Why should emotional intelligence be important in medical education? It could develop a better understanding of the competency interpersonal and communications skills. Communications skills of a medical student are easier to define and observe than interpersonal skills. You can use a one way screen, and rating scales. Successful interaction needs more than communications skills and this is were interpersonal skills come in. Interpersonal skills is inherently relation and process oriented, it is all about relieving anxiety, [and] establishing trusting relationships. Emotional Intelligence is a set of 4 distinct yet related abilities: (1) perceiving emotions; (2) using emotions; (3) understanding emotions; and, (4) managing .....read more »

This week’s edition of the Grand Rounds is up at: Nurse Ratched’s Place The theme is: Healthcare consumers use to do a lot of crazy things in order to stay healthy. Quack medicine has been around for a long time, and many early remedies were laced with cocaine, heroine, and mercury. Then things really got strange with the advent of electricity. Especially the electricity intrigued me. Go and read these excellent collection of posts from the medical blogosphere. Related posts: Grand Round at Pallimed: A Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blog Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 50 is up at Medicine & Technology. Surgexperiences 203,Grand Round ..read more »

It is the time of the year again. Seasonal Affective Disorder is in the news again. For a description and treatment of SAD see a previous article on this blog from about one year ago: 8 Articles about Seasonal Affective Disorder. You can also watch a video on SAD, with advice about how to cope with this disease. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter in SAD because in post mortem human brain samples, serotonin concentrations are lowest in people dying in the winter. Also, the concentration of the serotonin metabolite 5-HIAA is lower in jugular blood samples collected in winter. This might .....read more »

Playing a video game increases cognitive performance, this increase is similar with a non violent and a violent video game. The cognitive ability increase was similar for both types of video games, which suggests that content does not seem to affect the overall cognitive outcomes of video game play. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: the control group (n = 54), the non-violent video game experimental group (n = 27), and the violent video game experimental group (n = 32). Participants in the non-violent experimental condition played one session of marked numbers for four minutes, the tile game for ten .....read more »

According to recently released survey results, around 39% of doctors think that using an iPhone while diagnosing their patients will make them seem more competent in their patients’ eyes. Around 39% of the Epocrates medical program for iPhone users said that they’ve received “admiration for using the “latest cool technology”” From iPhone World Do you have an iPhone and does it make you look more professional or is this just advertising for epocrates available in the AppStore? Let me know in the comments.Related posts: 22 iPhone Apps for (Med) Nerds Shrink Rap Grand Rounds: The iPhone 3G Edition Saving iPhone from Subway Track Suicidal? ..read more »

Only 35% of women regularly check their breasts for signs of cancer - and 23% seldom or never do, a survey suggests. On BBC NEWS Health the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer surveyed 2,005 women aged between 18 and 64. With the above reported results. But is this low percentage of women checking their breasts a problem? Not according a recent update of a Cochrane Review discussed in excellent post by Laika's MedLibLog about The (un)usefulness of regular breast exam. The trouble is that the Cochrane Review itself is of high quality, but two of the randomized studies included, one from Russia (1999: ~122,500 .....read more »

Internet based learning clearly has a substantial benefit on the knowledge of participants compared with no learning intervention. Higher interactivity, ongoing access to course material, online discussion, or the presence of practice exercise did not have a substantial influence on the benefit of Internet-based learning when compared with no intervention. The quality of the study did however. The better the study the lower the positive effect of the Internet-based learning. Internet-based learning compared with non-Internet instructional methods are heterogeneous and generally small, suggesting effectiveness similar to traditional methods. It was also not clear how variations in instructional design influenced the magnitude of .....read more »

Discovered a new website, at least to me it seemed new. It is called PatientsLikeMe.com. You can create a profile, rate your mood and level of distress, and an important part is the Forum were you can discuss about anything related to your condition. They even have a part for research, treatment and symptoms. Health professionals and caregivers can participate as well. Found only four patients being treated with ECT. You have to register to be able to use the site. It is easy to use. PatientsLikeMe is committed to providing a better, more effective way to capture valuable results and .....read more »

These huge increases in knowledge and technique always cheer me up. Enjoy this rap number about the CERN Large Hadron Collider. What does these advances in technology do to you?Related posts: The Large Hadron Collider and the Black Hole Large iPad Lets Students Do Virtual Dissection Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 50 is up at Medicine & Technology. ..read more »

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) didn't destroy the world last Wednesday by eliciting a black hole. It was switched on last Wednesday in Switzerland. People worried that the LHC would cause the world to be swallowed up by a black hole, especially when it starts to operate at full force in the spring. What would happen if you fell into a black hole? Your body would be shredded apart into the smallest possible pieces. This piece of modern technique is the largest particle accelerator in the world. The superconducting collider is located in a circular tunnel with a 17-mile circumference on the .....read more »