Free Sushi!

A general rule for residents is that they always go where the free food is. The attendance of a noon conference with lunch provided always beats one that says, "bring your own lunch."

So it isn't surprising to see that last night's dinner event at a local Japanese restaurant drew a full house of residents (as well as some attending doctors) from different hospitals. It's free sushi we are talking about here! The talk, which is on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), is sort of interesting. Of course, the fact that the event is sponsored by the makers of Premarin makes some of the recommendations somewhat unconvincing (the take-home message I got seems to be, "when in doubt, give patient the lowest dose" rather than considering not starting the therapy). It is also to my slight surprise that according to the WHI studies HRT actually reduces the risk of cardiovascular events in younger postmenopausal women.

Academic aside, the dinner is fun. The sushis were actually just "alright" at best (and my spoiled palate from the recent Tokyo trip did not help at all!) but the atmosphere is joyful and laid-back.

And did I say it's free? ;-p

Know Your Personality Type

I had a rather interesting seminar this morning on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator - it is apparently the most widely used standardized personality test in the world. It is based on Carl Jung's work on Personality types. There are 16 different types; to find out which type you are, you have to take a questionnaire of ninety-some questions.

I turned out to be a split between ISTJ and INTJ, and upon further analysis I am leaning more toward ISTJ. ISTJ stands for Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judgement - people with this type are "conscientious, reliable people who can always be counted on by friends and co-workers." They are "organized and love to set schedules" and "greatly treasure family affairs". They are traditionally-minded and are unwilling to change. They "earn success by concentration and thoroughness". In the medical/health field, careers in general surgery or primary care are a good fits.

So it looks like I picked the right field then :-)

MBTI Questionnaire: http://www.real-properties.com/MBTI/MBTI.asp
MBTI Questionnaire (中文): http://www.ksa.nkfust.edu.tw/guidance/main9b.htm

A Sad Evening in the Hospital

As I was walking out of the hospital after an afternoon of clearing out dictations yesterday, I saw an unusual scene in the lobby - there were a bunch of men in US Forest Service uniforms lining up on one side of the lobby, and not far from them there were about 20 people -some of them were weeping, others were keeping with their heads down. I did not stop to talk to anyone of them as it didn't seem appropriate, but I knew something bad must have happened - our hospital has been taking care of the firefighters who were severely injured while taming the Esperanza wildfire nearby. Later I found out that a firefighter who's been battling his life for 6 days died that late afternoon. That brings the total death toll to five. Even though I don't know the person, I could feel a great sense of sorrow for the lost...