Grand Rounds

Welcome to Grand Rounds! A special post-Thanksgiving edition serving up Seinfeld as the lighter fare after the big holiday meal.



In "The Burning" Kramer and Mickey act out sick conditions for medical students.

Alison looks at her promiscuous history with insulin companies, questions whether she's become too comfortable in her current insulin relationship and whether she should get back on the insulin dating scene. "I think I might be an insulin tart" in Shoot Up or Put Up: Comatose and rotting toes – the lighter side of insulin dependency.

Diabetes Mine honors Dr. Frederick Banting for his work on the ultimate diabetes invention which was of course insulin, which keeps diabetics. Diabetes Mine also reports on the hope for a new non-invasive glucose measurement device.

In "The Boyfriend", Elaine breaks up with Hernandez because he smokes. Jerry tells her, "You're like going out with C. Everett Koop!" referring to the U.S. Surgeon General who crusaded against smoking in the 1980s.

The Happy Hospitalist advises to Quit smoking now or experience the rare but unsightly side effects of continued tobacco abuse.

In "The Fusilli Jerry", Kramer tells a story of how the surgeon once performed a procedure on a teenage boy from Guatemala with no nose and "turned him into Ricardo Montalbán!"

The Examining Room brings us an advanced look at a book about a compassionate pediatric surgeon's experiences taking care of gruesome injuries and heartbreaking problems in Iraq.

Bringing together the worst in popular culture with a serious look at facial lacerations, Inside Surgery frames it up around Tiger Woods' car crash.

Other Things Amanzi posts Decisions for surgery: "when in doubt, cut it out".

In "The Seven", Elaine strains her neck trying to get a bike down from the wall. In pain she promises the bike to whoever fixes her neck. Kramer saves the day and wants the bike.

How to Cope with Pain published this post as part of a series on medications used for chronic pain. Ketamine, an anesthetic, holds great potential to help patients with chronic pain. However, currently it is controversial and still considered experimental.

Timed perfectly to coincide with the Twilight: New Moon vampire file fervour sinking its teeth deep into the world's neck, Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunizations has updated its recommendations for rabies shots after bat run-ins. The requirement: "They must suck your blood."

In "The Parking Space", after borrowing Jerry's car, Elaine comes up with a wild story involving a pack of teenagers with a gun, because the car is now making a strange clanking noise.

Primary care physicians can assess readiness for treatment in depressed teens and should be prepared to follow teens not ready for treatment more frequently.

In "The Cheever Letters", George is to meet Susan's parents and is not looking forward to telling her father that his cabin had been burned down (by Kramer with the Cuban cigars Susan's father had given to George as a gift). Jerry suggests that the Rosses are likely to see the irony of the situation.

Medicine for the Outdoors provides this comprehensive background report on Wilderness Emergency Medical Services

In "The Diplomat's Club", Pitt goes to the pharmacy and mistakes Jerry for a pharmacist, as he is re-stocking a display that Kramer had knocked over. Jerry then proceeds to give Mr. Pitt some medications.

Florence Dot Com in "Thanks for Speaking Up" thanks two patient safety leaders for speaking out about the case of an Ohio pharmacist who has been jailed for an on-the-job medication error. As the blogosphere lights up this week to commemorate the 10th anniversary of To Err is Human, it's worth pointing out or (as Wachter and Cohen have done) calling out stakeholder groups that are not yet on board.

Laika's MedLibLog challenges the legitimacy of homeopathic medicines and their place on pharmacy shelves.

In "The Note", Jerry, George, and Elaine get free physical therapy massage by getting a note from Jerry's dentist (Roy) to present to the insurance company.

Colorado Health Insurance Insider focuses on Addressing the Problem of Cost. " Obviously no single health insurance company can set out on its own to reduce reimbursement rates, since the result would likely be that doctors and hospitals would leave that network in favor of other carriers with higher reimbursement rates. A government-set fee schedule makes sense (and would go a long way towards standardizing our health care costs), but it would likely face tremendous opposition from medical lobbying groups."

InsureBlog takes on the former Chief of Staff of a large Michigan hospital regarding health care "reform."

In "The Jimmy", George says he shouldn't have exercised because, even though he took a shower, "it wouldn't take" — he's a "human heat pump" and will be sweating later at an important meeting.


Dr. Jolie Bookspan provided this humorous post on the Forward Air Head Syndrome - Doing Sets and Reps and Missing The Point of the Exercise. "The Department for Silly Syndromes has determined that Forward Air Head Syndrome is closely related to Cerebral Detachment Syndrome..."

Thanks to Wikipedia for the Seinfeld descriptions.