“Up until now the treatment of this condition involved free water restriction and removal of inciting factors. Now a new drug – Tolvaptan promises to change it all.”

However, the article missed out the remaining post which in the end had my take on Tolvaptan -

“The main problem with the drug is that once approved, most clinicians will prescribe it for for a very long time especially in patients prone to developing and remaining hyponatremic. Since the study duration was only for 30 days, many new side effects may appear when the drug is finally marketed.”

Also my blog post was written in context of describing an article published in New England Journal of medicine and not for drug promotion which the article failed to mention. I should also add that I have no relationship with any pharmaceutical company as the article later implies (although not directly to this website) by writing:

“A recent survey reveals that 29% of blog authors have been approached by public relations professionals to endorse specific products, and 52% of them have written one post endorsing such products in their blog content. These endorsements are not advertisements that appear on the website; they are written into the blog narrative, often without any acknowledgement that they are paid promotions. Although we did find blogs that promoted health care products within their entries, we were unable to determine whether these were paid endorsements, because we found no disclosures indicating authors’ conflicts of interest.”

To all this I should also add that I pursue blogging because I have a passion for computers and technology and believe that we can help ourselves (physicians) as well as our patients by empowering them with the latest information in medicine that they can discuss with their physicians.

Technorati Tags: Blog, iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch, Medicine and Man, Wordpress

I have created a library of books that I used to prepare for my USMLE exam and have added the links to USMLE book review sections on the website.

I hope that students preparing for the exam will find it useful.

USMLE Book Library

Technorati Tags: USMLE, Exam, Google Book search, Google Library, Review, USMLE library

Many medical professionals do not make use of emerging and established computer technology which can save a lot of time and increase productivity.

The idea behind this section is to introduce some of the technology that is relevant to the field of medicine. These topics are meant to be starters – i.e I have attempted to explain what the technology is and what uses it has in the field of medicine. I do not attempt to go in detail. Links have been provided with each section to guide the reader in finding relevant detailed information.

The first 2 sections which I have completed include:

1. Google search (including image search, scholar and book search)

2. RSS & podcasts

I have planned to include a number of other topics (including Web 2.0, online file storage, firefox).

If you want any topic to be included (or something I have missed out in the topics covered) please leave a comment and I will do my best to include it.

Technorati Tags: Computer, Google, Medical Technology, Medicine, Podcast, RSS, Scholar, Search

Medicine and Man Guest Book

Technorati Tags: GuestBook, Website

Step 1 Book Reviews

Step 2 CK Book Reviews

Step 2 CS Reviews

Step 3 Reviews

All the best for USMLE aspirants.

Technorati Tags: Books, Education, Exam, Book Review, USMLE

There is a USMLE section which gives an overview of the full USMLE process from exam registration to the ‘Match’. While preparing for the exam and going through the residency process I faced a lot of difficulties in terms of acquiring information related to the whole USMLE process. I also found many of my friends in the same boat. Therefore I decided to write a practical walkthrough guide to the whole USMLE process.

The section does not aim to cover all the information related to this topic as it is then that confusion creeps in. Most candidates do not want to delve into the minute details of the process which they may get from the official websites at any time. So only the necessary information is given in an easily digestible format.

Hope you find it useful.

(Btw if inadvertently any errors have crept in or if I have missed some important facts please send me an email or leave a comment on this post.)

USMLE

Technorati Tags: Medicine, Exam, Education, USMLE

The advantages of having your own server space & domain and then configuring a blog software of your choice (Wordpress in my case) is phenomenal. It gives a huge amount of flexibility (and problems) to control the blog. Some of the new features on Medicine and Man blog due to this giant leap (for me atleast ) are:-

1. Categories – All previous posts have been assigned categories making it easier to navigate and find articles
2. Blog specific search box
3. Related links at the end of each post
4. RSS feeds for both articles and comments

Also the slogan of the blog website has been changed from “Putting medicine into perspective” to “Medicine and beyond…” to better reflect the content and ideology.

Without knowing a single line of HTML code, my plan is to build a portal for medical professional and the general public where information is presented in a concise and easily digestible manner.

An ambitious project.

Exciting times ahead for Medicine and Man.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Blogging, Health, Medicine, Weblog, Website