Saw this sign in a hospital hallway, just outside the ER.

Demerol-Free Zone… not to be confused with Free Demerol Zone.

Naturally, I turned around and left.

It’s a shameless plug, but hey, this is my blog…

The fact is, medical humor can be a valuable tool in your hospital Quality Improvement initiatives. This “Got Foley?” medical humor sign reminds staff about the importance of prompt removal of Foley catheters to decrease the likelihood of catheter-associated infection. And it does so in a fun way…

Check it out:

Although there are some great gifts at the GiggleMed store, you’re completely pathetic if if you’re considering these bad boys for Mothers Day or Fathers Day… I want no part of it.

Sure… call me strange… but when I was perusing the latest issue of ACP Hospitalist, I came across a photo from a recent IDSA Conference.

IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America), of course, is a well-respected organization of healthcare professionals devoted to patient care, education, research, public health, and prevention relating to infectious diseases.

Well, I wondered as I looked at the audience in this photo…

What’s up with all of the baldness and receding hairlines in the ID crowd?

(Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)

PS – I blurred out the faces because nothing screams “LAWSUIT!” more than bunch of angry, bald doctors.

I received an email from a fellow GiggleMed doc saying “You won’t believe it! I just passed a sign situated right in front of a cemetery that says ‘Nursing Home Ahead’”. I promptly emailed him back saying, “Please tell me you got a picture. Please.”

Well, his wife didn’t like it too much, but he took some time away from his family vacation in Massachusetts to go back and take this picture. It’s real… no PhotoShop… no nothin’.

It’s proof that if you graduate last in your marketing class, you can still get a job.

Nurses, doctors, techs… really all of us in healthcare have had our late nights studying. In med school, it was not uncommon to string together a few all-nighters. I could see something like this emerging at the end of one of those strings…

Umm, yeah… I’ll have two anaphase… uh… one late prophase… and, oh! does the telophase count as one or two?

The original artwork comes from a 2005 photo series by Kevin Van Aelst. And for you quacks who didn’t study… this is a model of cellular mitosis.

The appropriate use of medical humor could (and should) have an important role in medical education and public awareness. And although I do think everyone’s going a little overboard with their worries about H1N1, I applaud the effort of the United States Department of Health and Human Services in soliciting the public’s help in alerting the public on the importance of washing hands. The 2009 Flu Prevention PSA Contest had over 200 entries this month – some funny, some serious.

On September 22nd at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the winner of the H1N1 Public Service Announcement Contest. Congratulations to Dr. Clarke of Baldwin, New York for his winning video H1N1 Rap. You can see his video here:

Dr. Clarke… if you’re reading this… First, great job on the video… Second, some advice… if you make a video for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, then be sure to lose the hand gestures.

The top ten videos from the contest can be found at Flu.gov.

Also, check out Dr. John Clarke’s Health Hop® Music for some pretty awesome CDs for your patients and their families.

OK… The medical literature is too rich with (unintentional) humor, that I can’t help but start a series about it. Medical Literature Classics – some funny things from our glorious past.

This one happens to come from DeGowin & DeGowin, 1977… which is actually not that long ago.

Do you know of some funny stuff from past medical literature? Share it. ==> Tell me about a funny reference from the literature and get a free medical humor report <==

Medical education and humor… funny video where a German physician demonstrates cardiac rhythms through dance.

He’ll probably need to see ortho after those bundle branch blocks. Check it out.

In the midst of an emergency it is important to break things down for easy understanding. Instead of analyzing each morsel of minutiae… sometimes we just need to say it like it is. No pontificating… no lengthy sit-downs with medical journals… no procrasterbating about what to do or what it all means… Say it like it is and make a decision.

Healthcare bears many similarities to the Star Wars saga… and the proof is in the pudding (see Types 6 and 7 below).

GiggleMed.com finally caught up with Admiral Ackbar and asked him to give us his thoughts on the Bristol Stool Chart. And, well… He answered immediately… There was no constipation of thought.

Nor was there any diarrhea of words. He was succinct. He said only three.

Other Star Wars Parody Sites:

• Robot Chicken Star Wars Parody Videos
• Admiral Ackbar on Twitter
• Scrubs Star Wars Parody on YouTube
• Got more? Send me your links.

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Oh… and here’s the original “It’s a Trap!” Scene (but I’m not so sure he’s not saying, “It’s a Crap!”… Listen for yourself):

You will be as happy as a pig in mud to know up front what this post is NOT going to be… It will not have jokes about BMI or obesity. There will be no mention of police officers… no talk of bringing home the bacon. Even if swine flew, I would have nothing to say about government spending or the fat cats on Wall Street. You can wait until the mad cows come home and there will be no mention of mast cells with heparin… and certainly no talk of an Aporkalypse.

So, here’s my public service announcement: Don’t panic… although the pig is out of the bag, so to speak, have you ever stopped to wonder what would happen if we did a news media play-by-play of the spread of any normal flu season? I bet it would be pretty scary. A play-by-play in sports is exciting… in infectious disease news it’s frightening.

Anyway, I really hesitated to post this swine flu comic in case it does become worse than most of us in healthcare think it will be. The pig had my tongue, but here it goes. I’ve chosen to balance this comic with some serious resources. See the links below the comic. And for crying out loud… Wash your hooves.

Other fun swine flu humor:

• Decorated Mexican Flu Masks
• CONTEST: Name the Swine Flu Cake, Win This Chocolate Pig!
• You’ve Killed Us All – this one cracks me up
• Swine Flu Humor Gifts

On a serious note… here are some reliable H1N1 (formerly “swine flu”) resources:

• CDC Clinician Guidance for Patients
• CDC General Info on H1N1 or Swine Flu
• CDC Reports and Publications
• WHO Influenza A H1N1 Resources