I was recently asked by Adam Sharp, MD the Chief Medical Officer of Sermo, the physician-only online community at Sermo.com, to write a guest post of my choosing and facilitate a discussion about it for a few days. My choice? Social media, (based on the recent article colleagues and I co-published in The Permanente Journal). This post is about my experience and what I learned.
I know that …
Discussing social media with physicians on Sermo
Embryonic stem cells are present after a fertilized egg divides for two or three days. They have the seemingly miraculous ability to turn into any of the tissue types in the body—whether brain neurons, beating heart cells, bone, or pancreatic islet cells. It is important to understand just where these cells come from.
Those used in science are …
Cultural attitudes influence the benefit from stem cell therapy
The World Health Organization recently announced that cell phones “may possibly” cause cancer.
Now, I’m neither a researcher or statistician, and personally think the jury is still out on this one. I’m not going to take sides.
But here is what I am pissed off about. Notice that the story said “may possibly” cause cancer. But the way we think, it somehow becomes “does cause cancer,” and so we panic, and hold …
The nightmare of medical research in the lay press
As intern year winds down and all of the giddy 4th year medical students are shelling out 200 dollars to rent that a robe for one day of pomp and circumstance, all of us interns are impatiently waiting for the fresh meat to arrive.
Having just experienced every single emotion under the psychological rainbow this year, I am going to give a …
Tips for medical students entering intern year
by Kimberly
Every one of us who practices family medicine has had to defend our chosen profession against a myriad of antagonists.
As mentioned in the post, Family Medicine is a Waste of Your Talent, we are sometimes told that we are too smart to pursue family medicine. Other topics range from salary comparisons between specialties to scope of practice. I’ve been told on many occasions …
Students interested in primary care must survive hazing
Most people agree — the best way to beat cancer is to prevent it. What can we do as a nation to help people live healthier lives today so they can avoid cancer tomorrow?
Major research findings and policy changes are steps in the right direction. Here are some important cancer prevention milestones we’ve reached in the past year.
1. Lung cancer screening is now a reality for selected patients
Smoking causes …
5 important cancer prevention updates
An interview by Curaspan Health Group with Mark Lachs, MD
Mark Lachs, MD, MPH, geriatrics physician, professor, researcher and author of the new book, Treat Me, Not My Age, says one of the hottest new areas of research is care transitions. He warns that there’s a growing disconnect between hospitals and post-acute providers.
Curaspan: …
The growing disconnect between hospitals and post-acute providers
Today, healthcare is criticized by the public as too high on technology and too low in touch. Computers take patients histories, provide differential diagnoses, and even supply educational materials to patients. A new specialty, tele-medicine, offers healthcare services to rural areas that were previously underserved or couldn’t afford the latest diagnostic technology.
A humorous story about technology occurred when a patient’s secretary called to say that her boss was too …
Patients could use more group hugs from their doctors
It will not be an ordinary table of contents. But then, the DSM-5 will not be an ordinary book.
When the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders comes out in 2013, it will reflect the advances over the past two decades that have helped illuminate connections between the brain and behavior.
Functional MRI studies, for example, have provided insight into obsessive-compulsive disorder. Studies supporting a “schizophrenia spectrum” have shown …
Organizing DSM-5: The new framework of mental disorders
Whether specialists make too much money depends on whom you ask.
Policy experts
If you ask policy experts, most of whom are progressives, they will say “yes, of course, specialists make too much money.” Too many specialists making too much money spoil the national health care broth.
Just look at any other country, especially countries with government-run systems.
Specialists there make one-half of what our specialists bring home. Look at their total …
Do American medical specialists really make too much money?
Recently we saw a flurry of discussions about online physician professionalism, the merits of being anonymous, and teachable moments. As a newbie I’m trying to figure this out. But I need to be more mindful of the filter bubble – a self-imposed bias by preferentially linking to people and things we agree with, thus unwittingly trivializing reasonable alternatives.
I’ve just had 3 “Uh-oh” moments:
Online physician professionalism, a medical student opinion
Not all cancer screening saves lives.
I alluded to this recently in a New York Times’ Room for Debate piece, discussing why Medicare shouldn’t pay for prostate cancer screening in men over the age of 75.
And, when it comes to ovarian cancer screening, a recent study showed that annual CA-125 antigen testing and transvaginal ultrasound did not save lives. In …
Do doctors have more influence than the media in cancer screening?
The placebo effect is somewhat of a mystery in modern medicine. Wikipedia calls a placebo “a sham or simulated medical intervention.” Commonly, when we refer to a placebo we mean dummy-drugs, but the placebo effect has further applications in medicine, such as sham surgery or false information.
Now, a great video produced by an Australian journalist from the ABC Science Show has compiled …
Implications of the placebo effect for physicians
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A physician or nurse who receives a Summons and Complaint regarding a medical malpractice suit also receives pointers about whom to talk to, what to say, what not to say, and whom not to talk to. Despite some emphatic precautions, the appropriate advice to those malpractice defendants is not strictly “shut up and lawyer up.”
To help defendant clinicians cope, the answer …
Emotionally supporting physicians sued for malpractice
by Gayle A. Sulik, PhD
In response to increased publicity surrounding Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s questionable trademark and marketing activities, the organization published an official statement on its website, titled: “Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Sees Trademark Protection as Responsible Stewardship of Donor Funds.”
According to the statement, Susan G. Komen for the Cure® has never sued other charities or put other non-profits out of business, and the …
How Susan G. Komen for the Cure affects other cancer non-profits
by Diane Shannon, MD, MPH
Errors in communication are widely recognized as an important cause of adverse events in health care. In 2010, communication problems were the most commonly cited root cause of sentinel events, according to data reported to the Joint Commission.
In fact, communication issues were identified as a root cause of two thirds of all the sentinel …
Closing communication gaps between providers
Are you having a boy or girl? This is one of the standard questions people ask a pregnant lady. Everyone asks. It has become a kind of conversation starter. It’s not that the stranger in the grocery store really cares, but it just seems like natural thing to say. It’s part of the standard questions we ask pregnant women. How far along are you? Is there just one? When are …
Finding out the gender of your baby during pregnancy, or not
I’ve heard some physicians wonder out loud if their career has been “wasted” – either because they were on a path that wasn’t a good fit or they spent years focusing on accumulating and worrying rather than on contributing and enjoying. The question is one of personal value: Am I measuring up? And by whose metrics?
How do you measure the value of your physician career? Dollars earned? Lives saved? Honors …
What will be your legacy as a physician?
There have been a couple of widely-publicized cases recently of physicians divulging patient information in social media. I’m sure the doctors involved did not intend to violate patient privacy.
While there are several excellent guidelines and policies on this topic, there isn’t a whole lot of practical advice, so here are my tips to help you avoid privacy violations (I hope this is the beginning of a conversation …
7 tips to avoid HIPAA violations in social media
Part three of the three-part series, Let’s Pay Popular People More!
Perhaps you remember Sam, the chronic inebriate whose story I shared to discuss the pitfalls of basing doctor pay on patient satisfaction surveys.
Looking at his discharge papers, I wondered who helped Sam fill his survey out, and how much their “help” affected the results.
After all, millions upon millions of dollars are already now at stake for …
Why popularity based payment for doctors is not the answer
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