Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Anonymous on whether emergency physicians best served to staff urgent care centers:
As an ED doc, I understand the problem. We are taught to always rule out the emergencies, and I am constantly worrying about the worst case scenario, and likely will order more tests since they are at my disposal, which is …
6 top medical comments, May 10th, 2009
A recently reported method of torturing gay men in Iraq sounds horrifying.
Andrew Sullivan points to an article that spares no graphic details: “. . . anti-gay Shiite death squads are sealing their anuses with a powerful glue, then inducing diarrhea, which leads to a painful and agonizing death.”
But, can someone really die from this novel form of torture?
Emergency physician Shadowfax has his doubts. …
Can you really kill a man by gluing his anus shut?
Abraham Verghese will be answering your questions at my next live Q&A.
Dr. Verghese, a Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, is one of the most accomplished and admired physician educators today. His pieces have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and one of his recent articles, entitled Culture Shock, …
Abraham Verghese on the KevinMD Live Q&A: Monday, May 4th at 10:30pm Eastern
Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Carla Kakutani on the lack of primary care access in Massachusetts:
So we have a chicken and egg problem. Do we wait health care reform until we have revived US primary care, or is that even possible without health care reform to create the disruption needed to change our entrenched fee-for-service, procedure-happy payment …
6 top medical comments, May 3rd, 2009
Where is the line between true and false advertising? And should we be more careful when the claims an ad makes has potential health consequences for children and communities?
Let’s ask newspapers that question about big adverts they’ve printed from Generation Rescue, an autism advocacy group, the one headed up by Jenny McCarthy, who regularly appears on National TV claiming vaccines cause autism.
The ads, which you can see on the Generation …
Anti-vaccine ads, and how false advertising harms children
The following is a reader take, in response to a post on whether patients should own their medical records, by an anonymous nurse.
Dear Dr. Pho,
I wish to respond to your position on patient access to their medical records both as a patient and a nurse.
If a doctor or other health professional believes their documentation would be inappropriate or too sensitive for …
Reader take: Patients should be allowed to access their entire medical record
Top story in The New York Times.
Excellent.
There’s hope that maybe, just maybe, we’re getting through to the decision makers in Washington.
The article itself is old news to regular readers of this blog, and regurgitates many of the arguments impeding health reform, as well as the problems in solving them.
“Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase …
How the primary care doctor shortage threatens Obama’s health reform plan
Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Mediaslackers on the UK’s proposed 48-hour physician workweek:
I agree there are significant dangers inherent with limiting the number of hours a doctor can work in a week, but I don’t think they are totally insurmountable or all that much greater than when a doctor is working 30 hours straight, getting a divorce …
6 top medical comments, April 26th 2009
The following is a reader take from the staff at HealthHarbor.
We had a chance to attend the HIMSS conference two weeks ago. HIMSS is healthcare’s premier annual tech expo, and was in Chicago this year. The undeniable theme of this year’s conference was the anticipated expansion of Health Information Technology (HIT) via the Economic Recovery Act. …
HealthHarbor: Health IT stimulus leads to more questions than answers
The following op-ed was published on April 23rd, 2009 in the USA Today.
As a primary care doctor, it’s heartening to hear President Obama call for “the largest investment ever in preventive care.” That means more people, for one, will be undergoing tests to screen for various forms of cancer. But this might be one of those cases where what sounds like common sense is actually more …
Op-ed: Not all screening tests lead to early, better treatment
Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Manalive on quality measures:
It is almost always a leap of faith to apply evidence-based guidelines to the frail elderly, to patients with many medical problems, to alcoholics, to the poorly insured — in short, to a large percentage of my practice. Accordingly, I have been on the wrong end of too many …
6 top medical comments, April 19th 2009
Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.
1. Dr. Gwenn on limited health literacy:
For us to do a better job with patients and teach them to be better advocates for themselves, we need more time – plain and simple. At the same time, patients need more community supports to understand the complex health world and build the skills they need …
5 top medical comments, April 12th 2009
Cool x-rays, but more importantly, why was this man cleaning his teeth with a pair of scissors in the first place?
(via Shadowfax)
What happens if you swallow a pair of scissors
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My kids love to play Monopoly. They delight in acquiring properties, making money and crushing their siblings. They play with passion and savagery. That is, until recently. A couple of weeks ago I walked past the Monopoly board, spread on the floor between my children and their dear friend Tyler.
“˜How’s it going guys?’
“˜Great game, but we all ran out of money. So, we just put some more money on the …
Edwin Leap: Who pays when politicians commit malpractice?
It’s a well known phenomenon that hospitalists are taking over inpatient medicine.
And no wonder, the payment system strongly discourages newly minted doctors to practice outpatient medicine, and the demand that hospitals have for inpatient physicians is surging at an unprecedented rate.
It’s a good time to be a hospitalist, but, as this reader writes to me, that may lead to an increasingly variability in the quality …
Most hospitalists are good, but some, like these ones, aren’t
The following is reader take by Half MD.
The third Thursday of March each year is Match Day for fourth-year medical students. There are many smiles and frowns made on this day when soon-to-be doctors discover where they will obtain their first job to continue their medical training. While Match Day is the most famous day of the week, Monday and Tuesday are the …
Half MD: How to fix the scramble before Match Day
More hospitals are resorting to so-called “dayhawk” radiology services to read their x-rays.
It’s modeled after the “nighthawk” model, where radiologists (via Shadowfax), in some cases as far away as India, remotely read films in the middle of the night.
Now, the phenomenon is happening during business hours as well, which according to radiologist Giles W. L. Boland, means that “some radiologists can no longer assume long-term …
Nighthawks, dayhawks, and the demise of the American radiologist
The following op-ed was published on March 26th, 2009 in the USA Today.
As a primary care doctor, I am frequently faced with decisions where the choice is not always clear. Do the latest, more expensive drugs work better than the less costly, older medications? Will ordering an MRI help me treat a patient’s lower back pain? Often, the answer to these questions is, “I’m not sure.”
Because …
Op-ed: Unbiased research for doctors is good medicine
A recent California court denied extra time for aspiring medical students with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder when taking the MCAT.
The body that administers the test has to straddle a delicate line, in granting extra time to a broadening definition of the disabled student versus maintaining the overall fairness and integrity of the high stakes test.
Despite the ruling, three of the four plaintiffs have gone …
Should the MCAT grant extra time for students with learning disabilities?
Would Natasha Richardson be alive today if she had gone skiing in the United States instead?
I don’t think it would have made a difference.
To recap the tragedy, Ms. Richardson died from an epidural bleed, after she fell while skiing. Her presentation was somewhat classic, with the well-described “lucid” period before she deteriorated.
According to Canada’s Globe and Mail, “ambulance workers were not …
Did the Canadian health system fail Natasha Richardson?
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