The case for medical fist bumping, then and now

Last year, 2013, medical researchers at West Virginia University published the study “Reducing pathogen transmission in a hospital setting. Handshake verses fist bump: a pilot study,” P.A. Ghareeb, T. Bourlai, W. Dutton, W.T. McClellan, Journal of Hospital Infection, vol. 85, no. 4, December 2013, pp. 321–323 (epub September 19, 2013). (We mentioned that here then.) That study says: Handshaking […]

Handshakes galore – but do they work? An analysis.

Search the archives of any upscale picture library [example] and you’ll find hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photos featuring business-persons earnestly shaking hands. But does handshaking actually have any real effect at, say, a business meeting? For the first time (?) an experimental study has examined whether handshaking might (or might not) help in cooperative dealmaking […]

And no more with the hearty handshakes, they suggest

While some researchers urge the public, especially children, to come in more contact with common dirt — and thus presumably boost their immune systems by exercising them against a wide range of threatening thisandthat — other researchers point adults towards the opposite direction. At present, it seems unlikely that these two research camps will soon join hands. […]

A Preliminary Public Health Look at Hospital Fist-Bumps

On the theory that sometimes little things help lessen problems caused by little things, comes this little paper: “Reducing pathogen transmission in a hospital setting. Handshake verses fist bump: a pilot study,” P.A. Ghareeb, T. Bourlai, W. Dutton, W.T. McClellan, Journal of Hospital Infection, epub September 19, 2013. (Thanks to investigator Marek Hlavac for bringing […]