Vaccinate your USB now!

The ubiquitous USB thumbdrives that we use for medical reports, morbidity & mortality meetings, presentations, and so forth are the fomites of IT, spreading nasty trojan horses from hospital computer to hospital computer to home computer. The hospital IT technicians have their hands full trying to contain the contagion, fighting back with virus and malware scanners and a strict firewall system.

And as with infectious diseases, one tool in the arsenal is vaccination.

Try Panda Research USB Vaccine to disable your USB’s AutoRun file from becoming a source of infection. It’s good stuff.

Office Talk – keep your mouth shut and your ass clean

There is no profession without office politics at all levels. The more people have to lose, the more people are forced to play the game. House officers are the most free. There is no ultimate responsibility, because of the ability to escalate upwards. No-one expects house officers to think at a higher level, so the ones who do are seen as exceeding expectations. And the politics are the least because nobody at the higher levels generally cares about which individual house officer is better – except the rubbish ones who endanger patient lives.

Remember this: People talk. People remember. The impressions people have of you begin from medical school clinical postings. Don’t burn your bridges, you’ll need them in the future. Furthermore, the medical community is small and word spreads fast. An indiscretion can affect your career chances.