Encephalon (brain & mind blog carnival, edition ) finally meets Grand Rounds (health & medicine blog carnival).

What a nice surprise. Hello. Nice to meet you!

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Note: Chronic Babe wins a complimentary copy of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness for basically inventing cognitive sleep therapy. Congrats!

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Life and Death

MindHacks discusses an unexpected surge in brain activity when blood pressure drops to zero.

In Sickness & In Health suffers a death in the family. Adam shem tov. A man of good name.

BrainBlogger wonders, is religion a “natural” phenomenon?

Mind and Empathy

Behaviorism & Mental Health finds that everyone can have a mental illness – take a look at “Adjustment Disorder“.

ACP Internist reinforces the importance of empathy. Novel Patient encourages patients to dream big, Florecendotcom highlights how patients themselves contribute to patient safety. The Hippocratic Oaf discusses the feelings of a medical student. Clinical Cases wonders what doctors  in training carry in their white coats.

Advances in the History of Psychology examines an important early step in the journey to conceptualize cognition and emotion from a neural point of view.

The Fitness Fixer empathizes with her feet.

Brain

How to Cope With Pain discusses a controversial treatment for severe pain.

Neurophilosopher shows how vision (viewing one’s body) can modulate the senses of touch and pain. Fun experiments  included. Neurocritic takes things one step further, and takes us to the potential future of tattoo removal.

Providentia announces a new NFL Concussion Committee. 300,000 sports-related traumatic brain injuries occur in the United States alone each year.

SharpBrains answers 15 common questions related to neuroplasticity.

Medical Smartphones Read the rest of this entry »

I will be hosting Grand Rounds, the weekly collection of great health and medical blogging, on Tuesday, October 20th. Please send me your post at alvaro (at) sharpbrains (dot) com, indicating Grand Rounds in the title. Please do so before end of Sunday, October 18th, USA time.

Optional theme will be, of course: Cognition and the Brain. Would you share your thoughts and experiences on how cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology should, will, or may, be used to improve health and healthcare? what opportunities you see for preventive and/ or clinical care to better deal with the assessment, maintenance, rehab, of cognitive and emotional functions, across the lifespan?

Reward for the extra brain exercise? I will give away a complimentary copy of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, our recent book, to the blogger who (in my editorial judgement) offers the most insightful post.

The theme is optional. Grand Rounds will include all other important topics you write about. Looking forward a stimulating edition!

Three excellent new editions of these blog carnivals:

- Encephalon at Neuroskeptic: brain and mind topics.

- Grand Rounds at Running a Hospital: overall health and medicine, this week with special theme “when things go awry”.

- Change of Shift at EmergiBlog: nursing and related healthcare topics.

A couple of very well curated collections of recent blog posts:

Encephalon #64: hosted by Neurocritic, covering neuroscience and psychology. Please make sure to visit when you have some time to spare…because you will quickly become addicted to the quality content and superb presentation.

It’s Grand Rounds, What Do You Think? GOSH!: hosted by Kim at EmergiBlog,  with an interdisciplinary, “Napoleon Dynamite”, frame. Doesn’t seem to make sense? well, pay a visit.

“If Dr. Rob can interview Santa, why can’t I interview a select group of health & medical bloggers? They will have some good ideas to share”.

So did President-elect Obama came to realize a few days ago. After his people kindly contacted our people, we felt compelled to grant him open access to our collective wisdom. Without further ado, below you have Grand Rounds 5:12 – a Q&A session led by the incoming President on how to reform (for the better, we hope) healthcare.

On Health Insurance

Q:  How does the blogosphere perceive the problem of having a significant group of people uninsured?

Health Insurance Colorado: a growing economic burden, which may lead to emergency rooms turning people away if they are unable to provide proof of health insurance.

Dr Rich: well, a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed how overcrowding in American emergency rooms is NOT due to the uninsured. Rather, it is due to insured Americans who cannot get in to see their primary care physicians. We may need improved care both for the insured and uninsured groups.

InsureBlog: I’d second that. Lack of health insurance is a major problem but is it really our Biggest Problem?

It’s All about Attitude

Q: You may have heard my campaign mantra, “Yes We Can”. Can I count on your support?

ButYouDontLookSick: Yes. If Leslie Hunt can talk so openly about her chronic illness (Lupus) yet fulfill her American Idol dreams, we can fulfill our dreams too.

Notes of an Anesthesioboist: you are talking to the group of professionals willing to self-experiment with our own body for the benefit of science and our patients.

Medviews: My wife, son, and I signed up to work as medical volunteers for your upcoming inauguration.

EmergiBlog: I am on board too. But, please, remember that caring is the essence of nursing. And that is why my patients will always be my “patients” and never my “clients”.

Neuroanthropology: Mr. President-elect, it seems to me that, despite all our good intentions, balancing the budget and multiple competing priorities will be a challenge. May I suggest you start practicing some capoeira for equilibrium training?

Shrink Rap: Happy to help. Now, we will need to protect some time for quality sleep time.

Training

Q: I am encouraged by your words. How can my team and I better support you in your daily activities?

Aequanimitas: we need more role models for us to “learn to think, observe, and compare” and that the patient is our “first, last, and only teacher”.

Mudphudder: Couldn’t agree more. We need Read the rest of this entry »

I will be hosting the December 9th edition of Grand Rounds blog carnival. Please email me your excellent health & medicine posts, indicating Grand Rounds in the subject line:

afernandez at sharpbrains dot com

Thank you!

Quck heads up: Two excellent editions of these ongoing blog carnivals.

- Encephalon 46th Edition: selection of neuroscience and psychology blog. posts

- Grand Rounds 36th Edition: all things medical and healthy. 

This week’s editions of two excellent blog carnivals. Enjoy!

- Encephalon #45 – Life Is Good, Brains Are Better

- Grand Rounds 4:34 at the Health Business Blog

 

Some great new editions of our favorite blog carnivals:

- Encephalon, Forthy-Third Edition: the best of recent neuroscience and psychology blog posts.

- Grand Rounds Volume 4, Number 30: superb overview of the health & medicine blogosphere.

- Carnival of HR #31: great resources for Human Resources professionals.

A couple of great blog carnival editions (collections of blog posts around specific topics):

- Encephalon: neuroscience and psychology.

- Grand Rounds: health and medicine. 

And a good Radar Roundup of brain-related news. Note: our estimate for the whole market in 2007 is $225m, not $110m; and the Consumer Segment (mostly Nintendo Brain Age/ Academy, but not all) accounts for $80m.