Paper Party

Two of my friends Stephanie and Paul held a "paper party" during Coda. What is a paper party, you might ask. Well, my co-blogger Steph imagined an intellectual exchange of seminal publications between medical school graduates. We all know the residents who can quote studies and attendings who have file cabinets full of papers. So this paper party was supposed to stimulate discussion and accumulation of articles. Steph and Paul lured us in with wine and food, only stipulating that we each bring a study to discuss. Of course, the hodgepodge of papers that arrived were hardly academic. While some of us looked at landmark articles on the use of pulmonary artery catheters, the window for tissue plasminogen activator, and dexamethasone prior to antibiotics for meningitis, there was also a flurry of the weird, inappropriate, and hilarious. Some of the stranger papers included a case study of whether knuckle-cracking leads to arthritis, digital rectal massage for intractable hiccups (and possibly supraventricular tachycardia), and a systematic review of randomized controlled studies on the use of parachutes in falls (my favorite article; BMJ 2003;327;1459-1461). In any case, when people start throwing paper parties, you know we have too much time on our hands.