Lunch Talk

Just came back from a lunch talk sponsored by Wyeth in the hospital. The title of the talk was 'Prescribing & Education Strategies in an Era of Antibiotic Resistance" by Dr Tan Thean Yen, a Consultant Microbiologist at the Changi General Hospital in Singapore.

The talk started with a buffet lunch outside the lecture hall after which about 30% of those who actually partook of the lunch went in for the talk. While the talk was interesting enough, the data and information presented were not new. A heavy lunch and a darkened ambience in the lecture hall can lull anyone to sleep. Thankfully midway through the talk, some one dropped her very heavy bag with a loud thud on the floor and we were all jolted out of our skins. I suspect the speaker and the bag-dropper acted in cohoot!

I enjoyed the talk. The speaker spoke the same old things in a fresh way. I guess we need to be constantly reminded of good clinical practise and a little revising once in a while is good. I won't bore you with the details of the talk. I did, however, enjoyed the last slide put up by the speaker and I wish to share it here with you. The pic above was badly taken (perhaps because my calories-laden fingers haven't quite woke up from its slumber). I will write it out here....

A Brief History of Medicine

"Doctor, I have an infection..."

2000 BC "Here, eat this root"

1000 AD "That root is heathen, here, say this prayer"

1850 AD "That prayer is superstition, here, drink this potion"

1940 AD "That potion is snake oil, here, take this antibiotic"

20?? AD "That antibiotic is useless, here, eat this root"

Scary isn't it? I think some day we will probably run out of antibiotics to treat infections and the humble microbe WINS!!!