Everything is data driven here. Everything.

Leaning in for a closer look

Data driven medicine

There are 4 (or is it 5?) of these wheeled, portable nurses' carts on the floor of the MDCU where they are constantly being consulted. I can't imagine how they did all this with paper-based systems not that long ago.

Nasty stuff

It's targeted poison. But if your body doesn't contain the right targets... watch out.

The protocol

Because of the toxic nature of rituximab (one of the main components of my "FCR" chemotherapy cocktail), nurses are required to double-check everything before administering, so as not to give the wrong drug to the wrong patient with potentially disastrous consequences.

Nurse Charissa on the left is reading off the ID label on the injector to Elizabeth who is verifying the information on the computer. After this shot was taken, Elizabeth came over to scan my wristband (full of barcodes and QR codes) and complete a final verification before clearing Charissa to jab me.

Reminds me of the two-key system used in nuclear missile silos.

The gong

This gong resides in the MDCU (Medical Day-Care Unit) of the Ottawa Hospital's General campus, where chemotherapy and other cancer treatments are administered.

When patients have completed their last treatment, hopefully to never set foot in this ward again, they are invited to bang the gong for good luck.

I got to bang the gong today,

Bang a gong

The Ottawa Hospital's MDCU (Medical Day-Care Unit) has a fun tradition for its patients just completing their last treatment: banging a gong.

After administering today's final rituximab injection, my wonderful nurse Charissa invited me over to bang the gong. I was a little worried about making too much of a ruckus (there were some patients snoozing away in the ward out of view) but it turns out that it's quite a discreet gong and isn't very loud.

That didn't make it any less satisfying.

Photo credits: Nurse Charissa