lawmaker in Illinois, Barack Obama voted twice to deny lifesaving medical care to babies born in botched abortions. What is your reaction to this fact?

A) I support President Obama on this.
B) I am horrified and angered by this.
C) Not Sure
D) Other

From Section C "ObamaCares War on Freedom"

Question #5: Do you think President Obama knew about the crushing cost of ObamaCare for families across America, and was just lying about the cost to get ObamaCare passed into law? Or do you think he shares our shock and dismay at the staggering cost of ObamaCare?

A) I believe President Obama knew about the crushing cost of ObamaCare for families across America, and was just lying about the cost to get ObamaCare passed into law.
B) I think he shares our shock at the staggering cost of ObamaCare and was just unaware of it.
C) Not Sure
D) Other

Question #6: How do you think the mass exodus of doctors from medicine will impact your ability to see a doctor and get the medical treatments you need?

A) A doctor shortage on this scale will certainly drive healthcare costs up dramatically and make it far more difficult for me to see a doctor and get the medical care I need.
B) I dont think well see much impact from this doctor shortage.
C) Not Sure
D) Other

Had enough?

I look forward to seeing the results.

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A high school student has questions about a medical career and pathology vs surgery

A female high school student asks about pathology, surgery, and medicine in general. [Email edited for length.] See if you agree with my answers.

The field I am most interested in is pathology. I have a very logical mind and would enjoy being able to solve the complex puzzle of disease. I would also like the somewhat flexible hours compared to other more intensive specialties. However, I do have some qualms.

Im also interested in general surgery. I would love to learn how to perform all the different types of surgeries that surgeons perform. If I were to be a pathologist, would it be "knife-free"? Pathology really intrigues me, but participating in the occasional surgery sounds like it would be extremely interesting and full of learning opportunities.

There is some knife wielding in pathology. Specimens must be properly cut, and there is the occasional autopsy. However, its definitely not surgery.

What does a pathologist really do? Ive looked at various descriptions online, and none of them seem to be very specific. What would a typical day look like for a pathology resident? I was also wondering what types of skills pathologists are taught?

Pathologists spend most of their days looking at specimens, mostly microscopic slides. Here is what pathology residents at Johns Hopkins learn.

I know that medicine is constantly evolving. With new medical technology, certain fields will soon become obsolete. Do you think this will happen to pathology?

I suppose there will be some technical advances that might involve automated digital reading of pathology slides, but I believe there always will be a need for pathologists. A residency position in pathology is much easier to obtain than one in general surgery.

Since Im interested in both pathology and general surgery, I was wondering if there was a way I could do them both (in a combined program or something like that). I know this is highly unlikely.

It cant be done.

I am a very anxious person. Specifically, I have health anxiety. (Im all too aware of the irony). Do you think that the amount and intensity of the material covered during med school and residency could take a severe toll on a persons mental health?

I think every medical student at some point worries she might have a disease she just read about. Im not sure what to tell you because I am not a psychiatrist, but studying diseases for four years and having a health anxiety might be a problem.

I would also like to know whether being involved in medicine could dramatically alter a persons personality by magnifying their negative characteristics. I am very driven, hard-working, ambitious, logical, easily annoyed/frustrated, and sometimes easily distracted. Im quite anal-retentive and OCD. Some of my friends and family have described me as an emotional robot. How do you think these characteristics would be affected by a journey through medicine?

Many medical students and residents become less empathetic and more jaded as they go through medical school and residency. Except for being easily distracted, many of your traits are common in med students. Heres more about empathy and medical students.

Do you know how difficult it is for Canadian students to get into American med schools? Or do you know any medical schools abroad in English speaking countries (e.g. Scotland, England) that would be willing to admit international students? Also, would it be more difficult for a woman?

Its not easy. Here is a link to a website that has some data on Canadian applicants to US schools. I dont know much about UK schools. Ive written about Caribbean schools. Type "Caribbean" in the search field of my blog. Being a woman wont matter.

How would medicine affect interpersonal relationships? Im really close with my immediate family, and it would be difficult not being able to see them all the time, let alone during holidays or breaks. How can a person manage a serious relationship and medicine at the same time?

It can be done, but it takes some effort. I have written a few posts about so-called work-life balance.

Choosing a specialty is difficult
More about choosing a specialty
Anguish about choosing a specialty
Surgery and work/home conflict

I hope this helps. Good luck.

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What can be done about letters of recommendation

Many surgical educators feel that letters of recommendation are not particularly helpful in evaluating applicants or predicting eventual resident performance.

Among the issues are lack of uniformity of content, excessive use of superlatives, reliability—if the writer is not known to the recipient—and more.

Even if the writers are well-known academic surgeons, the degree of their personal knowledge of the applicants is not always clear.

During an extensive Twitter discussion over the weekend, someone mentioned that in an attempt to deal with this problem, emergency medicine had developed a standardized letter of recommendation.

A recent paper from the EM Standardized Letter of Recommendation Task Force shows that there is still work to be done. From the abstract:

For the question on "global assessment," students were scored in the top 10% in 234 of 583 of applications (40.1%), and 485 of 583 (83.2%) of the applicants were ranked above the level of their peers. Similarly, >95% of all applicants were ranked in the top third compared to peers, for all but one section under "qualifications for emergency medicine."

Ive written before that deans letters are more like public relations press releases than accurate assessments of a students performance. You will rarely find negative comments in them. But another recent paper by a group of psychiatrists found that The presence of any negative comments in the deans letter yielded significant correlations with future problems. Further, those applicants with future major problems had significantly more negative comments in the deans letter than did those with future minor problems. Other factors such as USMLE scores, failed courses, letters of recommendation, and interviewer ratings and comments did not predict future problems.

These problems are not new. A 1983 New England Journal opinion piece about recommendation letters entitled "Fantasy Land" is remarkable for its validity even today. Here are a few choice quotes.

Its a land where everyone is "a pleasure to work with," has "excellent initiative," is "enthusiastic and conscientious," and possesses and "above-average fund of knowledge."

No one is ever poor, fair, or average; they are all "very good" or "excellent."

The author, Dr. Richard B. Friedman, said letters of recommendation were useless and advocated doing away with them.

A brief JAMA essay by Dr. Henry Schneiderman in 1988 called for more openness in describing students but acknowledged that negative comments were often "the kiss of death."

He proposed a new system of categorizing medical student performance. Here are just a few examples.



@AmirGharferi suggested this:

"Dr.G, do you feel comfortable writing me a strong letter?"
"No."
"Ok, Ill find someone who is."

That works if the student is aware enough to ask, and the faculty member is honest enough to say no. In my experience, even the most marginal of students can find someone—in addition to the dean, of course—to write a good letter.

I am no longer involved in the process of selecting residents. I have no suggestions.

What is your solution to this problem?

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Chance can turn a surgeon into a killer

Risk-adjusted 30- to 90-day outcome data for selected types of operations done by specific surgeons and hospitals are now being publicly posted online by Englands National Health Service.

According to the site, "Any hospital or consultant [attending surgeon in the UK] identified as an outlier will be investigated and action taken to improve data quality and/or patient care."

After cardiac surgery outcomes data were made public in New York, some interesting unexpected consequences were noted.

Surgeons and hospitals resorted to "gaming the system" by declining to operate on patients who were high-risk and tinkering with patient charts to make those they did operate on seem sicker. This can be done by scouring the charts for all co-morbidities and making sure none are overlooked when they are coded. An article from New York Magazine explains it in more detail.

Interpreting outcomes data can be tricky.

In a post three years ago about a report that nine Maryland hospitals had higher-than-average complication rates, I pointed out that whenever you have averages, some hospitals are going to be worse than average unless all hospitals perform exactly the same way or, like medical students, are all above average.

A much more sophisticated way of looking at this subject appeared in a fascinating 2010 BBC News piece by Michael Blastland, who is the Nate Silver of England [or maybe Nate Silver is the Michael Blastland of the US], called "Can chance make you a killer?"

Blastland set up a statistical chance calculator for a hypothetical set of 100 hospitals or 100 surgeons performing 100 operations each. The model assumes that every patient has the same chance of dying and that every surgeon is equally competent. The standard is that a mortality rate 60% worse than the norm set by the government for any hospital or surgeon is not acceptable.

You are assigned one hospital. Using a slider, you may choose an operative mortality rate anywhere from 1% to 15%. After you do this a number of times and recalculate for each mortality rate, you will notice that the number of unacceptably performing hospitals or surgeons changes randomly for each percent mortality and your hospital may appear in the underperforming group strictly by chance alone.

The whole concept is explained in more detail on the site. I encourage you to try it for yourself. The link is here.

So it may be difficult for the NHS to separate the true outliers from the unlucky surgeons who happened to fall outside the established norms.

What do you think about this?

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Interview Photographer Dru Phillips AMPCosplay

Photo by Your Mojo by Jojo

Fashion photographer Dru Phillips of AMP Cosplay has brought his unique and creative eye to the world of costuming. Based in Georgia, the man of many talents has a gorgeous portfolio full of stunning images of characters that rival those seen in Hollywood. He has evolved from photographer to cosplayer and is a member of the Heroes Alliance charity organization. Dru took some time to talk to the Confessions of a Cosplay Girl Blog about his art as a photographer, charity work, the first character he choose to cosplay and much more.





Victoria: How long have you been a professional photographer?

Dru: I have been shooting pro for about 6 years, 7 if you want to count 2015. lol

Victoria: What made you set your sights on cosplayers?

Dru: Well, the reason I started shooting cosplay is because I went to DragonCon by accident one year and when I saw the quality of some of the costumes, I wanted to capture it but outside of the con atmosphere. I wanted to treat cosplay the same way I treated my fashion work. The only difference is hair, make up, wardrobe, and model are usually the same person so it makes life super easy.

Victoria: Who was the very first cosplayer you photographed?

Dru: I have photographed on the serious note Margie Cox first. We did her Elektra. And as you can see from my body of work, she has kind of become my muse.

Victoria: You have a very unique style. What is your approach and goal when you are photographing people in costumes?

Dru: I am looking at the costume and how it sits on the model the same way I look at dresses and suits when I do fashion. I am interested it showing the quality of work that costumers put into their product.

Victoria: Have you attended any conventions?

Dru: I have attened DragonCon, MegaCon, attended and worked MomoCon, and I have been to a few small ones that I cant remember the names.

Victoria: In addition to photographing cosplayers, you are also a photographer for the Georgia branch of the Heroes Alliance. Whats it like capturing moments between costumers and childrens charities?

Dru: Oh man, photographing for HA is the reason I personally started cosplaying myself. You can not beat the reaction you get from a kid who sees Wonder Woman. Not a woman in a costume but actual Wonder Woman or Superman or whom ever. Its a feeling that hits the soul and brings out a very human happiness. A childs genuine smile can change your whole outlook on life.

Victoria: You have also joined the Heroes Alliance as a costumer. Who made your fantastic Green Lantern costume? Why did you pick that character?

Dru: My costume was made by Margie Cox and I picked that character because he represents a lot. As a black male there arent too many heroes in the comic world to look up to and the Green Lantern on a whole but particularly John Stewart represents a thing that I feel a black male needs to survive and thats Will Power. There are so many things out there and young black kids need to see something other than the typical rapper or basketball player, or killings on the news by what they feel are also heroes. Hope I didnt get to political.

Victoria: Not at all. Thank you for sharing your views. What was your first experience at a charity event as Green Lantern like? What was your experience with the children?

Dru:  Oh man my first event was okay. It was Super Hero Day at the Fernbank Museum and I left part of my costume. But I was told by the other heroes that it has to happen at least once lol. But the event that was memorable is when I did the Buddy Walk. Thats were kids lit up and mouths dropped open and even adults were captivated. I rarely pick up a camera now for events.

Victoria:  Where can people contact you and view a portfolio of your work?

Dru: Well, I am all over the web www.AndrewMichaelPhillips.com, www.AMPCosplay.Tumblr.com, moshunman.deviantart.com, and www.facebook.com/officalAMPCosplay and I am in a traveling gallery Exhibition. But any of those sites would be fine. Best if people follow me on the Tumblr and Facebook though.

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The ultimate resident evaluation

It comes as no shock to me, and probably many other current and former program directors, that a recent study showed faculty overall performance evaluations of residents do not correlate with their scores on the yearly American Board of Surgery in Training Examination.

According to the JAMA Surgery paper, faculty evaluations encompassed technical skill and the six core competencies—medical knowledge, patient care, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, practice-based learning and improvement, and system-based practice.

The paper analyzed data for 150 residents at different levels of training over 4 years and also found that even faculty evaluations of the category medical knowledge couldn’t predict who would get a good or a bad score on the test.

It’s great to know that at the authors’ institution, the average annual evaluation scores ranged from just over 75 to 100 with means and medians both slightly above 92—like Garrison Keillor’s mythical Lake Wobegon, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

Medical knowledge can be measured, but the other parameters are so subjective that they border on meaningless. They remind me of the infamous “smiley face” numerical pain scale that means different things to different patients.

Some examples. Earlier this year, I wrote about the difficulty defining professionalism. Using a numerical scale, how can you rate one resident as more professional than another?

And I always had trouble ranking one resident over another in system-based practice. It might be better to rate system-based practice on a binary scale; that is, can a resident define the term or not?

Big business is having trouble evaluating employees too. The evaluation process at General Electric was examined by Quartz. At GE, the annual review is not effective for managing people or improving performance. “It leads to a tendency…to focus excessively on process over outcomes” and is “an exercise in paperwork and bureaucracy instead of an agent of change.”

Note that the JAMA Surgery study accumulated 1131 evals. Even if that was only virtual paperwork, it’s much work for little value, but at least there was a lot of data to show a site visitor from the Residency Review Committee.

A New Yorker article noted that consulting firm Deloitte’s evaluation process involves consensus meetings ending with managers marking on a 5-point scale how strongly they agree with two statements: “Given what I know of this person’s performance, and if it were my money, I would award this person the highest possible compensation increase and bonus;” and “Given what I know of this person’s performance, I would always want him or her on my team.” And they must answer yes or no to two more: “This person is at risk for low performance,” and “This person is ready for promotion today.”

Maybe we should adopt a modification of Deloitte’s system for our resident evaluations. Faculty must respond yes or no to this statement: “I would let this resident operate on me.” If the answer is “no,” why should we let that resident operate on anyone?

This post originally appeared on Physicians Weekly.

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What about activity restrictions after surgery

Although, uncommon, bleeding after surgery is the most common potential post-operative complication. To minimize the chances of this occurring, patients are advised to be as minimally active after surgery as possible. This includes activity restrictions such as:
No bending or heavy lifting
No rigorous exercise or exertion
Do not make important plans in the days immediately following your surgery

The above instructions appear on the website of a medical school department. The operation in question is

A. Cholecystectomy
B. Partial mastectomy
C. Inguinal hernia repair
D. All of the above
E. None of the above

Answer: E. None of the above. While all three of the operations mentioned could have been the subject of these activity restrictions, they were taken from a dermatology services description of the aftercare of Mohs surgery, which is a way of exercising skin cancers—not exactly major surgery.

This topic was suggested to me by a Twitter follower.



I told him that as far as I knew, there is no evidence basis for any of the activity restrictions we tell patients.

When I was a resident in the early 1970s, we kept patients who underwent inguinal herniorrhaphy in bed for no fewer than five days, and nephrectomy patients were bedbound for a week.

For the former, the theory was that early activity might disrupt the repair—implying that many repairs were tenuous in those days. Regarding nephrectomy, the prevailing wisdom was that the tie or ties on the renal vein could be dislodged by increased pressure in the inferior vena cava from something as trivial as a Valsalva maneuver. Following this logic, we should have prevented nephrectomy patients from coughing or having bowel movements too.

Since then, progress has been made. Hernia patients are discharged on the day of surgery, and nephrectomies are not kept in bed.

What is the definition of "heavy lifting"? It is usually described as lifting more than 10 lbs. Where did that come from? Other than 10 being a nice round number, I cant think of another reason.

A far-from-exhaustive literature search revealed no evidence-based studies and nothing at all pertaining to general surgery.

A 2008 opinion paper suggested that cardiac surgery patients who have excessive limitations on their activities might suffer excessive anxiety and depression leading to poor outcomes. They recommended that patients be given "personalized activity guidelines developed by an exercise specialist to help them resume their presurgical lives."

Activity restrictions after gynecologic surgery are also not evidence-based. A review from the University of Utah found no studies relating postoperative activity and surgical success. A previous survey had found "Depending on the surgery, 88-99% of surgeons restricted lifting for mean of 5–7 weeks (range 1–26 weeks and up to forever [?] after vaginal hysterectomy with vaginal repairs)."

In 2011, an expert panel said patients undergoing laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy should avoid lifting more than 10 kg, bicycle riding, and vacuum cleaning [?] for two weeks.

At the other extreme is the story of Ryan Callahan, a forward for the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League. Last May, he began practicing three days after a laparoscopic appendectomy and played in a playoff game two days later.

To put it mildly, the topic of postoperative activity restrictions is long overdue for prospective study.

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Falz covers the March edition of BlackNBold Magazine photos

In this new edition of BlackNBold Magazine Falz The Bahd Guy dappers up as its 1st ever male cover personality. Inside the 52 page magazine Falz talks openly and answers some deep questions as well as hilarious ones too; from the genesis of his music career, to his alter ego, relationship status, acting gigs, politics and more.

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What Cosplayers Need to Stop Doing

Photo by Bodhi Tree Photography

Not too long ago a video was circulating on the web where the host discussed a list he created on what cosplayers need to "stop doing". Reasons varied between creating Kickstarter Campaigns to sexy costumes. While the intentions were meant to be noble and he is certainly entitled to his opinion, there were topics he discussed that left me shaking my head. By the end of the video I had a moment of clarity. Its clear what cosplayers (and the public that follows us) needs to stop doing in terms of racism, Kickstarters, gender bender, sexy costumes and so on.

People need to stop judging each other. Thats it.

See how simple that was? Namaste.

                            

Official Facebook Page

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How To Earn Money Online Fast And Easy And Free

How To Earn Money Online Fast And Easy And Free

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Now you do have to confirm your e-mail address that is only because I HATE SPAMMERS AND BOTS!!! so i made this simple rule all you have to do is put your e-mail and confirm it and ill then send you an email confirmation with the TUTORIAL FOR FREE on how to do this FREE METHOD!!!

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50 Cent tells court the money he flaunts on instagram is fake!

Is 50 Cent really a fraud or is he messing with the courts? Last month he was ordered before a bankruptcy judge to explain the multiple Instagram posts that showed him flaunting cash while claiming he is broke. 50 Cent claimed in court that the money he flaunts on social media is fake.

The rapper filed for bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay Rick Ross baby mama $7 million in damages for posting her sex tape online...

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