Digitaldoc's Residency Diary

Observations, Experiences & Musings of an Internal Medicine Resident

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The AMA's Medical App Competition

Posted by Digitaldoc, MD on Saturday, April 9, 2011

Feeling Appilicious ? Got an idea ? The American Medical Association wants to reward you for it.
All you need is a idea and a description of features - no programming or drawing.


AMA Medical App Competition
The Downside ? The submission agreement :

"If you share your App Idea with the AMA, you will forfeit proprietary rights to your App Idea."
(does not matter whether you win it or no)

So then you have to wonder, if the app idea is good and really hits the big time, you could have your own app made with help, and tens of thousands of dollars more, if not millions - then $2500 does not seem to cut it...

But then again...it's a 'BIG IF', lets not talk like you already won the competition ;)

Click Here for the AMA App Challenge submission form.

Clinical Informatics to be a recognized sub-specialty MD fellowship!

Posted by Digitaldoc, MD on Monday, November 30, 2009


...And that totally excites me, and if you are a geek-doctor like me, I am sure you would share in the excitement. As a resident I keep encountering countless frustrations with current EMRs and moments of "Wish Steve Jobs made EMRs too", I know for a fact that medical information access, presentation and computing is no longer just geeky business, it can have real tangible, implications in efficacy, patient safety, cost savings and the dollar bottomline. And enabling physicians to take leadership roles in driving the clinical information flow in a health system will need special training, that deserves a separate fellowship.

So, In March 2007, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded a grant to the American Medical Informatics Association to brainstorm over making two documents that the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) would need to create the medical subspecialty of clinical informatics - These are ready, and you can read them here

A few places already have fellowships for MDs in Medical informatics, but recognizing that as a sub-specialty will be awesome :). Soon it will be standard practice for hospitals to have a clinical informatics specialist who practices clinical medicine and and also provides leadership to the clinical IT systems. I had already touched on Chief Medical Information Officer salaries before, other possible positions after such a fellowship could be lucrative systems design & management positions with medical software vendors, academic research positions in universities or even hospitalist + IT combined positions.


Good Books:

- Introduction to Clinical Informatics (Health Informatics)
- Information Technology for the Practicing Physician (Health Informatics)

For Residents: Diabetic Clinic Pt. f/u Checklist

Posted by Digitaldoc, MD on Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Diabetic patient followups make up a huge majority of primary care stuff that both residents and medical students gotta handle, here's a ABCD style mnemonic to remember what to keep tabs on for diabetics:

A - A1c : Target A1cHb Less than 6.5

B - Blood Pressure target Less than 130 /80 in Diabetics to slow renal failure! Start off with ACE inhibitors , and remember annual microalbuminuria checks

C - Cholesterol Check: LDL less than 100 is target, less than 70 recommended

D - D Vitamin ! Low Vit D levels in DM increases atherosclerosis risks

E - Eye exam, annual, by an opthalmologist or optometrist

F - Foot exam with every visit

G - Gonadial Hormone --> Testosterone levels in Males - Why ? 1/3rd of Diabetic men have low testosterone levels which worsens insulin resistance & obesity - Read this

H - Holistic Health advice including Lifestyle, exercise, smoking cessation, Diet education and weight goals

New Residents Get "Residency Survival Kit" [PICS]

Posted by Digitaldoc, MD on Friday, August 21, 2009

Emailed to me by a reader who recently started his residency - and here's a real cool "prescription pill" bottle that their residency program gave all incoming interns:

Here's the medicine label ;):

residency survival kit

And here are the contents !!

residency survival kit

And here are intructions...

residency survival kit



Sweeeet...

Tips for new residents thinking of fellowships

Posted by Digitaldoc, MD on Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Just when you thought that you can now take a future-planning break after you matched into an Internal medicine residency, your ears pick up the ticking sound of the fellowship-applications clock..lol. Unfortunately, for a physician, there will always be that next academic / career goal to work for ....

The other day I was talking to an inquisite, fresh intern about fellowships and these stumbled off my brains. The take-home point is to make best use of the 15-16 months you have until you apply for fellowships in the second year.

1. Before you begin residency, you will be asked to submit your elective specialty and month preferences. Schedule electives for the specialties your interest very early during your residency, so that you get to know the specialists and can work with them on case reports before you apply

2. Extending a another reason for the above, when its time to apply, the specialists will have known you for a longer time, making that LOR better :-)

3. Be on the look out for interesting cases, once you find one, collect all data, pictures needed for an interesting case report. An easy way to get that published would be submitting it to the medical journal of your state's medical association. Faculty will guide you once you approach them with the case.

4. Get to know the interview time policy of your program. If your program does not give your protected interview time-off, then instead of keeping December month light for christmas, you might wanna rethink and keep the interview months (Jan-Feb-March) lighter instead

5. No fellowships at your own program? Enquire about the rules and regulation of your program for an "away rotation" and then get in touch with university programs with fellowships for elective rotations. That should increase your chances for a fellowship at that program. Your own program would need a 2-3 month prior notice about such a rotation, so work on it early too.

6. If your seniors match to fellowships of your interest, its a good idea to get hold of their personal statements and take precious advice from them !


More Later...I gotta go to work !!

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