tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68345379057422592612011-07-08T01:39:53.479+01:00The blag of a computer engineer turned doctorl33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-5766747560476976812009-06-30T10:09:00.004+01:002009-06-30T10:17:12.475+01:00

Automatic chest compressions? For a second there I thought I was reading the Mad Engineering blog. But no, according to Medgadget, this is in fact a very real product from swedish company Jolife AB. Apparently the device can deliver chest compressions for up to 45 minutes while paramedics are loading patients, transporting, charting and reporting and other stuff. Incredible.

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-14915556076634641452009-06-19T21:06:00.004+01:002009-06-19T21:16:47.770+01:00

As any parent will tell you, you should never turn your back on a toddler. They grab stuff, stick it in their mouths and/or pour milk on it. It's a fact of nature.Firstborn got his hands on the Linux laptop earlier today. Now, you'd probably expect he'd throw it around (he's 20 months old) or pull out keys from the keyboard and eat them, but it turns out he just typed away at it. Here's what the

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-15267717614463302582009-05-13T06:38:00.006+01:002009-05-13T06:47:38.661+01:00

Each story is different. Some are detailed; others are vague. Some have a beginning, middle and end. Others wander without a clear conclusion. Some are true; others not. Yet all those things do not really matter. What matters to the storyteller is that the story is heard — without interruption, assumption or judgment.Read the rest of dr. Alicia Conill's essay on listening over at This I Believe.

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-75417275338380249702009-05-04T17:49:00.002+01:002009-05-04T18:01:53.871+01:00

Head over to vitum medicinus and read the post The tragic outcome of a homeopath treating his daughter's eczema. Then return here and tell me that alternative medicine is completely harmless. Anyone who manages to remain a shruggie after reading a story like that will completely lose my respect.As a future doctor and scientist, my mind is raging, orac style. As a parent, my stomach is churning

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-46297810255747874282009-05-04T06:51:00.002+01:002009-05-04T07:01:04.297+01:00

How did SMS come about? Why are SMS messages limited to 160 characters? Did German GSM committee chairman Friedhelm Hillebrand basically invent Twitter in 1985, before the web was even born, and while Twitter founders Dorsey, Williams and Stone were still playing with Matchbox cars? Check out the story in LA Times. (H/T Ves Dimov)

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-38739677219032902592009-04-21T08:01:00.009+01:002009-04-21T09:07:16.016+01:00

Garbage in, garbage out... Image credit: Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101Via RISKS Digest, an article from The Boston Globe about how 59 year old Dave deBronkart, a survivor of kidney cancer, erroneously got billing data imported into his Google Health clinical history. Billing data are not meant to precisely describe clinical conditions, but are often used as approximations when coding

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-25882406292521279772009-04-16T19:32:00.006+01:002009-04-16T20:16:59.354+01:00

Image credit: 2create@FlickrA man in his seventies is diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, and is enrolled in a palliative chemotherapy program. As the man's primary care physician you're having a hard time getting the man to cope with his situation. He has not informed his family about his diagnosis. He has confined himself to his home, refuses to come to you for consultation, and only

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-43363404247399504052009-04-16T07:33:00.003+01:002009-04-16T13:33:54.390+01:00

I know, I know, here I go again with the video posts, this time even shamelessly stolen from another blogger (Pharmamotion). I'll try to find the inspiration for self-produced material soon. In the meantime this one was just too good to pass up. There's something special about watching a cardiologist (trying to) balance on one leg while simulating right bundle branch block with the other.

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-12434970972647578682009-03-29T20:39:00.002+01:002009-03-29T20:44:44.274+01:00

British Channel 4 have created a cute little flash game that lets you play the role of one of 250 million sperm competing for the privilege of fertilizing the egg. Sounds lame, I know, but it was actually kind of fun. Kind of like OB/GYN rotation.Linky: The Great Sperm Race

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-89322615906039708652009-03-29T11:08:00.005+01:002009-03-29T11:29:58.904+01:00

Image credit: Science MagazineMIT Technology Review reports on another nail in the coffin for HIV/AIDS denialists. For the first time, researchers have created footage of virus transmission in live cells. The above image is a screenshot from one of the videos. The study was published in the March 27 edition of Science.HIV/AIDS denialists are a shady bunch. Hopefully none of my readers need

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-71146379187548504532009-03-28T17:57:00.004Z2009-03-28T18:03:46.778Z

Hiya! Just dropping by to apologize for the lack of posting recently, and to wish everyone a happy Earth Hour. I for one don't think it's just a feeble gesture. I do believe it's important to raise awareness. I also disagree with the people who mock Earth Day for being pointless — at least it's doing something. I'm not sitting around waiting for the one solution that will fix everything in an

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-50438868948102647712009-03-11T21:06:00.005Z2009-03-11T21:42:45.344Z

Image credit: CrimethIncDear readers, I need to hear your thoughts on an issue.Say you were the doctor of an 83 year old, pleasantly senile diabetic lady, with whose husband you have regular meetings about her care. Let's describe the husband as, well, a bit anal and somewhat argumentative, but mostly pleasant and cooperative. Lately he's been giving you a hard time over her insulin regime,

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-26827449518948509062009-03-11T20:09:00.009Z2009-03-11T21:44:34.576Z

The newest issue of the eSkeptic newsletter popped into my mailbox today. In celebration of his 200 year anniversary and the 150 year anniversary of the theory of evolution, they present an article named 27 Ways to Honor Charles Darwin, featuring a list of different sources in support of the theory of evolution.Image credit:Columbia University PressI reckon myself a staunch proponent of evolution

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-6513272049915001162009-03-02T20:16:00.002Z2009-03-02T20:23:01.975Z

Run, Spot. Run.PS: I'll try not to let this blog degrade into only posting YouTube videos, but this clip managed to cheer me up on this particular bastard of a monday and I thought I'd share. :)

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-66319404054596438212009-02-22T10:28:00.003Z2009-02-22T13:12:24.239Z

Despite mine and Her's initial worries about being parents, we've managed to keep Firstborn alive to see the ripe old age of fifteen months. Imagine our surprise when we've neither dropped him on his head nor choked him to death with chunks of homemade baby food. For fifteen months straight! Yay us!Image credit: CDC Public Health Image Library (public domain)As a new human being, if you make it

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-76466242039754948242009-02-21T22:00:00.004Z2009-04-20T19:29:16.521+01:00

Don't know what to do with your life? Don't despair — let The Mad Engineer guide you! (No, not me. I may be an engineer but I'm clearly turnip turnip wankel rotary engine carbuncle bust my pickle as sane as anyone.)His post series Simulation Systems, Tests, and Your Employment (here's part one, here's part two, eagerly awaiting part three) will give you payback for those hours you spent poring

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-12698411141295339582009-02-21T15:00:00.002Z2009-02-21T21:59:20.354Z

Image credit: Wikimedia CommonsThe Happy Hospitalist is a great read, but his RSS feed carries the strangest ads sometimes. Today an ad from The Restored Church of God popped up, and I just had to click it. First of all because religious zealotry fascinates me, and second because me clicking the link means they have to pay both Google and Happy for the traffic, which I think is a nice way of

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-85330113629960939302009-02-20T09:27:00.000Z2009-02-20T16:24:52.605Z

Norwegians are spearheading an offensive against Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Wired reports. Most sites participating in the offensive are recommending an upgrade to IE7, while others are taking it a step further by urging a switch to Firefox, Chrome or Opera. IE6 is long past its due date, so let's all make like a viking and upgrade today! Here's a shameless plug for my favorite contender for

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-29454434690828732232009-02-12T09:40:00.000Z2009-02-12T20:54:18.260Z

MIT's Technology Review recently wrote about upstart txteagle, whose aim is to solve simple, text-based tasks, like translating mobile phone interfaces, by the use of crowdsourcing. From their webpage:There are over 1.5 billion literate mobile phone subscribers in the developing world, many living on less than $3 a day. Corporations pay people to accomplish millions of simple text-based tasks.

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-52630030154702896852009-02-09T10:10:00.000Z2009-02-12T20:40:26.593Z

In the computer world, specifically the UNIX world, midnight january 1st 1970, or "epoch", is the time against which all UNIX systems reference their system time. Millions of computers arount the world are faithfully tick-tick-ticking away the number of seconds and milliseconds since the epoch as you are reading this. Approximately 1,2 billion seconds have passed since the epoch, which was a

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-67711658442506427682009-02-05T07:41:00.001Z2009-02-12T21:00:19.158Z

This is almost entirely non-medical and only vaguely techy, but I'll post it nonetheless.Apparently, bakeries can print digital images onto cakes now. I have no idea how they do it, but in my head I'm envisioning some sort of giant cake decor printer, kinda like those old HP DeskJets from back in the 20th century, only big enough to fill a room and with cake coloring cartridges instead of ink

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-26486611687646795782009-02-01T08:39:00.000Z2009-02-01T11:05:30.444Z

Image credit: NASA/Dimitri GerondidakisNASA reports that a new water filtering system, aptly named the Water Filtering System, is expected to reduce the amount of water that needs to be transported to the international space station ISS by 65%. Using a pretty standard charcoal filter, the same type in use in humanitarian efforts in areas with contaminated water supplies, the system is able to

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-12663613337057675692009-01-29T15:09:00.000Z2009-01-29T21:56:35.149Z

On the off chance that any of my readers have missed the battle raging over at Adina Cappell's blog Heal Spiel, I would like to point all (two? three?) of you in that direction. The brilliant and presumably stunningly beautiful ms. Cappell has bravely stepped her (hopefully iron-clad) foot into a particularly vicious nest of snakes by engaging the anti-vaccine movement in a debate, and hopefully

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-64609881979743786402009-01-28T09:03:00.001Z2009-02-22T13:13:46.482Z

One of the timeless questions of science: What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? (Bonus points if you can identify whether the picture is of an African or a European swallow.)The good folks over at style.org have taken a swing at it, and the results are in, beautifully presented I might add. Maybe now we can finally cross The Gorge of Eternal Peril safely? :-)Image in public

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-44900420957292418512009-01-25T10:18:00.000Z2009-02-05T08:05:53.304Z

For starters I'd like to point out that this is not a product endorsement. Even though I clearly state that it's not, which might by some be concocted to be a clever ruse to disguise an actual product endorsement, it's not. Someone just posted this on one of the IRC channels I frequent and I thought I'd pass it on.Free shipping and instructory DVD (presumably X-rated) included, you can now clone

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-80274876773254084392009-01-23T20:28:00.000Z2009-02-05T08:06:51.885Z

It's friday night. This week I have wrapped up one of the more obnoxious parts of my medical education. I won't even go into it, that's how upsetting it is to think about. Suffice it to say it has nothing to do with medicine, it's just this really great idea some suit at my university came up with and is forcing all master level programs to include. I'm just glad it's overwith.Point is, it's time

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-63551590489529065402009-01-23T20:06:00.000Z2009-02-20T16:30:52.691Z

A friend of mine (another 1337 MD, actually) pointed me at this Web Devout article on XHTML vs HTML, which politely but firmly asks XHTML supporters to lay down their arms. Having read it I must say I completely concur -- XHTML has no future. Excepting a short flirt with XHTML some years ago I have always written good old tagsoup and never really given the issue much thought. The author brings

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6834537905742259261.post-27135454408807991962009-01-17T11:18:00.000Z2009-01-28T09:22:18.695Z

So I've been following the medical blogosphere for a while now, enjoying the writings of medical students, MDs, RNs, EMTs, pharmacists and others. Today, for no intelligible reason, I suddenly decided the time was right for me to join the cloud.So this is me. I am, or, rather, will be the l33t MD. For those uninitiated to the ways of leetspeak, I refer you to, where else, the Wikipedia article on

l33t MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14788158088804895011noreply@blogger.com0