In the eastern province of Van in Turkey an earthquake reduced many of its buildings to rubble on Sunday, Oct. 23. A two-week old baby girl, her mother and grandmother were rescued in Ercis on Tuesday. On this picture from The Turkey earthquake , something drew my attention. See the women faces and their direction compared to those of the men. The left tries to make contact by facial expression. Women aren't from Venus as men are not from Mars, nevertheless when it comes to babies their connection becomes very different both gender in their own way busy with the .....read more »

Surgeon and engineer Todd Kuiken is building a prosthetic arm that connects with the human nervous system -- improving motion, control and even feeling. Onstage, patient Amanda Kitts helps demonstrate this next-gen robotic arm. Amazing and impressive with creative solutions.Related posts: Grand Rounds: Being Thankful Printing a human kidney ..read more »

Because with difficult cases doctors tend to use refelective reasoning for diagnostic decisions. Reflective reasoning is effortful, conscious analysis of features exhibited by a case. When engaged in reflection for solving a case, physicians tend to more carefully consider case findings, search for alternative diagnoses, and examine their own thinking. A recent study indicated that reflective reasoning positively affected diagnoses of complex cases, whereas it made no difference in the diagnosis of simple cases Nonanalytical thinking is based on the recognition of "illness scripts". Physicians tend to recognize these patterns of symptoms very easily especially when having more experience. This type .....read more »

One possible mechanism for diagnostic errors made by physicians is the availability bias. Clinical reasoning is one of the most important achievements after med school. Flaws in clinical reasoning can result in diagnostic errors and medical mistakes. Availability bias is the doctor who diagnoses a certain disease more often since it comes to mind more easily. This is often helpful since things that come to mind easily generally do occur more frequently. For instance a flu pandemic could result in to easily diagnosing the flu instead of probable other diseases, pneumonia in it's first appearance can be easily overlooked. That's .....read more »

On any given day we're lied to from 10 to 200 times, and the clues to detect those lie can be subtle and counter-intuitive. Pamela Meyer, author of Liespotting, shows the manners and "hotspots" used by those trained to recognize deception -- and she argues honesty is a value worth preserving. No related posts. ..read more »

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A plea for the importance of physical examination, becoming an art? Modern medicine is in danger of losing a powerful, old-fashioned tool: human touch. Physician and writer Abraham Verghese describes our strange new world where patients are merely data points, and calls for a return to the traditional one-on-one physical exam. Related posts: iPhone and iPod Touch as a Medical Tool iPhone makes doctors look more professional? Have mercy on the NHS Doctors ..read more »

Recently discussed an excellent book about How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, a hematologist-oncologist staff physicians at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In this review I mentioned the probable cognitive errors a doctor can make, but most important how patients can help their doctors to prevent these cognitive mistakes in some way. For patients the book can be of value since it teaches them tricks, questioning in order to help the doctor improve his or hers reasoning. Patients can help doctors not to make cognitive mistakes by simple questioning thereby influencing the cognitive processes. For instance the question: What’s .....read more »

Since we're busy selecting new residents for our program an article about the subject caught my eye. This article was about whether a structured, behavior-based applicant interview predicts future success in an obstetrics and gynecology residency program. Interesting question since little is known about the use of residency interview in predicting the applicant's future performance as a resident. Often we know the applicants from clerkship in our department, which does to an extend assures some insight to the performance of the possible future resident. Residents already in training take part in the admission interviews and their opinion on applicants they .....read more »

An elderly couple walked into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for a checkup and spotted a piano. Theyve been married for 62 years and hell be 90 this year. Check out this impromptu performance. We are only as old as we feel, its all attitude. Enjoy! They certainly do. From BoingBoingRelated posts: The musical robot that plays Flight Of The Bumblebee Netiquette within married couples Gratitude among married couples ..read more »