Author: admin

Here’s something really peculiar – Treacle Pudding and Custard by Princess Indigo. It’s a series of comedy-videos about ‘a Commodore 64 who turns into an elephant and a ZX81 who thinks it’s a cat’. That’s a sufficiently offbeat concept in itself, but just to add to the strangeness the voices are produced by text-to-speech software, and the visuals consist mainly of a dreamy slow-motion shot of a pair of hands (with painted nails) playing across a computer keyboard. The entire project has a spaced-out, weightless feel, combining the funny and the banal with the tedious and just a touch of Samuel Beckett. And if you bother to look up the series creator, Princess Indigo, it turns out that (s)he’s some kind of transgender virtual persona (see https://returntocatmountain.tumblr.com/). If you’re into weird stuff, this just might be for you.

The sixth in a new series of puppet-animations about the life and misadventures of an ordinary (but rather hirsute) GP.

Dr Hairy strikes up an unlikely friendship with Jiminy Simmons, the QCQ inspector; Grabber visits his Mum in order to put red dots on all her stuff; and then Dr Hairy receives his QCQ inspection report – with hilarious results!

YouTube – https://youtu.be/2FlPz1XdJEU
Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/229318912

The research summaries and quiz for August 2017 are now online. Subjects covered this time:

Addiction to exercise
BMJ 2017;357:j1745
Reducing liver function tests for statin monitoring: an observational comparison of two clinical commissioning groups
Br J Gen Pract 30 January 2017; bjgp17X689365
NICE food allergy and anaphylaxis quality standards: a review of the 2016 quality standards
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (656): 138-139 bjgp17X689833
Outcome prioritisation tool for medication review in older patients with multimorbidity: a pilot study in general practice
Br J Gen Pract 27 March 2017; bjgp17X690485. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690485
Good enough is good enough!
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (660): 311. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691409

Characteristics of children who do not attend their hospital appointments, and GPs’ response: a mixed methods study in primary and secondary care
Br J Gen Pract 19 June 2017; bjgp17X691373. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691373
Practical guidance on heart failure diagnosis and management in primary care: recent EPCCS recommendations
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (660): 326-327. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691553
Enuresis: practical guidelines for primary care
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (660): 328-329. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691337
Why worry about bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw? A guide to diagnosis, initial management, and referral of patients
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (660): 330-331. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691565
Lifestyle in progression from hypertensive disorders of pregnancy to chronic hypertension in Nurses’ Health Study II: observational cohort study
BMJ 2017;358:j3024

For more information about Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries, please visit http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/

http://www.deenalarsen.net/mmf/

I’ve only just come across this, although it was written some years ago. It’s well worth spending some time on. It starts with a story about a boy who lives by a clear-watered ravine with enormous salmon swimming in it, and who decides to make some money by inviting people to come and fish for the salmon, with predictably environmentally disastrous consequences. But it’s very cleverly structured, with other layers of meaning beyond this: you find yourself wandering into the thoughts of the salmon themselves, and they turn out to be zen-style philosophers. It looks fairly old-fashioned now – definitely designed to be seen on a computer-screen rather than a mobile phone; very much HTML and web-pages rather than anything to do with apps – but it made me remember what used to excite me about electronic literature.

The Research Summaries and quiz for July 2017 are now online. Subjects covered this time:

Clinical relevance of thrombocytosis in primary care: a prospective cohort study of cancer incidence using English electronic medical records and cancer registry data

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691109

Prescribing tamoxifen in primary care for the prevention of breast cancer: a national online survey of GPs’ attitudes

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X689377

Influences on GP coping and resilience: a qualitative study in primary care

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690893

Recognising paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea in primary care: diagnosis and management

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691301

Improving management of gout in primary care: a new UK management guideline

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X691313

The role of the microbiome in human health and disease: an introduction for clinicians

BMJ 2017;356:j831

Management of mild hypertension in adults

BMJ 2016;355:i5719

Serum uric acid levels and multiple health outcomes: umbrella review of evidence from observational studies, randomised controlled trials, and Mendelian randomisation studies

BMJ 2017;357:j2376

Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline: longitudinal cohort study

BMJ 2017;357:j2353

Alcohol consumption and brain health

BMJ 2017;357:j2645

Antibiotic prescription strategies and adverse outcome for uncomplicated lower respiratory tract infections: prospective cough complication cohort (3C) study

BMJ 2017;357:j2148

For more information about Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries, please visit http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/

The fifth in a new series of puppet-animations about the life and misadventures of an ordinary (but rather hirsute) GP.

The day of Dr Hairy’s QCQ inspection has come. Unfortunately, he’s been dragged away from the surgery on an emergency visit to his mother. While he’s out, Jiminy Simmons, the QCQ Inspector, interviews first Ruthie Bear and then Grabber’s sisters, Pongo and Krups; and when Dr Hairy gets back, he has to find a way quickly to get rid of a sample from his mother – with hilarious results!

YouTube – https://youtu.be/XLg6cN0aaLU
Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/223946398

The research summaries and quiz for June 2017 are now online. Subjects covered this time:

Efficacy and effectiveness of screen and treat policies in prevention of type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of screening tests and interventions

BMJ 2017;356:i6538

Screen and intervene to prevent diabetes?

BMJ 2017;356:i6800

Solanezumab and the amyloid hypothesis for Alzheimer’s disease

BMJ 2016;355:i6771

Challenges of managing chronic pain

BMJ 2017;356:j741

Prevention of falls in older people living in the community

BMJ 2016;353:i1419

An approach to hypopigmentation

BMJ 2017;356:i6534

New diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome

BMJ 2017;356:i6456

Risk of heart failure after community acquired pneumonia: prospective controlled study with 10 years of follow-up

BMJ 2017;356:j413

Effectiveness and safety of reduced dose non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants and warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation: propensity weighted nationwide cohort study

BMJ 2017;356:j510

Is tonsillectomy recommended in adults with recurrent tonsillitis?

BMJ 2017;357:j1450

For more information about Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries, please visit http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/

The fourth in a new series of puppet-animations about the life and misadventures of an ordinary (but rather hirsute) GP.

Dr Hairy is nervously awaiting a surgery inspection from the QCQ. Grabber decides to help him out – and then, just as the inspection is about to take place, his mother rings – with hilarious results!

YouTube – https://youtu.be/vMxmpgXVeAE
Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/218506525

Bad Shibe is published by the London-based net-art and networked art organisation Furtherfield, who have a gallery in Finsbury Park and an international membership/following. It’s part of their ongoing project New World Order, which is all about the Blockchain and its implications, but you don’t have to know anything about the Blockchain, or understand anything about its implications, to read Bad Shibe (which is probably just as well, because the Blockchain and its implications are pretty difficult to get your head round). It’s about a dystopian near-future where society is completely dominated by social media and a kudos-earning system called ‘tipping’, and it’s written in a special dialect full of mobile phone-style acronyms and abbreviations. If you know that a Shibe is a particular type of dog, and that a few years ago the Web was inundated with memes or photographs of this particular type of dog (or doge) with funny captions written in the same kind of slang as this story, then it all starts to make a bit more sense – but you don’t have to know about any of that to enjoy it. You can read it as a mixture of A Clockwork Orange and David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs (in which humans have turned half-dog in the near future). The illustrations are by Lina Theodoru. You can download it for free at http://www.furtherfield.org/projects/bad-shibe-sci-fi-novella-rob-myers.

The research summaries and quiz for May 2017 are now online. Subjects covered this time:

How medicine has exploited rationality at the expense of humanity: an essay by Iona Heath
BMJ 2016;355:i5705

Medical and psychosocial factors associated with antibiotic prescribing in primary care: survey questionnaire and factor analysis
Br J Gen Pract 16 January 2017; bjgpmar-2017-67-656-tau-hong_lee-fl-p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X688885

Antibiotic prescribing during office hours and out-of-hours: a comparison of quality and quantity in primary care in the Netherlands
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (656): e178-e186. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X689641

Can compassion help cure health-related disorders?
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (657): 177-178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690329

The chronotherapy of hypertension: or the benefit of taking blood pressure tablets at bedtime
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (657): 171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690269

Overdiagnosis of COPD: precise definitions and proposals for improvement
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (657): 183-184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690389

Primary care management of overactive bladder symptoms: evaluation and treatment
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (657): 187-188. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690413

Opioid analgesic dependence: where do we go from here?
Br J Gen Pract 2017; 67 (657): 154-155. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp17X690065

Off-label indications for antidepressants in primary care: descriptive study of prescriptions from an indication based electronic prescribing system
BMJ 2017;356:j603

Off-label prescribing of antidepressants
BMJ 2017;356:j849

For more information about Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries, please visit http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/