Organization Monkey

we’ve got a few books in our collection that have cds or dvds tucked in the back. we’ll leave them there to be checked out with the book, if the license agreement permits it. so one of our books got checked out and the patron lost the cd. i emailed our book vendor to ask about getting just the replacement cd and i’m sure there was laughter on their end; they suggested i contact the publisher directly to ask for a spare cd. i went to the publisher’s website and filled in a customer service form, thinking that my request was going into a big black hole. little did i know that i was about to receive some of the best customer service i could have hoped for.

here’s how they responded: “Dear Ms. Kennedy, Thank you for contacting Wolters Kluwer Health customer service. This book has an in-bound CD-ROM and we do not sell the CD seperately. We will have to send you out the book and CD together. We are mailing this out to you at the address you have provided. With the product you will receive an invoice. Please keep the new book and CD and send back the old book & missing CD with the invoice and we will credit the invoice off. You will receive your new product within 7-10 business days and your confirmation number is XXX. To download a pre-paid return label, click link below. For future reference, your account number is XXX. Please reference this in any future requests. If you have any additional questions, please use the customer service center at lww.custhelp.com or respond to this incident. Thank you, Wolters Kluwer Health Customer Service.”

Dave and I finally checked out the Mutter Museum, in Philadelphia.  It’s a museum inside the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which is housed in a terrifically old and beautiful building.  The museum is full of medical specimens and implements.  They even have the livers of Chang and Eng, the famous conjoined twins.  Our favorite part of the museum was an exhibit called “When the President is the Patient.” 

The museum has a sense of humor about its collection: in their gift shop they have a shot glass with Chang and Eng’s picture, and the phrase, “Make mine a double.”

Last week I mentioned that Stewart Brower had proposed an open access pharmacy tool that would replace the usual suspects at point-of-care. Well, he did it! PubDrug is up and running at http://www.smbrower.com/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page. Be sure to check it out and add your expertise, if what you know is drugs.

Snip from this news article in the Guardian:

The doctors concluded that: “In difficult diagnostic cases, it is often useful. Web-based search engines such as Google are becoming the latest tools in clinical medicine, and doctors in training need to become proficient in their use.”

The news article, which contains a link to a PDF of the BMJ article.

A really great collection of scanned images from historical atlases on anatomy may be viewed at NLM’s site. My favorite atlas is Adriaan van Spiegel and Giulio Casseri’s De humani corporis fabrica libri decem, where the figures are dissected and yet maintain classical sculptural poses.

i saw the “paxilback” video (parody of justin timberlake’s “sexyback”) a couple weeks back and just watched it again; still hilarious.

lyric snip: i’m bringing paxil back. generic brands just don’t know how to act. i popped a couple with a water back. bottomless coffee and a half a pack.