Are Doctors Afraid To Touch Patients?

Mike Magee Where do I begin? When I read the JAMA title last week, “Banning the handshake from the health care setting”, my immediate reaction was, “Seriously, have we gone this far?” Then I read the dispassionate opening, “The handshake represents a deeply established social custom. In recent years, however, there has been increasing recognition […]

Why Paper Towels Are Better Than Air Drying In Public Restrooms.

Mike Magee While you wouldn’t know it from the weather on the Eastern seaboard, it’s flu season. The CDC sounded the alert this week that the season has started early.(1) The main three strands are pretty severe, they say, and the flu vaccine is effective against the main culprits. Beyond getting a vaccine, most Americans […]

Hand Washing: Do You Know All The Facts? Probably Not!

(NEJM VIDEO: Hand Washing) Mike Magee It’s been over 20 years since I began nearly every work day in front of a deep water sink in a surgical suite. The 10 minute wash was something I learned properly on the first day of my residency at the University of North Carolina. I stuck to the […]