The Emperor's New Clothes

Doctors beware! There's a new sheriff in town and he wants his vasectomy done pronto.

New content on "Adventures in Improving Access".

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What's wrong with this picture? - IX

Here are the mail slots in our doctor's lounge.



Last week, each one was stuffed with this memo. Don't get me wrong here - there's nothing wrong with the memo. It's useful info. But, once I've read it...






There are about 100 mail slots in the lounge. All of them get the memo, even the ones for doctors who have retired or moved. (Why do we still have those slots?) The garbage can fills up pretty quickly on memo day.

The holidays are particularly hard on the forests. Today was a 3-memo day.








Earlier this year (I believe it was during the Easter paper blizzard), I called the admin assistant responsible for these memos and asked if the information could be sent out by email. Just set up an email group and press 'Send'.

Think of the savings: Paper, ink, delivery time, less garbage to haul.

Well, it's Christmas and the memos keep coming.

Happy Holidays, Office Depot!

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What's wrong with this picture? - VIII (extended dance mix)

Where do you think this is from?

A. Victoria's Secret?

B. www.carwashmommas.com?

C. The "Squeegee kids we'd like to meet" feature in Maxim magazine?

Answer: None of the above. This is from...

... the Canadian Medical Association Journal!

No lie. Here's the whole ad from the October 9 issue.



Testim is a testosterone gel marketed to men with low testosterone levels. You get the gist of the ad: If you didn't answer the ad's quiz with "C", maybe you need to smear a little Testim on your hypogonadal self.

This is not the type of ad you usually see in a medical journal (note that, in the actual journal, the ad is in full, glossy color and much more, uh, life-like). No doubt an attention-seeking ploy by the marketers.

And, attention they got.

Check out these letters in the December 4 CMAJ (under the title "Advertisement". You need to open each PDF. Sorry, that's the way CMAJ is set up).

Some readers were upset that this ad, demeaning to women, they say, appeared in a medical journal (or anywhere, if I understand some of the letters). I agree with their point and that this isn't appropriate for the CMAJ, despite the protestations from Paladin Labs.

But, would it be disingenuous to suggest that the ad is also demeaning to men? The message to men is that, if you don't dissolve into a drooling, hormone-fueled, horn-honking mess when this woman appears in your car windshield, then there must be something wrong with you.

And you should be medicated.

Anyway, I particularly like the response from Paladin's VP, Sales and Marketing, Mark Beaudet, who stays on message and insists that everything is on the up and up.

"We did physician focus groups, for goodness sake!" (I'm paraphrasing.) Where? At a stag party?

Well, M. VP, you're the Marketing professional. We'll just have to see how this ad plays out for the rest of the campaign. You are sticking to your guns and carrying on with the campaign, aren't you?

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Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival comes to town

Deirdre Bonnycastle from the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine hosts this edition of Medicine 2.0 Blog Carnival, focusing on medical uses of technology.

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What's wrong with this picture? - VII

The yellow sheet clipped to a notice board is an X-ray requisition.

Anyone see a problem with that?

While on rounds this morning, I noticed that this ward has the practice of posting their X-ray reqs like this. I presume it's so they're easy to get at when a porter comes to transport the patient to the X-ray department. Whatever the reason may be, I suggest they rethink this practice.

Anyone walking by can read what's on the req, including the patient's name and details of their medical condition. Would you want your private information displayed like this?

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Google rules!

Here's a dodgy business plan: Give away your best services for free.

But the folks at Google (stock value $714 US) seem to be making a go of it.

Makes no difference to me, as long as they keep the free, online applications coming.

Of the long list of apps Google provides, the ones I use daily are Documents and Spreadsheets, Blogger and Calendar. And don't forget the granddaddy - Google Search.

All you need to use these apps is a Google account (free) and internet access.



Because these programs are online, you can access them from any computer with internet access. The files live on Google's server, which is probably about as safe as it gets. (If Google's servers crash, it's one of the signs of the Apocalypse.) Data security/confidentiality is another matter. I wouldn't be comfortable storing sensitive information or patient data online.

Documents and Spreadsheets

Documents is basic word-processor. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Word, but you can export the text to Word if you need to do some fancy formatting. You can share documents online and invite collaborators to edit the document.

I usually start writing drafts on Google Docs so I can keep working on the document whether I'm at home, at the office or the hospital. I'll export to Word later, if I need some more advanced features.

And it's free.

Google Spreadsheets is handy for data entry. I'm keeping track of some data on referrals from family physicians as part of our Advanced Access project. I enter the data at the office, then access it at home if I want to add it to a blog post.

As with Documents, you can share information and collaborate online. Here's a demo. For an explanation of the data, see this Advanced Access post.

Again with the freeness.

Blogger

You're looking at it.

I chose to use Blogger for Plain Brown Wrapper because it was easy to get started and simple to make posts. And free. I don't want to mess around with HTML or setting up my own website, so Blogger fits the bill. It's not quite as flexible as some blog engines, but it's great for a beginner like me.

Calendar

We've been using Google Calendar at home for the last 2 months, since my wife got a laptop. It's terrific for keeping track of our family's busy and ever-changing schedule. We have 4 children and my wife and I both work.

Our old paper calendar was a mess of appointments, soccer games, school concerts, garbage pickup days, etc. Calendar keeps everything neat and lets me review the evening's schedule from the office during the day. There are multiple views (day, week month, 4 day agenda) and every person's activities are color-coded for easy reading. You can collapse everyone's activities onto one calendar, or just pick one person's schedule to view.

In the new year, I hope to implement this at our office to track physician's holidays. Our group has 9 urologists and we currently list our holidays on a paper calendar. If I want to add some holidays, I need to find that calendar to make sure there are not too many doctors away during the week I want off. The calendar usually lives in one doctor's office, but it might be with my office manager, our on-call scheduler, or with another doctor. It can be a nuisance to track it down.

With Google Calendar, everyone can access the holiday schedule simultaneously, from home, office or hospital.

And... Free!

Google Search

Seeing as Google has become synonymous with online searching, need I say more?

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It seemed like a good idea at the time...

The beauty/curse of the Internet: All your sins come back to haunt you.
The latest edition of the CMAJ contains the annual Holiday Review, a collection of medical spoofs. This reminded me that I made a contribution about 10 years ago. I see it's available online, so I might as well come clean about it.

I got into a little trouble over it. People have different senses of humor and medical care is a tricky thing to joke about.

By the way, after this "article" was published, I received reprint requests from several physicians in Europe and Asia. (This was before on-line journals. Yes, I am that old.) The article was listed in the journal index under "Incontinence" without any indication that it was tongue-in-cheek.

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