This road – no one goes down it – autumn evenings. Basho PDF for easier reading: The Narrow Road Through Cyber-Medicine Abstract: This essay describes a 25-year medical odyssey through the universe of cyberspace. It chronicles the author’s adventures with teledermatology, the medical humanities and the online medical literature. The explorations continue but the author does not know the next ports-of-call. He can only “hope the voyage is a long one,/full of adventure, full of discovery.”1Keywords: cybermedicine, blogs, pathography Forty years ago, when I decided to make dermatology my life’s work, the specialty was a far cry from what it has become. It was not then what I call and … Continue reading
The Right Stuff: Tiffany Rocks!
Akamai Skin Care Associates of Marin is proud to introduce Dr. Tiffany Martin, our newest associate! Tiffany’s start in life was humble as an illegal alien. The only person in her large family to attend college, she was honored to receive a full scholarship to Stanford, from which she graduated summa cum laude. In her post-graduate year she embarked on a world tour during which she opened free medical clinics for the homeless in 18 countries, an effort funded by Kickstarter. This project was lauded by the H.G. Heinz Foundation with the Ketchup Award and was featured in the Wall Street Journal. President Obama bestowed upon her the citizen’s commendation … Continue reading
Hot Spots 2.0 Syllabus
This is the syllabus for the 2015 Hot Spots 2.0 program. Links to the talks are included for those presentations that the authors wish to share. Hot Spots West Vancouver Introductory Remarks It is fitting to begin with Osler, a Canadian, who wrote: “No class of men needs friction so much as physicians; no class gets less. The daily round of a busy practitioner tends to develop an egoism of a most intense kind, to which there is not antidote. The few setbacks are forgotten, the mistakes are often buried, and then years of successful work tend to make a man touchy, dogmatic, intolerant of correction, and abominably self- centered. … Continue reading
Plastic Surgery – Gangnam Style
“We want to have surgeries while we are young so we can have our new faces for a long time,” About Face by Patricia Marx New Yorker, March 23, 2015 This is a fascinating essay about Plastic Surgery in South Korea, the current world capitol of plastic surgery. Full Article. Excerpts: If you want to feel bad about your looks, spend some time in Seoul. An eerily high number of women there—and men, too—look like anime princesses. South Koreans do not merely brood about their physiognomy. They put their money where their mouths—and eyes and noses—used to be. It has been estimated that between one-fifth and one-third of women in … Continue reading
My Embarrassing Red Face
Anonymous My journey with Red Face Syndrome has been tough, especially as I am a high school student. It started with some type of rash, maybe an allergic reaction, under my nose and on my chin. It wouldn’t go away so I went to my doctor. She confirmed my suspicion that it was an allergic reaction and treated me with a pill, hydroxyzine, and triamcinolone ointment. I took the pills until they were gone and used the ointment. My rash cleared up so I stopped the medicines. I was so happy that the rash was gone and I could stop having uncomfortable sleepless nights with ointment covering my face. After … Continue reading
My Struggle
By Lee Thompson Abstract: This is the first-person narrative of a young woman’s pursuit of beauty and how it went awry. Illness narratives come in three types: restitution, quest, and chaos. Although she is still on a quest, there are aspects of chaos in this woman’s story. Shame and humiliation are subtexts in patients’ stories, but physicians rarely hear them. These emotions are not generally inquired about during the truncated medical encounter. All I wanted to have perfect teeth. In America, if you want to be beautiful, you have to have perfect white teeth. As I blindly pursued my goal, no one ever informed me that whitening my teeth could … Continue reading
Corina’s Pride
To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always by James Channing Shaw view PDF: CORINA’S PRIDE My resident, Rishaad, presented the case in the corridor: “This is Corina, a fifty year old woman with itching on her back, chest and abdomen. No other medical problems.” He presented his findings and working diagnosis. We entered the examination room. Corina appeared healthy. I agreed that the hundreds of tiny, rough bumps over her torso were probably benign keratoses. Being the third consultant, we performed a biopsy and prescribed short-term symptomatic treatment, asking her to return in a week or so. Outside the room, I explained that such an eruption of itchy … Continue reading
Chantelle Brown-Young Causes Reflection on the Concepts of Impairment While Changing the Face of Beauty
If you’ve got it, flaunt it. By Boluwaji Ogunyemi, M.D. Dermatology Resident, University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia Email: b62baoATmun.ca Conflicts of Interest: None declared Keywords: vitiligo, beauty, disability, pigment disorders, models, impairment Abstract: The ever-increasing availability (and arguably, acceptability) of aesthetic medicine procedures corresponds with the medicalization of the aging process. In this post, Bolu Ogunyemi speaks about the career of a model with vitiligo who accepts, and even embraces her disease. In contrast, many individuals, in regions such as Korea and Brazil, go to great lengths to alter their appearance. This essay also delineates the related concepts of disease, impairment, and disability and how and by whom … Continue reading
Litt’s “Hunk o’ Skin”
By Jerome Z. Litt Reprinted from the Archives of Dermatology May, 1961, Vol. 83, pp. 844-845 Jerry Litt writes: Back in 1961, I wrote an article — a poem — and submitted it to the Archives of Dermatology. The Editor at the time was so taken with it that he published it in the May, 1961 issue.” [ Ed. note: Many of us were just kids then, or not even born! It’s a hard piece to find — so here it is…] Hunk o’ Skin (The meter is from Kipling’s “Gunga Din) You may talk of lungs and liver, Of the twins you did deliver And the kidney stones that … Continue reading
Phil Ochs: Hooray for the A.M.A.
Phil Ochs’ “Hooray for the A.M.A.” By Friedrich A. Bahmer Listen to A.M.A. Song (you will need to skip the ad) The fear of U.S. doctors over socialized medicine as a consequence of major reforms in health care put forward by President Obama is not new. With John F. Kennedy’s inauguration as president in 1960, doctors grew anxious about impending governmental regulations on the health care system. Half a century ago, in that era, Philip (Phil) Ochs (1940 – 1976) released a recording “Hooray for the A.M.A.”, in which he criticized both greedy doctors and the American Medical Association.1 In the last verse of his song, Ochs expressed the fears … Continue reading
