Euan, who is a very nice man and much, much smarter than I sums up what is good about this interwub thing.

He just nails it.

 

 

Still taking out the sweary bits from my post about my pay…

Grand Rounds are up at Kevin, M.D. the weekly roundup of the best medical blog posts.

A question for the smart people out there.  As you know ‘Tom Reynolds’ is just the name I write under.  Lets say I meet someone in the street – how do I prove that I write this blog?  Domain registry is one idea, but I’m not sure that it works in all cases.

I’m having an idea tickling around in my head while working on the book, something about how my blog is my identity…

UPDATE: Ok, I don't think I was clear - Let me explain what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking about blogs and digital identity. While not relevant in my line of business, there are people out there who want to improve their career, one way of doing this is by blogging. Imagine a situation where you can say to a potential employee "Hey, take a look at my blog, you'll see the sort of writer/person I am". I know a couple of people who got their jobs via blogging.

Now imagine me on IRC (or other chatrooms/IM clients). Someone asks me who I am - I'd like to point them to my blog and they can make their own mind up. Sure, my blog isn't me but it can give you a rough idea of what I'm about.

Your blog can be an important part of your 'worth' in the reputation economy of the social internet.

But... How can I prove (on IRC, or to a prospective employer) that I'm the person writing my blog. And what is to stop me from saying that I'm the real writer of an anonymous blog. I could always post a specific thing - but if I'm talking to more than one person, then my blog would turn into a series of rather strange posts.

So...is there a way to concretely link this blog to my identity.

It's just what I'm thinking about at present, no particular reasoning behind it - it's just the way my head works sometimes...

Black Triangle has found the funniest blond joke ever.

This weeks Grand Rounds are up at Clinical cases.  As always, some good stuff.

Merys Jones of Bloody Students sent me a New Year gift of a Wallace and Gromit DVD.  Thank you very much Merys, it will bring me joy in the dark hours of a night shift.

The Medical Weblog Awards are up for voting at the moment. I've been nominated in two categories, best literary blog and best medical blog. Please feel free to go and vote for the blog that you like the best*.  NeeNaw is also nominated for the best new medblog (He’s streaming ahead – and quite rightly so).

*Obviously I want to you decide which one you like the best, and vote accordingly – but if you vote for me it might spark a little light in my dead, cold heart…

It’s also time for the 2006 Bloggies, where it is always fun to see who pops up in the nominations.

Blogging may be a little sparse this week, I’m taking some time to work on the book before my final set on nightshifts on the car next week.  Then from the 16th I’m back on an actual ambulance.

I can’t wait…

 

 

Blatent whoring is now over until I have something to sell you sometime later this year.

The honour of hosting the first Grand Rounds of 2006 has fallen to me.  Well…. actually the evil minds behind it got me drunk first.  When I said ‘yes’ I thought I was agreeing to another round of drinks.
Grand Rounds consists of mainly medical bloggers sending the links of their best post of the week to some poor sucker who has to collate them all and post them on their own blog.  It’s a great way to be introduced to some of the excellent blogs out there.  Unfortunately in this case you are going to be directed to much more interesting people than me – so please promise to come back here when you are finished…
Reading through these posts has meant I'm adding yet more blogs to my already overflowing Bloglines subscription.

Next weeks sucker host of Grand Rounds will be Clinical Cases Blog

In no particular order (and please note, some descriptions may be slightly tongue in cheek) I present this week's Grand Rounds...

Dr Charles has hallucinations while treating a patient!

Sumer asks “It can be tough being married to a doctor, but if they are a radiologist, is it tougher?”

Red State Moron comments on how difficult it must be to announce the birth of a child with a disability.

Orac has a very personal post touching on how hard it is to be medically trained, and to have a family member critically ill.

GeekNurse talks us through an unusual x-ray (and yes, I jumped to the obvious conclusion as well).

HealthConcerns has one of those interesting thoughts that comes to you at three in the morning. Her thought could also apply to medical Blogs.

Was there really a malpractice crisis?  Medpundit disagrees with the local media.

Doc around the clock plays guitar and sings then points to an article on physician musicians.

Medical Connectivity Consulting reports on GE Healthcare staking a claim on wireless networks in hospitals.

KidneyNotes expresses concern about recent news that bowel cleansing preps may cause kidney damage.  (And provides further references).

Anonymous rating of doctors, is it a good thing?  MSSP Nexus blog investigates.

Joan H. over at Oasis of Sanity tells us about the peculiar body image issues that female cancer patients should deal with, but often don’t.

Jim Hu notes an interesting idea that Proton Pump Inhibitors may aid Clostridium Difficile.

In a very scary report, Clinical Cases notes that for Doctors, speed can kill.

The Daily Rhino presents a clinical case that every medical professional must have thought about at one time or another. Vroom, vroom!

I read Medviews’ post, but being in the land of milk, honey and socialised medicine I have no idea what they are talking about.  I think it’s something about Doctors and pay.

Fixin’ Healthcare looks back on 46 years of medicine, and points out a possible future path.

The UK has just started allowing patients a choice of hospitals, Insureblog points out a problem with this ‘consumer driven healthcare’ in America.

Genetics Health points out that there are plenty of jobs in clinical genetics.

Healthcare.wurk.net meanwhile tells us about a simple way of getting the message across – comics.

Health Business Blog comments on ideas to prevent runaway spending on biotech.

This ain’t livin’ has a funny post that makes me glad that I have ‘man bits’ for my own personal undercarriage.

The pleasures of the internet include seeing how other countries deal with healthcare.  Mexico Medical Student tells us (in four posts) about Mexican community medicine (you can read the other posts easily as they are linked in his sidebar).

Diabetes Mine has good news for type 1 diabetics, it seems that all the hard work of controlling your blood sugar is well worth the effort.  She also reports on a potential new way of measuring blood sugar.

NHSBlogDoc (who seems to be turning into my nemesis, although for that to work he’ll need more flying attack robots with death-rays), well…he has a crap in his office, and it’s still there.

Dr Tony examines some testimony from a doctor who has…erm…strange views of medical practice.

Steve, over at The Eyes of an EMT, writes about the thing all us ambulance people dread – the complicated ‘late job’.

nbm at DSPS – the sleep disorder, has got me as a new regular reader – because this post rings very true to my sleep patterns.

UPDATE: You know, there are always a few people who leave it to the last minute.  Some people also forget that due to timezones and other arcane things I’m a couple of hours into their future.

So here are some late Grand Rounds submissions.

The Medical Blog Network has had a site redesign.

From Manila in the Philippines we have a detailed post on fireworks injuries.

GruntDoc has a scary report on how to spread measles to as many people as possible.

DB’s Medical Rants shows us the importance of clinical judgement.

Herbicide as cancer cure?  Interested-Participant thinks not (and so do all right-minded people).

Some stories on how to make a Christmas in hospital as special as possible from Hospital Impact.

Biotech Weblog reports on a phase one study on using stem cells for child brain injury.

Remember, next week Grand Rounds will be hosted by Clinical Cases Blog