Watch this video and see if I can change your perspective a little bit (or maybe even flip your world upside down).

If pickup artists can get people to part with intimacy… And if con men can get people to part with their money… Then why are we having such a hard time helping people make healthy decisions?

Establishing rapport and trust does not take more time. (Neither pickup artists nor con men want to waste their time on their targets)

And being good at establishing rapport and trust is not something innate. It is learned and it is practiced. (Most people enter the pickup artist community because they lack social skills, not because they are already exceptional at them.)

So what about you? Are you willing to take some extra effort and to be a little more mindful in your interactions with patients, families, nurses, social workers, etc? You should be. It’s the key to a happier, more successful career.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you find it helpful? Which parts resonate with you? (After answering, do me a favor & “like” the video on YouTube)

Books, although they have served us well for millenia, have some inconveniences that are easily addressed by apps and ebooks:

• Obviously, there’s weight. You can carry waaaay more reference materials with you on a smart device. It is pretty common for interns & residents to get recurrent headaches from the combination of stress and having too much in their pockets
• Search. You can do the whole search-the-index thing, or flip-through-the-pages-at-random thing, or you can simply search for the term or phrase within the device.
• Bookmarking, highlighting, note taking, etc can all be done right there within the reference apps.
• Dynamic content. Links to related videos, zoom functions, calculators, are only a smidgeon of what can be accomplished within apps.
• Updates. Content in the medical world is coming at us like water through a fire hose. The moment real books go to press, they’re on the verge of being outdated. Apps, ebooks, etc can be updated with the tap of a button (although they’re not always updated… so beware)

There are many more reasons to consider smart devices for your training. In some places, they’re required. And in many, they’re reimbursed. They are that essential.

Anyway, if you saw the title of this post and started reading, then I’m preaching to the choir. Here are some iOS apps & books for the iPad that are great for medical school, internship, and residency:

If you open this blog post on your iPad, these links will send you right to the download page.

MedCalc Pro – although there are other free calculators, I prefer this one. This app has a HUGE ( > 200) selection of relevant formulae, scores, scales and classifications with detailed information and bibliographic references for each formula. Search for equations by name or by keyword. And you can create your own list of favorites for easy reach.

QxMD Medical Calculator – This is way more than just a calculator. It is more like a whole suite of tools in areas such as cardiology, internal medicine, nephrology, general practice, hematology, gastroenterology, emergency medicine, oncology, orthopedics, pulmonology, neurology, neurosurgery, general surgery and obstetrics. Best part though? Totally free.

ePocrates – a great, great service… I wouldn’t have made it through my training without ePocrates (unless I had this next one…) This, for me, was like Google is for searching. Awesome for quickly looking up medications, dosing, interactions, etc. I particularly like the alternative meds being listed. I actually looked smart (a big accomplishment) when I would bring up the fact that a certain herbal med was associated with the very arrhythmia the patient had.

Medscape – rapidly becoming better than ePocrates. I used to think of Medscape as a website that hurt my eyes and had too many articles that were in every topic but the one I wanted. Well, not only has their website gotten better, but their app is regularly updated and often improved from prior iterations. I wish Medscape was at this stage when I was in training. (If anyone from Medscape is reading this, kudos.)

Radiology 2.0 – This app is pretty good. Not superb, but pretty good. If you’re on-call and admitting someone from the ED and there’s a free moment (yeah, right), this app is good for going over cases of CXR, chest CT, etc. Limited in how many images it can hold though.

DropBox app – an awesome service (& app) for storing files in the cloud. You don’t know stress until you get up to the front of a room full of peers and supervisors and your presentation doesn’t open. If you are doing a morning report, you will want to have a backup… and this is a great way of doing that. (Awesome, but NOT for storing patient data.)

iThoughts HD – mind maps are an awesome way to take notes, organize thoughts, and present information. If you are looking for a mind mapping app, this is it. I use this thing in hospital committees and people think I work magic… I take notes on it during the meeting, and I export those notes as a mind map PDF and an outline in an email to all of the attendees before they leave the meeting. How valuable do you think this is to the institution? To combating corporate inertia? To bettering healthcare? Help others and you will be helped. Serve others with an app like this and you’re an instant super star. (Awesome, but NOT for storing patient data.)

Evernote – Personally, I’m a pack rat. My wife always gets on me to throw away old journals, old textbooks, and old notes. (I still have psych notes from waaay back in the diz-zay). Well, Evernote has saved me. No more taking notes, storing them somewhere, and wondering where I put them. I take notes in Evernote and Booyah! They’re available on all of my devices. (Awesome, but NOT for storing patient data.)

Personally, if I had an iPad during my training, I would have had books on it, rather than carrying them around.

Cecil’s Internal Medicine – very, very, very expensive. But if you’re going to buy a reference book for medicine, I prefer this one over Harrison’s and I prefer having it on my iPad over having it gather dust on my bookshelf.

Lastly, just to be clear… As with all links on the RookieDoc sites, it is possible that I earn a commission if you click through and purchase from these links… but I chose these for how great they are, not for the few cents I might from your click. And although I do have an app business and an iPhone game company, none of the apps presented above are mine.

The RookieDoctor.com membership area is mobile-ready. All of the videos and multimedia content is formatted for your iPad. Take a tour of the members area, here.

But let’s face it. Your work days are also long and the time you have to grab something to eat is short. And at times you want to go out with your friends and colleagues. Fine. We all do.

But then there’s that slightly awkward moment where you get the bill. No one at the table is really in a position to buy food for everybody (and if they are, they probably don’t want to).

Well, here’s an app that solves that problem… and in an elegant way. Billr – hands down the best app for splitting bills when dining out.

Short, but quite needed post today:

I received this piece today from a resident who happened to also be the loved one of a patient. I would like to share this piece of advice with you since (a) it is so true, (b) it needs to be elevated from being “a tip” to being ingrained in every human being entering healthcare, and (c) if you heed this advice you will stand out in a big, big way.

Here is what he/she submitted for you today:

1. Try to approach your patients as if they are, in fact, people…as opposed to “a case”. Far too often people are treated as interesting cases rather than a individuals who need help.

2. Don’t forget to educate your patients. Some physicians get caught up in rounds and teaching residents that they forget to teach their patients! Helping them medically involves educating them as well (Why do you think show’s like Dr. Oz and the Doctors are popular?…people want to know!!!)

Are you a patient, a caregiver, a nurse? Give some advice to young doctors here.

Where you can find more information about Last Wish and Dr. Van Scoy:

• Last Wish: Stories to Inspire a Peaceful Passing – get the book here (& get it now )
• KnowYourWishes.com
• About Dr. Van Scoy
• Follow Dr. Van Scoy on Twitter

Lauren Van Scoy, MD currently serves as the Chief Fellow for Pulmonary and Critical Care in Philadelphia. She wrote Last Wish: Stories to Inspire a Peaceful Passing independent of her work at Drexel University College of Medicine and Hahnemann University Hospital. The opinions expressed in her book are her own and not the opinions of her employer or her training institutions.

Here’s a glimpse of an email from a RookieDoc graduate:

On my first rotation of my third week my attending told me she had never had an MS3 like me. She said that I was performing at the level of a PGY2. The last day of my third week of my third year I diagnosed a patient with a rare disease that all the attendings & residents missed. The patient is still alive he would have died within about 24 hours without intervention. I had the courage to state my opinion. Thanks Dr Tori!
- Trish – Miami, FL

Of course, I’m not saying this is what your results will be like when you join, but it does mean that it, at least deserves a sneak peek inside. So go ahead… Check it out:

You already go on rounds with your attending. You already attend conferences, classes, and morning report. You already go to Grand Rounds. And you might already go to Boards prep courses.

Well, check this out… with one tweak, your learning experience can go from okay to phenomenal.

If you want to get this amazing pen, you can order it from Amazon.

If you are an institution (a medical school, a residency program, etc) and you would like to learn more about how this concept can help your organization go from good to completely awesome, then go to NapkinRounds.com.

By the way, if you haven’t seen the changes yet:

Well, this is the first step in that process. If you are a nurse, a patient, a caregiver, or really anyone who comes in contact with physicians, this is your opportunity to offer some advice. Over time, depending on the response, I will make this into a more robust, far-reaching project. I will select the best of them and redistribute them.

A word of caution… This is for sincere advice only. This is not a mouthpiece for attacking specific individuals, the healthcare industry or for lumping people into groups and labeling them. (There’s plenty of that in the news media) This is for sincere advice from one human to another.

If you want to know how your progress notes, your H-and-Ps, your discharge summaries, etc can impact your evaluations, your future job offers, your letters for fellowship, the likelihood you will be sued, and more importantly, your patients’ lives, then check this out. It’s short, but it’s not sweet: