With the first SMACC conference a wild success, I think it is becoming obvious, at least to the early adopters, that FOAM is here to stay. Some of the recent discussion on the future of FOAM has centered upon building a structure for the FOAM “tree of knowledge.” The tree of knowledge reference and a very eloquent summary of this topic is available from a new member of the FOAM-o-sphere, the Mid Med …
Professionalism and I: A Controversial Publication
I was on my way home from work last night when I checked twitter. 13 mentions in an hour – that’s kind of crazy (for me anyways). What could have sparked that? It took me a second to piece together the conversation. When I did, I found that Eve Purdy, a medical student, twitter-friend and colleague of mine, had posted a link to an article that I had written more than 4 years …
Interview Inducing Elective Behavior
In response to my post on reference letters (The Reference Letter Triple Crown), one of my favorite bloggers Facebooked me the following request (note, she also plays the “Would you rather” game!): I would rather lick a public toilet seat than have to ask someone for a reference letter. I apparently went into the wrong profession to have that personality trait. Any tips on getting over the awkwardness?? As I’d rather she …
The Reference Letter Triple Crown
Interviews for the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS) are over and they were as difficult as ever. One thing nobody appreciates on the medical student side of the CaRMS equation is how difficult it is for the programs to come up with our rank list. The applicants this year were spectacular and ranking them was more difficult than splitting hairs. Fortunately, the depth of the applicants makes us confident that we will be …
Arguments for a Journal of FOAM
Over the past couple of weeks myself and others (Michelle Lin, Todd Raine, Lauren Westafer, Minh Le Cong, Javier Benítez , Simon Carley, Nadim Lalani, etc!) have tweeted, mused and, in the case of Michelle Lin, even experimented with the idea of peer-review for FOAM. My thoughts are summarized in blog posts here and here. Those posts, along with Todd Raine’s Storified version of the twitter conversation and Michelle Lin’s post on her experiment …
Normal Saline: The Coke of Crystalloid Fluids
The nurse looked up from my orders with a quizzical expression on her face. “Why do you always order Ringer’s Lactate?” She asked. I immediately launched into an intense discussion… errr… one sided conversation… about the merits of various IV solutions and their respective electrolyte values and pH. As her eyes quickly glazed over and she glanced at the clock her expression shifted to one of regret. I sensed that I was losing …