As you may have inferred from the dearth of timely updates, I have been quite busy with non-blogging responsibilities. Such is usually the case, but April and May have been particularly hectic months, as I am inundated with manuscript deadlines–on top of other professional and personal responsibilities. I am nevertheless pleased to have made some progress: I submitted a preliminary research draft a few weeks ago, and completed the final version of another manuscript today. There are still a few more items in the pipeline.

Naturally, On The Wards takes a back seat during these time crunches. I suspect that for the millionth-and-second time I will need to revisit my time management strategies and contemplate how On The Wards will fit into the grand scheme of life.

Welcome to the new year! Unlike last year when I had the day off, this time I was on call. Although I did not feel the transition from one year to the next (it was just another day), I managed to slip a “happy new year” greeting either at the beginning or end of my first conversations of the day. Some patients reacted with a pleasant response, but for most, it was another reminder that they were in the hospital during this festive time. Just as 2008 rapidly approached, a lot of patients were strongly negotiating to be discharged. I cannot blame them. I myself would much prefer to be at home, but the work must go on 24 hours a day, 365.5 days a year. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) does not keep a watch. And there is the deluge of trauma, intoxication, congestive heart failure, pancreatitis, reactive airway disease, etc. that roll in after a night of dietary (or drug) indiscretion. In any case, I love what I do and will gladly serve these needs. It was just another day, but it is now a new year. Happy new year!

You may have noticed a minor addition to the right sidebar: a logo of the Healthcare Blogger Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics was established for the medical blogosphere with two objectives in mind:

1. To give the readers of a medical blogger a clear idea of the standards by which the blog is maintained.
2. To give bloggers (especially anonymous ones) a clear set of guidelines they can show employers, patients, or other concerned parties as to the nature of the blogging.

I believe in maintaining the highest degree of integrity in both personal and professional life. As a blog, On The Wards also strives to achieve identical goals. While no logo or promise can guarantee perfect compliance, I applied for permission to use the logo to at least communicate the basic standards of this blog. On The Wards is solely maintained by myself, but rest assured that any future co-authors will similarly subscribe to the same principles outlined in the Code of Ethics.

You may have noticed a few subtle changes in the appearance of On The Wards. They superficially reflect an array of server-side modifications and upgrades to the entire blog. I recently opted to move the site to another server. The past server was great; they were reliable and offered many features. Unfortunately, since it was a blog-hosting site with pre-loaded software, I did not have the flexibility to upgrade the WordPress blog engine or upload plug-ins. More importantly, I did not have access to the blog database and was unable to maintain back-ups. Besides resolving the aforementioned issues, an added benefit to the recent move is the new custom site address (http://onthewards.com). [For the computer geeks: I would prefer to avoid domain name forwarding, as I did with the previous host.]

There are drawbacks, too. I have had to invest two weeks researching web hosts, rewriting the bulk of code, manually transferring blog entries, and dealing with server issues. I am sure there are bugs yet to be discovered. Since the web address has changed, I have also had to sacrifice links from search engines and sites that recognize the previous version of On The Wards. So, please don’t forget to update your bookmarks.

Happy 2007! First of all, I wish everyone an enjoyable and rewarding new year. Although the transition from one year to another is essentially an artificial designation, it is accompanied by near-mystical fanfare. Celebrations include fireworks, music, and champagne galore. The new year also compels the general human psyche to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future.

For many of my colleagues, work continues without skipping a beat. EMS still drives in the gunshot victim at 11:59 PM on New Year’s Eve. Two minutes later, a patient complains of sharp substernal chest pain that radiates to the shoulder. For admitted patients, hospital day 2 becomes hospital day 3.

As for myself, I was lucky to have gotten the day off. This gave me time to reflect on a myriad of thoughts, including the future of OnTheWards. The project is nearing its one-year anniversary, yet the amount of content here is only worthy for a month-old blog. I have not become the prolific blogger as I had originally hoped. Given my myriad of professional and personal responsibilities, I have also had to reassess whether this would be a worthwhile project to continue. And the verdict is … yes.

OnTheWards started as an experiment of sorts. It was my first entry into the blogging world. With some reflection on the past and inspiration from the future, I feel that it will continue to be a fun and educational endeavor for a long, long time. I look forward to sharing useful and interesting tidbits, while working to enrich this blog. Happy New Year!

I have finally succumbed to the blogging epidemic (bloggeritis, if you will). While initially resisting the proverbial bandwagon, I later concluded that I had much to gain from this experience. My foray into blogging primarily stems from two interests: an academic one, related to medicine and medical education; and a personal one, related to writing and literature.

I have no elaborate mission statements or defined [learning] objectives for this forum–at least, not yet. I nonetheless hope to use this blog as a medium for educational enrichment, as I feature clinical tidbits, study results, HIPAA-compliant anecdotes, and pertinent commentaries. And as a standard disclaimer to satisfy the legal folks … I reserve the right to post unrelated material whenever I need a mental escape from the often hectic and demanding life on the wards.

Enjoy.