PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY


WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT? SEM of a brain cancer cell


www.mddus.com OUT THERE


RANCID REMEDIES Eating body parts, the sweat of a dying man, ground-up remains of embalmed bodies and distilled brain pulp are just some of the treatments dreamed up by proponents of ‘corpse medicine’. Australian academic Louise Noble has researched a range of stomach-churning remedies on the practice which was popular from the 12th


to 17th century. Source: Daily Mail


GRAPHIC CONTENT Doctors at Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital, Texas, made history when they tweeted more than 100 updates, pictures and video clips during a four-hour open heart surgery on an unnamed 57-year-old patient. Non-medics may have been alarmed to know that “Dr Macris opened patient’s chest with knife, bovie, then saw”, but all went well and the patient is now recovering.


CROSSING GENDERS Shock new fi gures reveal that, between 2009 and 2010, over 17,000 men attended NHS obstetric services, more than 8,000 to gynaecology and nearly 20,000 to midwifery. The phenomenon isn’t a way to increase social inclusion, but a symptom of erroneous capturing and coding of patient episodes. In a letter on bmj.com, clinicians are asked to take care as this data will inform NHS commissioning decision-making.


E-PIDERMIS US scientists have invented “electronic skin” patches that monitor patients’ vital signs and will ultimately be able to wirelessly transmit the data to a doctor. It could mean the end of patients being attached to machines for hours of treatment or monitoring. The patches can track brain, heart or muscle activity.


WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT? Stumped? The answer is at the bottom of the page Pick: DVD - House (Season 1)


Directed by Bryan Singer and others; starring Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard; 2006


This hugely popular American medical drama saw the last episode of its eighth and fi nal season broadcast in May 2012. So what better time to go back to where it all started and meet the pill-popping medical maverick and damaged diagnostic genius, Dr Gregory House MD? Hugh Laurie’s cranky, misanthropic healer and his long-suff ering team devote their time to diagnosing mysterious medical complaints that stem from increasingly exotic and unexpected causes. Who can forget the young boy whose simple rash turns out


to be leprosy or the homeless woman who suff ers a seizure and turns out to have rabies.


Working on the assumption that “everybody lies” and routinely ordering his doctors to break into patients’ homes in search of clues, House’s blunt assertions provoke outrage and tears in equal measure. If he were a real doctor, it’s fair to say House would have been struck off long ago. But despite the main character’s mind-boggling rudeness and severe lack of redeeming qualities, House is a compelling drama that lays bare the complexity of motives in both medicine and in life.


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FY 15i •


Book Review: The Doctor Will See You Now by Max Pemberton


Hodder & Stoughton; £12.99 Review by Joanne Curran, associate editor of FYi


THE junior doctor is back and he’s facing a host of new challenges as he gets to grips with life as a hospital doctor. The Doctor Will See You


Now takes us behind the scenes of NHS hospital care and off ers a candid account of Max Pemberton’s experiences dealing with dementia patients and the elderly with some added drama of A&E. Woven into the mix are personal tales involving


unpredictable fl at-mates and diffi cult bosses, while Pemberton also off ers up some poignant observations and criticisms of health service failings. His previous two books


charted his progression from his days fresh out of medical school to working as an FY2 with homeless and drug-addicted patients. Now he is back on the wards and having a typically frenzied time. Pemberton gives us a doctor’s-eye-view of life working on the NHS frontline, from the embarrassment of the


patient whose erection won’t go away to the injustice of the dementia patients locked in their rooms to give care staff an easier shift.


The book is readable, funny and engaging


and Pemberton does his best to off er something that both medics and members of the public will fi nd interesting and easy to understand. It is sometimes a diffi cult gap to bridge, particularly in moments where he is discussing more doctor-specifi c topics such as the impact of the European Working Time Directive or the diffi culty he has in breaking bad news to a patient’s family. There are many genuinely important points


made throughout the book (albeit in a somewhat earnest fashion) about the frustration of trying to do your best for patients in a system that is under-funded and often poorly managed. Knowing the story is based on real events adds to its credibility and impact. So, while it’s unlikely to earn Pemberton any


awards for literary merit, The Doctor Will See You Now is an entertaining read and off ers an interesting insight into the trials and tribulations of a young doctor trying to make sense of NHS medical practice.


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