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O MUCH absurdity, so few column inches. Welcome back to Diary where we ask for interesting and entertaining medical anecdotes from our readers, get


nothing in reply and so make up our own. But let us not be bitter...


 JAB! SLICE! SUCK! DRILL! Maybe best to skip the sound effects – but it’s been found that a comic-book approach to getting informed surgical consent can improve comprehension and reduce anxiety in patients facing complicated procedures. Researchers in Berlin developed a 15-page comic-style booklet to help inform patients undergoing cardiac catheterisation and stent insertion. A total of 121 patients were then recruited with some undergoing standard consent only and the rest being additionally provided with the ‘comic’. The researchers found that the latter scored better on a short recall test and also reported feeling less anxious and better prepared for cardiac catheterisation. Dr Anna Brand, one of the lead investigators, said: “We want to use future research to test whether similar positive effects can be achieved in patients undergoing other medical procedures.” Source: OnMedica


 KEEP YOUR GERMS TO YOURSELF The idea came to GP Dr Robin Kerr of Teviot Medical Practice when he was lying in bed wondering which of his patients had given him the flu. “I was thinking how could I have stopped this. By the time the patient comes in for an appointment with a cold or flu the time has passed – it’s no good saying ‘next time you have a cold, consider self-care’.” His idea was a telephone recording – before talking to a receptionist – signposting appropriate patients with cold symptoms in the direction of a community pharmacy to basically tough it out. Research conducted by Dr Kerr and colleagues found that the approach led to a 5.5 per cent reduction in calls continuing through to reception in a period when the incidence of the common cold was at its highest, and a 21 per cent reduction in the mean waiting time to the third available routine appointment. Voltaire did say: “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature affects the cure.” Source: GPonline


 VICTORY…ALBEIT BELATED It only took 150 years but seven female Edinburgh University students have finally been awarded their medical degrees. In 1869, Sophia Jex Baxter and six other women were allowed to enrol in medicine at the university but had to endure fierce hostility, not only from the public but from fellow male students, culminating in the Surgeon’s Hall Riot in November 1870 when they arrived to take an anatomy exam facing a mob and were pelted with mud and worst. Later the so-called Edinburgh Seven were refused graduation and forced to study elsewhere in Europe. This summer seven current female medical students at Edinburgh University accepted degree certificates on behalf of these pioneering women. Better late…


 ICE LOLLY, STAT! Summer may be long forgotten but ice lollies are still on the menu at the ICU at University College London Hospitals foundation trust. A common complaint among patients after major surgery is thirst. “And that’s not just feeling a little bit thirsty and dry; it’s intractable thirst… to the point of it becoming disabling and really uncomfortable,” says professor of perioperative care, David Walker. Yet these patients are not often dehydrated and a glass of water puts unnecessary fluid into circulation. His solution is to give patients an ice lolly to suck on. “We want patients out of bed, sitting in a chair, and eating and drinking as early as they are able.” Source: BMJ


 AMAZING DOCTOR AMAZON Diary has special pity for anyone this century with the misfortune to be named Alexa. Imagine the constant quips: Alexa, where’s my stuff? Alexa, play Rick Astley. Alexa, have


you ever had sex? Add now to that requests for health advice. The NHS has announced plans to team up with Amazon to provide voice-assisted technology employing algorithms that tap into


information from the NHS website to provide answers to questions such as: Alexa, how do I treat a migraine? or Alexa, what are the symptoms of flu? The aim is to help patients, especially the elderly, blind and those who cannot access the internet


through traditional means, to get professional, NHS- verified health information using simple voice commands. The Government says: “It is hoped the technology will reduce pressure on the NHS and GPs by providing information for common illnesses.” Just remember to shut the windows at night to keep out the surgical cyberspiders.


 WEAPONISED TICKS It may sound like the ultimate fantasist “told you so” but the US House of Representatives has ordered the Pentagon to conduct a review of whether the defence department experimented with using ticks and other insects as biological weapons. The review was demanded by New Jersey Republican Chris Smith and prompted by “books and articles” exploring research carried out at a biological research unit on Plum Island, which lies across a narrow stretch of water from the community of Lyme, Connecticut. Here in 1975 a cluster of paediatric arthritic illness was later associated with infection by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and thereafter commonly referred to as Lyme disease. Smith wants to know if medical entomologist (and B.


burgdorferi namesake) Wilhelm Burgdorfer may


have worked for the US Government, breeding ticks and injecting them with various pathogens. Nice. Source: BMJ


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