My blog is now being cited as evidence

That is a scary thought.

Some people on Twitter were questioning the rationale for the UK's "Bare below the Elbows" infection control policy which says that all hospital personnel who are in contact with patients must wear short sleeve shirts, no lab coats, no watches, and no ties.

A medical student from the UK who follows me posted this tweet:

In a recent post on anonymity, I tried to justify my existence by referring to a post that I wrote about CT scans and appendicitis noting that I have received many questions from patients asking for advice. This suggested I had credibility despite using a pseudonym.

But I think being cited as evidence tops any previous attempts to claim that my writings can be trusted.

Here's the med student on how the Brits feel about "Bare below the Elbows:" He said they are ambivalent and in his experience the policy results in "infection control people chasing people round for long sleeves/watches and missing the real problems!"

I told him that we have legions of clipboard carriers in our hospitals too.

He added, "Antibiotic stewardship is a far more pressing issue than length of my sleeves."

That's a pretty astute observation for a medical student to have made.

I thank him for considering my blog post as evidence. If you too want to find evidence, here's a link to that post.

Can I apply to be listed in PubMed?