Some Thoughts

The ridiculousness of IRB was brought up today, and this article was referenced. Wow. Basically, a checklist was implemented to remind doctors to wash their hands before surgery, reducing the amount of BSIs (blood stream infections) by 2/3rds in THREE MONTHS. This is a BIG DEAL. The program was shut down since there wasn't IRB approval because each patient didn't sign a form giving consent for the doctors to try the check list. Over 18 months the program saved 1500 lives and was shut down because they didn't have IRB approval. I can't deal with how... absurd this is. Hand hygiene is a MAJOR issue in healthcare (I could go into all the reasons that its pretty much impossible for providers to be 100% compliant with hand hygiene) but this is an issue that all hospitals face, and it is SCARY.

So then I realized the author of the article's name was familiar. Atul Gawande. We'd read some of his work in my Human Factors issues in Healthcare class. I really like some of his opinions written for the New Yorker.

And this has some pretty crazy facts about unwanted pregnancies and birthcontrol.

And, because I need a lighter note to end this on: I think about hitchhiking to class every MWF at about.. 8:45 am. And I think about blogging about it, every day. And until now, I haven't (hitchhiked, or blogged it). So there it is.