Classmate Cheri Blauwet took first again in the New York Marathon. I swear, I’m gonna have to start an entirely separate category for my classmates’ accomplishments.

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A round of mad props is currently deserved, as my roommate was just published in Science this week. Great job!

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… or so goes the mantra of my latest web obsession, group hug. . The idea is simple–anonymously confess to the world your deepest, darkest secrets. The creators call it a project “with social benefit,” but it seems more like an addictive, voyeuristic shock site (with an RSS feed , of course). Some of the entries make me laugh, some shock me, and mostly, I just question how many are true. The most powerful are the ones that aren’t shocking enough to be fake, but really get at a person’s feelings, and general life. Some recent favorites:

* it makes me excruciatingly angry that my best friend cheats on his girlfriend, and i really want to hit him. hard. in the face.
* When I see babies or small children in the street I make horrible faces at them til they cry.
* I have been stealing my flat mate’s milk and have been blaming it on my other flat mate, now they hate each other. im finding it hard to live with.
* i picked up some onion rings for my friends mother. On the way home, i had to brake hard at a stop light and all of the onion rings flew out of the bag and onto the dirty floorboard of my truck. I picked them up, put them back in the bag.I didn’t look her in the eyes when i handed them to her. When she asked if i wanted any, i simply said “no thanks”.
* One time I saw a sleeping porcupine (maybe it was dying), and I covered it in whip cream knowing my neighbors evil dog would chase it and be subjected to pain.

All the “cheating and infidelity” ones kind of depress me, but most of the others just fascinate me. I just love the quirks that make people human–the weird stuff they do when no one else is looking. What they enjoy. What they hate. This sentiment was originally going to be turned into some sort of project kind of like The Mirror Project , but never really got off the ground. Maybe I’ll re-double my efforts.

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Just found The Health Show from a textad at Metafilter . No idea if it’s quality, medical reporting, or the simple, dumbed-down version, but definitely something to investigate.

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David Finkel wrote a great article called A Slave to Health Insurance about a 58-year-old woman who’s taken up a 50-hour-a-week job to pay for her current meds regimen. She’s up by 3am to open the store by 4 and have it ready to go by 5:30. The most ironic part of the article:

bq(quote). By 5, she has taken her Lipitor (for high cholesterol), Singulair (allergies), Ultracet (back pain), Combivent (breathing), Zoloft (depression) and Temazepam (insomnia).

As far as I can tell, she has to take the Lipitor because of unhealthy food, Ultracet because of the 50-hour work weeks she puts in at Hardee’s, and Zoloft and Temazepam to deal with the fact that she’s almost 60 and having to work at a fast food joint to pay her bills. Reminds me a lot of « le buveur » ( English ), like some sort of vicious cycle: he drinks to forget that he is ashamed that he drinks. Or the “I can’t hear you, I’ve got a *banana* in my ear!” schtick. Repeat ad infinitum.

This isn’t the way I want *my* parents to be taken care of. I love the way this health care system is passed onto our generation as some sort of great fixer-upper. (“Add some new wallpaper here, spackle and re-tile that bathroom, provide health insurance for 44 million Americans… no problem!”) Maybe I’m just extremely negative and/or cranky today, but it seems like we’re always told how much room there is for improvement in the health care system, as if we’re so incredibly fortunate to be becoming doctors at a time of such health care disaster. Cut the euphemisms, leaders-of-today. I won’t take responsibility for this system. I’ll work my ass off to try to fix it, revamp it, or start over all-together, but don’t for a second act like we’re equal partners in this one. I’d much rather have one less “exciting challenge” in my career and have everyone in the country have adequate health insurance, or hell, have childhood immunization rates that compete with Mexico’s .

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FDR’s polio is probably the best known, but Eisenhower had Crohn’s , 5 infarcts, and a stroke. Embalmers couldn’t get a needle into FDR’s veins. Bush Sr. vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister. For more, check out the Medical History of American Presidents . Lists all of them, a substantial number of researched illnesses and maladies, and even histories by organ system (judging from the list, I think our presidents have run the gamut, from balding to bladder cancer).

The president always has a lot of power to influence public opinion and behavior, and I don’t think it’s any different in the health arena. I remember there being some buzz about Bush Sr. not liking broccoli and the effect on the broccoli market; I’m sure people are reminded to get their routine physicals done because the president’s is mentioned on the news. As the site mentions, Betty Ford’s breast cancer and alcoholism were both wake-up calls to the public –telling people that yes, these diseases happen to real people, and cut across the classes and society. If more people knew about the history of presidential psychiatry they’d be more likely to seek counseling themselves, or at least lose some of their mental health stigma. (via Metafilter )

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Okay, okay, so web design guru Jeffrey Zeldman commented about this terrible Flash intro for Histology-World! , and well, yeah, it’s pretty bad. But really, can you fault the designer for trying dancing text and crappy electronica music to make histo that much more interesting? Granted, it reminded me that I need to study, but still, picking apart fascia and connective tissue beats microscopically differentiating between developing granulocytes anyday. (How’s _that_ for technical jargon?)

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Dr. Marc Siegel has a great piece in the Washington Post today about the up-and-down, back and forth, try-this, try-that world of being a doctor today. And again, I wonder, “What am I getting myself into?” (via MedRants )

I guess I’m just curious–if the solution isn’t single-payer , or some sort of national system, then what is it?

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The SUMMIT Labs are doing some really incredible stuff just down the road. We got to test-drive some of the latest-and-greatest in the medical learning technologies world today.

* I started off at the virtual laproscopic surgery unit, which uses two laproscopic surgical handles to simulate a surgery; on the screen in front of you, you can run a Java applet with full 3D graphics and real-life object dynamics to practice grasping objects, cauterizing, stenting, clamping, clipping–you name it. It’s partially used to help beginners get a feel for the instruments, but it’ll also be useful now that surgical residents are ahem , limited to 80 hours a week. The program has 20+ different scenarios, with varying degrees of difficulty. (Video gamers like myself only have an edge for the first two times on the simulator; after that everyone else’s hand-eye coordination skills catch up, according to the research they’ve done.)

* Next was a well-designed, attractive, and seemingly *useful* Shockwave/Flash clinical physiology website. I’m as tech-friendly as anyone can be, but most of the learning tools I’ve seen haven’t taught me much. In this one, however, you can test different clinical scenarios with patient physicals. You can do a virtual eye exam, and see what a patient with an optical motor neuron problem will look like upon examination, and then test your abilities with virtual patients who present with an unknown condition.

* The Media Server Project and E-Pelvis are two other interesting projects–the former has cataloged images from many medical disciplines and has a searchable index; the latter is a pelvic exam simulator that allow students to practice pelvic exams and give pressure and sensitivity readings back to the student, so he or she can improve technique before he or she does an actual exam on a patient.

* Finally, the Advanced Immunization Management Project allows developing nations’ public health departments to calculate the funding they require for their country’s vaccines. It’s primarily funded by Bill and Melinda , and teaches basic economic principles to health managers. It’s currently only available in English and French, so it’s got a ways to go, but it’s certainly a useful tool (even if it’s pretty dry and chock-full of items like “capital costs” and “operational costs”). The goal is to pass it on to provide it on CD to countries, so that the countries can then determine the funding they require and apply for that funding to GAVI , the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

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It looks like Dean Kamen now has two inventions that are helping people with mobility problems.

If you haven’t heard about it, the Segway Human Transporter is something like a stand-up scooter. It travels up to 12 MPH, and has 5 gyroscopic sensors that maintain balance for its rider. When I first read about it (and its hefty $5,000 price tag ), I thought it was only a device for lazy yuppies. San Francisco quickly banned the devices citing safety issues with pedestrians and public health issues with obesity, but now it seems that the Segway may end up being helpful for some multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and polio patients, as well as others with limited mobility.

From a quick 5-minute search, I found a rehabilitation and disabilities services provider trying it out , a 55-year-old woman with MS who says “It has given me so much freedom” and “You know the amazing thing, I can barely walk any more – I used to walk two miles a day, and now I can be on this for two hours and I don’t get tired.” There’s also a couple postings on the Segway chat forum with some users that have and hadn’t have success with the Segway, and an entire forum about Special Needs, Mobility, and Disable Use . On the Segway site, there’s also a user with Parkinson’s who loves his transporter, too.

If you’ve never heard anything about this Dean Kamen guy , start reading . Hopefully like the rest of technology, these devices will be cheaper and more affordable in the future.

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