Angry Doctor

Busy

2009-11-30T22:00:00.001+08:00

angry doc apologises for not posting for almost the whole of this month. The end of the year is usually a slow period for this blog, but he has been busier than with work, fighting against racism and stupidity in real life, and the general mechanics of daily living.

It will probably be another two or three weeks before he gets his groove back.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday

2009-11-04T22:00:00.000+08:00

Monday

2009-10-26T08:00:00.000+08:00

Dr Tan, I presume?

2009-10-22T17:00:00.000+08:00

Google is a wonderful thing.

This letter on the ST Forum today did not come as a surprise to angry doc:

Dispel concerns about complications after vaccinating kids

I REFER to Tuesday's report, 'Immunise infants early, specialists urge'.

I would like to ask child specialists how much adjuvants are given to children in the form of aluminium and mercury salts in vaccines, besides preservatives, over a two-year period, under the Ministry of Health (MOH) childhood immunisation programme.

Scientists have shown that aluminium and mercury are foreign to our biological system and do more harm than good. Does MOH have a register of all complications related to childhood vaccines given in Singapore? According to vaccine package inserts, these complications range from mild fever to severe convulsions and delayed eczema.

In a 2007 clinical study of 300 babies aged between nine and 12 months at five SingHealth polyclinics, what was the adverse complication rate and the severity, in terms of morbidity and mortality? Are these babies followed up long-term and for how long?

Mothers' concerns about autism and vaccination are real. The incidence of autism is reported to be rising in Singapore. This issue has not been thoroughly addressed as to its causation.

Tan Soon Kiam

Sounds familiar?

On a whim angry doc decided to google Mr Tan's name, and it turns out that 'Mr' Tan may in fact be 'Dr' Tan.

In fact, judging from the topic of his 'concern', he may be the same Dr Tan we encountered on this blog more than two years ago.

Dr Tan, as we can see from his letters, is no heavy metal fan. Readers may wish to google his name to find out for themselves why this is so.

What's in a name?

2009-10-16T17:30:00.001+08:00

Fellow skeptic-blogger Singaporean Skeptic's post draws angry doc's attention to a study on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on ADHD being conducted at IMH.

angry doc is one of those people who routinely calls modern medicine 'western' medicine. He does so because he thinks it is a convention that reduces confusion; but Skeptic does make a good point - calling things by their proper name is important in promoting public understanding of science.

The fact is, even if "yi shen ke li" is shown to improve the behaviour of children with ADHD, it doesn't mean that TCM 'works', because giving a fixed formulation to all patients with a diagnosis that is made by 'western' doctors and which does not exist in TCM canon is not TCM.

Rather, it would mean that the active components in 'yi shen ke li' works. If we go on to identify that active component like Skeptic suggested, then it will mean that that active component works. If we continue to give children 'yi shen ke li' in its current form to children, then it would mean that this particular *herbal* medicine works. Either way, it would mean that modern or scientific medicine works, but not that TCM works.

Being conducted by IMH, angry doc is pretty sure the trial will be vigorous and have proper control group/s and be properly double or triple-blinded, although he suspects that the results will be like this one he looked at a while ago. He eagerly awaits them , and hopes that a 'negative' trial will also be reported with the same fanfare in the local media.

Medium Register

2009-10-12T19:00:00.001+08:00

An interesting piece of news here:

Mediums to be regulated
Taoist Federation aims to weed out unskilled tang ki
By Yen Feng

THE Taoist Federation is taking steps to regulate spirit mediums here.

As early as next month, it will issue registration forms to the roughly 300 temples affiliated to it, so a register of mediums, or tang ki in Hokkien, can be set up.

Federation president Tan Thiam Lye told The Straits Times last week that this was the first in a series of steps to set apart those trained in channelling Chinese deities.

Registration is, however, voluntary for now. Down the road, licences may be issued.

More immediately, the federation will also produce a free manual to help devotees discern between skilled and unskilled mediums.

Saying the federation will take things 'one step at a time', he added: 'It is time for us to regulate them. We must not let the actions of a few bad apples lead to a misunderstanding of mediums and Taoism.'

angry doc will be very interested in finding our how to "discern between skilled and unskilled mediums". Maybe they can give a copy of the manual to Father Simon so he doesn't hold a "prayer session" for the wrong person in the future...

Discussion

2009-10-11T22:00:00.000+08:00

(Posted on the Singapore MD blog)

WWSKW?

2009-10-06T23:30:00.001+08:00

angry doc is a little disturbed by two letters that were published in the ST Forum in response to Salma Khalik's article.

Fellow bloggers spacefan and Gigamole have blogged about them, and angry doc thought he might venture an opinion too.

While angry doc had always had respect for Prof Goh and more recently Dr Chong, he found their letters too defensive in tone; rather than to just stop at admitting that our profession has some way to go to policing our own, both men found it necessary to strike back at Ms Khalik.

Prof Goh tried to shift part of the blame for the problem to the media ("including the newspapers"), and in effect called Ms Khalik's article "unfair reporting" which hurt the feelings of ethical doctors.

Dr Chong brought in the red herring of the H1N1 pandemic, and accused Ms Khalik of being "callous and unpatriotic".

Ironically, the first sentence of Ms Khalik's article reads:

"There is no doubt that the majority of the 8,000 doctors in Singapore are ethical professionals."

angry doc has no love for Ms Khalik, but over the years he had come to realise that sometimes an 'unfriendly' journalist can in fact be the profession's and patients' best friend, and that the best question to ask when looking at a question on policy or ethics is sometimes: "What would Salma Khalik write if she knew about this?".

angry doc had never had his feelings hurt by expose of unethical doctors, because he knew very well how *he* practised; he is responsible for his professional actions as an individual, just as the errant doctors are - he feels no shame for other doctors' actions, just as he does not expect other doctors to feel shame for his actions.

Yet the letters from the two presidents have managed to make him feel embarrassed to be a doctor today. Had angry doc belonged to either of the societies, he might have felt ashamed.

Chowder is just Chowder

2009-09-30T23:10:00.002+08:00

Once in a while angry doc learns important things about life from children and cartoons.

Yesterday, while watching an episode of Chowder with his young nephew, angry doc asked: "What sort of animal is Chowder?"

Rather impatiently, his nephew answered: "Chowder is not some sort of animal; Chowder is just Chowder."

Then, seeing the embarrassment on his uncle's face, he added: "Chowder is a kid."

He obviously gets it.

We should all spend more time watching cartoons with children.

Still around

2009-09-30T23:00:00.000+08:00

angry doc is still around, but he is too busy following up on his small victories to post anything substantial.

Still, you can join him in the discussion on the new residency programme over at Singapore MD, where he still drops by occasionally to moderate the comments.

Small victories

2009-09-18T23:00:00.001+08:00

It's been a long day, but angry doc is in a good mood.

Important decisions affecting the lives of thousands are often made by one person, but that one person's decision can often be affected by the words and action of a few.

angry doc thinks he made a difference today. In fact, he counts three little victories today.

It's the little victories that keep us fighting.

2009-09-15T17:30:00.001+08:00

Most things can be explained.

Some things are harder to explain.

Some things are better left unexplained...

From somewhere else

2009-09-14T18:00:00.002+08:00

Something better than what angry doc can come up with all by himself here.

Oh my God, the sued Simon!

2009-09-13T11:15:00.001+08:00

You bastards!

Somewhere else

2009-09-12T22:00:00.003+08:00

angry doc apologises for not posting for more than a week now.

He is not being lazy, and is in fact continuing the fight to promote scientific thinking over at Mr Wang's blog. Do drop by and have a read (here and here).

Any rumours of angry doc hoping to gain a cut from Mr Wang's advertising income are just vicious lies.

Big World

2009-09-04T22:00:00.001+08:00

It seems whenever you attend a gathering where there are a sizeable number of doctors and lawyers people will find that they have common friends or ex-classmates or colleagues.

Invariably someone will exclaim:"What a small world!"

angry doc always laughs to himself when he hears that; the fact is it is a very big world, and no matter where our business, studies or leisure takes us, we will have only seen a small portion of it, and have met only a tiny percentage of the six billion people who live on it.

It's a big world - we just move in small circles.

Nope... I got nothing

2009-09-01T20:00:00.002+08:00

Fallacies and Misconceptions

2009-08-20T19:00:00.001+08:00

(Posted on Singapore MD.)

Four Years

2009-08-19T08:00:00.004+08:00

One thousand four hundred and sixty-two days.

Seven hundred and thirty-eight posts.

To celebrate this blog's fourth birthday, angry doc would like to share a bit of trivia with his readers: Angry Doctor was started on the same day The 40-Year-Old Virgin was released in the US.

This was of course just a coincidence - angry doc was not 40 years-old then.

Quote of the Week 4

2009-08-18T17:00:00.000+08:00

"... we are concerned about the public perception of persons with mental illness (PMIs) that may be generated from this report, or other similar reports.

We would like to add that anti-social personality disorder is not a mental illness, but a problem with personality traits that result in persistent anti-social acts (they are also sometimes called sociopaths or psychopaths)."

- Ms Rajeswari K., Executive Director of Singapore Association for Mental Health, on why it is okay to stigmatise people with anti-social personality disorder.

Quote of the Week 3

2009-08-05T17:00:00.002+08:00

"We don't talk about clinical trials. We're not reducing people to digits and statistics. We treat people as a whole. I don't think like most doctors do. I'm different."

- Dr Y. M. Wong, on stem cell "anti-aging" treatment

Begin at the end 2

2009-08-01T22:50:00.003+08:00

(Posted on Singapore MD.)

Judging doctors 2

2009-07-30T17:15:00.001+08:00

(Posted on Singapore MD.)

Judging doctors

2009-07-23T20:30:00.001+08:00

(Posted on Singapore MD)

"Good, absolute values"

2009-07-22T12:00:00.000+08:00

Because of its innocuous title, angry doc did not bother to read this letter to the ST forum, until he saw two rebuttals to it today (see here and here).

Let's reinforce unity of purpose in fighting terrorism

WE CAN never overemphasise the need to remain vigilant against the threat of terrorism, as warned by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in last Sunday's report, 'PM Lee warns of evolving terror threat'.

He warned that the recent bomb explosions at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta showed that terrorists continue to have 'new ways of doing evil, bad deeds'. Schools, religious organisations and the business community need to make a concerted effort to not only condemn the murderous acts of terrorism, but also set the boundaries that define good and evil in society.

Often, the human spirit needs to be rekindled to distinguish between right and wrong behaviour. Religions with good society and family values must take proactive steps to engage the public and schools by upholding godly values and renouncing the evil that destroys the fabric of society. Our children need to learn from religious leaders who demonstrate how their faith can build strong family bonds and create social stability, harmony and security. Where the fault lines of society are shaken, religious leaders are to super-glue the gaps.

Religious leaders in collaboration with the Government should openly reject socially irresponsible behaviour such as racism, religious intolerance, adultery as well as perverse sexual behaviour in society. Moral relativism has no place in a society that treasures and thrives on good, absolute values.

As part of civil defence, schools must be vigilant to teach children strong traditional family values through the covenant of marriage and fidelity to one's spouse.

Insidious and egregious practices such as abuse of human rights and extreme liberalism must be exposed and rejected for what they are. Drug trafficking, use of abortion as a form of contraceptive, polygamy and serial divorce will remain as wrongdoings. Our police force should be held in high regard as they enforce the rules against criminal behaviour.

Children must be encouraged to speak up against evil and not fear being rebuked for doing the right thing. The heathen attack religious people with the phrase: 'Get down from your high horse for we reject your holier-than-thou attitude.'

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew recently remarked that for 44 years, Singapore still has not yet achieved the ideals of nationhood. Perhaps the next step requires the conviction and partnership of religious and government leaders to take a firm stand against wicked deeds and support those who stand for the truth in nation building. It is time we took serious heed of the axiom: 'Righteousness exalts a nation.'

George Lim

In Mr Lim's opinion, the world would be a better place if governments enforced religious values. Not just any religious values, of course - religions that do not condemn "adultery as well as perverse sexual behaviour", "use of abortion as a form of contraceptive, polygamy and serial divorce" don't really count. In other words, religious values are good insofar as they are the same as those held by Mr Lim's own religion.

The cure for "religiously-informed" terrorism, according to Mr Lim, is more religion. Specifically his.