A bit of common sense from the U of Chicago

A physician may discuss a patient's condition or treatment regimen in the patient's semi-private room, but he/she should ask the other patient's visitors/family to leave, pull the curtain, and speak quietly.

http://hipaa.bsd.uchicago.edu/incidental_disc.html

hat tip to

diva virtual‏ @ValeriaLugosi

  For posting a picture of an urn shaped like a capsule.

estoy fascinada con la urna de carrie fisher: tiene forma de prozac. que manera de entender todo.

6:27 PM · Jan 6, 2017

Since the new year is full of resolutions where we make ourselves better, does anyone need suggestions on donating money to make other people better off?

Gofundme has a bunch of possibilities to spend money on. Perhaps one may catch your eye from ads about prosthesis, to paying for a Healthcare worker's education or books to be used overseas.

This sounds like an April fools joke....as seen on twitter.

6hJon‏ @MrDalekJD

Someone managed to change the Hollywood sign to say "Hollyweed" - 2017 starting off strong

http://www.thelocal.de/20141028/thief-squirts-her-breast-milk-to-steal-german-pharmacy-darmstadt

An odd their to leave more than she stole.

Dieters beware your friend is an enemy.

"Aspartame may prevent, not promote, weight loss by blocking intestinal enzyme's activity 
Massachusetts General Hospital, 11/23/2016 

Mass. General study identifies possible mechanism behind sugar substitute's lack of effectiveness.
A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has found a possible mechanism explaining why use of the sugar substitute aspartame might not promote weight loss.

In their report published online in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, the researchers show how the aspartame breakdown product phenylalanine interferes with the action of an enzyme previously shown to prevent metabolic syndrome – a group of symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They also showed that mice receiving aspartame in their drinking water gained more weight and developed other symptoms of metabolic syndrome than animals fed similar diets lacking aspartame."

“Sugar substitutes like aspartame are designed to promote weight loss and decrease the incidence of metabolic syndrome, but a number of clinical and epidemiologic studies have suggested that these products don’t work very well and may actually make things worse,” says Richard Hodin, MD, of the MGH Department of Surgery, the study’s senior author. “We found that aspartame blocks a gut enzyme called intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) that we previously showed can prevent obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome; so we think that aspartame might not work because, even as it is substituting for sugar, it blocks the beneficial aspects of IAP.”

Yale vs Harvard infections, pranks and more. This is an oldie, but goodie in terms of silliness.

http://gomerblog.com/2016/05/patient-in-room-213-worried-after-code-blues-in-211-212-214-215/

In other news MD Anderson is expanding from Houston, to take care of cancer patients in San Antonio. How? Mergers and acquisitions.  Read more in the San Antonio Express.