Slightly Funnier than Placebo - ZDoggMD

You all thought it was over with Weingart taking the number one slot. Oh contraire mes amis. After finishing harping on about my favourite ED critical care blogs over the last few days, I just had to do one more - the brilliant - ZDoggMD (AKA Zubin Damania), who really is my brother from another mother.

Zubin is internal medicine physician in California (forgive him), although I must admit, I don't know what the heck internal medicine is, or how it differs from external medicine, and why they just can't call it "Medicine". He has been writing parody songs since his school days. He went to UCSF medical school, and further honed his fine sense of comedy whilst studying. He completed an internal medicine residency at Stanford, where he is now a full time hospitalist. In his spare time (!!) he writes, performs, produces and edits his award winning video blog at ZDoggMD.com (Medgadget Best New Weblog of 2010). 

His primary aim is to use humour to promote medical education, awareness, and also burnout prophylaxis for both patients as well as medical practitioners alike. 

“My hope is to make people laugh, and in the process make them aware of important issues impacting their health. If I get to beatbox with my homies while doing it, then that’s just cream, baby!”

Zubin, if you're reading this - much love to you. Peace.

Favourite Post: Doctor's Today - A Parody of Tonight Tonight 

A question for ZDogg - why does it still burn? ;)

ZDoggMD - Zubin Damania 

That concludes our look at our favourite blogs from 2011

0 - ZDoggMD - Zubin Damania

1 - EMCrit - Scott Weingart

2 - Life In The Fast Lane - Mike Cadogan, Chris Nickson & Co

3 - Academic Life in EM - Michelle Lin

4 - SMART EM - David Newman & Ashley Shreves

5 - ERCast - Rob Orman

6 - RESUS.ME - Cliff Reid

Happy new year everybody! 

The wind of change may bring some new blood to the site, as well as a potential podcast. Stay tuned....

Book Review - Hippocrates' Shadow - David Newman

David Newman MD is an emergency physician and Director of Clinical Research at Mt.Sinai School of Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine. 

In the book, Dr Newman discusses and exposes many current contoversies in current medical therapies, and challenges many of the the so called pseudo-axioms that have been passed on from generation to generation with the practise of eminence based medicine rather than evidence based medicine. Some of the topics discussed include the efficacy (or lack thereof) of screening mammography, the (over) use of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections, as well as the fallibility of the medical clinical exam, and diagnostic tools. He also intoduces the reader to the concept of the "number needed to treat" (NNT) when discussing the utility of various medical therapies / interventions. He illustrates his points further by using a series of anecdotes, which really serve to conceptualise his points quite perfectly. 

I had the pleasure of reading this brilliant book whilst flying from Australia to London over Christmas, and I must confess, I read it from start to finish in one sitting. I strongly recommend it, not just to emergency physicians or trainees, but any medical practitioner who interacts with patients regularly, as well as medical students. 

Hippocrates' Shadow: Secrets from the House of Medicine, David Newman

SMART EM

TheNNT

Diagnosis & Management Emergency Medicine - Review

 

This is the 6th edition of the concise small text on emergency medicine, including the 2010 ALS guidelines. 

Cadogan's influence on this text is obvious, as it is so logically structured, and easy to read. This book is designed to be carried, and is a must for any trainee in emergency medicine, as well as junior trainees who maybe rotating through the emergency department from other specialties.

It covers a wide range of emergency topics across the breadth and depth of the specialty, and does not lose the reader in long paragraphs of prose, rather it is succinct, practical, and easily accessible in the chaotic environment that is the emergency room. This is certainly not a "sit on your shelf at home" type of textbook, and I've been carrying it around at work over the last few days, testing it in various situations.

Extra resources are available on the excellent Life in The Fast Lane website, which is also run by Mike Cadogan. 

It has been my pleasure to read, and happy to recommend this book to junior trainees in the ED.