Archive | December 2010
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It Is That Time of the Year Again: Part – III: Resolutions
Alrighty then. It is the last week of the year and time to sit down to look back, see what I’ve done wrong, what I’ve done right and what might be expected in the days ahead. And its also time to sit down and make some resolutions. I always end up procrastinating the resolution making […]
Religious Sanction on Healthcare
St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, lost its designation as a Catholic hospital in December because it carried out an abortion in November 2009 to save the life of a 27 year old woman with severe pulmonary hypertension. The mother of four children was three months into her pregnancy, when, considering the […]
PGMEE and the Past Year
2010 was the year when, for the first time in my life, I tasted the bitterness of failure. Of course, I am talking about the post grad entrance tests: the examination which allows or denies you an entry into the hallowed pantheons of higher medical education in India. It was also the year when, due […]
50th Post, 1000 Page Views and Flying Reindeers
So, I have been blogging here for just about a month and a half, but the numbers have started to get going a bit. This is the 50th post and I feel like I have just scratched the surface. There have been days when I have gone on to write as many as 5 posts! […]
Mr. Second Innings: Laxman
I guess I was waiting for the outcome of the test match to shoot this post out, because depending on the final outcome, I would have painted Laxman either in the shades of a tragic hero or a match winning superstar. In either case, his fluent 96 remains one of the best test cricket innings […]
The First Human RCT: Renal Sympathetic Denervation in Treatment Resistant Hypertension
Treatment resistant hypertension has been an issue which has been bugging medical practitioners for a long time now. The first human trial on renal sympathetic denervation for treatment of this condition, the results of which have been recently published in The Lancet, show some promise. This prospective, multicenter, randomized trial included non-diabetic patients with a […]
Contemplating a Medical Blog Carnival
I know, it is a ridiculously difficult thing to keep going given the present strain I am going through, but I have always wanted to be be able to collate and collect the blogs I read (and I read a large number of them!) and start off with a Blog Carnival. Goes without saying that […]
Timing the Tab-late
The conventional wisdom states that the intake of thyroid hormone replacement is best when done in the morning, on an empty stomach, in order to allow the best absorption and a more predictable range of serum concentration, thereby preventing potentially iatrogenic hypothyroidism. Now, this has also been studied, albeit in small groups (1), showing that […]
Rapid Revision: ADHD
Epidemiology: One of the commonest psychiatric affliction of the school going population. It is thrice as common in boys The characteristic features are: Age inappropriate hyperactivity Impulsiveness Inattention Classification: Class I: Hyperactivity, Impulsiveness and Inattention all three are present Class II: Hyperactivity and Impulsiveness present only ClassIII: Only Inattention present. It is the least common […]
Wikileaks, Banks and Mainstream Media
I had previously written on this blog about how the mainstream media was inordinately quiet over the issue of PayPal, Bank of America and MasterCard withholding transactions relating to Wikileaks over pretenses of risky investment policies. Now banks are entitled to reserve their rights to trade with people or organizations that they consider (potentially) harmful. […]
It Is That Time of the Year Again: Part II – High School Reunion
They say we never really get out of High School. All our lives. Everywhere we go, there is the same competition, the cliques, the coercion, the politicking, the authoritarian tyranny, just in modified forms. I sort of believe that to be true. And that is why, I wanna go to my High School Reunion this […]
Merry Christmas Folks
So, the hour of the great nativity is upon us again. Let me grab this moment to wish the two people reading my blog a very Merry Christmas. I know it has been a bit of a bleak winter in our city this time around, but hey, what’s a Christmas feel like without the morning […]
Indian Demoncracy and Binayak Sen: Serious Sedition or Impolite Dissent?
So, Suresh Kalmadi goes around scot free, sitting atop his money pile, Kasab awaits trial and we pay for his super-expensive stay with our hard earned tax money, the 2G money has long vanished into Swiss accounts buried deep underground, and we of course, have to imprison for life Dr. Binayak Sen, for his alleged […]
Steaming Vaginas!
So I am going to blame the holy Orac at Respectful Insolence for writing Steamed vajajay woo when I end up getting a lot of hits on this post from porn seeking freaks. Like most science freaks, I love Orac’s blog and although I am sometimes amused by his sense of well-placed immodesty, there is nothing […]
XKCD and Kim Tinkham
So, I have talked about the Kim Tinkham issue in some passing references on this blog, and I think that her unfortunate demise stands as a monument against tinkering with non-scientific woo-s to help with potentially fatal situations. The author of the much revered nerdcomic XKCD was recently faced with illness in his own family, […]
MMST: Subclinical Success or Fulminant Failure?
The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, runs a School of Medical Science and Technology which offers a 3 year training followed by a degree called Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST). Now, it was started in 2001 and a decade has elapsed since its inception, but the course is yet to attract the attention of […]
It’s That Time of the Year Again: Part I – Christmas
It is that time of the year again: Christmas. It seems like the whole city around me has gone down with Christmas fever, like every other year. Wherever I turn I am met with large glaring lights, signs and sounds: all is well, joy to the world, Christmas is come. And such stuff. Now I […]
Twitter WTFery
So, Deepak Chopra tweeted this some time ago, and while logging on to Twitter, I saw it had become one of the popular tweets and was being featured on the front page: Twitter and social networks are globalizing human consciousness. A collective creativity that could heal the planet is emerging— Deepak Chopra (@DeepakChopra) December 22, […]
You Don’t Have To Be Straight To Shoot Straight: Down with #DADT
A rather long and tortuous post title, I know, but one I strongly believe in. I know the Obama administration has been under the cosh for several reasons, including the way in which the healthcare reform and economic meltdown were being managed. But at the same time, it has brought to an end several rather […]
Wishes, Prayers, Hope: Cancer Sucks!
Strange are the ways in which the mind works. I have been a long time reader of Shadowfax’s blog Movin’ Meat for along time. Although I just started following him on Twitter today, I have enjoyed his blog for a considerably longer period. In fact, I used to read his blog way before I started […]
50×100: No Challenge Too Big
There is some poetic justice in the fact that Sachin Tendulkar got the 50th century when he actually did. Today. When his side was down and dusted, battling to stay on in the game. In my opinion, and with due respect to the Kiwi boys, it would have been a damp squib if he had […]
Headlines in WTFery!
So, if this article on The Hindustan Times from 28th November, 2010 is to be believed, then, there seems to have been a massive mix up at AIIMS this year. Several seats (seven, at least) were purported to have been left unfilled in the course of the summer admissions this year. Now this does not […]
Nikolay Pirogov: 200 Years to Nowhere
I had heard of Nikola Pirogov as one of the early propounder of Anesthesia in surgery and also as the father of field surgery. It came to my attention that a BMJ Blog was written to celebrate the hero that he was HERE. I must say I did not know that he was that huge a figure in […]
Day 3: Schedules-Schmedules
So, you know you’re in trouble when it is halfway through the time you had allotted for studying Anatomy and yet, you are browsing through XKCD, Abstruse Goose or Cyanide and Happiness. Like I was. And then blogging about wasting time on them! Like I am. Then have to go to bed early because you […]
The Tyranny of Diagnosis
“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost. I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother. Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a […]
ECFMG ups USMLE Fees for IMGs
Got this unsavory bit of email from the ECFMG Reporter the first thing this morning: The examination fees for USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will increase from $740 to $780 for each exam registration. The examination fee for Step 2 CS will increase from $1,295 to $1,355 for each exam registration. The fee to extend […]
Counting Down: 25 Days to go!
Now before you ass-u-me that the post is about counting down to the new year and start abusing my poor mathematical skills (they are poor, sadly) let me make it clear: it is not. It is about my upcoming examination. I have two big-ass exams looming large ahead of me, on the 9th January, 2011 […]
Hacktivism
Assange and his whistle-blowing website has really taken the world by storm. We all know Wikileaks and its tremendous impact on the world. The political systems have been shaken up and lots of myths upended, many lies (potentially) revealed and the truth believed to be immutable, mutated! I have very strong and specific viewpoints about […]
