UPDATED: Grand Rounds #49, or the Carnival of the Caregivers

Here at HealthyConcerns I often feel like a lone voice in the wilderness, speaking from the non-health care professional's point of view. But if we are heading more and more in the direction of patients partnering with their doctors to chart their own care, then partners need to listen to one another and learn from one another.

With that in mind, I've organized this week's Grand Rounds by how each set of posts helps people like me understand the health care system and the people that work in it:

Sometimes they help us remember that they're human too
Sometimes we feel that doctors are cold, unfeeling...seeing as many patients as they can, rushing us through. But if you've ever had a friend who listens to your troubles and then finds a way to make it about them, then you know that you need your doctors to keep their emotions out of it. But some posts remind us that they're human.

The Cheerful Oncologist brought a tear to my eye with his story about a patient he remembered long after his very first day in private practice.

The Drunken Lagomorph also tells a tale of one very haunting night early in her career.

Dr. Charles is reminded of his own humanity with a visit to a doctor's office...as a patient.

db at MedRants assures us that even "god-like" doctors must take take the time to self-reflect.

The Corpus Callosum takes on The Great Divides in medical practice, and challenges the assumption that medical staff has to separate their feelings from their behaviors to get the job done.

Dr. Tony shows another side, imagining the worst that can happen when doctors' human failings get the best of them. And one of GruntDoc's readers relays an incident that takes it out of the realm of imagination into reality.

And finally, Clinical Cases and Images indulges us in the most human of fantasies...that chocolate is good for you!

[Then again, Dr. Emer regretfully informs us of hidden dangers in Pringles and french fries, so the comfort food news isn't all good.]

Sometimes they have strong views about the world outside their office walls.

Interested Participant expresses concern about a high school's pregnancy rate.

Industry Veteran guest blogs on The Health Care blog and gives his veteran perspective on the "deeper meaning" VIOXX verdict.

While the Genetics and Public Health Blog introduces us to one family's blog about dealing with autism, Respectful Insolence ruefully comments on one family's perhaps ill-considered treatment program for their child with autism.

Sometimes they step in when people make things too simple!
Lots of people are talking about Malcolm Gladwell's recent article about health care in the New Yorker Magazine. Glad well is famous for bringing high-toned concepts to the masses, but perhaps he goes too far. In any case, plenty of MedBloggers want to bring more to the conversation.

Matthew Holt of the Health Care Blog thinks Gladwell understands the impact of what he's talking about, but doesn't get, or at least explain why. So Matthew obliges in fastidious detail.

Ruminating Dude provides more anecdotal evidence that people aren't really anxious to "abuse" universal health care just so they can have really unpleasant medical procedures performed.

EconLog heartily and succinctly disagrees with Gladwell.

Sometimes we get a glimpse into the fact that medicine is also a business.

Sneezing Po considers IT decisions for electronic health records.

David Williams at Health Business Blog wonders if "Concierge Practices" are little more than good marketing that lets doctors charge special fees for regular service.

Hospital Impact sounds the alarm that consumer-directed health care (CDHC) will be a challenge for hospitals...destabilizing their management of both revenue and debt.

Meanwhile InsureBlog thinks it's obvious that CDHC is improving our health care system.

And GruntDoc's look at "expert" witnesses leaves us wondering whether the business part os more important than the medicine part to some!

Sometimes they just want to be a good resource for newbies.

Kidney Notes graciously points you away from the Kidney Notes blog and toward other great resources to search the MedBlog community.

The Nexus Blog for Medical Staff Service Professionals takes a look at the basic reasons to start a corporate blog...reasons which apply to medical facilities the same as they do to small businesses.

Bonus Points for amateur (or professional) diagnosticians:
Visit Sumer's Radiology Site to make your own diagnosis via X-Ray and win a prize.

Or just visit Red State Moron to tell him how bad his injured toe looks!

And Finally
And since I'm all about the laypeople, the patients, the customers (?), I close with this podcast: SoundPractice.net gives us:

What Patients Say They Want, and What They Really Want from Their Private Practice Physicians by Professor Carl E. Schneider from The University of Michigan Schools of Law and Medicine.

Instructions: Click on the link to the "Pop-up Player" in the right hand side bar. All the podcasts are listed in the Player that pops up, and this one is towards the bottom (since it's in alphabetical order.) Scroll down, click and listen to a discussion of what we say vs. what we really want vs. what we can actually handle when we're ill.

UPDATED: GruntDoc brings up a good point in the comments:

Next week's Grand Rounds will be hosted by Corpus Callosum

Comments

[Lei]

Thanks for hosting this week, Elisa. I'm pleased to be included in this edition but am wondering how you decided to include a post other than the one I submitted (without asking me first, I might add). It actually seems that the link I sent you would have fit this week's theme better. Maybe this is the host's prerogative that I wasn't aware of before.

[hgstern]

.
WoW! Elisa, you did a fantastic job! Esp considering the tech issues you just wrote about.

Maybe I'm not the geek I thought I was, but I can't seem to find the "Pop Up Player" -- on the RH sidebar, or anywhere else. Am I just looking at it and not seeing it (happens to me at the grocery store all the time)?

[David E. Williams of the Health business blog]

Well done!

[Elisa Camahort]

Hi Lei: Here is an excerpt from the host Guidelines: "4. It's ok to browse sites and pick what you want to post. I did this a fair amount -- maybe not enough."

I did this with a couple of sites. If you like I can email you offline about why.

Henry: I had the same problem at first. In the RH side bar you'll see the following sections: "Topics", "Podcast Feeds", "Editorial Feed" and then "FEATURED Podcasts." IN the "Featured Podcasts" section the very first thing is a link: "Listen now from our Pop-up PLayer." Click on that.

[Matthew Holt]

Well Elisa picked one I submitted AND one if didn't so I feel VERY special! Great job, Ms C.

[Elisa Camahort]

Thanks Matthew. Actually your guest blogger submitted himself! So yes, you got 2 for the price of 1 :)

[D Bunny]

I'm flattered that you included one of my posts in this week's Grand Rounds, and am enjoying reading the other posts! Thank you.

[Dr Emer]

Congratulations! Great job. I hope you can get to rest now and massage those hands and fingers tired from all the linking. :)

[Dr Emer]

Congratulations! Great job. I hope you can get to rest now and massage those hands and fingers tired from all the linking. :)

[GruntDoc]

Nice work! Where's next week hosted?

[sumer sethi]

great work, very interesting read indeed!

[Erin]

How do you find out where the next grand rounds is? Also, how do you recommend a blog for it?

[Elisa Camahort]

This is where the schedule is always posted:
http://blogborygmi.blogspot.com/2004/09/grand-rounds-archive-upcoming-schedule.html

The you have to visit the appropriate blog and send them the link in the way they request it, usually via email.

[Patty Wise]

Wow, I am totally impressed by Grand Rounds. Your hosting, and the whole concept.

disclosure: I am doing some paid work for eHealthInsurance.com

but I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. Great!

[Elisa Camahort]

Thanks Patty. But I want to make sure you realize this wasn't my idea, and I'm just this week's host...in fact #49 in a long line of fine medbloggers.

The upcoming schedule (and archives) are here:
http://blogborygmi.blogspot.com/2004/09/grand-rounds-archive-upcoming-schedule.html

[Patty Wise]

Thank you Elisa - I checked that out before I posted...the organized collaborative effort is one of the things that had me so impressed!

You know that great feeling when you discover a pre-existing series of books that you can go back and read from the first entry. My favorite example is Janwillem van de Wetering (fantastic series about Amsterdam detectives; he also wrote "Experiences in an American Zen Community"), which I finally heard about, 10+ years after he started.

I'm somewhat quicker to learn about Grand Rounds. Thanks again!

[Brian business credit cards Malone]

The cheerey cancer doctor was a seriously awesome one in that it really brings me back to my uncle (a oncol in Mpls.) and he told me a story very similar to the moving one in that link. \
Love this blog, lots of very interesting stuff!
Regards,
Brian

[Andrew Spark]

Health care is a great importance to many individuals and we need to work on improving health care for all.