October 2010 MDNG: Pediatrics Check Up

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All the colors in the visible spectrum captured in the sky.

Dimensions — How Big Is It Really?

The devastating floods that occurred in Pakistan this summer might be some of the worst ever recorded, but it’s tough to get a true feel for how massive they really were just from news reports. BBC Dimensions attempts to quantify it by overlaying the affected area “onto a map of where you are.” By entering our zip code, we can see that if such an event happened here, the floods would stretch from Maine to South Carolina, and cover half of Virginia and North Carolina, and completely submerge Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont. You can also overlay events and objects in other fields of study including space, depths, ancient worlds, festivals and spectacles, the industrial age, and cities in history.

He’s All That and a Box of Legos

Nathan Sawaya quit his law practice to become a master Lego builder and now uses a collection of over 1.5 million Lego pieces to build amazing structures, like Han Solo frozen in carbonite or soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima, in his New York City studio.

More Problems with Social Media in Hospitals

When a man is brought to the hospital after being stabbed 12 times and nearly decapitated by a fellow nursing home resident, protocol typically dictates that hospital staff take pictures of the man and post them to Facebook…or the complete opposite of that; we haven’t read Standard Operating Procedure: Hospital Edition lately, so we’re not sure.

For Your Emotional EnrichmentDanny and Annie

StoryCorps recorded these conversations recounting the 27-year relationship of Brooklyn couple Danny and Annie Perasa as Danny faces mortality in his battle with an ultimately terminal cancer. We tear up over here at MDNG just writing about it, so have a tissue handy when you decide to watch.

Tools for Patient Care45 Free Medical Mobile Apps

When an 8-year-old child came into the emergency room unable to breathe and having seizures due to a rare hereditary disease, Dr. Kathy Corby put her iPhone to good use. The emergency room physician at Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital flipped through seven medical apps to help her identify appropriate medication and proper respiratory management protocol, and determine whether the weather would permit the child to be transported via helicopter to another hospital once stable. Though the story (http://hcp.lv/d321fY) does not specify which apps Dr. Corby used, Fierce has put together three slideshows listing 15 free mobile medical apps for BlackBerry, the iPhone, and Android that you can put to good use in your own practice. You can also check out the App Wrap on page 7.

Chart the Evidence!

The creators of EvidenceChart.com want to help students and scientists “glean evidence from the research literature, articulate theories, and consider whether each piece of evidence supports or undermines” a given theory through the use of “a compact representation of the evidence.” Use this resource when making a difficult treatment decision by lining up the evidence for and against options and then deciding which course of action is supported by the strongest evidence.

Inspiration Children with Diabetes Can Learn from Celebrity Hardship

American Idol runner-up Crystal Bowersox was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of six and struggled to keep her blood glucose levels under control for most of her life, partly due to her own frustrations from the need for constant monitoring and a marathon touring schedule starting at age 10 while trying to break into the music business. She recounts it all in this interview with Diabetes Mine, from begging for insulin outside of a pharmacy, to the wake-up call that was her hospitalization for diabetic ketoacidosis that nearly knocked her out of American Idol altogether.