What is Grand Rounds, exactly?

So asks Linda. Thank you for the opportunity to explain.

Grand Rounds is a weekly collection of medical-related blog posts. As the original submission guidelines note, "the target audience here is NOT other medical bloggers, or people in the health care industry. It's the educated but nonmedical readers coming from general-interest blogs."

And who can submit to Grand Rounds? As the original guidelines answer in the FAQ section:

I'm a doctor / nurse / researcher / student / EMT / health care economist / patient who writes mostly about gardening / dating / reality television. Will you link to my post? Maybe. I'll certainly look at it, if it's medically related. And very few blogs are 100% medicine.

So what I hope to put up here next Tuesday is a collection of stellar posts related to the world of medicine and composed by health care providers, analysts, cricits and recipients.

For more explicit guideslines, please continue reading:

• Submissions are due by 8:00 PM EST Monday night 10/10/05
• Grand Rounds will posted on Tuesday 10/11/05 at 9:30 AM
• Send a2doula@hotmail.com the link to your post, the title, and a brief description
• One entry per blogger
• Recent posts between 400 and 1000 words are preferred
• Posts are to be written for a general audience. Potential topics include:
  --Patient encounters
  --A profile of someone in medicine
  --Medical education
  --Implications of a new basic science discovery
  --Commentary on a new study
• Commentary on health care delivery
  

One final note: It is the host's discretion as to what gets included. This will no doubt provide me, a midwesterner through and through, with many minutes of lost sleep if I can't use all submissions. Please know in advance I love you all.