Today I sat in a Grand Round presentation for the first time. In the Grand Rounds, a few interesting cases are presented for doctors and medical students to listen about.
At my clinical school today, the topic was Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobulinuria; a rare disease. Cases were presented with a benefit with treatment of eculizumab, an inhibitor of C5; subsequent to which quality of life was improved and there was often no need for subsequent blood transfusions. Data from studies was also presented which showed a reduction in mortality with eculizumab treatment. However, the cost was not cheap; I think it was about $300000 per year for each patient. That raises a question about how much society is prepared to pay; there is a clear benefit to the patient, but money is limited.
The other thing I noticed at the Grand Round was all the pagers and mobile phones of doctors going off. Although I've been to the wards, I've only had two weeks at the clinical school so far so I haven't been attached to a team (that will come later). As such, although I've interviewed a few patients, I haven't really observed any consultants, HMOs or interns in action. All those pagers and mobile phones going off during the Grand Round just reinforces how busy they are!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to discuss issues relating to the post here. However, please note that any spam, advertising, inflammatory comments or comments that can potentially identify anyone in real life may be deleted subject to my discretion.
Exception: if a poster intentionally identifies him/herself but does not compromise anyone else's anonymity, the post may not be deleted.
If anyone wants to contact me directly, please email: zero zero one one five nine five (all in numbers) AT gmail DOT com (sorry, antispam measure).