A little more on the name Diggory. I think it’s actually better as a Dog’s name. Within the Doutch/Douch family, trying out names on pets before we use them for children is not uncommon, (Lady Hamilton – Hamish, Sophie/Sophie) but I doubt in the final analysis if it would make a good first name for a Doutch. The alliteration of Hickory Diggory Doutch is a little too obvious, whereas Hickory Diggory Dog is just fun. If anyone else has literary sightings of the name Diggory, please send them in.

Regarding the name Miranda, my daughter’s name. It comes from the character Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, in Shakespeare’s Tempest. The particular words that resonate for me come from Miranda’s speech in Act V, Scene I:

“O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!How beautious [sic] mankind is!

O brave new world,

That has such people in’t!”

The line “O brave new world,” of course was picked up by Aldous Huxley for his dystopian novel. I prefer to read it here in all its innocence. In the US now, of course, Miranda is commonly a last name of Latin origin. In fact, one of my PCAs at the hospital is called Ana Miranda. I don’t know how common the name Miranda was as a last name in Shakespeare’s time. Does anyone know?

A quick word on the name Diggory. I first came across the name in Thomas Hardy’s “The Return of the Native” where Diggory Venn is a reddleman. A reddleman, I take it, is someone who sells reddle, or iron ore pigment. I have always liked the name, and thought perhaps if I had a son I would call him Diggory – a nice masculine sounding name, that abbreviates to Dig, or Digger. Convenient for a football player. Of course, when we decided not to have any more children and looked around for a dog, the name was too good to waste – perfect for a dog, especially a terrier who likes to dig.

Other literary sightings of Diggory, include Uncle Digory (one ‘g’, I think, from C.S. Lewis’s “Magician’s Nephew”), and more recently, “Cedric Diggory,” Harry Potter’s ill-fated competitor in “The Goblet of Fire.”

Back home again after 5 days of IVAC. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dave are here and we’ll have a quiet time. They’re doing Chinese Food tonight, but I’m not allowed restaurant food. Ate chicken soup with toast and hummus.

Maureen injected me with a $500 Neulasta rescue shot tonight to help my body recover from all the toxins. Amazing what stuff costs. According to Bill Banks, a single bag of Rituximab, of which I’ve had two, costs $13,000. Of course, it’s grown from mouse cells so you would expect it to be pretty pricey. Not much juice in a mouse.

Have been corresponding with Lisa Kearns who sent me an article on system safety from the 2004 National Patient Safety Congress in Boston. 

http://www.ajj.com/services/pblshng/nej/article024245.pdf¹

It’s interesting and bears out my recent conclusions that 1) DFBWCC is in the lead in implementing system safety, and 2) there are multiple channels in the medical world where it is already being implemented and/or could be done better. If I write a paper based on my experiences, I think I will focus on the patient in system safety. The patient, if active and engaged – we’ll assume motivation – can be a valuable member of the team, and if educated in what is going on has much to contributes. I think this also ties in well with ideas if agile development in the software field, where the client is very much part of the team and knows broadly what he or she wants, but not how to get it.

1. This link is no longer active ↩︎

Talked with Jim Libby for a while. He’s on the chaplaincy staff. After the usual formalities about why I’m an atheist, and the problems I see in the US where religion becomes a wall, rather than a bridge. I don’t care how big your congregation is, that’s not the point of who has the biggest congregation. Religion, if it is to serve the role of building community, must not shun, it must not exclude.

Jay was interested in how I manage to keep my spirits up around Xmas. I know, from past experience, that the holidays can be the loneliest time, when you would normally have been surrounded by family and friends and you’re stuck working, or living in a strange city. I think Jay helped me see how blogging helps keep me happy. First, of course, it’s a discipline and helps provide local focus, but beyond that, it gives me an outlet for my creative needs, a way to make something. And in return, it brings me life from my family and friends, either through the guestbook or through personal emails. This is the electronic I-Ching.

[Incidentally, someone please tell me how a family sitting around an X-box 360 is brought closer by shooting up bad guys? I think I’ll wait for the Playstation 3.]

I have known for a long time that we are all connected on this earth. An Iraqi death, a Pakistani death, grieves me no more nor less than an American death. My death I value no more than anybody else’s. Of course, it feels different when it is close family and friends, but we are all family. Sometimes that connection feels almost tangible, like a grapevine, and we are its leaves and stems and grapes. This image of the grapevine has long been a powerful image for me, ever since my realization in the South of France many years ago, that God did not exist. You can play with the word, but once you put a name to it you have lost the way.

Pretty tired all day. Mo came, also Jimmy, Edwin, and Eduardo from work. Tried to get the new laptop configured to dial into NetZero, but no joy. We talked about what’s going on at work, and how there was more work around than we have people for – no surprise! Looks like ATOS will finally come to the Volpe Center. Also appears that the kafuffle over RSAM is over and FSAIC has been persuaded to accept it. Watch this space!

Had my IT this evening – the anticipation is worse than the execution. Afterwards listened to music. My new SONY MDR-NC6 headphones work well and listened to some Xmas music – a capella, etc.

Thinking more about system safety in medicine — it’s clear that it applies, but I mentioned that cost is not as much a factor as it is in aviation. That cannot be true. Look at medicine, as it’s practiced across the world, not as safely as it could be. Also domestically, where there is a wide range of health care services where money is very much a factor. How do you choose healthcare for an ailing dependent or an aging parent? How cost effective is system safety at this level? To determine this requires checking up, not only at the local level but also at the state level. I imagine some data is collected, but how much is useful from a system safety perspective I can’t tell. I had written a paper a while back attempting to map types of PM to the various stages of the Reason model, so that even if you are not measuring all areas, you can at least get some perspective. Should probably dust this off and see if it works for medicine. I know from my mother that the UK has an extensive “Carer” system. I would be interested to find out how this is monitored and regulated.

Ann Aylward asks, how come my name is spelled “Doutch,” when the rest of the family spells it “Douch?” The answer is that Mo got tired of being addressed as Mrs. Douche al the times – wouldn’t you be. The name is not a particularly historic name anyway, and there are lots of Doutches around the world, so I changed it legally when I became a US citizen. Also, I can write Xmas cards as coming from the “Doutches” rather than the “Douches.” Makes sense, don’t you think