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

OK. This is disgusting…

I posted a question in Twitter where I asked people what they thought was growing on top of those hand gel dispensers. And a whole bunch of people sent me back some disgusting stories.

Not a week later… a friend of mine sees this (below) and sends me a picture from his iPhone. He had just finished seeing a patient in isolation for C.diff and almost swiped his hand across the top of someone’s drink that was resting on the isolation cart.

It got me thinkin’… maybe I should make pre-formatted PDFs for printing on stickers. Sure, we can write policy after policy… we can clean all of the cups up when the Joint Commissioners are on another floor… but if you really want to reach someone, do it with humor. I bet putting a C.diff sticker on that drink would do two things - (1) it would make them laugh, and (2) it would make them think.

If you have any ideas for stickers, let me know. In the meantime, I’ve posted a bunch of medical humor products that could serve the same purpose at the GiggleMed Store.

I toyed with the idea of a C.diff humor St. Patty’s Day promotion, but then came to my senses. Anyway, here’s the link:

Lots of people are facing hard financial times. And while everyone is reporting depressing news of layoffs and bankruptcies, I wanted to touch on some news that’s a little more practical (and funny). If you work in a hospital - nurses, techs, doctors, interns, administrators, NPs, PAs, etc - you should be aware of these “9 Signs that the Hospital is in Financial Trouble“. If you see anyone of these bad boys going on at your workplace, start looking for another job.

• Rent-a-catheter program
• The nurse and the physician ask for their portion of the bill each day.
• Discount on surgery in exchange for semi-permanent tattoo - “Like my CABG? Call 1-800-
• We-Cath1″
• When patients bring medicines to the hospital, the pills are collected, counted, and added to the hospital formulary.
• The 64-slice CT scanner is operated by a technician and Vinny, the “billing supervisor”.
• Triage includes collecting your bank routing number in addition to your insurance information.
• Napkins provided with your meals have logos of various local fast food places.
• Passing by the cafeteria, you note that they are washing the plastic utensils and styrofoam cups.
• Patient lunches are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies.

Got some of your own signs to add to this funny list? Post a comment below (no patient identifiers, no copyrighted material, and we can do with it whatever we want). Or, just let us know your favorite. Post a comment now.