Welcome to Grand Rounds, Vol. 5, No. 36!

If you make the rounds of the blogosphere and the traditional media these days, you find lots of talk about health care. But it’s mostly abstract, and typically fixated on the politics of this or that plan.

However, there’s a whole other side to health care which isn’t seen or covered enough by traditional media or bloggers — the doctors, nurses, medical professionals and patients who actually are the health care system.

Blogs make it possible for these voices to be heard, and we’re very fortunate to have a great variety of blogs and bloggers to feature in this edition of Grand Rounds. These stories and these people need a more prominent place in the public mind, and I’m hopeful I can play a small part in that with this week’s edition.

The submissions this week come from as far away as Australia, South Africa and the UK, and as close to home as my hometown. But on the web these are all local calls, so I’ve categorized the more than 2 dozen submissions this week into a few topics.

Read on, click through and add all of these great bloggers to your RSS readers.

What Is Health Care Quality?

It’s a topic that is dear to me. I think it means getting the right diagnosis and treatment, and a number of bloggers sent in posts that explore this subject.

Dr. Val at the Better Health Blog shares a moving story of a mother who insisted that her sick baby get the right diagnosis and treatment, with life-saving effect. Read the whole thing for the surprise ending.

At the Child Psych Blog, Catherine Busch, PhD talks about a recent study on treatments for ADHD in children and shows how research proves that the most important thing is that treatment be individualized for each patient. It’s a point often lost on those who see cook-book approaches to medicine as a way to control costs.

Florence dot com is a blog in which Barbara Olson, a patient safety and quality expert, refreshingly promises to bring “age old wisdom” back into health care. Barbara Olson uses the story of her daughter’s therapeutic riding program to teach an important lesson about how hard problems can be solved in unexpected ways if we just change our perspective.

At Vagus Surgicalis, Jeffrey Leow wonders if doctors who advocate aggressively for health care quality are bound to rub the wrong shoulders and cause undue friction amongst colleagues. It’s a fascinating read.

At a Chronic Dose, Laurie Edwards writes about the frustration of not having a definitive diagnosis for a disease, and also about how important – for good or ill – a diagnostic label can have for the quality of medical care.

Stories from the Front

We were especially fortunate to get submissions from a number of treating doctors, nurses and medical professionals. I’m not sure how they find the time to blog, but then I’m not sure how I do either.

At How to Cope with Pain, a pain management specialist in Pennsylvania – who has suffered with chronic pain himself – writes about some of the latest research on this difficult subject.

Reality Rounds leads with the wrenching stories of the decisions that get made in a NICU, and how that can affect not just the patients and their families, but also the medical professionals trying to help them.

At the Man-Nurse Diaries, Chris shares the story of the first case of brain death he has seen, and how he used his clinical knowledge to cope. Check out Chris’ previous two posts for the back-story.

At Dr. Shock, Dr. Walter van den Broek gives a humorous jab at the practice of “pimping” by doctors trying to teach students in a hospital setting. He deserves special appreciation for his use of Thunderbirds artwork in his post.

And speaking of medical education, medical student Capt. Atopic shares (at the Degranulated blog) some of his humorous – but serious – insights into the different specialties of medicine, based on his Third Year Rotations.

At Other Things Amanzi, a doctor working in the “notorious province of Mpumalanga, South Africa” shows how the give and take among specialists in a hospital knows no borders.

Borneo Breezes tells us about the important work being done by an NGO in Pakistan to bring primary care to poor and war torn areas of that country.

Life as a Patient

Some of the most interesting and uplifting stories come from patient-bloggers, who write about their experiences coping with disease.

Kerri Morrone Sparling of Six Until Me summarizes this category best with her tag line: “Diabetes Doesn’t Define Me, But It Helps Explain Me.” Read about the wonderful connections she made with other women with diabetes in New York, and the power of sweet tarts.

Speaking of diabetes, in the UK there is of course a “lighter side of insulin dependency,” and Shoot Up or Put Up tells us about it through humor with a want-ad for someone to deal with all the unpleasant aspects of this difficult disease. I’ll pass!

Health News of the Day

No Grand Rounds crica early 2009 is complete without a discussion of Swine Flu, and David Harlow at HealthBlawg has done it. He posts a very interesting interview with Dr. Ben Kruskal, Director of Infection Control at Harvard Medical Associates. There’s a podcast and transcript and it’s worth a listen!

At the InsureBlog, Mike Feehan says doctors have to get more involved in the question of health reform, or it will pass them by, and it won’t be pretty.

At the Colorado Health Insurance Insider, Louise explains how the question of gay marriage has nothing to do with health benefits.

The Brain Fitness Authority announces a new book that will help keep your brain working well. Apparently “use it or lose it” really is true.

Medical student Peter Zavislak gives a humorously absurd take on the question of controlling health care costs by playing out the logical conclusions of some of the subjects being discussed.

Health Care Research and Public Health

There were some very interesting submissions on health care research – spanning World of Warcraft, Twitter, and gender identity. Yes, these were three different posts.

David Porter at Case Western Reserve’s Health Disparities Blog writes about public health lessons from an outbreak of a virus in the virtual world game World of Warcraft. There are implications for how we plan for and deal with actual outbreaks.

Dr. Ivor Kovic wonders if Twitter will end up killing us all, but offers some excellent survival tips. Hint: they include dancing and a treadmill.

Zoe Brain, one of the most interesting health care bloggers from Down Under, shares some of the ongoing research into brain gender identity.

At the ACP Internist, Ryan Dubosar wonders about media reporting of medical research, and the effect the pressure on universities to issue press releases has on reporting. He asks for your help in answering a poll, so please stop in.

At Laika’s MedLib Blog, Jacqueline posts about research showing a certain virus might cause high blood pressure.

And there’s even more research over at Medicine and Technology.  Dr. Joseph Kim tells us about new research on the use of biomarkers, oncogenes, and targeted therapies for cancer, and how far we have come in studying these areas.

News You Can Use

Nancy Brown, PhD, at HealthLine says teenagers need to be careful about what information they share on-line. She worries that a site that is meant to help them deal with sexual health issues actually may put them at risk because of its comments policy.

Also at HealthLine, Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM gives very helpful reminders on how to correctly lift your kids in ways that can avoid injury and actually make you stronger.

And finally, at the group blog Mothers in Medicine, there is an enjoyable post on the pitfalls of naming your baby. I will never think of the island of Nevis the same again.

Thanks to all who submitted this week! Next week, head over to the Health Blawg for Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 37.