Dr Rohin Francis. Consultant cardiologist with a sub-specialisation in YouTube. Dad, doctor, dork
Not on twitter anymore, but I write a free newsletter ⤵️
We’ve just let a private company do this to the whole planet. You can argue how useful or problematic it is, but the fact remains that most countries on Earth, ergo most humans who have as much right to the night sky as anyone else, didn’t consent to this level of space usage >
Slipped and fell ~3m on vertical wet metal steps while carrying my 3 year old today on the HMS Belfast, managed to catch him just before his head connected with the bottom step & only partially degloved my finger. He was fine. My friend said no one would believe it unless filmed
I treated a guy born 6hrs before me (he checked his time of birth with his mum after we got chatting). He’d had a massive heart attack. He grew up in one of the UK’s poorest areas, I didn’t. We were otherwise pretty similar. Deprivation is the most important health risk factor.
What's the most off-brand thing you do?
I'm a cardiologist. I eat healthily, I exercise, am slim, don't smoke etc. But. I don't spread butter on toast, I hold the entire block in my hand and apply it like a pritt stick until the toast is practically transparent. Paratha style.
A family in the pub asked "what language are you speaking to your kids?" We said Bengali and they said "we've figured out that 'bosho' means sit down and 'khenao' means eat your food, right?"
Imagine saying something so much that bystanders learn a new language just by context😂
A few years ago, a friend sent me what I would later learn was a typically bizarre tweet by
@njohncamm
, asking if I knew who he was. No idea, but something bothered me – he almost shared a name with a very famous cardiologist, Professor John Camm
Coincidence?
No...much stranger
Still find it incredibly hard to look at these photos without feeling overwhelming sadness at the death of this brave doctor, only 33, and the criminal treatment he received from his government before dying. 1 year on from the passing of Li Wenliang. RIP
I'm a consultant interventionalist, but was a trainee just 18mo ago. I am an educational supervisor (to doctors) and have mentored ANPs & pharmacists to expand their skills. I am clinical lead for my department, so all too aware of the pressures on trusts. Here are my thoughts.
No, I'm not taking hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis against COVID-19. I am, however, eating pies.
Pies have as much evidence in the prevention of coronaviridae as hydroxychloroquine with the added benefit that they taste nicer.
I missed Aseem Malhotra’s big reveal yesterday. I know you still follow me Aseem so I hope you see this. Please know, what you’re saying isn’t just whipping up your base and putting you on TV, it is having real, awful effects on real people
Now twitter has its official menswear Guy, I hope
@dieworkwear
can settle the biggest debate in medicine free of any tribal prejudice that all medics bring to:
TUCKED OR UNTUCKED?
I could find models' pics but that's an unrealistic body shape, so here's my best model impression
A reviewer for a paper I submitted suggested 12 additional references. ok no big deal. But they all had the same 1st author (who we'd already cited several times), so it was obviously him. Googling reveals he has 50,000 citations. I guess I can see how.
#academia
A student who had her first two vaccinations, reacted adversely to the second & got medical exemption, was expelled for not having a third vaccination. Whatever your stance on mandates, this makes no medical sense. The confidence in the health centre director’s reply is misplaced
Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, zinc - huge cultish support
Dex, proven medical care - no interest from the same people
Honest Q, why do the conspiratorial only support ineffective drugs? Is a doctor saying "this doesn't work" a prerequisite before they can get behind a cause?
I bought this T-shirt in Beijing (BJ) but have never had the courage to wear it out in public very often
In case people think I support the prime minister
Imagine being a billionaire and complaining - COMPLAINING - that hospitals are not overflowing. Imagine being upset that public health measures worked.
"Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after will seem inadequate." - Michael Leavitt, 2007
Good news! You don't have blocked blood vessel dead muscle heart problem you have worry sad feeling octopus trap heart squeezing problem which we diagnosed by shining sound into your body. Probably also good idea to put you in giant magnet camera. Don't worry, be happy.
Drop the medical jargon, doctors are told: Use “kidney” instead of “renal,” “sudden” or “short-term” instead of “acute” and “irregular pulse” instead of “atrial fibrillation.”
I’m in the minority here but I think the Krebs cycle is not taught enough, or it’s not taught in a way that truly explains why it is the centre of life on earth. I totally disagree it is irrelevant to being a doctor. But I do agree testing rote knowledge of each step is pointless
Just got gently moved to one side by a clearly very busy and conscientious med reg dealing with a sick patient, so that she could call the on call cardiology consultant. Which is me. Reading that patient’s notes 😂
@PeterAttiaMD
Peter, surprised you endorse this skewed take. Transplants remain scarce resources & have always been prioritised on likelihood of best outcome. Vaccinations & infection risk are a key part of this. Please don't add to partisan hysteria by agreeing with it being 'murderous'.
For all the dislike of Rishi Sunak and his policies (which he’s justified in just a few days), comments on his wife’s family money etc, I hope people know his mother in law is actually quite a legend.
I understand all the positive messages that include the phrase "We signed up for this" are designed to motivate. But...we didn't sign up for this.
Stop the military comparisons. Very few enter healthcare assuming there will be a significant risk to their own lives.
#PPE
What are some drug names with cool origins?
Rapamycin from Rapa Nui Island
Warfarin from Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Morphine from Morpheus
Lasix (is that one an urban myth?)
Emla from Eutectic Mixture of Local Anaesthetics
You know, that kind of thing. Any more?
Kudos to anyone patiently explaining why people should wear masks. I can't summon the energy. I stumbled into science communication. It's a hobby not my job. I dreamt of explaining complex & fascinating topics to people...not having to spell out concepts my toddler understands.
@Lageraemia
I think you’re in danger of letting your middle class viewpoint conjure a rather condescending view of the developing world. Starlink isn’t a charity, it’s a profit generating initiative of a private company and costs money. Facebook offered India free internet in remote areas,
I hope people’s takeaway message from recent medtwitter stories about mistakes, shortening medical school, and overall expertise is that medicine is quite difficult, actually. And we all should be campaigning for maximising training, not seeking the minimal viable product model.
@BrianSuttererMD
@DGlaucomflecken
1. Is that his responsibility to care how a question about his cardiac arrest is asked or his answer perceived?
2. Can you realistically imagine any answer he could give that wouldn’t result in ppl believing what they want? He could say it was commotio & ppl would say he’s lying.
Well there you have it.
The NHS, after successfully removing homeopathy from what it offers several years ago, is once again literally giving a placebo. If there’s one area where quackery hides in plain sight, it’s pain suffered by women.
Shame on you
@NICEComms
. Agreeing that healthcare professionals can offer pseudoscientific pain relief to women in labour is nothing short of a scandal. Shame on you.
New NICE intrapartum guidelines
1/
You know me: mixed parentage, born overseas, came here as a kid – I am as big a fan of Emma Raducanu's story as you can get, and I'm loving how we're celebrating immigration. But you know, you don't need to win a grand slam or Olympic medal to be welcome in the UK 🇬🇧🇬🇧
Man, I feel sorry for a generation of medics who caught the disappointing tail end of ER and think Grey’s Anatomy or House constitute good medical TV. 90s ER is untouchable.
Wife: [who thinks Twitter is total waste of time] How many [patronising tone] "followers" do you have now?
Me: 10.8 thousand
Wife: Jesus. 10.8 thousand MORONS
Just so you all know where you stand with my wife.
Oh wow. You have to watch these two videos. NFT metaverse-based healthcare providing access to “well known social media doctors”. I’m literally hitting every single box on my web3 + medical nonsense bingo card
@TierZoo
Hey man from the way you wrote that tweet it kind of seems like you’re repressing a childhood memory about a marmoset. Some marmosets stole my lunch money as a kid and it seems like you know that feeling. I love you man I really do.
Antivaxxers existed long before Wakefield and the falsified MMR paper, but that launched them mainstream. COVID is doing the same with supplement truthers, people who think vitamins and minerals can solve all ills. The vitamin D cult is not new, this is just their time in the sun
Cardiologists like to think they're the centre of the universe. Turns out we're just the centre of the galaxy.
Left: supermassive black hole at the centre of galaxy M87
Right: cardiac PET scan
So much for
@elonmusk
’s X being a bastion for free speech. Caved like a titanic submarine when served with a vexatious lawsuit from a corporation that didn’t like what an individual (and verified X user) said
Bengaluru Civil Court passes ex-parte injunction order to X to suspend the account of Dr Cyriac Abby Philips (
@theliverdr
).
The order was passed in a suit filed by Himalaya Wellness Corporation which alleged that
@theliverdr
made defamatory allegations against the company.
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1/9
Something extremely bogus is going on. Someone so successful in one field repeatedly and publicly demonstrates himself to be so abjectly unable to grasp simple concepts in another, even to the detriment of millions of people who hang off his every word.
Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.
You might not be aware there is an 'anti lockdown' protest in Trafalgar Square this Saturday, the 'Unite for Freedom' event. It boasts "Top World Class Doctors & Nurses" which piqued my interest.
So I thought I'd look them up.
What are the best words in medicine? I don't mean like "cured" or "home", I mean etymologically, phonetically or with an interesting back story?
I'll start with a few favourites that come to mind...
Apparently there is a delay between performing a digital rectal exam and actually cardioverting into sinus rhythm.
This is called the 'PR interval'
(pic credit:
@CJohnston1903
)
#CardioEd
I'm still getting dozens of despondent and upset messages like this from cardiologists in training and senior colleagues. BCS and BCIS, and all professional bodies, need to truly understand how their largest group of members feel.
The
@BritishCardioSo
have released a statement to
@TCTMD
about the ANP leading a
#TAVR
. I am afraid it shows how much our national cardiac society is out of touch. A 🧵
1. "The performance of a specific procedure is only one part of the patient journey, with consultant…
I get a lot of students asking me about productivity which appears to be a growing religion.
It's ok, you don't have to be productive all the time. Chill. Enjoy yourself.
So a cardiology ST8, who has gone through the very highest competition at every stage in their career, at the very culmination of 20 yrs of training, will be clerking patients in MAU, while an ANP being trained intensively is being hailed as a great success story?
Temp 39.4C
Oh dear. Well at least I'm getting it out of the way early, assuming that's what I've got. No cough at all but otherwise a full house. A test would be nice...
A sad thing is pre-COVID 95% of ppl wouldn't have given him the time of day, Rogan says this himself. The average person would've rightly found what he says about established childhood vaccines, wifi, autism etc absurd. But post COVID vaccine they don't care about any of that
1/ I watched Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Joe Rogan yesterday and it gave me an opportunity to look into some of the "old-school" antivax claims.
First Joe Rogan let's us know that he used to think RFK Jr. was "kinda loony", but now he's a true believer in RFK's antivax claims.
It’s 2022 and in the UK we still have no way of bypassing the lengthy recorded messages when calling one hospital from within another. Vitally important to learn about COVID visiting restrictions and changes to the car park when a patient is actively infarcting
It's a question all of British medtwitter seem to be asking today. Why do the GMC aggressively go after good doctors for minor non-patient-related infractions *on the grounds of bringing the profession into disrepute*, but do nothing about doctors spreading harmful lies online?
My bro, who I've not seen for weeks, lives in a home with 7 others with learning disabilities. The staff there do an amazing job. He developed symptoms and was swabbed within 48 hours (yesterday). He has very limited understanding of what is happening. GP suggested isolating him,
Coronavirus arrives in the UK on Brexit Day. I didn't realise The Thick Of It and Black Mirror were doing a crossover episode, but I'm very excited about it.
Old healthcare workers looking at this photo: one of the greatest medical TV shows of all time
Young healthcare workers looking at this photo: omg their scrubs are so loose and shapeless
You've probably all seen this epic meme. It got me thinking - why *IS* the human body asymmetrical? Why do almost all of us adopt the same asymmetry? [SCIENCE THREAD!]
Within a few days, two channels with a combined total audience of about 30 million have uploaded videos about stars exploding near the Earth
Do they know something we don't...??
Imagine if Djokovic had just said I’m not going to Australia based on my views. Everyone would respect that. But no matter what the antivaxxers say, it was never about “taking a stand”. Instead he managed to emerge from this as a liar who felt the rules shouldn’t apply to him.
This guy can’t really be serious about longevity. A full year between scans?!
I do a full body MRI, colonoscopy, cystoscopy, genomic sequencing, 24hr urinary catecholamines and 7 day Holter monitor ON A DAILY BASIS. I have been in a state of continual CT scanning since 1995
Do an annual “Full-body Health Upload”
Most of us have *no idea* what is really going on in our bodies. Every year, I do a full-body MRI, an AI-driven CT, Genome, microbiome, and much more.
A key to longevity is proper screening and preventative medicine.
Had an interesting chat with a patient recently which made me think of “shared decision making”. It’s central to the way we practice, but there are limits.
An elderly patient has very severe coronary artery disease. I said there are 3 options we’ll discuss at MDT
1/8
This is such a monumental fail.
Take it from me - someone who tries (shut up) to be funny on camera/stage while also being a healthcare professional. The patient is not the punchline.
‘Grow the f*ck up and get the vaccine’ — These health care workers shared their honest thoughts about anti-vaxxers in this hilarious PSA on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’
If you watch similar kinds of youtube channels to me, you might've noticed quite a lot of people being sponsored by something called 'Established Titles', who have clearly really been splashing the cash on influencers lately. But...is it just a scam?