Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Big changes in the world of VAP?

As you may or may not be aware, the four main professional societies in the US that include large critical care constituencies, AACN, Chest, SCCM and ATS, have created something called a Critical Care Societies Collaborative (CCSC). Its purpose is essentially to give the critical care community a voice in shaping public policy. And, as you can imagine, one of the current-day issues they are tackling is performance measures.Now, on this web site we...

Friday, 3 February 2012

Teach one thing, or the rule of thirds

When I was a medical student, I did a lot of rotations at the Boston VA in JP. I loved my patients there -- they were patient and kind and stoic. One of the best rotations I did was Hematology, where Lou Fiore was my preceptor. Lou was not only an excellent teacher, but also a terrific doctor and a good human being all around. He used to start our days together by saying, "I'm gonna teach you one thing today." And teach us he did, at least one thing...

Wednesday, 1 February 2012

Marie Curie, Geiger counters and mass hysteria: more in common than meets the eye

What do Marie Curie, a Geiger counter and mass hysteria have in common? Well, to answer this question we need to go Sir Arthur Eddington, who was a British astrophysicist and philosopher of science at the turn of the 20th century. He came up with what is frequently referred to as the Eddington parable, which has nothing to do with the stars specifically and everything to do with how we make scientific progress. Here it is for your reading enjoyment,...