Is Caster Semenya a woman, and the issues surrounding androgen insensitivity syndrome

Conditions and Diseases
August 26, 2009

Caster Semenya is the South African track and field star who recently was engulfed in controversy at the recently concluded World Track and Field Championships.

caster-semenya Turns out, there are some who are questioning her gender, and subsequently, tests are being conducted to see if she is really a woman.

It’s not as cut and dry as it appears.

Consider the possibility of Read more…

Is Caster Semenya a woman, and the issues surrounding androgen insensitivity syndrome

Michael Jackson dead from propofol, is Dr. Conrad Murray solely to blame?

Conditions and Diseases
August 24, 2009

Recent reports have said that Michael Jackson died from a propofol overdose. Is that really the case?

Here’s what happened, according to the published timeline.

— At about 1:30 a.m., [Dr. Conrad] Murray gave Jackson 10 mg of Valium.
— At about 2 a.m., he injected Jackson with 2 mg of the anti-anxiety drug Ativan.
— At about 3 a.m., Murray then administered 2 mg of the sedative Versed.
— At about 5 …

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Michael Jackson dead from propofol, is Dr. Conrad Murray solely to blame?

Is health care a public good?

Health Policy
August 24, 2009

by Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH

The public policy and current political action around changing the system overlooks two important technical fallacies:

(1) That health care is most efficiently distributed by a free market mechanism; and,
(2) That medical services are an ordinary commodity.

The commercial market model is a failing economic and public policy ideology used to rationalize and justify corporate control of the health care system to profit from the enterprise. …

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Is health care a public good?

Do patients really need their complete lab and radiology reports?

Conditions and Diseases
August 21, 2009

Most prefer the bottom line, sparing them the raw data.

Primary care physician Rob Lamberts asks that exact question, and reprints sample reports of lab tests and an echocardiogram, demonstrating the wealth of information they contain.

So, borrowing this image from Dr. Rob, I’m not sure how useful something like this would be to patients (sorry for the small type, but you get the idea):

lab-valuesRead more…

Do patients really need their complete lab and radiology reports?

A doctor in Cuba becomes a nurse in the United States

Physician
August 20, 2009

When physicians in other countries come to the United States, they often become nurses or lab technicians, rather than re-taking rigorous board exams to remain doctors.

One example includes doctors from Cuba. According to this story in The New York Times, “6,000 medical professionals, many of them physicians, have left Cuba in the last six years.” Cuban doctors, who often earn $25 per month, find it significantly more …

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A doctor in Cuba becomes a nurse in the United States

Robert Ricketson and the surgical screwdriver medical malpractice case: The medical records revisited

Physician
August 11, 2009

Robert Ricketson is a spine surgeon who was involved in a high profile 2003 medical malpractice case in Hawaii where a surgical screwdriver was implanted into a patient’s back. This is his account of the ordeal.

by Robert Ricketson

I am writing today out of frustration and anger, as I am frankly quite tired of passively going along as my name appears year after year in malicious “medical blogs” and …

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Robert Ricketson and the surgical screwdriver medical malpractice case: The medical records revisited