Academic Strife in Waiting Room Medicine

If you work in emergency medicine hopefully you’ve already come across Michelle Lin‘s educational blog ‘Academic Life in Emergency Medicine‘.

If you haven’t, this is what its about – from the ‘horse’s mouth’ so to speak:

What is academic emergency medicine all about? What’s new in the specialty of EM? This blog aims to give you a “behind the scenes” peak into this exciting world. My perspective comes from that of a medical educator with an interest in emerging technologies.
- Michelle Lin, MD

UCEM PR Supervisor Egerton Y. Davis IV – speaking at Antananarivo in Madagascar, the latest stop on the 2010 UCEM World Tour – mentioned this blog as he announced an exciting new UCEM initiative yesterday.

“The College is well aware that ‘Academic Life in Emergency Medicine‘ brilliantly fills an important niche in the emergency medicine blogosphere. However, at UCEM, we realise that it doesn’t quite meet all the academic requirements of the specialty. For UCEM’s utopian ideals to be achieved, the world needs another kind of blog. What kind of blog? A blog that will help those struggling with the academic demands of waiting room medicine emerge from the scholastic quagmire and aspire to the stratospheric heights inhabited by the Michelle Lins of this world.”

“Recognizing this need, UCEM will act as midwife to facilitate the birth of a new blog called ‘Academic Strife in Waiting Room Medicine’. The lead author will be Professor Harry Stickler, who holds the Chair of Pedantry and heads the Utopian College Education and Training program in the School of Health and Information Technology.”

“The format of the blog has already been established as detailed in the handout provided. We are confident that practitioners of peri-departmental medicine will see this new initiative as a real boon to their ambitions. Thank you for your attention.”

The announcement was unsurprisingly greeted with rapturous applause from the Malagasy attendees.

A rivetted attendee at the UCEM World Tour 2010 in Madagascar.

According to the PR supervisor’s handout, the format of the new blog will be as follows:

• Monday — Review of a medical malpractice article
• Tuesday — Alternate weeks will either feature ‘Work Not in Progress’ or will put the spotlight on an UCEM Council Executive Hero (i.e. a biweekly feature on Sir Hubert Ignatius Thompson III)
• Wednesday — “Tricks of the Trade”, a new and originally titled feature, that will focus on how unfortunate MUPPETs and Fellows of UCEM that are experiencing academic strife can successfully negotiate the trials and tribulations of Professor Inglebert Struvite Staghorn’s Inquisitorial Disciplinary Committee.
• Thursday — “What’s on my mind?”— a chance for Prof Stickler to wax lyrical in binary.
• Friday — “Paucis Cogitationinbus” (literally translated as ‘in few thoughts’) peripheral brain cards to help you deal with everyday academic strife.

The launch date for the new blog has yet to be confirmed. Rest assured, the LitFL team will keep you informed.