Doctor Dress Codes – Please Off Ties!

In SGH, there is a circular reminding all medical students to be neatly attired at all times. The dress code for male students is shirt, dress pants, shoes and ties at all time.
Link: Doctors should abandon ties and avoid nose rings – Roger Dobson
Wearing ties is about striking a balance between patient confidence and infection [...]

Random Conversation – Ethics Case

Standing around in the MO room, A, B were talking.
A: Hey, have you finished your ethics case writeups yet? It’s due on the 1st.
B: Aw man, gotta finish it soon. It’s a complicated case.
A: What cases are you doing?
B: It’s a complicated case of MTPT (Mid-Term Pregnancy Termination). I wish I had picked an easier [...]

Logical Fallacies, including “Why not try it?”

The following link is from Managing Decision- Priority- Mental Error. Their website states that they are a website
“dedicated to helping managers, administrators, court judges and other legal professionals, CEOs, business owners and all other professional decision-makers of all types avoid mental error in decision selection and fundamental prioritizing, with quotes by noted psychologists and authors [...]

Review: Highlander Coffee Bar

“There Can Be Only One.”
During all his postings at SGH, J. had never known of the presence of Highlander Coffee, a small place directly opposite SGH. Pity. It’s a great place for coffee.
Over the course of two weeks, J. has sampled three drinks from the place: a double shot espresso ($1.90), a latte ($2.90) and [...]

Medfac Outing – Asia Pacific Breweries Trip 2007

Recently, there was the annual APB trip to the birthplace of Tiger Beer, world-acclaimed beer that’s won the Gold medal in the European Style Pilsener category of the 2004 World Beer Cup.
J. thought that it’d be his last chance to enjoy such a trip and made sure that after a tutorial that ended at 1850hrs [...]

Rag & Flag 2007 and Memories of 2003

The NUS Rag & Flag 2007 was held on 11 August 2007 at the Sports and Recreation Centre (SRC), Padang. It was the first time the event was held at the Padang as it had previously been held at the NUS SRC Track.
It’s J.’s final year in medical school, and he could not resist the [...]

Why You Should Follow Recommended Dosages

… instead of self-modifying the dosages.
To illustrate, let’s use a very common over-the-counter medication called
Paracetamol
(Generic: S$1.05 for 20 tablets, Panadol: S$4.00 for 30 tablets).
Its other chemical name is acetaminophen, and in North America the brand name is Tylenol. Each tablet contains 500mg of paracetamol.
The prescription for paracetamol usually goes like this:
PO Paracetamol 1000mg q4h PRN. [...]

Instruments of Illumination – Say “Ah…”

During the medical instruments fair, where stethoscopes took centre stage, most of the companies also hawked smaller medical equipment such as

tourniquets (rendered useless by the improvised use of latex gloves)
blood pressure sets (well, if you’re starting your own GP practice…)
opthalmoscopes/otoscopes (your Dad owns Microsoft? yes, you can afford one)
tuning forks (one 128Hz, one 512Hz)
tendon [...]

Review: Sushi Tei (Holland Village)

CG Lunch No. 2
Last time certain members brought us to Delhi Restaurant for a post-Paediatrics lunch. This time, to celebrate the impending end of Medicine SIP, the CG dropped by Holland Village on the way back to NUS (for a Combined Teaching Session). One half of the CG racked their brains to decide where to [...]

Needlestick Injury – What to do, what to do?

There’s been some talk of an opt-out system for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) testing in Singapore.
TODAYonline: Aids stats point way to HIV tests
J., as a future healthcare professional, thinks that it is admirable the goal of protecting… healthcare professionals, though he doubts its effectiveness. It would definitely be useful in diagnosing and treatment of HIV [...]