Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that? A TEDx talk.

Brian Goldman is an emergency-room physician in Toronto, and the host of CBC Radio’s "White Coat, Black Art." 

His talk at TEDx in Toronto has just been posted here.  The title is "Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that?" In it he talks about the personal shame of mistakes in medicine and how it is preventing health care workers from being open and honest about medical errors. 

Dr Goldman calls for the creation of a "redefined medical culture" that teaches and learns from those mistakes.  He says it would be a culture that accepts any system run by humans will contain errors because humans make mistakes. He says the system itself needs to have backup built into it to reduce those errors, including open discussion of mistakes.

The talk is only 20 minutes and worth the time.

The Research Works Act - How would it effect you?

On December 16, 2011, a new bill, "The Research Works Act" (HR 3699) was introduced by Representatives Issa (R-CA) and Maloney (D-NY) and referred to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The bill would roll back the NIH Public Access Policy and block the development of similar policies at other federal agencies. The complete action alert can be found here.

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access has posted information about the representatives to contact in the House regarding the Research Works Act.

Call to action: Oppose H.R. 3699, a bill to block public access to publicly funded research and;

Draft letter to oppose H.R. 3699

Finding Information Online Can Change Your Mind!

Every year American Medical News, from the AMA, publish what they consider the most "intriguing medical facts" of the previous year.  You can see the whole article here with links back to the original stories.

The one I found most intriguing is "63% of doctors say they have changed an initial diagnosis based on new information found online."

The original article states, "Forty-six percent of the surveyed physicians said they frequently use search engines such as Google or Yahoo, and 32% said they occasionally use them. But they also use other online resources, such as free online services like WebMD or MayoClinic.com (42% frequently, 34% occasionally), and online subscription services (36% frequently, 31% occasionally)."  (Emphasis mine)
 
You can add to your collection of online resources at the Health Sciences Library. 
 
Check out our new mobile interface with link to resources like Dynamed and MDConsult for your device, look over our long list of databases with links to fulltext online, or go straight to our e-journals and e-books!