DundeeChest 3.0

The MDT sessions seem to be going well enough. There’s been subtle iterations through the week, and tomorrow I might even manage to fit everything in. A couple of you have given some positive feedback about the MDT sessions – I think they have gone well. Most of the decisions have been in line with what happened in real life, which must be a good thing.

I have been disappointed that so few people have read through the information I have provided on “What to tell patients with Lung Cancer” as provided by the BTS. This useful document gives data on what kind of life expectancy lung cancer patients can expect, with and without treatment. We don’t have this data locally, so I can’t really tell you what goes on in Tayside.

On a more positive note, the staff on the ward and in East Block have commented to me that the second years who have come down to the department, been on ward rounds, come to clinics, visited the MDT, have been keen, enthusiastic, and interested. This is a very positive reflection on those of you who have come down, so well done. Someone even came to the real MDT today, to see how it really happens.

Dr Lockhart has given me his 2010 update to his microbiology lecture, so this is now on the microbiology resource page. All the materials from last week’s ITA are now up on the Basic Sciences ITA page too. This week’s MDT materials will go up on line when I get the digital copies from Richard.

Next week I have timetabled a lecture on Respiratory Illness and Oxygen Therapy. This lecture is one I usually leave blank, to give you the choice of what I talk about – last year the choice was Respiratory Illness and Oxygen Therapy. So I’m open to suggestions – what would you like me to talk about on Thursday of next week? I will use some of the time to talk about the RoCE exam, I would quite like to talk about oxygen therapy at some point, but I’m in your hands.

The MDT sessions are going well, I think. Monday’s session was a little disjointed, as it was the first ever session, leading to the oncologists having little to do until the MDT itself. To fix this, I wrote some cases for the oncologists to go through in the first 45 minutes, and they seemed to get more out of the session because of it.

Much of the discussion revolves around prognosis, and the benefits of giving chemotherapy to patients, in terms of prolongation of life, and quality of life. Disappointingly no-one had read the information I provided on “What to tell a patient with lung cancer”, which answers much of these questions. The Lung Cancer Resource Page also has on it other interactive resources about lung cancer staging, lung cancer cases, patient journeys etc.

For tomorrow’s session:

1. I will be 5 to 10 minutes late as I have to speak to the 3rd years before coming to the session. So have an extra 5 minutes in bed.
2. I am in the process of updating the materials, particularly for the chest physician group. The new materials can be made available to everyone at the end of the week.

Welcome to week 3. Last week seemed to go pretty well – I got very wet in Barcelona, and Richard managed to keep things moving along nicely back here in Beanoland. I understand that one tutor did not turn up for a ward based session, but this has been re-arranged for this week. The ITA session on spirometry has drawn some positive feedback, along with the very well received Smoking Cessation and Pulmonary Rehabilitation sessions.

Richard’s ABG sessions were the first step on a long journey for every second year – ABG interpretation continues to be complex, but you all now have a solid grounding on which to base your future work.

The core clinical problems session encouraged, and disappointed me. Those who did stay for the whole session sere able to work through the concepts of CCPs, and then specifics of the CCPs in the respiratory block. Half of the year chose to leave the session half way through – I hope you all found something productive to do for that hour.

This week we have already had Dr France’s always well received lung cancer lectures, and the patient journey session with Dr Goudie. The DVD is available to take home, if anyone wants it (Come down to my office, where my secretary can burn you a disc!)

Later in the week will be the brand new MDT sessions, and a mixed bag of lectures on pleural disease, interstitial lung disease, and sleep apnoea. The lectures are up online to browse through now.

All being well, I’ll see you for the pleural disease lecture on Thursday.

Hello to the community pharmacists who attended Ninewells tonight for their protected learning, this time on Oxygen therapy.

The acute oxygen prescribing page is here. You can see the local implementation of the national guideline here.

Just a quick note to commend DundeePRN to you all. I helped set up the site last year with a group of second years. The site is going very well – the 3rd years are now up and running with their materials this year, and things are going from strength to strength. There’s 3 podcasts this year, already!

What the site really needs is some 2nd years (and 1st, 4th and 5th years) to get involved in writing content, posting comments, and making things happen. Head over to the site, register, and start contributing.

If you want some assistance with recording podcasts, writing content, etc, just let me know.

NIV Sessions Cancelled

We had planned to hold an ITA session in Non-Invasive ventilation next week. Although this is not core curriculum, it is interesting, and worthwhile, so we thought we’d try to fit it in. Unfortunately we simply do not have the numbers of doctors to cover this session as well as everything else, so we’ve had to cancel those sessions. This means you all have a block of private study one day next week. You can look at the East Block timetable and pick something else to do if you wish, or you can use the time however you feel it is most useful.

MDT Moved

Due to the cancellation of the NIV session, we can now do the MDT session in the ITA. This is a far better place to hold the session, so overall I think things will turn out well. The MDT session is one of the new items in the block – I think it is the most exciting addition, and I’m looking forward to going over things with you.

Reminders

I have had a couple of people asking why there are conflicts in the timetable between DundeeChest and BlackBoard. As I said in the first lecture last week, we will update DundeeChest rapidly, first and as a priority, then Blackboard will be updated later. This is a test of change to use a more accessible system, to keep you updated more easily, and in a timeous manner.

The Medical School Office have also been in touch saying that they are receiving queries about timetabling, and tutorials, and all that. Please don’t make their lives any more difficult than they already are – post your questions and queries on the blog, and one of us will reply as quickly as possible. Issues have been raised, and we can sort them quickly – the medical school office are not as rapidly updated on the changes as the website is.

This site has a wealth of information on it. People are still asking me what time clinics are, and when the bronch lists are, yet there is a page up there with the timetable on.

Please make the most of Ask DundeeChest. We are sat around, waiting for your questions on today’s lectures, comments on respiratory medicine, or anything you want. This service drops off significantly at the end of the Respiratory Block, so if you have something to say or ask, do it now, before you lose the opportunity.

Please be patient during this period of transition....

Like the North Korean Government we are undergoing a regime change.

We will have to take the site offline for a short period.

We need to password protect some of the content due to copyright issues (mostly the downloadable lectures) and to do this involves moving to another server and a lot of other technical jiggery pokery that is beyond me.

We hope to do this tomorrow morning while you are all in lectures.

The site may look different and some of the links may not work in the first few days after the move, but the core material of interest to you – posts, comments, questions, timetables and downloads, should still be available.

The original website will hold a link to the new one.

To access protected material you will only have to use your University of Dundee username and password.

Welcome to the brave new world (which will look like the old one, but with increased security).

Welcome to week 2. Now we get into the fun stuff, putting to good use all that physiology and getting to practise your new found clinical skills to appreciate the clinical presentation of patients with obstructive lung diseases.  We will have you pitting your lung function against each other with our spirometry machines, we will show you how to help manage patients with and without the use of medications and give you your own personal Rosetta stone to interpret Arterial Blood Gases. The week 2 study guide is now available here.  Of course, all of the lecture material and formative assessment for this week is available on the blog. Now don’t say we’re not good to you…..

So, we’ve made it through week 1 in one piece. Yes there have been a few slip ups, a missed lecture and delayed ward teaching as well as a few technical hiccups, but on the whole I think we got through unscathed. All these issues have now been addressed or rectified – and thanks for letting us know about them early. Remember, if you want to go over the lecture material from this week it is all here on the site as well as some formative assessment to make sure you are up to speed. And don’t forget about the iCAST material – may be a long and winding road to get to it, but I think it is well worth it. Let us know in the comments what you think of week one or if there are any issues you haven’t told us about yet. And if you haven’t already made use of “Ask DundeeChest” – feel free. There have been some good questions and answers posted there already. I mean, where else do you have a students question answered by both the Professorial System Convener as well as the Phase Convener within 24 hours? Where else? Nowhere else, that’s where.

We’ve made the corrections to the diagram in the ‘Alveolar Air’ section of this week’s online ITA resource on basic sciences.  The updated version is now live in Blackboard and the latest pdf version is also here on Dundee Chest.