Medicine, fishing, PPH, and SOPH

While the northeast prepared for a terrible blizzard, I took my book and studied by the lake with blue skies and weather in the high 60's.

Unfortunately, I didn't catch any fish. I've gone fishing 6-7 times in Houston and I have never caught anything.

This probably means I'm a terrible fisherman, but to be fair to myself I've never seen anyone else catch anything either at the 3 lakes I've fished at. Maybe the lakes are just poorly stocked here. I've never really liked fishing (when I was little I thought it was boring). Well I'll tell you what, it's still boring. How can I go fishing 7 times and never see anyone catch a fish?? 

The thing is, I'm now more determined then ever to catch a fish, if anything just to prove that I can.  To show the fish who's boss. To become a man. To grow some Texas blood. To brag to my wife.

I bought a bucket of stinky blood catfish bait, and I still got skunked yesterday and today. However, sitting by the lake and reading my textbook, I noticed that I maintained a decent page-per-hour (PPH) efficiency.

PPH and SOPH

PPH is an important measure of how focused you are. PPH can be decreased by internet, facebook, email, music, food, slickdeals, and so forth. A low PPH and a high SOPH (space out per hour) should raise suspicion for slacking. Although not yet validated by multi-center trials, a PPH score of less than 10 or SOPH score of greater than 6 indicate you are wasting way too much time. One therapeutic option is to study at the lake where the only distraction are fish that won't bite.

(Other useful scoring systems used in medicine include the ACT, AHI, RDI, TIMI score, and MELD score.)



I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor at the time of writing this. I respect patient privacy and comply with HIPPA. Please read the disclaimer.

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