An Introduction From Beth Zaiser

Welcome to the MIM blog/ journal club!  I am opening things with somewhat of a general topic and then a mini review of a podcast I think is worth listening to. 

First - I wanted to open a discussion regarding where people obtain their updates

in the latest research and general medical information.  I thought it might be an interesting topic and easy for people to comment on - to get us used to posting.  

Lately I have been enamored of podcasts because I can kill 2 birds with one stone, ie walking the dog and reviewing journals at the same time. The three I subscribe to are the ACP Annals podcast, NEJM and Clinical Conversations. The ACP and NEJM are both basically summaries of the articles published in the most recent issues of those journals. The ACP  podcast also has some update podcasts around the time of the annual meeting. Updates are  also published in the journals - but the podcast discussion adds some extra information.  Clinical Conversations is generated by Journal Watch. They pick a recently published article and discuss it with one of the authors of the study. So it is an in depth discussion of a particular topic - and I find it generally a bit more interesting than just the podcasts that give     a straight synopsis of the recent issue of a journal (the sound quality is sometimes a bit sketchy though).  

In terms of journals - I basically receive the above 2 journals and use the podcast to screen and then look at an article if something sounds particularly relevant. In regards to CME's, I have never been disappointed with the Mayo CME courses - they are extremely well run, they try to keep things pertinent for practicing physicians and their speakers are polished.  I am attending one of theirs in January and hopefully will have some good stuff to post after that.  I haven't been to a UCSF conference in awhile - but I was always impressed with their courses too - it is another institution that has made a business of CME courses and takes it pretty seriously.  I have been to a few American Medical Seminars in Sarasota.  Those courses are a little different in that they have one or two speakers for a whole week. So, for example, 2 reputable heme/onc professors will lecture on heme/onc topics the entire week.  Generally I thought those were good - you aren't getting people as specialized - but still some good general information and you can't beat the location.

I am interested in other podcasts people listen to, Web services or good CME's you have attended...