Bedside Rounds

Intravenous or IV fluids are a ubiquitous treatment in medicine, and one of the most cost-effective treatments that we have, costing less than a cup of coffee in the developing world. But it wasn’t always this way. In this episode, called Salt Water, we go back to the second great cholera epidemic, where a young doctor developed IV fluids to help fight this mysterious disease, only to see his invention abandoned for over half a century. We also have a new #AdamAnswers about bloodletting. So join us for another rollicking adventure of Bedside Rounds, a tiny podcast about fascinating stories in clinical medicine!   Sources:   Foex B. How the cholera epidemic of 1831 resulted in a newtechnique for fluid resuscitation. Emerg Med J 2003;20:316–318. Gill G. William O’Shaughnessy and the forgotten cure for cholerain the 1832 British epidemic. Letter from Lord Cavendish: Online at: http://mssweb.nottingham.ac.uk/elearning/view-text.asp?resource=HealthHousing&ref=pwh287&theme=3&view=text&page=1 O'Sha

In this month's #AdamAnswers, he discusses his #TipsforNewInterns (seriously, it's trending on Twitter). And we introduce the Summer Shorts for this summer -- and discuss how you can contribute and be on the show! (#spoileralert -- Tweet me @AdamRodmanMD). This is NOT an episode! Make sure you listen to Episode 24.

What makes a disease? And who gets to decide? Producer Cam Steele brings us a story that spans migrating uteruses in ancient Egypt, a disease that makes slaves want to run away in the antebellum south, and the accidental discovery of an erection pill while trying to treat heart disease. Join us in our journey to disassemble the concept of disease in Episode 24 of Bedside Rounds, a tiny podcast about fascinating stories in clinical medicine!   Sources: Bynum B. Discarded Diagnoses. The Lancet. Volume 356, No. 9241, p1615, 4 November 2000. Conrad P. The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Drescher J. Out of DSM: Depathologizing Homosexuality. Behav Sci (Basel). 2015 Dec; 5(4): 565–575. Robison J. Look Me in the Eye: A Brief History of Nosology. Retrieved from: http://jerobison.blogspot.com/p/a-brief-history-of-nosology.html Shorter E. The history of nosology and the rise of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Dialogues Clin Neuro

A darkened laboratory with an eerie green glow; a photograph of the bones of a woman’s hand published on the front pages of newspapers throughout the globe; mysterious rays that promise to change medicine forever but also cause horrific disease in their champions and pioneers. In this episode, called Bone Portraits, I tell the story of two men -- Wilhelm Roentgen, the discoverer of x-rays who would later win a Nobel Prize, and Clarence Dally, the first victim of x-ray radiation. Listen to the thrilling conclusion of our to part series on the dawn of diagnostic imaging! We’ve got all this, plus a double-header #AdamAnswers, in Episode 23 of Bedside Rounds, a tiny podcast about fascinating stories in clinical medicine. Sources: Mahroo, et al. 'Dilatation' and 'dilation': trends in use on both sides of the Atlantic. Br J Ophthalmol. 2014 Jun;98(6):845-6. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2014-304986. Epub 2014 Feb 25. King, Gilbert. “Clarence Dally — The Man Who Gave Thomas Edison X-Ray Vision.” Smithsonian.com, March

A mortally wounded American president and the quest to find his assassin’s bullet unexpectedly opened up a potentially new era of medical diagnostics in the late nineteenth century. In this episode, learn about the assassination of James Garfield and how the controversy surrounding his medical care led Alexander Graham Bell to develop an “induction balance” that could locate a piece of metal inside a human body. This is the first part of a two part series called “Sound and Light.” Also included -- a new #AdamAnswers about … hiccups! All this and more in Episode 22 of Bedside Rounds! Sources: Bell AG. Upon the electrical experiments to determine the location of the bullet in the body of the late President Garfield; and upon a successful form of induction balance for the painless detection of metallic masses in the human body, Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/uponelectricalex00bell Paulson G. Death of a president and his assassin--errors in their diagnosis and autopsies. J Hist Neurosci. 2006 Jun;1

Does medicine have a place for renegades who play by their own rules? Producer Cam Steele brings us a story about medical mavericks drinking toxic cocktails of their own creation, threading rubber tubes through their veins, and trying to disrupt entire industries, all in the attempt to change the world. Learn about all this and more, plus a new #AdamAnswers, in Episode 21 of Bedside Rounds!

The nineteenth century was struck by a collective panic about being buried alive, leading to a bevy of new laws, regulations, and inventions like the safety coffin.  In this episode, we explore how medical science created and fueled this fear by blurring the line between life and death with the invention of new tests for death, developing life-saving technologies like rescue breathing, and even re-animating corpses. And just in case you thought the fear of premature interment was something of the past, we explore how issues raised in this panic still inform medicine today. Learn about all this, a brand new #AdamAnswers, and more in Episode 20 of Bedside Rounds, Buried Alive!

Can the moon make you crazy? The superstition is rampant in medicine, but the idea that a full moon awakens psychiatric pathologies traces back thousands of years. In Episode 19 of Bedside Rounds, producer Cam Steele looks at evidence behind the belief and traces the origins of this cultural fossil that has managed to last until the 21st century. Learn about all this and more in Of Madness and Moons!

By the time that David Livingstone died on the banks of Lake Bangweulu, his name was already legend -- first, as a great explorer, becoming the first European to lay eyes on Victoria Falls and Lake Malawi, and second as a fierce advocate against the slave trade. But we often forget that he was a medical doctor, and made significant contributions to the nascent field of tropical medicine. In Episode 18 of Bedside Rounds, I recount his innovations in fighting malaria and discuss all the fun (by which I mean quite gross, and very deadly) tropical diseases that he described in his journals. Even though the phrase was almost certainly made up, you should still listen to "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" 

In 1991, two hikers near the Austrian-Italian border discovered the 5,000 year-old mummified body of Otzi the Iceman buried in a glacier. What have we learned about medicine from the Iceman? From a fungus-based first aid kit, ancient acupuncture , analysis of paleofeces, hints about his violent demise -- and of course the good old fashioned physical exam -- the answer is more surprising than you might think. Learn more with Episode 17 of Bedside Rounds, a tiny podcast about fascinating stories in clinical medicine!

Everyone knows the story of Phineas Gage, the young man who had a tamping iron shot through his brain in a freak accident and miraculously survived, only to have extreme personality changes. But the true story is far more complex -- and more interesting. In Episode 16 of Bedside Rounds, I revisit the primary sources on Gage's injury, delve into modern research into what actually happened, and take a field trip to visit the man himself.

Understanding statistics has never been more important for the practice of medicine. Unfortunately, innumeracy plagues the medical field. Listen to Episode 15 of Bedside Rounds to learn more, and maybe find a way out of this statistical morass with this one weird trick...

The Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is the gold standard for how we know something works in the world of medicine. But how did we get to this point? The answer involves vegetarians and orange juice, spans two thousand years, and stretches from ancient Babylon to the high seas of the British Empire and back to America. Find all these answers (and more!) in Episode 14 of Bedside Rounds -- the First Trial!

Doctors recite an oath, often the Hippocratic Oath, when they graduate medical school, swearing to serve their patients and to do no harm. The common perception is that physicians have sworn an oath for thousands of years, leading back to Hippocrates. But the origins are far more modern and buried in the greatest atrocity of the twentieth century. Learn more in Episode 13 of Bedside Rounds!

Pimping ain't easy, especially when it happens on rounds. Where did the peculiar medical tradition of "pimping" come from? How did it get its name? Is it even effective? And does it still have a place in modern medical education? Find out in Episode 12!

Celebrate ten episodes of Bedside Rounds with a rerecording (with new material) of the first episode, Frank's Sign! The most powerful man in the world, the Roman Emperor Hadrian, dies of a mysterious illness. Learn how the case was (sort of) cracked 2000 years later using the physical exam and just a little bit of math. If that can't get you to listen to this podcast, I don't know what will ...

On episode 10, I discuss one of the best public radio shows of all time, Car Talk, and how it's an awesome example of clinical reasoning. I also talk a little bit about how doctors learn to think like doctors. Dedicated to Tom Magliozzi, who recently died.

In the beginning of a string of podcasts about sound in medicine, Bedside Rounds goes back to the beginning, with the invention of the stethoscope by Rene Laennec. How was the stethoscope invented? What are doctors listening for when they listen to their lungs? Who was Rene Laennec? Well, learn all the answers to these questions in Episode 9 of Bedside Rounds, Laennec's Cylinder!

In Episode 8 of Bedside Rounds, we explore the mysterious world of the nocebo effect, where words can literally hurt -- or kill. It's all in the mind, right?

In Episode 7, we take you to a galaxy far, far away to explore the medicine of the best Star Wars film, the Empire Strikes Back. How close are we to replicating their medical interventions? And what can Star Wars tell us about medicine back here on Earth? This is the first in (hopefully) a series of "Medicine in Science Fiction" podcasts.