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500 Women in Medicine: Part I
Ms. Gerull and Ms. Loe are third-year medical students at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Their aim is to create a network of support and advancement for women in medicine. 500 Women in Medicine is a pod of the organization 500 Women Scientists.
In this episode, Nick Andrews speaks with the two innovators about their motivation to found this organization.
Correction, 3/12/19: An earlier version of this article misstated Kate Gerull's name.
Ms. Gerull and Ms. Loe are third-year medical students at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Their aim is to create a network of support and advancement for women in medicine. 500 Women in Medicine is a pod of the organization 500 Women Scientists.
In this episode, Nick Andrews speaks with the two innovators about their motivation to found this organization.
Correction, 3/12/19: An earlier version of this article misstated Kate Gerull's name.
Ms. Gerull and Ms. Loe are third-year medical students at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Their aim is to create a network of support and advancement for women in medicine. 500 Women in Medicine is a pod of the organization 500 Women Scientists.
In this episode, Nick Andrews speaks with the two innovators about their motivation to found this organization.
Correction, 3/12/19: An earlier version of this article misstated Kate Gerull's name.
Michigan Medicine launches effort to make wellness a cultural norm
CORONADO, CALIF. – Officials at staff, and learners.
“If you look long and hard at your hospitals, health centers, and medical schools, you would find incidences of depression, near-miss suicide, opioid addiction, substance abuse addictions, and suicide,” Carol R. Bradford, MD, said at the Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting. “Another component of this is that we all struggle with our work or learning communities where people don’t take care of each other. People don’t treat each other with respect and civility. Promoting a healthy and civil work environment are essential components of a supportive environment.”
According to Dr. Bradford, executive vice dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the complexities and stress of the health care environment compromises the well-being of its workforce with a myriad of time-consuming tasks, including navigating electronic records and ever-populating email inboxes. “We are all connected to devices 24/7, and it has become more and more difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance,” Dr. Bradford said. “The more accepted term now is integration, because it’s almost impossible to achieve balance. Burnout and other physical and health problems are the result of all of these challenges.”
In late 2017, she and her colleagues used two different validated survey questionnaires to assess the health of Michigan Medicine faculty physicians. They found that about 40% of faculty members in both clinical and basic science departments met criteria for burnout. The top 10 stressors based on the survey were email, clerical activity, time worked outside of regular hours, workload time pressure, work expectations, insufficient time for meaningful activities, in-basket messages, lack of decisional transparency, inadequate compensation, and too many work hours. The top 10 coping strategies were finding meaning in work, using all vacation time, paying attention to healthy/balanced eating, engaging in exercise, seek personal/professional balance, protecting time away from work, protecting sleep time, using a social support network, nurturing spiritual aspects, and engaging in recreation or hobbies.
Results of the survey prompted development of a task force to examine wellness and civility at Michigan Medicine, and to devise strategies and tactics to conquer these challenges. “The goal is to help all human beings who are suffering in our work environment,” said Dr. Bradford, who is also chief academic officer for Michigan Medicine. “What we learned initially is that there is a bit of an overlap. Some lack of wellness is due to a lack of civility, but there are wellness issues and civility issues that are independent of one another.”
Members of the task force formulated several recommendations, the first being to create a Michigan Medicine Wellness Office. Dr. Bradford is currently negotiating with a finalist to serve as its faculty director. She characterized the office as a “hub and spoke” model that will partner with existing entities, including human resources, the office of medical student education, the program in biological sciences, graduate medical education, the office of health equality and inclusion, the office of clinical affairs, and the office of counseling and workplace resilience. “The idea is to create a strategic wellness plan,” said Dr. Bradford, who is also a professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery. “One key strategy is to endorse the health and well-being of our faculty, staff, and learners as a core value and cultural norm of Michigan Medicine. In other words, the leadership has to make health and well-being a priority and a value.”
Another goal of the office is to improve the overall workplace environment and experience of Michigan Medicine’s faculty, staff, and learners. “You’re not going to have a well workplace if people are not treating each other with respect,” she said at the meeting, jointly sponsored by the Triological Society and the American College of Surgeons. “One of the many challenges is that there is great stigma in our profession for those who are suffering from mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, depression, and perhaps substance abuse. We need to reduce the stigma, because it’s very dangerous if people who are struggling are unwilling to seek help. We don’t ask people that we supervise or work with how they’re doing, so we have adopted an optional wellness check-in that is incorporated into mid-year and annual evaluations for faculty, staff, and learners to enable leaders to address any challenges that may arise.” In addition, a group of residents is piloting the use of meditation and mindfulness applications such as MoodGym and Headspace to see if they affect resident wellness.
Ultimately, Dr. Bradford and her associates plan to use a standardized benchmark instrument to measure well-being, and include the measure in the institutional performance dashboard. “Administrative burden is a growing problem,” she said. “We’re going to address this for health care professionals, particularly as it relates to the electronic medical record. Our primary care colleagues sometimes spend as many hours outside of clinic documenting as they do in clinic. We want to develop and implement strategies to lessen or remove this burden in order to improve provider efficiency and satisfaction.”
In the course of helping to develop the wellness initiative, Dr. Bradford said that she learned the importance of addressing moral distress in the workplace. “We sort of lose our humanity if we don’t show emotion when tragedies happen. There is really good literature around terminal event debriefings, so if somebody dies unexpectedly in the operating room or in the CT scanner, rather than just walking away and pretending nothing happened, we’re supposed to pause and gather, and reflect on the sadness of the loss. Because if we don’t grieve our losses we become more like machines than human beings. It’s important to provide emotional support for all individuals involved.”
She reported having no relevant financial disclosures.
CORONADO, CALIF. – Officials at staff, and learners.
“If you look long and hard at your hospitals, health centers, and medical schools, you would find incidences of depression, near-miss suicide, opioid addiction, substance abuse addictions, and suicide,” Carol R. Bradford, MD, said at the Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting. “Another component of this is that we all struggle with our work or learning communities where people don’t take care of each other. People don’t treat each other with respect and civility. Promoting a healthy and civil work environment are essential components of a supportive environment.”
According to Dr. Bradford, executive vice dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the complexities and stress of the health care environment compromises the well-being of its workforce with a myriad of time-consuming tasks, including navigating electronic records and ever-populating email inboxes. “We are all connected to devices 24/7, and it has become more and more difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance,” Dr. Bradford said. “The more accepted term now is integration, because it’s almost impossible to achieve balance. Burnout and other physical and health problems are the result of all of these challenges.”
In late 2017, she and her colleagues used two different validated survey questionnaires to assess the health of Michigan Medicine faculty physicians. They found that about 40% of faculty members in both clinical and basic science departments met criteria for burnout. The top 10 stressors based on the survey were email, clerical activity, time worked outside of regular hours, workload time pressure, work expectations, insufficient time for meaningful activities, in-basket messages, lack of decisional transparency, inadequate compensation, and too many work hours. The top 10 coping strategies were finding meaning in work, using all vacation time, paying attention to healthy/balanced eating, engaging in exercise, seek personal/professional balance, protecting time away from work, protecting sleep time, using a social support network, nurturing spiritual aspects, and engaging in recreation or hobbies.
Results of the survey prompted development of a task force to examine wellness and civility at Michigan Medicine, and to devise strategies and tactics to conquer these challenges. “The goal is to help all human beings who are suffering in our work environment,” said Dr. Bradford, who is also chief academic officer for Michigan Medicine. “What we learned initially is that there is a bit of an overlap. Some lack of wellness is due to a lack of civility, but there are wellness issues and civility issues that are independent of one another.”
Members of the task force formulated several recommendations, the first being to create a Michigan Medicine Wellness Office. Dr. Bradford is currently negotiating with a finalist to serve as its faculty director. She characterized the office as a “hub and spoke” model that will partner with existing entities, including human resources, the office of medical student education, the program in biological sciences, graduate medical education, the office of health equality and inclusion, the office of clinical affairs, and the office of counseling and workplace resilience. “The idea is to create a strategic wellness plan,” said Dr. Bradford, who is also a professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery. “One key strategy is to endorse the health and well-being of our faculty, staff, and learners as a core value and cultural norm of Michigan Medicine. In other words, the leadership has to make health and well-being a priority and a value.”
Another goal of the office is to improve the overall workplace environment and experience of Michigan Medicine’s faculty, staff, and learners. “You’re not going to have a well workplace if people are not treating each other with respect,” she said at the meeting, jointly sponsored by the Triological Society and the American College of Surgeons. “One of the many challenges is that there is great stigma in our profession for those who are suffering from mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, depression, and perhaps substance abuse. We need to reduce the stigma, because it’s very dangerous if people who are struggling are unwilling to seek help. We don’t ask people that we supervise or work with how they’re doing, so we have adopted an optional wellness check-in that is incorporated into mid-year and annual evaluations for faculty, staff, and learners to enable leaders to address any challenges that may arise.” In addition, a group of residents is piloting the use of meditation and mindfulness applications such as MoodGym and Headspace to see if they affect resident wellness.
Ultimately, Dr. Bradford and her associates plan to use a standardized benchmark instrument to measure well-being, and include the measure in the institutional performance dashboard. “Administrative burden is a growing problem,” she said. “We’re going to address this for health care professionals, particularly as it relates to the electronic medical record. Our primary care colleagues sometimes spend as many hours outside of clinic documenting as they do in clinic. We want to develop and implement strategies to lessen or remove this burden in order to improve provider efficiency and satisfaction.”
In the course of helping to develop the wellness initiative, Dr. Bradford said that she learned the importance of addressing moral distress in the workplace. “We sort of lose our humanity if we don’t show emotion when tragedies happen. There is really good literature around terminal event debriefings, so if somebody dies unexpectedly in the operating room or in the CT scanner, rather than just walking away and pretending nothing happened, we’re supposed to pause and gather, and reflect on the sadness of the loss. Because if we don’t grieve our losses we become more like machines than human beings. It’s important to provide emotional support for all individuals involved.”
She reported having no relevant financial disclosures.
CORONADO, CALIF. – Officials at staff, and learners.
“If you look long and hard at your hospitals, health centers, and medical schools, you would find incidences of depression, near-miss suicide, opioid addiction, substance abuse addictions, and suicide,” Carol R. Bradford, MD, said at the Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting. “Another component of this is that we all struggle with our work or learning communities where people don’t take care of each other. People don’t treat each other with respect and civility. Promoting a healthy and civil work environment are essential components of a supportive environment.”
According to Dr. Bradford, executive vice dean for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the complexities and stress of the health care environment compromises the well-being of its workforce with a myriad of time-consuming tasks, including navigating electronic records and ever-populating email inboxes. “We are all connected to devices 24/7, and it has become more and more difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance,” Dr. Bradford said. “The more accepted term now is integration, because it’s almost impossible to achieve balance. Burnout and other physical and health problems are the result of all of these challenges.”
In late 2017, she and her colleagues used two different validated survey questionnaires to assess the health of Michigan Medicine faculty physicians. They found that about 40% of faculty members in both clinical and basic science departments met criteria for burnout. The top 10 stressors based on the survey were email, clerical activity, time worked outside of regular hours, workload time pressure, work expectations, insufficient time for meaningful activities, in-basket messages, lack of decisional transparency, inadequate compensation, and too many work hours. The top 10 coping strategies were finding meaning in work, using all vacation time, paying attention to healthy/balanced eating, engaging in exercise, seek personal/professional balance, protecting time away from work, protecting sleep time, using a social support network, nurturing spiritual aspects, and engaging in recreation or hobbies.
Results of the survey prompted development of a task force to examine wellness and civility at Michigan Medicine, and to devise strategies and tactics to conquer these challenges. “The goal is to help all human beings who are suffering in our work environment,” said Dr. Bradford, who is also chief academic officer for Michigan Medicine. “What we learned initially is that there is a bit of an overlap. Some lack of wellness is due to a lack of civility, but there are wellness issues and civility issues that are independent of one another.”
Members of the task force formulated several recommendations, the first being to create a Michigan Medicine Wellness Office. Dr. Bradford is currently negotiating with a finalist to serve as its faculty director. She characterized the office as a “hub and spoke” model that will partner with existing entities, including human resources, the office of medical student education, the program in biological sciences, graduate medical education, the office of health equality and inclusion, the office of clinical affairs, and the office of counseling and workplace resilience. “The idea is to create a strategic wellness plan,” said Dr. Bradford, who is also a professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery. “One key strategy is to endorse the health and well-being of our faculty, staff, and learners as a core value and cultural norm of Michigan Medicine. In other words, the leadership has to make health and well-being a priority and a value.”
Another goal of the office is to improve the overall workplace environment and experience of Michigan Medicine’s faculty, staff, and learners. “You’re not going to have a well workplace if people are not treating each other with respect,” she said at the meeting, jointly sponsored by the Triological Society and the American College of Surgeons. “One of the many challenges is that there is great stigma in our profession for those who are suffering from mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, depression, and perhaps substance abuse. We need to reduce the stigma, because it’s very dangerous if people who are struggling are unwilling to seek help. We don’t ask people that we supervise or work with how they’re doing, so we have adopted an optional wellness check-in that is incorporated into mid-year and annual evaluations for faculty, staff, and learners to enable leaders to address any challenges that may arise.” In addition, a group of residents is piloting the use of meditation and mindfulness applications such as MoodGym and Headspace to see if they affect resident wellness.
Ultimately, Dr. Bradford and her associates plan to use a standardized benchmark instrument to measure well-being, and include the measure in the institutional performance dashboard. “Administrative burden is a growing problem,” she said. “We’re going to address this for health care professionals, particularly as it relates to the electronic medical record. Our primary care colleagues sometimes spend as many hours outside of clinic documenting as they do in clinic. We want to develop and implement strategies to lessen or remove this burden in order to improve provider efficiency and satisfaction.”
In the course of helping to develop the wellness initiative, Dr. Bradford said that she learned the importance of addressing moral distress in the workplace. “We sort of lose our humanity if we don’t show emotion when tragedies happen. There is really good literature around terminal event debriefings, so if somebody dies unexpectedly in the operating room or in the CT scanner, rather than just walking away and pretending nothing happened, we’re supposed to pause and gather, and reflect on the sadness of the loss. Because if we don’t grieve our losses we become more like machines than human beings. It’s important to provide emotional support for all individuals involved.”
She reported having no relevant financial disclosures.
EXPERT ANALYSIS FROM THE TRIOLOGICAL CSM
The ongoing issue of gender disparities in interventional cardiology
As gender disparities persist in interventional cardiology, a new survey is shedding light on what is keeping women away from the field.
With women representing only 9% of interventional cardiologists in the United States as of 2017, researchers under the direction of the American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Leadership Council sought to asses the perspectives of fellows-in-training (FIT) regarding the factors influencing their cardiology subspecialty decisions.
A total of 574 FIT completed the survey, with 190 respondents anticipating pursuit of a career in interventional cardiology. The results of the survey were published online in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. According to the report, unlike other studies that looked at gender disparities in interventional cardiology that focused on the training (residency) or later (practicing cardiologists), this is the first to look at the time when the decision is made during general cardiology fellowship.
The goal of the survey was “to try to understand in the current realm of our millennials who are studying and are in fellowship and in training and in the trenches, what is dissuading them to be in the subspecialty of interventional cardiology,” Roxana Mehran, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and coauthor of the study, said in an interview.
Lead author Celina Yong, MD, and her colleagues wrote in their report on the survey that women “were more likely to express interest in all other cardiovascular specialties (general/clinical cardiology, advanced imaging, heart failure/transplant, adult congenital, and other), with the exception of electrophysiology (13% women vs. 87% men, P = .001).”
Researchers analyzed the 504 remaining survey responses after excluding those considering electrophysiology to get a better understanding about the influencing factors related to the decision to pursue interventional cardiology.
“Logistic regression of all demographic characteristics revealed that male sex was the most significant predictor of a career choice in interventional cardiology [odds ratio, 3.98; P less than 0.001],” the authors noted.
All respondents who intended to pursue a career in interventional cardiology had a list of 15 options to select the reasons for choosing this path. The top five, in descending order, were the opportunity to pursue hands-on procedures, personal interest in the specialty subject area, the opportunity for immediate gratification or sense of accomplishment, the thrill of treating ill patients in critical situations, and having mentors or role models the respondent identified with.
“When disaggregated by gender, there were six attributes that were significantly different between men and women in terms of reasons for pursuing” interventional cardiology, the authors stated. “Men were more likely to be driven by innovation in the field, importance of being an expert, likelihood of employment after completion of training, financial advantages, and prestige. Women were more likely to be driven by having a female mentor or role model.”
For those not pursuing a career in interventional cardiology, the top five reasons, in descending order, were an uncontrollable or unpredictable lifestyle, concern over long work hours and poor work/life balance, greater interest in another field, a desire for different type of patient contact, and wanting to have children in the next 5 years.
“There were seven attributes identified that negatively influenced IC choice differently by sex,” noted Dr. Yong, of VA Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Center, and her colleagues. “Women were more likely to be negatively influenced by all seven of these factors compared to men (in descending order)”:
1) Greater interest in another field.
2) Little flexibility in job prospects/opportunities over a lifetime.
3) Physically demanding nature of job (e.g., wearing heavy lead).
4) Radiation exposure concerns during childbearing.
5) “Old boys club” culture.
6) Lack of female role models.
7) Gender discrimination or harassment.
Dr. Mehran said that despite some limitations, the survey results were not surprising.
“Unfortunately, surveys are very subjective,” she said. Also, one can question how biased some of these questions are. “But nonetheless, I think the result is very similar to what we had expected and have been talking about.”
She noted that the subspecialty of interventional cardiology needs to be more family friendly.
“I think we are going to lose a lot of good men also who are not choosing interventional cardiology,” she said. “There is no question that we have to think about how we can enhance and improve and pave the way for men and women, but mostly women because there are hardly any women and that’s important. The family friendly environment is very, very important in interventional cardiology.”
The patriarchal culture is another area that needs to be addressed, she said.
“I feel that, hopefully, that’s a perception and not much of a reality,” Dr. Mehran said, though she did note that there are plenty of examples where female doctors do not get shown the same level of respect their male counterparts do. She noted, for example, at scientific meetings, when a woman is on a panel and speaking, audience members can be seen tuning out, using it as opportunity to look at phones. Sometimes the women on the panels are not even referred to as “doctor.”
“I think we have to have a standard that those kinds of things will not be tolerated, that people will be called out if they didn’t do the extra work to find the best women for those important panels and leadership roles. There has to be a code of conduct that is equal and gender neutral,” she said, adding: “I think we are trying to work very hard to equalize the playing field but we have to come up with solutions.”
To that end, Dr. Mehran created a not-for-profit organization, Women As One, to tackle these gender disparities.
“We are really looking for solutions,” she said. “We will hold several think tanks with key opinion leaders, men and women, to come up with how best can academic organizations make sure that there is gender equality, good representation, and no discrimination on the basis of sex. ... We have to come up with solutions. Otherwise we just keep showing the same statistics over and over again and its not improving.”
SOURCE: JACC: Cardiovasc Interven. 2019 Jan; doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2018.09.036
As gender disparities persist in interventional cardiology, a new survey is shedding light on what is keeping women away from the field.
With women representing only 9% of interventional cardiologists in the United States as of 2017, researchers under the direction of the American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Leadership Council sought to asses the perspectives of fellows-in-training (FIT) regarding the factors influencing their cardiology subspecialty decisions.
A total of 574 FIT completed the survey, with 190 respondents anticipating pursuit of a career in interventional cardiology. The results of the survey were published online in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. According to the report, unlike other studies that looked at gender disparities in interventional cardiology that focused on the training (residency) or later (practicing cardiologists), this is the first to look at the time when the decision is made during general cardiology fellowship.
The goal of the survey was “to try to understand in the current realm of our millennials who are studying and are in fellowship and in training and in the trenches, what is dissuading them to be in the subspecialty of interventional cardiology,” Roxana Mehran, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and coauthor of the study, said in an interview.
Lead author Celina Yong, MD, and her colleagues wrote in their report on the survey that women “were more likely to express interest in all other cardiovascular specialties (general/clinical cardiology, advanced imaging, heart failure/transplant, adult congenital, and other), with the exception of electrophysiology (13% women vs. 87% men, P = .001).”
Researchers analyzed the 504 remaining survey responses after excluding those considering electrophysiology to get a better understanding about the influencing factors related to the decision to pursue interventional cardiology.
“Logistic regression of all demographic characteristics revealed that male sex was the most significant predictor of a career choice in interventional cardiology [odds ratio, 3.98; P less than 0.001],” the authors noted.
All respondents who intended to pursue a career in interventional cardiology had a list of 15 options to select the reasons for choosing this path. The top five, in descending order, were the opportunity to pursue hands-on procedures, personal interest in the specialty subject area, the opportunity for immediate gratification or sense of accomplishment, the thrill of treating ill patients in critical situations, and having mentors or role models the respondent identified with.
“When disaggregated by gender, there were six attributes that were significantly different between men and women in terms of reasons for pursuing” interventional cardiology, the authors stated. “Men were more likely to be driven by innovation in the field, importance of being an expert, likelihood of employment after completion of training, financial advantages, and prestige. Women were more likely to be driven by having a female mentor or role model.”
For those not pursuing a career in interventional cardiology, the top five reasons, in descending order, were an uncontrollable or unpredictable lifestyle, concern over long work hours and poor work/life balance, greater interest in another field, a desire for different type of patient contact, and wanting to have children in the next 5 years.
“There were seven attributes identified that negatively influenced IC choice differently by sex,” noted Dr. Yong, of VA Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Center, and her colleagues. “Women were more likely to be negatively influenced by all seven of these factors compared to men (in descending order)”:
1) Greater interest in another field.
2) Little flexibility in job prospects/opportunities over a lifetime.
3) Physically demanding nature of job (e.g., wearing heavy lead).
4) Radiation exposure concerns during childbearing.
5) “Old boys club” culture.
6) Lack of female role models.
7) Gender discrimination or harassment.
Dr. Mehran said that despite some limitations, the survey results were not surprising.
“Unfortunately, surveys are very subjective,” she said. Also, one can question how biased some of these questions are. “But nonetheless, I think the result is very similar to what we had expected and have been talking about.”
She noted that the subspecialty of interventional cardiology needs to be more family friendly.
“I think we are going to lose a lot of good men also who are not choosing interventional cardiology,” she said. “There is no question that we have to think about how we can enhance and improve and pave the way for men and women, but mostly women because there are hardly any women and that’s important. The family friendly environment is very, very important in interventional cardiology.”
The patriarchal culture is another area that needs to be addressed, she said.
“I feel that, hopefully, that’s a perception and not much of a reality,” Dr. Mehran said, though she did note that there are plenty of examples where female doctors do not get shown the same level of respect their male counterparts do. She noted, for example, at scientific meetings, when a woman is on a panel and speaking, audience members can be seen tuning out, using it as opportunity to look at phones. Sometimes the women on the panels are not even referred to as “doctor.”
“I think we have to have a standard that those kinds of things will not be tolerated, that people will be called out if they didn’t do the extra work to find the best women for those important panels and leadership roles. There has to be a code of conduct that is equal and gender neutral,” she said, adding: “I think we are trying to work very hard to equalize the playing field but we have to come up with solutions.”
To that end, Dr. Mehran created a not-for-profit organization, Women As One, to tackle these gender disparities.
“We are really looking for solutions,” she said. “We will hold several think tanks with key opinion leaders, men and women, to come up with how best can academic organizations make sure that there is gender equality, good representation, and no discrimination on the basis of sex. ... We have to come up with solutions. Otherwise we just keep showing the same statistics over and over again and its not improving.”
SOURCE: JACC: Cardiovasc Interven. 2019 Jan; doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2018.09.036
As gender disparities persist in interventional cardiology, a new survey is shedding light on what is keeping women away from the field.
With women representing only 9% of interventional cardiologists in the United States as of 2017, researchers under the direction of the American College of Cardiology Women in Cardiology Leadership Council sought to asses the perspectives of fellows-in-training (FIT) regarding the factors influencing their cardiology subspecialty decisions.
A total of 574 FIT completed the survey, with 190 respondents anticipating pursuit of a career in interventional cardiology. The results of the survey were published online in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. According to the report, unlike other studies that looked at gender disparities in interventional cardiology that focused on the training (residency) or later (practicing cardiologists), this is the first to look at the time when the decision is made during general cardiology fellowship.
The goal of the survey was “to try to understand in the current realm of our millennials who are studying and are in fellowship and in training and in the trenches, what is dissuading them to be in the subspecialty of interventional cardiology,” Roxana Mehran, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and coauthor of the study, said in an interview.
Lead author Celina Yong, MD, and her colleagues wrote in their report on the survey that women “were more likely to express interest in all other cardiovascular specialties (general/clinical cardiology, advanced imaging, heart failure/transplant, adult congenital, and other), with the exception of electrophysiology (13% women vs. 87% men, P = .001).”
Researchers analyzed the 504 remaining survey responses after excluding those considering electrophysiology to get a better understanding about the influencing factors related to the decision to pursue interventional cardiology.
“Logistic regression of all demographic characteristics revealed that male sex was the most significant predictor of a career choice in interventional cardiology [odds ratio, 3.98; P less than 0.001],” the authors noted.
All respondents who intended to pursue a career in interventional cardiology had a list of 15 options to select the reasons for choosing this path. The top five, in descending order, were the opportunity to pursue hands-on procedures, personal interest in the specialty subject area, the opportunity for immediate gratification or sense of accomplishment, the thrill of treating ill patients in critical situations, and having mentors or role models the respondent identified with.
“When disaggregated by gender, there were six attributes that were significantly different between men and women in terms of reasons for pursuing” interventional cardiology, the authors stated. “Men were more likely to be driven by innovation in the field, importance of being an expert, likelihood of employment after completion of training, financial advantages, and prestige. Women were more likely to be driven by having a female mentor or role model.”
For those not pursuing a career in interventional cardiology, the top five reasons, in descending order, were an uncontrollable or unpredictable lifestyle, concern over long work hours and poor work/life balance, greater interest in another field, a desire for different type of patient contact, and wanting to have children in the next 5 years.
“There were seven attributes identified that negatively influenced IC choice differently by sex,” noted Dr. Yong, of VA Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Center, and her colleagues. “Women were more likely to be negatively influenced by all seven of these factors compared to men (in descending order)”:
1) Greater interest in another field.
2) Little flexibility in job prospects/opportunities over a lifetime.
3) Physically demanding nature of job (e.g., wearing heavy lead).
4) Radiation exposure concerns during childbearing.
5) “Old boys club” culture.
6) Lack of female role models.
7) Gender discrimination or harassment.
Dr. Mehran said that despite some limitations, the survey results were not surprising.
“Unfortunately, surveys are very subjective,” she said. Also, one can question how biased some of these questions are. “But nonetheless, I think the result is very similar to what we had expected and have been talking about.”
She noted that the subspecialty of interventional cardiology needs to be more family friendly.
“I think we are going to lose a lot of good men also who are not choosing interventional cardiology,” she said. “There is no question that we have to think about how we can enhance and improve and pave the way for men and women, but mostly women because there are hardly any women and that’s important. The family friendly environment is very, very important in interventional cardiology.”
The patriarchal culture is another area that needs to be addressed, she said.
“I feel that, hopefully, that’s a perception and not much of a reality,” Dr. Mehran said, though she did note that there are plenty of examples where female doctors do not get shown the same level of respect their male counterparts do. She noted, for example, at scientific meetings, when a woman is on a panel and speaking, audience members can be seen tuning out, using it as opportunity to look at phones. Sometimes the women on the panels are not even referred to as “doctor.”
“I think we have to have a standard that those kinds of things will not be tolerated, that people will be called out if they didn’t do the extra work to find the best women for those important panels and leadership roles. There has to be a code of conduct that is equal and gender neutral,” she said, adding: “I think we are trying to work very hard to equalize the playing field but we have to come up with solutions.”
To that end, Dr. Mehran created a not-for-profit organization, Women As One, to tackle these gender disparities.
“We are really looking for solutions,” she said. “We will hold several think tanks with key opinion leaders, men and women, to come up with how best can academic organizations make sure that there is gender equality, good representation, and no discrimination on the basis of sex. ... We have to come up with solutions. Otherwise we just keep showing the same statistics over and over again and its not improving.”
SOURCE: JACC: Cardiovasc Interven. 2019 Jan; doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2018.09.036
FROM JACC: CARDIOVASCULAR INTERVENTIONS
Key clinical point: Men are more likely to pursue a career in interventional cardiology than are women.
Major finding: Logistical regression of all demographic characteristics revealed being male was the most significant predictor of a career choice in IC .
Study details: Researchers analyzed survey responses from 574 fellows-in-training to determine the likelihood of pursuing a career in interventional cardiology.
Disclosures: The study was funded by the American College of Cardiology and the Women in Cardiology section of the ACC. The authors reported no financial disclosures.
Source: JACC: Cardiovasc Interven. 2019 Jan. doi: 10.1016/j.jcin.2018.09.036.
Anxiety, depression, burnout higher in physician mothers caring for others at home
Physicians who are also mothers have a higher risk of burnout and mood and anxiety disorders if they are also caring for someone with a serious illness or disability outside of work, according to a cross-sectional survey reported in a letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Our findings highlight the additional caregiving responsibilities of some women physicians and the potential consequences of these additional responsibilities for their behavioral health and careers,” wrote Veronica Yank, MD, of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues.
“To reduce burnout and improve workforce retention, health care systems should develop new approaches to identify and address the needs of these physician mothers,” they wrote.
The researchers used data from a June-July 2016 online survey of respondents from the Physicians Moms Group online community. Approximately 16,059 members saw the posting for the survey, and 5,613 United States–based mothers participated.
Among the questions was one on non–work related caregiving responsibilities that asked whether the respondent provided “regular care or assistance to a friend or family member with a serious health problem, long-term illness or disability” during the last year. Other questions assessed alcohol and drug use, history of a mood or anxiety disorder, career satisfaction and burnout.
Among the 16.4% of respondents who had additional caregiving responsibilities outside of work for someone chronically or seriously ill or disabled, nearly half (48.3%) said they cared for ill parents, 16.9% for children or infants, 7.7% for a partner, and 28.6% for another relative. In addition, 16.7% of respondents had such caregiving responsibilities for more than one person.
The women with these extra caregiving responsibilities were 21% more likely to have a mood or anxiety disorder (adjusted relative risk, 1.21; P = .02) and 25% more likely to report burnout (aRR, 1.25; P = .007), compared with those who did not have such extra responsibilities.
There were no significant differences, however, on rates of career satisfaction, risky drinking behaviors, or substance abuse between physician mothers who did have additional caregiving responsibilities and those who did not.
Among the study’s limitations were its cross-sectional nature, use of a convenience sample that may not be generalizable or representative, and lack of data on fathers or non-parent physicians for comparison.
SOURCE: Yank V et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2019 Jan 28. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6411.
Physicians who are also mothers have a higher risk of burnout and mood and anxiety disorders if they are also caring for someone with a serious illness or disability outside of work, according to a cross-sectional survey reported in a letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Our findings highlight the additional caregiving responsibilities of some women physicians and the potential consequences of these additional responsibilities for their behavioral health and careers,” wrote Veronica Yank, MD, of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues.
“To reduce burnout and improve workforce retention, health care systems should develop new approaches to identify and address the needs of these physician mothers,” they wrote.
The researchers used data from a June-July 2016 online survey of respondents from the Physicians Moms Group online community. Approximately 16,059 members saw the posting for the survey, and 5,613 United States–based mothers participated.
Among the questions was one on non–work related caregiving responsibilities that asked whether the respondent provided “regular care or assistance to a friend or family member with a serious health problem, long-term illness or disability” during the last year. Other questions assessed alcohol and drug use, history of a mood or anxiety disorder, career satisfaction and burnout.
Among the 16.4% of respondents who had additional caregiving responsibilities outside of work for someone chronically or seriously ill or disabled, nearly half (48.3%) said they cared for ill parents, 16.9% for children or infants, 7.7% for a partner, and 28.6% for another relative. In addition, 16.7% of respondents had such caregiving responsibilities for more than one person.
The women with these extra caregiving responsibilities were 21% more likely to have a mood or anxiety disorder (adjusted relative risk, 1.21; P = .02) and 25% more likely to report burnout (aRR, 1.25; P = .007), compared with those who did not have such extra responsibilities.
There were no significant differences, however, on rates of career satisfaction, risky drinking behaviors, or substance abuse between physician mothers who did have additional caregiving responsibilities and those who did not.
Among the study’s limitations were its cross-sectional nature, use of a convenience sample that may not be generalizable or representative, and lack of data on fathers or non-parent physicians for comparison.
SOURCE: Yank V et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2019 Jan 28. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6411.
Physicians who are also mothers have a higher risk of burnout and mood and anxiety disorders if they are also caring for someone with a serious illness or disability outside of work, according to a cross-sectional survey reported in a letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Our findings highlight the additional caregiving responsibilities of some women physicians and the potential consequences of these additional responsibilities for their behavioral health and careers,” wrote Veronica Yank, MD, of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues.
“To reduce burnout and improve workforce retention, health care systems should develop new approaches to identify and address the needs of these physician mothers,” they wrote.
The researchers used data from a June-July 2016 online survey of respondents from the Physicians Moms Group online community. Approximately 16,059 members saw the posting for the survey, and 5,613 United States–based mothers participated.
Among the questions was one on non–work related caregiving responsibilities that asked whether the respondent provided “regular care or assistance to a friend or family member with a serious health problem, long-term illness or disability” during the last year. Other questions assessed alcohol and drug use, history of a mood or anxiety disorder, career satisfaction and burnout.
Among the 16.4% of respondents who had additional caregiving responsibilities outside of work for someone chronically or seriously ill or disabled, nearly half (48.3%) said they cared for ill parents, 16.9% for children or infants, 7.7% for a partner, and 28.6% for another relative. In addition, 16.7% of respondents had such caregiving responsibilities for more than one person.
The women with these extra caregiving responsibilities were 21% more likely to have a mood or anxiety disorder (adjusted relative risk, 1.21; P = .02) and 25% more likely to report burnout (aRR, 1.25; P = .007), compared with those who did not have such extra responsibilities.
There were no significant differences, however, on rates of career satisfaction, risky drinking behaviors, or substance abuse between physician mothers who did have additional caregiving responsibilities and those who did not.
Among the study’s limitations were its cross-sectional nature, use of a convenience sample that may not be generalizable or representative, and lack of data on fathers or non-parent physicians for comparison.
SOURCE: Yank V et al. JAMA Intern Med. 2019 Jan 28. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6411.
FROM JAMA INTERNAL MEDICINE
Key clinical point:
Major finding: Risk of anxiety and mood disorders is 21% higher and burnout is 25% higher among physician mothers with extra caregiving at home.
Study details: The findings are based on an online cross-sectional survey of 5,613 United States–based physician mothers conducted from June to July 2016.
Disclosures: No single entity directly funded the study, but the authors were supported by a variety of grants from foundations and the National Institutes of Health at the time it was completed. One coauthor is founder of Equity Quotient, a company that provides gender equity culture analytics for institutions, and another has consulted for Amgen and Vizient and receives stock options as an Equity Quotient advisory board member.
Source: Yank V et al. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2018 Jan 28. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6411.
Gametes for back pain, Alice in Wonderland syndrome, and liver-saving beer
A case of emission and injection
In what might win “Most Bizarre Attempt at Home Medicine” of 2019, a 33-year-old Irish man was hospitalized after injecting himself with his own semen … in his arm … multiple times … to reduce back pain. Whew. Does this count as holistic medicine?
This at-home remedy did not cure his back pain, shockingly enough. The patient instead developed a subcutaneous abscess after a year and a half of monthly intramuscular and intravenous injections, during which the semen has leaked into the soft tissues. He reported to a Dublin hospital after suffering severe back pain and a swollen arm, and eventually revealed to doctors his miracle cure.
The doctors did some Googling and found studies where rats and rabbits were injected with semen – possibly the research that inspired this trailblazer. Or, possibly, this was just an extreme case of reduce, reuse, and recycle.
In case you’re concerned, the man was given a course of more traditional medicine, and his back pain improved greatly. The patient chose to discharge himself before doctors could drain the “local collection” – perhaps he was proud of his work.
Down the rabbit hole
Imagine sitting at your computer when suddenly the icons begin to move off the screen and hover directly in front of your eyes. Your first thought might be that someone spiked your morning coffee with acid – and you’re not far off.
This curious occurrence happened to a 54-year-old man who was diagnosed with the rare perceptual disorder Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS). AIWS causes people to develop a misperception of their body or surrounding space, and can be caused by a number of things, including migraine.
In this case, the man’s LSD-like visions were caused by a glioblastoma in the left temporal-occipital region of the brain. Tumors there can interfere with spatial perception, hence the temporary trip down the rabbit hole for this patient. After chemotherapy and radiation, the tumor was defeated, and the patient is back to feeling happier than the Mad Hatter at a tea party.
Must have been some party
On Dec. 25 in the Vietnamese province of Quang Tri, a 48-year-old man was taken to a hospital with a case of alcohol poisoning. Specifically, his body contained more than 1,000 times the recommended limit of methanol.
While the two types of alcohol, ethanol and methanol, are both toxic to the human body to some degree, the liver processes methanol differently and more slowly, making it far more dangerous than ethanol, the key ingredient in commercially available alcoholic beverages. Methanol is found in bootleg liquor and in such products as gasoline, paint, ink, and cleaning products. It can cause blindness, nervous system depression, and death.
However, there is a happy ending to this story. To save their patient’s life, his doctors hit upon an ingenious solution – one that would make Homer Simpson proud.
They administered cans of beer.
When the man was admitted, the doctors immediately gave him 3 cans’ worth, and then transfused an additional 12 at the rate of 1 can per hour. The liver will always prioritize processing ethanol over methanol. By feeding the patient a steady stream of relatively friendly and ethanol-rich beer, the doctors had enough time to perform dialysis and remove the methanol from the man’s system.
So, as Homer himself might declare, here’s to alcohol – truly the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.
A mistake of the bloody type
Nurse: Mr. Smeggins, I need to clear up some of the answers on your new-patient information form.
Patient: I filled the whole thing out, didn’t I?
Nurse: You did, but a couple of your responses are less than helpful. You do realize that “Helvetica” is not a blood type, right?
Patient: I took a stab at it.
Nurse: You’re not the only one. It turns out that 43% of adults don’t know their blood type, and 62% don’t know their cholesterol level, according to a recent survey by Quest Diagnostics. The 1,004 respondents were more likely to know their bank account balances (75%) or their wifi passwords (74%).
Patient: Hey, that’s right! Mine is Earwiglover122.
Nurse: Great. And can I assume that you’re one of the 30% or so supposedly Web-savvy millennials (ages 20-37 years) who keep lab results in a filing cabinet at home?
Patient: Actually, I have a pile for stuff like that.
Nurse: Fine. Now about your other answers. When we asked about sex, we were not looking for “just last night.”
A case of emission and injection
In what might win “Most Bizarre Attempt at Home Medicine” of 2019, a 33-year-old Irish man was hospitalized after injecting himself with his own semen … in his arm … multiple times … to reduce back pain. Whew. Does this count as holistic medicine?
This at-home remedy did not cure his back pain, shockingly enough. The patient instead developed a subcutaneous abscess after a year and a half of monthly intramuscular and intravenous injections, during which the semen has leaked into the soft tissues. He reported to a Dublin hospital after suffering severe back pain and a swollen arm, and eventually revealed to doctors his miracle cure.
The doctors did some Googling and found studies where rats and rabbits were injected with semen – possibly the research that inspired this trailblazer. Or, possibly, this was just an extreme case of reduce, reuse, and recycle.
In case you’re concerned, the man was given a course of more traditional medicine, and his back pain improved greatly. The patient chose to discharge himself before doctors could drain the “local collection” – perhaps he was proud of his work.
Down the rabbit hole
Imagine sitting at your computer when suddenly the icons begin to move off the screen and hover directly in front of your eyes. Your first thought might be that someone spiked your morning coffee with acid – and you’re not far off.
This curious occurrence happened to a 54-year-old man who was diagnosed with the rare perceptual disorder Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS). AIWS causes people to develop a misperception of their body or surrounding space, and can be caused by a number of things, including migraine.
In this case, the man’s LSD-like visions were caused by a glioblastoma in the left temporal-occipital region of the brain. Tumors there can interfere with spatial perception, hence the temporary trip down the rabbit hole for this patient. After chemotherapy and radiation, the tumor was defeated, and the patient is back to feeling happier than the Mad Hatter at a tea party.
Must have been some party
On Dec. 25 in the Vietnamese province of Quang Tri, a 48-year-old man was taken to a hospital with a case of alcohol poisoning. Specifically, his body contained more than 1,000 times the recommended limit of methanol.
While the two types of alcohol, ethanol and methanol, are both toxic to the human body to some degree, the liver processes methanol differently and more slowly, making it far more dangerous than ethanol, the key ingredient in commercially available alcoholic beverages. Methanol is found in bootleg liquor and in such products as gasoline, paint, ink, and cleaning products. It can cause blindness, nervous system depression, and death.
However, there is a happy ending to this story. To save their patient’s life, his doctors hit upon an ingenious solution – one that would make Homer Simpson proud.
They administered cans of beer.
When the man was admitted, the doctors immediately gave him 3 cans’ worth, and then transfused an additional 12 at the rate of 1 can per hour. The liver will always prioritize processing ethanol over methanol. By feeding the patient a steady stream of relatively friendly and ethanol-rich beer, the doctors had enough time to perform dialysis and remove the methanol from the man’s system.
So, as Homer himself might declare, here’s to alcohol – truly the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.
A mistake of the bloody type
Nurse: Mr. Smeggins, I need to clear up some of the answers on your new-patient information form.
Patient: I filled the whole thing out, didn’t I?
Nurse: You did, but a couple of your responses are less than helpful. You do realize that “Helvetica” is not a blood type, right?
Patient: I took a stab at it.
Nurse: You’re not the only one. It turns out that 43% of adults don’t know their blood type, and 62% don’t know their cholesterol level, according to a recent survey by Quest Diagnostics. The 1,004 respondents were more likely to know their bank account balances (75%) or their wifi passwords (74%).
Patient: Hey, that’s right! Mine is Earwiglover122.
Nurse: Great. And can I assume that you’re one of the 30% or so supposedly Web-savvy millennials (ages 20-37 years) who keep lab results in a filing cabinet at home?
Patient: Actually, I have a pile for stuff like that.
Nurse: Fine. Now about your other answers. When we asked about sex, we were not looking for “just last night.”
A case of emission and injection
In what might win “Most Bizarre Attempt at Home Medicine” of 2019, a 33-year-old Irish man was hospitalized after injecting himself with his own semen … in his arm … multiple times … to reduce back pain. Whew. Does this count as holistic medicine?
This at-home remedy did not cure his back pain, shockingly enough. The patient instead developed a subcutaneous abscess after a year and a half of monthly intramuscular and intravenous injections, during which the semen has leaked into the soft tissues. He reported to a Dublin hospital after suffering severe back pain and a swollen arm, and eventually revealed to doctors his miracle cure.
The doctors did some Googling and found studies where rats and rabbits were injected with semen – possibly the research that inspired this trailblazer. Or, possibly, this was just an extreme case of reduce, reuse, and recycle.
In case you’re concerned, the man was given a course of more traditional medicine, and his back pain improved greatly. The patient chose to discharge himself before doctors could drain the “local collection” – perhaps he was proud of his work.
Down the rabbit hole
Imagine sitting at your computer when suddenly the icons begin to move off the screen and hover directly in front of your eyes. Your first thought might be that someone spiked your morning coffee with acid – and you’re not far off.
This curious occurrence happened to a 54-year-old man who was diagnosed with the rare perceptual disorder Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS). AIWS causes people to develop a misperception of their body or surrounding space, and can be caused by a number of things, including migraine.
In this case, the man’s LSD-like visions were caused by a glioblastoma in the left temporal-occipital region of the brain. Tumors there can interfere with spatial perception, hence the temporary trip down the rabbit hole for this patient. After chemotherapy and radiation, the tumor was defeated, and the patient is back to feeling happier than the Mad Hatter at a tea party.
Must have been some party
On Dec. 25 in the Vietnamese province of Quang Tri, a 48-year-old man was taken to a hospital with a case of alcohol poisoning. Specifically, his body contained more than 1,000 times the recommended limit of methanol.
While the two types of alcohol, ethanol and methanol, are both toxic to the human body to some degree, the liver processes methanol differently and more slowly, making it far more dangerous than ethanol, the key ingredient in commercially available alcoholic beverages. Methanol is found in bootleg liquor and in such products as gasoline, paint, ink, and cleaning products. It can cause blindness, nervous system depression, and death.
However, there is a happy ending to this story. To save their patient’s life, his doctors hit upon an ingenious solution – one that would make Homer Simpson proud.
They administered cans of beer.
When the man was admitted, the doctors immediately gave him 3 cans’ worth, and then transfused an additional 12 at the rate of 1 can per hour. The liver will always prioritize processing ethanol over methanol. By feeding the patient a steady stream of relatively friendly and ethanol-rich beer, the doctors had enough time to perform dialysis and remove the methanol from the man’s system.
So, as Homer himself might declare, here’s to alcohol – truly the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.
A mistake of the bloody type
Nurse: Mr. Smeggins, I need to clear up some of the answers on your new-patient information form.
Patient: I filled the whole thing out, didn’t I?
Nurse: You did, but a couple of your responses are less than helpful. You do realize that “Helvetica” is not a blood type, right?
Patient: I took a stab at it.
Nurse: You’re not the only one. It turns out that 43% of adults don’t know their blood type, and 62% don’t know their cholesterol level, according to a recent survey by Quest Diagnostics. The 1,004 respondents were more likely to know their bank account balances (75%) or their wifi passwords (74%).
Patient: Hey, that’s right! Mine is Earwiglover122.
Nurse: Great. And can I assume that you’re one of the 30% or so supposedly Web-savvy millennials (ages 20-37 years) who keep lab results in a filing cabinet at home?
Patient: Actually, I have a pile for stuff like that.
Nurse: Fine. Now about your other answers. When we asked about sex, we were not looking for “just last night.”
Violence against women: Gail Robinson
Dr. Robinson is professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology and professor of equality, gender, and population at the University of Toronto. She’s also chair of GAP’s Committee on Gender & Mental Health. In this episode, Dr. Robinson delves into strategies for interacting with survivors of violence, the roots of the “Me Too” movement, as well as rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States.
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Apple Podcasts
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Dr. Robinson is professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology and professor of equality, gender, and population at the University of Toronto. She’s also chair of GAP’s Committee on Gender & Mental Health. In this episode, Dr. Robinson delves into strategies for interacting with survivors of violence, the roots of the “Me Too” movement, as well as rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States.
Amazon
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Dr. Robinson is professor of psychiatry and obstetrics/gynecology and professor of equality, gender, and population at the University of Toronto. She’s also chair of GAP’s Committee on Gender & Mental Health. In this episode, Dr. Robinson delves into strategies for interacting with survivors of violence, the roots of the “Me Too” movement, as well as rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States.
Amazon
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Cyberbullied by anti-vaxxers: Monique Tello Part I
Dr. Tell wrote about her experience in a blog post where she opened up about how difficult the process has been, and how she has found support in a community of her colleagues.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Dr. Tell wrote about her experience in a blog post where she opened up about how difficult the process has been, and how she has found support in a community of her colleagues.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Dr. Tell wrote about her experience in a blog post where she opened up about how difficult the process has been, and how she has found support in a community of her colleagues.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Prescription puppy, China’s commode hospital, Hall of Fame diuretics
Prescription puppies
I’d like a script for a golden retriever who loves fetch and has a super sniffer, please. Turns out, man’s best friend can be especially friendly for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Dogs have been trained to detect seizures, lead the blind, and even call 9-1-1, and now they are increasingly being used as glycemia monitors for people with diabetes. Obviously, people don’t get a prescription for their helpful furry friends, but one can dream about an all-puppy pharmacy, right?
A recently published study took a look at how glycemia-alert dogs improve the quality of life of people living with type 1 diabetes, and assessed the reliability of the dogs to respond to hypo- and hyperglycemic episodes.
Researchers concluded that, overall, a trained pup’s response to these episodes is more sensitive than previously thought. In addition, researchers also found that 100% of the study participants were extremely good dogs.
Really selective hearing loss
A woman in China is experiencing something straight out of a movie – she woke up one morning and couldn’t hear men’s voices anymore. Some might say this is a tragic loss. Others might contend that she is living the dream.
The woman was diagnosed with reverse-slope hearing loss, a very rare type of hearing loss that makes the patient unable able to hear low-frequency sounds, such as a man’s voice. Only 1 in every 12,000 people with hearing loss has this kind, and it is most often caused by genetics.
In this case, the woman’s stress and extreme fatigue appear to be contributing factors to her newfound superpower. Her doctor expects her to make a full recovery, but I’d milk it for as long as possible: “What’s that? Something about the dishes, honey? Sorry I can’t hear what you’re saying!”
The epitome of crappy design
Here at MDedge News, we approve of all scatologically related humor, and the Guangxi International Zhuangyi Hospital in Nanning, China, certainly fits the bill. In an ode to the digestive system, the Chinese have built a hospital that bears an undeniable resemblance to a toilet.
The building is huge, spread out over 42 acres. The patients are contained in the multistory tank, while the medical departments line the outside of the massive bowl.
According to a local citizen, the hospital was designed this way so patients could go from the main section to the departments without carrying an umbrella. We hope it’s because they have an excellent gastroenterology department they want to show off.
Leaking the news: Hall of Fame edition
Can you name the ultimate prize for a life-saving achievement in medicine? You’re right, it is induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame!
And that’s just what’s about to happen to the inventors of thiazide diuretics. The NIHF just announced its class of 2019, and it includes pharmacologists John Baer and Karl H. Beyer Jr. and organic chemists Frederick Novello and James Sprague, who developed Diuril (chlorothiazide) while at Merck Sharp & Dohme in the 1950s. (Is it just us, or do you get the feeling that Don Draper and the rest of the Sterling Cooper crew must have handled the Diuril account?)
The honor is, unfortunately, posthumous for all four men, but they were around for the Lasker Foundation Special Public Health Award they received in 1975.
We here at LOTME can’t top either of these commendations, but there’s at least one hypertensive on the staff who will be thinking of these men and their achievement when he experiences his next forced diuresis.
Prescription puppies
I’d like a script for a golden retriever who loves fetch and has a super sniffer, please. Turns out, man’s best friend can be especially friendly for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Dogs have been trained to detect seizures, lead the blind, and even call 9-1-1, and now they are increasingly being used as glycemia monitors for people with diabetes. Obviously, people don’t get a prescription for their helpful furry friends, but one can dream about an all-puppy pharmacy, right?
A recently published study took a look at how glycemia-alert dogs improve the quality of life of people living with type 1 diabetes, and assessed the reliability of the dogs to respond to hypo- and hyperglycemic episodes.
Researchers concluded that, overall, a trained pup’s response to these episodes is more sensitive than previously thought. In addition, researchers also found that 100% of the study participants were extremely good dogs.
Really selective hearing loss
A woman in China is experiencing something straight out of a movie – she woke up one morning and couldn’t hear men’s voices anymore. Some might say this is a tragic loss. Others might contend that she is living the dream.
The woman was diagnosed with reverse-slope hearing loss, a very rare type of hearing loss that makes the patient unable able to hear low-frequency sounds, such as a man’s voice. Only 1 in every 12,000 people with hearing loss has this kind, and it is most often caused by genetics.
In this case, the woman’s stress and extreme fatigue appear to be contributing factors to her newfound superpower. Her doctor expects her to make a full recovery, but I’d milk it for as long as possible: “What’s that? Something about the dishes, honey? Sorry I can’t hear what you’re saying!”
The epitome of crappy design
Here at MDedge News, we approve of all scatologically related humor, and the Guangxi International Zhuangyi Hospital in Nanning, China, certainly fits the bill. In an ode to the digestive system, the Chinese have built a hospital that bears an undeniable resemblance to a toilet.
The building is huge, spread out over 42 acres. The patients are contained in the multistory tank, while the medical departments line the outside of the massive bowl.
According to a local citizen, the hospital was designed this way so patients could go from the main section to the departments without carrying an umbrella. We hope it’s because they have an excellent gastroenterology department they want to show off.
Leaking the news: Hall of Fame edition
Can you name the ultimate prize for a life-saving achievement in medicine? You’re right, it is induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame!
And that’s just what’s about to happen to the inventors of thiazide diuretics. The NIHF just announced its class of 2019, and it includes pharmacologists John Baer and Karl H. Beyer Jr. and organic chemists Frederick Novello and James Sprague, who developed Diuril (chlorothiazide) while at Merck Sharp & Dohme in the 1950s. (Is it just us, or do you get the feeling that Don Draper and the rest of the Sterling Cooper crew must have handled the Diuril account?)
The honor is, unfortunately, posthumous for all four men, but they were around for the Lasker Foundation Special Public Health Award they received in 1975.
We here at LOTME can’t top either of these commendations, but there’s at least one hypertensive on the staff who will be thinking of these men and their achievement when he experiences his next forced diuresis.
Prescription puppies
I’d like a script for a golden retriever who loves fetch and has a super sniffer, please. Turns out, man’s best friend can be especially friendly for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Dogs have been trained to detect seizures, lead the blind, and even call 9-1-1, and now they are increasingly being used as glycemia monitors for people with diabetes. Obviously, people don’t get a prescription for their helpful furry friends, but one can dream about an all-puppy pharmacy, right?
A recently published study took a look at how glycemia-alert dogs improve the quality of life of people living with type 1 diabetes, and assessed the reliability of the dogs to respond to hypo- and hyperglycemic episodes.
Researchers concluded that, overall, a trained pup’s response to these episodes is more sensitive than previously thought. In addition, researchers also found that 100% of the study participants were extremely good dogs.
Really selective hearing loss
A woman in China is experiencing something straight out of a movie – she woke up one morning and couldn’t hear men’s voices anymore. Some might say this is a tragic loss. Others might contend that she is living the dream.
The woman was diagnosed with reverse-slope hearing loss, a very rare type of hearing loss that makes the patient unable able to hear low-frequency sounds, such as a man’s voice. Only 1 in every 12,000 people with hearing loss has this kind, and it is most often caused by genetics.
In this case, the woman’s stress and extreme fatigue appear to be contributing factors to her newfound superpower. Her doctor expects her to make a full recovery, but I’d milk it for as long as possible: “What’s that? Something about the dishes, honey? Sorry I can’t hear what you’re saying!”
The epitome of crappy design
Here at MDedge News, we approve of all scatologically related humor, and the Guangxi International Zhuangyi Hospital in Nanning, China, certainly fits the bill. In an ode to the digestive system, the Chinese have built a hospital that bears an undeniable resemblance to a toilet.
The building is huge, spread out over 42 acres. The patients are contained in the multistory tank, while the medical departments line the outside of the massive bowl.
According to a local citizen, the hospital was designed this way so patients could go from the main section to the departments without carrying an umbrella. We hope it’s because they have an excellent gastroenterology department they want to show off.
Leaking the news: Hall of Fame edition
Can you name the ultimate prize for a life-saving achievement in medicine? You’re right, it is induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame!
And that’s just what’s about to happen to the inventors of thiazide diuretics. The NIHF just announced its class of 2019, and it includes pharmacologists John Baer and Karl H. Beyer Jr. and organic chemists Frederick Novello and James Sprague, who developed Diuril (chlorothiazide) while at Merck Sharp & Dohme in the 1950s. (Is it just us, or do you get the feeling that Don Draper and the rest of the Sterling Cooper crew must have handled the Diuril account?)
The honor is, unfortunately, posthumous for all four men, but they were around for the Lasker Foundation Special Public Health Award they received in 1975.
We here at LOTME can’t top either of these commendations, but there’s at least one hypertensive on the staff who will be thinking of these men and their achievement when he experiences his next forced diuresis.
Looking back to reflect on how far we’ve come
During the holiday break I took some time to organize a lot of old family pictures: deleting duplicates, merging those I pulled off my dad’s computer when he died (which was over 5 years ago), importing ones I took with old digital cameras that were in separate folders ... a bunch of stuff. Some were even childhood pics of me that had been scanned into digital formats. Lots of gigabytes. Lots of time spent watching the little “importing” wheel spin.
As I scrolled through them – literally 5,891 pics and 679 videos – I watched as it became more than a bunch of photos. I watched myself grow up, go through medical school, get married, raise a family. My hair went from brown to gray and receding. My kids went from toddlers to young adults about to leave for college.
It was the story of my life. Without meaning to, it’s what the pictures had become.
It was late at night, but I kept scrolling back and forth. My parents, wife, and others aged in front of me.
Looking in the mirror, or seeing others each day, we never notice the slow changes that time brings. You don’t really see it just thumbing through old photos, either.
But here, in the photos app (something entirely undreamed of in my childhood), I was watching it like it was a movie. Even childhood pictures of my parents. Them dating and getting married. Holding me after bringing me home from the hospital.
I’m certainly not the first to have these thoughts, nor will I be the last. We all go through life in a somewhat organized yet haphazard way, and only when looking backward do we really see how far we’ve come ... often realizing we’re past the halfway point.
Not that this is a bad thing. I mean, that’s life on Earth. It has its good and bad, and aging is part of the rules for all of us.
I suppose you could look at this in terms of our profession. We all (or at least most of us) start out as hospital patients. As we get older and become doctors, hopefully we need to see our own kind less often while at the same time seeing others as patients. As time goes by, most of us start to need to see doctors again, and as we retire and stop practicing medicine, we move back toward being patients ourselves.
For me, the pictures bring back memories and strike emotions in the way hearing or reading stories never can. They give new life to long-forgotten thoughts. Happy and sad, but overall a feeling of contentment that, so far, I feel like I’ve done more good than bad, more right than wrong.
I hope I always feel that way.
I hope everyone else does, too.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
During the holiday break I took some time to organize a lot of old family pictures: deleting duplicates, merging those I pulled off my dad’s computer when he died (which was over 5 years ago), importing ones I took with old digital cameras that were in separate folders ... a bunch of stuff. Some were even childhood pics of me that had been scanned into digital formats. Lots of gigabytes. Lots of time spent watching the little “importing” wheel spin.
As I scrolled through them – literally 5,891 pics and 679 videos – I watched as it became more than a bunch of photos. I watched myself grow up, go through medical school, get married, raise a family. My hair went from brown to gray and receding. My kids went from toddlers to young adults about to leave for college.
It was the story of my life. Without meaning to, it’s what the pictures had become.
It was late at night, but I kept scrolling back and forth. My parents, wife, and others aged in front of me.
Looking in the mirror, or seeing others each day, we never notice the slow changes that time brings. You don’t really see it just thumbing through old photos, either.
But here, in the photos app (something entirely undreamed of in my childhood), I was watching it like it was a movie. Even childhood pictures of my parents. Them dating and getting married. Holding me after bringing me home from the hospital.
I’m certainly not the first to have these thoughts, nor will I be the last. We all go through life in a somewhat organized yet haphazard way, and only when looking backward do we really see how far we’ve come ... often realizing we’re past the halfway point.
Not that this is a bad thing. I mean, that’s life on Earth. It has its good and bad, and aging is part of the rules for all of us.
I suppose you could look at this in terms of our profession. We all (or at least most of us) start out as hospital patients. As we get older and become doctors, hopefully we need to see our own kind less often while at the same time seeing others as patients. As time goes by, most of us start to need to see doctors again, and as we retire and stop practicing medicine, we move back toward being patients ourselves.
For me, the pictures bring back memories and strike emotions in the way hearing or reading stories never can. They give new life to long-forgotten thoughts. Happy and sad, but overall a feeling of contentment that, so far, I feel like I’ve done more good than bad, more right than wrong.
I hope I always feel that way.
I hope everyone else does, too.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
During the holiday break I took some time to organize a lot of old family pictures: deleting duplicates, merging those I pulled off my dad’s computer when he died (which was over 5 years ago), importing ones I took with old digital cameras that were in separate folders ... a bunch of stuff. Some were even childhood pics of me that had been scanned into digital formats. Lots of gigabytes. Lots of time spent watching the little “importing” wheel spin.
As I scrolled through them – literally 5,891 pics and 679 videos – I watched as it became more than a bunch of photos. I watched myself grow up, go through medical school, get married, raise a family. My hair went from brown to gray and receding. My kids went from toddlers to young adults about to leave for college.
It was the story of my life. Without meaning to, it’s what the pictures had become.
It was late at night, but I kept scrolling back and forth. My parents, wife, and others aged in front of me.
Looking in the mirror, or seeing others each day, we never notice the slow changes that time brings. You don’t really see it just thumbing through old photos, either.
But here, in the photos app (something entirely undreamed of in my childhood), I was watching it like it was a movie. Even childhood pictures of my parents. Them dating and getting married. Holding me after bringing me home from the hospital.
I’m certainly not the first to have these thoughts, nor will I be the last. We all go through life in a somewhat organized yet haphazard way, and only when looking backward do we really see how far we’ve come ... often realizing we’re past the halfway point.
Not that this is a bad thing. I mean, that’s life on Earth. It has its good and bad, and aging is part of the rules for all of us.
I suppose you could look at this in terms of our profession. We all (or at least most of us) start out as hospital patients. As we get older and become doctors, hopefully we need to see our own kind less often while at the same time seeing others as patients. As time goes by, most of us start to need to see doctors again, and as we retire and stop practicing medicine, we move back toward being patients ourselves.
For me, the pictures bring back memories and strike emotions in the way hearing or reading stories never can. They give new life to long-forgotten thoughts. Happy and sad, but overall a feeling of contentment that, so far, I feel like I’ve done more good than bad, more right than wrong.
I hope I always feel that way.
I hope everyone else does, too.
Dr. Block has a solo neurology practice in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Gout’s Golden Globe, resistance is fecal, eucalyptus eulogy
Eucalyptus eulogy
(“Taps” quietly plays in the background ... ) In some sad news, Quincy the diabetic koala has passed on to that great eucalyptus tree in the sky. The furry type 1 diabetic lived in San Diego, where he was recently fitted with a cutting-edge continuous glucose monitor (CGM). This allowed Quincy more time for his favorite activities (chewing and sleeping) and less time spent with pesky skin pricks.
Quincy died of pneumonia, and it is unclear whether his death was diabetes related. All we know is that he will be missed greatly. He was beloved by those with diabetes everywhere, animal or otherwise. Quincy’s successful CGM procedure also gives endocrinologists hope that the technology could eventually be used for similarly fragile humans, like babies. R.I.P., Quincy; we loved you. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to his favorite charity, the Drop Bear Awareness Association.
What’s Latin for ‘poop’?
The study of the human microbiota has become incredibly important in recent years, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it entails experimenting on poop. Remarkably, no one’s come up with a proper technical name for this unsavory activity. However, thanks to a collaboration between a gastroenterologist and a classics professor at the University of North Carolina, that deficiency is no more. You’ve met the in vivo and in vitro study. Now, please welcome the “in vimo” study!
Why in vimo? The term fecal or “in feco” might seem obvious. But the Latin root word never referred to poop, and if there’s one thing scientists can’t have, it’s improper Latin usage. The Romans, it turns out, had lots of words for poop. The root word of laetamen referred to fertility, richness, and happiness – a tempting prospect – but was mostly used to refer to farm animal dung. Merda mostly referred to smell or stench, and stercus shared the same root word as scatology, which refers to obscene literature. Fimus, which specifically refers to manure, was thus the most precise, and it was used by literary giants such as Livy, Virgil, and Tacitus. A clear winner, and the in vimo study flushed the rest of the competition away.
And just in case you think these researchers are no fun, the name they chose for the active enzymes collected from their in vimo samples? Poopernatants. Yes, even doctors enjoy a good poop joke.
The new Breakfast Club
Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Texas have collaborated to study something that most of us fear greatly: high school cliques. The researchers, who may or may not have peaked in high school, took a look at high school peer crowds and influences that form those tight-knit bonds that last all of 4 years.
The study found that most of the classic cliques – the jocks, the popular crowd, the brains, the stoners, the loners – are still alive and well in today’s American school system. However, at least one new group has emerged in the last decade: the “anime/manga fans.” Researchers noted that although schools have become much more diverse, racial and ethnic stereotypes are alive and well. Thank God we only have to do high school once.
Resistance is fecal
And now, just in case you were wondering how long it would take to put our newfound knowledge of “in vimo” to use, here comes a study that has “in vimo” written all over it (metaphorically speaking, of course).
Researchers in Sweden and Finland decided to take a look at antibiotic resistance genes in sewage, because “antibiotics consumed by humans and animals are released into the environment in urine and fecal material contained in treated wastewaters and sludge applied to land.” Then they compared the abundance of the mobile antibiotic resistance genes with the abundance of a human fecal pollution marker.
That marker – a virus that infects bacteria in human feces but is rare in other animals – was “highly correlated to the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in environmental samples,” they said in a separate written statement, which “indicates that fecal pollution can largely explain the increase in resistant bacteria often found in human-impacted environments.” The name of that marker, the virus found in feces, happens to be “crAssphage.” And yes, the A really is capitalized. Really. We are not making this up.
Gout wins a Golden Globe
Gout has a new poster girl: Great Britain’s Queen Anne. She’s been dead for more than 4 centuries, but a Hollywood version of this stout monarch is turning a famously royal affliction into the disease of the moment.
The credit goes to actress Olivia Colman, who just won a Golden Globe award for her brilliant performance in the earthy comedy “The Favourite.” Ms. Colman transforms the pain-wracked Queen Anne into a needy, manipulative, and loopy monarch who still manages to draw our sympathy.
Besides flummoxing American spell-checkers with its title, The Favourite glories in stretching the truth about the queen’s private life. But she really does seem to have had the “disease of kings,” which has long been linked to the rich, fatty diets enjoyed by blue bloods.
Now, there’s talk that high-protein, meat-friendly keto and paleo diets are boosting rates among the young. This theory got an airing last week in a New York Magazine article titled “Why Gout Is Making a Comeback.”
The truth may be more complicated. Over the last few years, researchers have cast doubt on the keto-leads-to-gout theory and suggested that fructose in sugar may be the real culprit. According to this hypothesis, gout afflicted British royals as they developed a communal sweet tooth during the early days of the sugar trade. Gout then spread to the general population as sugar became more accessible.
The gout debate will continue. As for Olivia Colman, she will soon grace smaller screens with her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s series “The Crown.”
QE II isn’t known for having suffered from any major diseases. But at her next checkup, we do think she should have that stiff upper lip looked at.
Eucalyptus eulogy
(“Taps” quietly plays in the background ... ) In some sad news, Quincy the diabetic koala has passed on to that great eucalyptus tree in the sky. The furry type 1 diabetic lived in San Diego, where he was recently fitted with a cutting-edge continuous glucose monitor (CGM). This allowed Quincy more time for his favorite activities (chewing and sleeping) and less time spent with pesky skin pricks.
Quincy died of pneumonia, and it is unclear whether his death was diabetes related. All we know is that he will be missed greatly. He was beloved by those with diabetes everywhere, animal or otherwise. Quincy’s successful CGM procedure also gives endocrinologists hope that the technology could eventually be used for similarly fragile humans, like babies. R.I.P., Quincy; we loved you. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to his favorite charity, the Drop Bear Awareness Association.
What’s Latin for ‘poop’?
The study of the human microbiota has become incredibly important in recent years, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it entails experimenting on poop. Remarkably, no one’s come up with a proper technical name for this unsavory activity. However, thanks to a collaboration between a gastroenterologist and a classics professor at the University of North Carolina, that deficiency is no more. You’ve met the in vivo and in vitro study. Now, please welcome the “in vimo” study!
Why in vimo? The term fecal or “in feco” might seem obvious. But the Latin root word never referred to poop, and if there’s one thing scientists can’t have, it’s improper Latin usage. The Romans, it turns out, had lots of words for poop. The root word of laetamen referred to fertility, richness, and happiness – a tempting prospect – but was mostly used to refer to farm animal dung. Merda mostly referred to smell or stench, and stercus shared the same root word as scatology, which refers to obscene literature. Fimus, which specifically refers to manure, was thus the most precise, and it was used by literary giants such as Livy, Virgil, and Tacitus. A clear winner, and the in vimo study flushed the rest of the competition away.
And just in case you think these researchers are no fun, the name they chose for the active enzymes collected from their in vimo samples? Poopernatants. Yes, even doctors enjoy a good poop joke.
The new Breakfast Club
Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Texas have collaborated to study something that most of us fear greatly: high school cliques. The researchers, who may or may not have peaked in high school, took a look at high school peer crowds and influences that form those tight-knit bonds that last all of 4 years.
The study found that most of the classic cliques – the jocks, the popular crowd, the brains, the stoners, the loners – are still alive and well in today’s American school system. However, at least one new group has emerged in the last decade: the “anime/manga fans.” Researchers noted that although schools have become much more diverse, racial and ethnic stereotypes are alive and well. Thank God we only have to do high school once.
Resistance is fecal
And now, just in case you were wondering how long it would take to put our newfound knowledge of “in vimo” to use, here comes a study that has “in vimo” written all over it (metaphorically speaking, of course).
Researchers in Sweden and Finland decided to take a look at antibiotic resistance genes in sewage, because “antibiotics consumed by humans and animals are released into the environment in urine and fecal material contained in treated wastewaters and sludge applied to land.” Then they compared the abundance of the mobile antibiotic resistance genes with the abundance of a human fecal pollution marker.
That marker – a virus that infects bacteria in human feces but is rare in other animals – was “highly correlated to the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in environmental samples,” they said in a separate written statement, which “indicates that fecal pollution can largely explain the increase in resistant bacteria often found in human-impacted environments.” The name of that marker, the virus found in feces, happens to be “crAssphage.” And yes, the A really is capitalized. Really. We are not making this up.
Gout wins a Golden Globe
Gout has a new poster girl: Great Britain’s Queen Anne. She’s been dead for more than 4 centuries, but a Hollywood version of this stout monarch is turning a famously royal affliction into the disease of the moment.
The credit goes to actress Olivia Colman, who just won a Golden Globe award for her brilliant performance in the earthy comedy “The Favourite.” Ms. Colman transforms the pain-wracked Queen Anne into a needy, manipulative, and loopy monarch who still manages to draw our sympathy.
Besides flummoxing American spell-checkers with its title, The Favourite glories in stretching the truth about the queen’s private life. But she really does seem to have had the “disease of kings,” which has long been linked to the rich, fatty diets enjoyed by blue bloods.
Now, there’s talk that high-protein, meat-friendly keto and paleo diets are boosting rates among the young. This theory got an airing last week in a New York Magazine article titled “Why Gout Is Making a Comeback.”
The truth may be more complicated. Over the last few years, researchers have cast doubt on the keto-leads-to-gout theory and suggested that fructose in sugar may be the real culprit. According to this hypothesis, gout afflicted British royals as they developed a communal sweet tooth during the early days of the sugar trade. Gout then spread to the general population as sugar became more accessible.
The gout debate will continue. As for Olivia Colman, she will soon grace smaller screens with her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s series “The Crown.”
QE II isn’t known for having suffered from any major diseases. But at her next checkup, we do think she should have that stiff upper lip looked at.
Eucalyptus eulogy
(“Taps” quietly plays in the background ... ) In some sad news, Quincy the diabetic koala has passed on to that great eucalyptus tree in the sky. The furry type 1 diabetic lived in San Diego, where he was recently fitted with a cutting-edge continuous glucose monitor (CGM). This allowed Quincy more time for his favorite activities (chewing and sleeping) and less time spent with pesky skin pricks.
Quincy died of pneumonia, and it is unclear whether his death was diabetes related. All we know is that he will be missed greatly. He was beloved by those with diabetes everywhere, animal or otherwise. Quincy’s successful CGM procedure also gives endocrinologists hope that the technology could eventually be used for similarly fragile humans, like babies. R.I.P., Quincy; we loved you. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to his favorite charity, the Drop Bear Awareness Association.
What’s Latin for ‘poop’?
The study of the human microbiota has become incredibly important in recent years, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it entails experimenting on poop. Remarkably, no one’s come up with a proper technical name for this unsavory activity. However, thanks to a collaboration between a gastroenterologist and a classics professor at the University of North Carolina, that deficiency is no more. You’ve met the in vivo and in vitro study. Now, please welcome the “in vimo” study!
Why in vimo? The term fecal or “in feco” might seem obvious. But the Latin root word never referred to poop, and if there’s one thing scientists can’t have, it’s improper Latin usage. The Romans, it turns out, had lots of words for poop. The root word of laetamen referred to fertility, richness, and happiness – a tempting prospect – but was mostly used to refer to farm animal dung. Merda mostly referred to smell or stench, and stercus shared the same root word as scatology, which refers to obscene literature. Fimus, which specifically refers to manure, was thus the most precise, and it was used by literary giants such as Livy, Virgil, and Tacitus. A clear winner, and the in vimo study flushed the rest of the competition away.
And just in case you think these researchers are no fun, the name they chose for the active enzymes collected from their in vimo samples? Poopernatants. Yes, even doctors enjoy a good poop joke.
The new Breakfast Club
Researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Texas have collaborated to study something that most of us fear greatly: high school cliques. The researchers, who may or may not have peaked in high school, took a look at high school peer crowds and influences that form those tight-knit bonds that last all of 4 years.
The study found that most of the classic cliques – the jocks, the popular crowd, the brains, the stoners, the loners – are still alive and well in today’s American school system. However, at least one new group has emerged in the last decade: the “anime/manga fans.” Researchers noted that although schools have become much more diverse, racial and ethnic stereotypes are alive and well. Thank God we only have to do high school once.
Resistance is fecal
And now, just in case you were wondering how long it would take to put our newfound knowledge of “in vimo” to use, here comes a study that has “in vimo” written all over it (metaphorically speaking, of course).
Researchers in Sweden and Finland decided to take a look at antibiotic resistance genes in sewage, because “antibiotics consumed by humans and animals are released into the environment in urine and fecal material contained in treated wastewaters and sludge applied to land.” Then they compared the abundance of the mobile antibiotic resistance genes with the abundance of a human fecal pollution marker.
That marker – a virus that infects bacteria in human feces but is rare in other animals – was “highly correlated to the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in environmental samples,” they said in a separate written statement, which “indicates that fecal pollution can largely explain the increase in resistant bacteria often found in human-impacted environments.” The name of that marker, the virus found in feces, happens to be “crAssphage.” And yes, the A really is capitalized. Really. We are not making this up.
Gout wins a Golden Globe
Gout has a new poster girl: Great Britain’s Queen Anne. She’s been dead for more than 4 centuries, but a Hollywood version of this stout monarch is turning a famously royal affliction into the disease of the moment.
The credit goes to actress Olivia Colman, who just won a Golden Globe award for her brilliant performance in the earthy comedy “The Favourite.” Ms. Colman transforms the pain-wracked Queen Anne into a needy, manipulative, and loopy monarch who still manages to draw our sympathy.
Besides flummoxing American spell-checkers with its title, The Favourite glories in stretching the truth about the queen’s private life. But she really does seem to have had the “disease of kings,” which has long been linked to the rich, fatty diets enjoyed by blue bloods.
Now, there’s talk that high-protein, meat-friendly keto and paleo diets are boosting rates among the young. This theory got an airing last week in a New York Magazine article titled “Why Gout Is Making a Comeback.”
The truth may be more complicated. Over the last few years, researchers have cast doubt on the keto-leads-to-gout theory and suggested that fructose in sugar may be the real culprit. According to this hypothesis, gout afflicted British royals as they developed a communal sweet tooth during the early days of the sugar trade. Gout then spread to the general population as sugar became more accessible.
The gout debate will continue. As for Olivia Colman, she will soon grace smaller screens with her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s series “The Crown.”
QE II isn’t known for having suffered from any major diseases. But at her next checkup, we do think she should have that stiff upper lip looked at.