Henry Domke hanging up his stethoscope

I have posted frequently about my friend (and personal physician) Henry Domke. I learned this morning (by email and blog post) that he has decided to leave medicine and do art full time.

He cut back his medical practice some years ago to devote more time to his art but this announcement will be a shocker (I suspect) to his patients and the local medical community.

Just as Dodge City wasn’t the same without Doc Adams, Jeff City will miss Old Doc Domke.

iPods help doctors recognize heart problems

Doctors can greatly improve their stethoscope skills and therefore their ability to diagnose heart problems by listening repeatedly to heartbeats on their iPods. Previous research has shown that the average rate of correct heart sound identification by physicians is 40 percent.

In a new study, 149 general internists listened 400 times to five common heart murmurs during a 90-minute session with iPods. After the session, the average score improved to 80 percent.

NASA procedure for nuts in space

“If you’re a NASA astronaut and you totally flip out in space, your crewmates are instructed to restrain you with duct tape, tie you down with bungee cords, and inject you with the anti-psychotic drug Haldol or a tranquilizer like Valium. The plan is outlined in 1,000+ page document that the Associated Press obtained this week outlining how to deal with medical emergencies.” [Boing Boing]

Pod Fade

I hesitate to call it that since it was always our intention to do the Living Healthy Podcast for a year. On Tuesday, Dr. Domke and I will record our 50th show and we’re making it our final regular podcast. Let’s just call it the end of our first season. We might produce a few “specials” or bring the podcast back with a different format. But, for now, it’s time to take a break. Our last two topics were Shingles and Irritable Bowel Syndrome so, yeah, it’s hiatus time. I think LHP #50 will be pretty interesting so watch this space for a link.