Chest Tubes or Bacon?

The trauma surgeon was doing an excellent job lecturing to us about chest tube insertion but as soon as the pig rolled in-- all eyes were on the bacon.

He demonstrated to the class how to insert a chest tube and then we went to the lab and tried it ourselves.  Let's just say that inserting a chest tube is not as easy as it looks.  If I ever have to do this on a real human being-- help me.

Technology in medicine

Tomorrow is our panel presentation in 'Advanced Technology & Clinical Decisions in Acute Care.'  Why must the course names be so long, really?  Anyway, this presentation is kind of a big deal-- as in 40% of our grade.

The assignment is to select a controversial therapy that is currently offered to patients- select a pro side and a con side, find the latest research on the topic and creatively present on this topic for 30 minutes.  Our topic is standard radiation therapy vs. proton therapy in cancer patients.  I won't bore you with the details but instead, have posted this TED talk for your viewing pleasure.

Sometimes, we rely too heavily on technology to provide us with assessment information that we can obtain from a good old fashioned physical exam-- let's not forget that.