more links

>> On My Mind: James D. Watson
Nobel laureate and co-discoverer of the DNA double helix writes about diminishing capabilities to form new memories as one ages and the medical challenge to "slow down the rate at which one loses the ability to generate new adult nerve cells".

>> Print me a heart and a set of arteries
Biophysicist Gabor Forgacs has developed a "bioprinting" technique that uses droplets of "bioink" containing clumps of cells which can be printed onto "biopaper" to form new blood vessels. Forgacs claims: "We can print any desired structure, in principle".

>> More medical schools requiring PDAs
The title says it all. More US medical schools require students to have PDAs to help students save time, provide better care and reduce errors. Well, we really have a long, long way to go.

life, so far

My two week-rotation in the male service ward of Internal Medicine is almost over. I am at a loss for descriptions to encapsulate the innumerable embarassments and foolishness that I have done in so short a time. And while some doctors, patients, patient's relatives, nurses, aides, etc. trample upon my dignity from time to time there are moments of pure ecstasy that makes being a junior medical intern (aka slave-on-duty) worth it. The 24-hour duty plus the next day's 8 hours can be hell on my feet and monitoring vital signs every fifteen minutes does get tiresome but one does get used to it. As they say, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. So, each morning I wake up with a roar . . . then I try to get out of bed and feel every single muscle aching.

Such is life.

day 1

First day as a junior intern: decking. male ward. female ward. pay patients. endorsements. grand rounds. staff rounds. case discussions. labs. history. P.E. SOAPing. monitoring RR, HR, BP, temp. q1, q2, q4. Ambubagging. CPR. extraction. IV insertion. catheterization. pre-duty. from duty. duty. forms. forms. forms. and more forms.

There's only one word to describe everything: OVERWHELMING.

Tomorrow, it gets worse: FIRST 24-HOUR DUTY