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Are medical device companies being demonized?

Physician

October 23, 2012

All parents have heard their kids complain that but for 1 or 2 percentage points, they would have achieved a higher grade.

“This is so unfair! My average is 89.9999 and he is still giving me a B+!”

Every kid should receive an A, of course, since psychologists are now professing that every kid is a prodigy in some new measure of intelligence. Academic intelligence, the conventional and obsolescent notion, has been …

Attitude is half the battle when you’re sick

Elaine Waples

Patient

October 23, 2012

I’ve come to believe that seriously sick people are often subject to some very interesting comments from well-intentioned non-sick people. They are frequently inspired by platitudes from self-help-books, Google chat rooms (heaven forbid), or beliefs that have been around for so long that they are a natural part of common discourse.

To be fair, when we are confronted with the uncomfortable task of talking to a sick person, our conversation can …

Understanding the patients who are the most expensive to care for

Ishani Ganguli, MD

Health Policy

October 23, 2012

We’ve known for decades that a small fraction of Americans incurs the bulk of health care costs. A report released last month by the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) analyzes 2009 data to shed light on the patients we should worry about most. Their findings take on special relevance in the wake of Massachusetts lawmakers passing an ambitious health care cost control bill.

As …

Defending the American cowboy in medicine

Wes Fisher, MD

Physician

October 23, 2012

Atul Gawande, MD is a brilliant writer, no-doubt an excellent surgeon, and many would say a physician-visionary for all that ails America’s health care system. He speaks first-hand of the changes that have occurred in American health care and recently offered his perspective for fixing our health care system to the fertile minds of Harvard’s recent graduating class of 2011.

In his graduation speech, published front and center (yet …

Improve the triple aim by adding a fourth: Provider satisfaction

Ann Lindsay, MD

Physician

October 22, 2012

My husband and I had a family practice in Arcata, California, for 28 years, during which time we learned the importance of addressing the patient’s context outside of the medical visit in order to maximize health and self-efficacy.

We went to great lengths to keep patients out of the ER and hospital. I saw one patient with massive pedal edema twice weekly for months to wrap her legs, since she lived …

Should standardization end when the exam room door closes?

Suzanne Koven, MD

Physician

October 22, 2012

The Pap smear, in which a clinician gently scrapes and brushes cells from a woman’s cervix (the lower portion of her uterus or womb), swishes them in a bottle of fixative solution, and then sends them to the lab to determine if the cells show pre-cancerous or cancerous changes caused by the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), is a pretty simple procedure that takes less than a minute to …

A moral duty to help build healthier societies

James C. Salwitz, MD

Conditions and Diseases

October 22, 2012

Nairobi, Kenya basks under a brilliant sun, its dusty frontier soul, noise, construction and vital humanity speak for a nation and a people rushing into the modern world. Full of ideas, growing exports and exploding industry, its expanding middle class has seized on education and commerce as the path to tomorrow. One of the richest nations in Africa, with a new Constitution and new hope, it races forward. Tragically, even …

It’s not all in the genes: How to reduce your risk of cancer

Toni Brayer, MD

Conditions and Diseases

October 22, 2012

There are an estimated 1,638,910 new cases of the dreadful disease diagnosed in 2012 in the United States, not including non-melanoma skin cancers.

Cancer is not just one disease but is a term that represents more than 100 diseases with different causes. The basic unit of life is cells, and cancer always begins in cells. When the normal process of cell growth and division is altered, these abnormal cells divide without …

I have seen faith present its various faces many times

StorytellERdoc, MD

Physician

October 22, 2012

Faith. A simple word with complicated meaning. It is a seed buried deep within our spiritual cores, ready to be nourished and blossom with the sprinklings of tragedy. It is a belief that things will work out, despite our lack of vision for fate’s secretive reasons of the bumpy journey we must endure. It is an inherent hope that has either sustained us or has failed us miserably. Yes, to …

National reporting isn’t the answer to reduce medical errors

Kevin R. Campbell, MD

Health Policy

October 21, 2012

Two articles recently addressed medical errors.

In the Wall Street Journal, surgeon Dr. Marty Makary discusses the alarming costs of medical errors and offers suggestions to improve the system. In medicine, particularly during the training years of residency and fellowship, young doctors are not given the opportunity or security to report shortcomings of their superiors.

As discussed in the article, all of us have a memory of a particular surgeon …

Democrats versus Republicans: Two different approaches to Medicare

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Health Policy

October 21, 2012

The two party’s approaches are quite different. Politicians realize that Medicare will not be able to continue on its current track. Something has to change since the country will simply not be able to afford the inexorable growth and expenditures. But politicians do not like to take away entitlements so proposals generally are couched in vague terms and often with positions that are unrealistic.

The Democrats’ plans are contained generally in …

It is both a privilege and an honor to be a primary care physician

Solmaz Amirnazmi, MD

Physician

October 21, 2012

With all of its frustrations and challenges, I love my job. In fact, the very things that make primary care so difficult and often times exhausting are also what make it in my opinion the most awesome field in medicine.

When I was in grade school, I wanted to be a physician. My parents would take me to the pediatrician for routine check-ups or when I wasn’t feeling so great and I remember …

How gross anatomy changes you forever

Anonymous

Medical Education

October 21, 2012

After a week of medical school orientation, followed by two weeks in the classroom studying cellular organelles and biochemical pathways, our class was finally going to start the centuries-old rite of passage that is human gross anatomy. For many students, it will be first time seeing a dead body. The anatomy lab is where future surgeons will make their first cut with a scalpel, without the pressure of life and …

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How gross anatomy changes you forever

Both the scientific and the social sides of medicine are needed

Clarissa Schilstra

Patient

October 21, 2012

The word medicine, in today’s world, seems to indicate a hard science in search of cures for many kinds of human ailments, such as cancer. However, I believe that the true definition of medicine is the practice of healing. Medicine is both an art and a science because it involves both human and technological interaction. The art of compassionate care and social interaction must be combined with the science of …

Our medical system needs more positive stories

Stewart Segal, MD

Physician

October 20, 2012

I’ve been asked to appear on a radio talk show to discuss one of my blog articles. It seems that the producers of the show were impressed by my article on the beauty of medicine when it works the way it’s supposed to.

“When It Works Right, It’s a Thing of Beauty” was published this summer and is one of my favorite articles. The practice of medicine is a beautiful thing. …

How to strengthen the partnership with your medical team

Andrew Griffith

Patient

October 20, 2012

Most of us have find it challenging to make sense of the wave of information when we enter our cancer journey. This is foreign territory, with its own language, culture and routines. It takes time to absorb and understand.

We are not oncologists or hematologists. However, we can learn to improve our discussion with our medical team.

Build your knowledge. By the time you start your treatment, you will likely have searched the …

Chickenpox, herpes zoster, and understanding the shingles vaccine

Brian J. Secemsky, MD

Conditions and Diseases

October 20, 2012

Chickenpox was all the rage back in the day. Oatmeal baths with your siblings, unexplained weekday sleep-overs with pox-laden, peripheral childhood friends. Even the sweet but short-lived relief of itching and scratching made the week-long infectious endeavor, if anything, a pleasant respite from the doldrums of early childhood.

Unfortunately for a handful of us unsuspecting chickenpox veterans, the infection that we so fondly include in our potpourri of childhood nostalgia will …

Why doctors should care about fracking

Deep Ramachandran, MD

Physician

October 20, 2012

Let’s all agree on two things.

First, that energy independence is good for our country. Second that clean drinking water is also good for the country.

The development of America’s huge stores of natural gas, have given us a remarkable opportunity to accomplish the former. In particular, the process of “fracking” has made it possible to increasingly tap those huge natural gas stores. Natural gas sits in rock formations, but releasing it …

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Why doctors should care about fracking

Health risks of tattoos and tips for safer inking

Orly Avitzur, MD

Conditions and Diseases

October 20, 2012

I’m often surprised to hear my patients say that they got their tattoos while they were intoxicated. These confessions usually pour out spontaneously, prompted by anxiety, as I prepare to insert a needle for medical reasons. Getting a tattoo may be exciting, but you shouldn’t get drunk and cloud your judgment before you get one.

Permanent tattoos have been growing in popularity (pop star Justin Bieber’s tattoos even have their own …

Why upcoding isn’t necessarily fraud

Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD

Physician

October 19, 2012

Over the past several decades medical costs in the United States have escalated rapidly, exceeding the pace of inflation and threatening bankrupt to Medicare. As we heard in last week’s presidential debate, different solutions have been proposed on how to slow Medicare’s growth and reduce cost. President Obama highlighted his administration’s success in tackling fraud and waste within the system. This strategy appears to be supported across party lines. On …

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Why upcoding isn’t necessarily fraud

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