Med-Source presents Grand Rounds

Welcome to Grand Rounds at Med-Source. In an effort to bring everyone back up to speed and welcome new students as summer comes to a close, the theme for this edition is "Back to School." I have received numerous excellent submissions and I hope you find the following both educational and entertaining.



We begin with an excellent editorial from Dr. Val Jones of Revolution Health who shares her perspective on pre-medical courses and their utility as applicable preparation for future physicians. Certainly the efficacy of certain basic science courses in preparing physicians for their future careers is debatable, however few would deny that clinical education is a mandatory component of medical school. The following posts provide insight into clinical education and the practice of medicine.

Speaking of education, can a quality continuing medical education be obtained online? Kim from Emergiblog is definitely an advocate. After obtaining her ASN the traditional way, Kim is currently earning her BSN online.

The ability to obtain a clinical degree online may be controversial, but the value of the internet in medical education as a whole is undeniable. Clinical Cases & Images Blog offers a succinct index of the major journals providing online audio content.

If you are more of a traditionalist, InsideSurgery.com is featuring an in depth interview with Dr. Charles J. Yeo, Chair of Surgery at Jefferson University. As Chair, Dr Yeo acts not only as a top pancreatic surgeon but also as an educator. In the interview he shares his insight into his personal and professional life, a great read for budding doctors and practicing health care professionals alike.

Shifting from the abdomen to the eye, we have two posts that fall into the realm of ophthalmology. First head over to Medicine for the Outdoors where Dr. Auerbach discusses the proper management of an acute eye injury. Next, read about national vision advocacy programs in a post by J.C. Jones of Healthline Connects.

Remaining anatomically at the head we have 3 more contributions. 1st, click over to the recent Podcast at Shrink Rap where Roy sheds some light on the current Mental Health Insurance Parity Legislation before the US congress, and reviews three recent articles from the American Journal of Psychiatry on the purported link between SSRIs and suicide.

2nd, Dr. Rob of Musings of a Distractible Mind presents the ever applicable and difficult situation of counseling obese patients in the office.

And 3rd, Terry of Everyday Nurse discusses the quandary facing the anesthesia practitioner performing a bedside intubation, and the eager apprentice who wants to give it a try.

For those eager to succeed both in intubation and beyond click over to The 3 A's of Success for Physicians from Tony Chen of Hospital Impact who offers a few words of advice in his entry.

Closing out the clinical education section is an entry entitled Just Imagine from Susan Palwick of Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good that illuminates the under-discussed topic of patients' feelings and reminds practitioners to retain their imagination and ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes.



We now switch gears to highlight entries which inform the medical community about the current state of affairs in medical news, innovations and research.

Amy Tenderich of Diabetes Mine discusses the progress towards a more user-friendly insulin pump.
Also highlighting new technology, Alvaro of Sharp Brains offers an overview of recently published and ongoing studies in the field of cognitive training aka "Brain Fitness".

Dr.Joshua Schwimmer of Tech Medicine discusses the new hyponatremia drug Valprisol.

Berci Meskó of Scienceroll presents an interview with Dr. Kevin Pho of Kevin, MD who discusses medical blogging and the current state of health care.

David Williams of MedTripInfo broaches the progressive topic of international health care coverage and medical tourism.

Just in case you missed the NYTimes article regarding Medicares decision to no longer cover hospital errors, Rita Schwab of MSSPNexus offers a brief summary.

In a post entitled Toys R not 4 Us, Bob Vineyard of Insure Blog touches on the major health and liability concerns growing out of the most recent recalls.


The following posts provide practical advice to pass along to you patients and address some prevalent public health issues.

ERNursery portrays the devastating effects of methamphetamine abuse.

For patients with back pain there are 2 submissions. The 1st from Jolie Bookspan of The Fitness Fixer addresses strategies to prevent back surgery, while the 2nd post from Dean Moyer of Rebuild Your Back entitled Medical School or Fraud Factory? An Inside Look at Chiropractic College indicates that maybe you should go to an a MD for your back pain?

Dr. Nancy Brown encourages Teen patients to head over to Teen Health 411 to add their input to help create a forum for pertinent topics.

Also for your teen patients heading off to college, here is a quick blurb from Tara Gidus of The Diet Dish on how to avoid the Freshman 15.

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The final post of Grand Rounds 3.48 Back to School Edition from Dr. Bruce Campbell of Froedtert reflects upon commencement, which marks both an end and a beginning in an infinite jourey to acquiring knowledge.

This concludes volume 3, number 48. I hope you have found it to be an educational experience, and more importantly are enjoying the end of the summer (for those of you lucky enough to have some vacation time). Thank you to those who have submitted posts and to Nick Genes for maintaining Grand Rounds.

Next week's edition will be hosted by Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good, with a theme of narrative medince. Click here to submit your posts.