The Magical Christmas!

It's year end again! Hope you had a great 2017, all the negativity and difficulties will end now and next year is a brand new beginning.

If talking about "Christmas Magic", this vid by Zach King has to be shared, and in my opinion still the best thus far. He is known as the "Digital Magician" - click and see what he can do with his "digital sleight of hand"!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a happy New Year 2018!

Studying Nephrology - The Guidelines

Continuing from the previous post on "The Foundation", this post is about important Nephrology guidelines that are useful to guide clinical management based on current best available evidence. Note that guidelines are being updated from time to time, do watch out these sites for the latest updates if need to.

 

From the intro, "KDIGO is the global nonprofit organization developing and implementing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in kidney disease." The guidelines are extremely relevant and useful, the list is as follow:

 

Acute Kidney Injury (2012)

 

Anemia in CKD (2012)

 

Hypertension in CKD (2012)

 

CKD Evaluation and Managment (2012)

 

CKD-Mineral and Bone Disorder (2017)

 

Glomerulonephritis (2012)

 

Dyslipidemia in CKD (2013)

 

Living Kidney Donor Evaluation (2017)

 

Care of Transplant Recipient (2009)

 

Upcoming - Hepatitis C in CKD (2018)

 

 

 

 

KDOQI guidelines are produced by NKF and published in AJKD (NKF's premier journal). Selected guidelines include:

 

Hemodialysis Adequacy Update (2015)

 

Nutrition in CKD

 

Peritoneal Dialysis Adequacy (2006)

 

Vascular Access in Dialysis (2006)

 

Diabetes in CKD (2012)

 

 

 

ISPD aims to advance the knowledge of PD and to promote through scientific publications. Selected guidelines include:

 

PD in Acute Kidney Injury (2014)

 

Cardiovascular and Metabolic Guidelines in Adult PD (Part I and Part II) 2016

 

Encapsulating Peritoneal Sclerosis (2017)

 

PD-related Infection Recommendations (2017)

 

Peritoneal Access (2010)

 

 

 

 

The Renal Association endorses many guidelines for renal-related disease and treatments. You can visit the full list on the site, and there are several updated guidelines this year include the use of RAAS blockade in diabetes/ Nephropathy and/or CKD (2017).

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KHA-CARI guidelines were developed for use in Australia and NZ. One of the very useful guidelines is on ADPKD management (2015) - covering the whole approach from imaging/ genetic diagnosis to management of the disease and associated complications.

 

For some of the important rheumatology-related renal diseases management, the useful reference sites include American College of Rheumatology and EULAR, especially on topics such as SLE, gout, ANCA vasculitis etc.

 

The list is non-exhaustive and I leave the rest for you to explore. Enjoy reading!

 

 

Virtuoso & Shin Lim's New Release

The new vid from Virtuoso is always highly anticipated. RISE feat. the FW17 Virtuoso deck was released on 8th Dec - again showcased their awesome cardistry skills and very artistic cinematography. Paul Wilson has commented that this is a "Lovely, visual feast of cardistry and wonderful in every way". Can't agree more!


Just a throwback on Virtuoso's style 10 years ago in 2007 in their award-winning act - if you miss the more "energetic" side of them :)


8th Dec is also an exciting day that Shin Lim released his V3 of "52 Shades of Red". It was viewed as "insane and unreal" by many peer magicians - watch it and you'll know what it means.


If you need more intro about Shin Lim, this FISM champion is one of the current best sleight-of-hand artists. Watch his EPIC return to Penn & Teller episode here - you will not believe your eyes on what he could do with card magic.

Studying Nephrology - The Foundation

Years ago, I have shared on study preparation for exams including USMLE, MRCP and SCE Nephrology. But exams apart, it is a lifelong pursue if you are planning to subspecialize in the field that you're most interested in.

"Pursuing Nephrology was my lifelong career dream, as I am intrigued by its complex pathophysiology and the magnitude of renal aspect in multi-systemic interaction. Nephrology requires a great attention to details but is always gratifying." - that's how I started in the training!

And if anyone would like to study further for Nephrology, I'd just like to share some of the "Must-reads", and I can't emphasize enough how important is the foundation - and getting the core concepts right before you advance further.

1. Landmark Papers in Nephrology - selected seminal studies that led to the practice of Nephrology today. It is a fascinating read, especially on the historical origins of many aspects of Nephrology.

2. Comprehensive Clinical Nephrology (in 5th Ed) does not need much introduction. It is THE textbook for all trainees and Nephrologists.

3. Acid-Base and Electrolyte Disorders (in 6th Ed) is a classic on its own and demystifies the difficult subject, and it is authored by Burton Rose, the founder of UptoDate.

4. The 3 core handbooks - Dialysis (by John Daugirdas, in 5th Ed); Peritoneal dialysis (by Steve Guest, in 2nd Ed) and Renal Transplantation (by Gabriel Danovitch, in 6th Ed). These are concise, yet comprehensive and practical and essentially cover all you need to know about different modalities of renal replacement therapy.

Have fun reading!

New "Invisible Palm" Act

I've been closely following Patrick Kun for his creativitiy and talents in his card and ring magic. In the latest series of "The Amazing Magicians" (or 超凡魔术师), he has shown his newly designed act from the Invisible Palm, with many close-up effects combined and it is totally a new level of this classic act. See for yourself and enjoy!

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

One of my favourite TED talks by Angela Lee Duckworth. Bought her book soon after listening to her talk to know deeper about her theory of "Grit".

"Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint." - Angela Lee Duckworth.