KevinMD.com

The alternative, complementary, and integrative health obsession with toxins

Amy Tuteur, MD

Conditions and Diseases

October 8, 2009

Everything old is new again and that is certainly true in the world of “alternative” health. One of the axiomatic premises of contemporary “alternative” health puts its believers behind the times … by approximately 500 years.

A fundamental premise held by believers in “alternative” health is that we are swimming in a world of “toxins” and those “toxins” are causing disease. Like most premises in “alternative” health it has no basis …

AMA: Permanent repeal of the Medicare physician payment formula must be part of health reform

Kevin

Health Policy

October 8, 2009

The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American Medical Association.

by J. James Rohack, M.D.

All eyes are on the Senate Finance Committee this week as they prepare to vote to move health reform legislation forward. The AMA is committed to health reform, and as the process moves to the Senate floor, it’s crucial that the Senate include permanent repeal of the current Medicare …

CBO cost analysis of the Baucus health reform plan

Kevin

Health Policy

October 7, 2009

Originally posted in MedPage Today

by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent

In its much-anticipated cost estimate, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the Senate Finance Committee’s healthcare reform bill would cost $829 billion over 10 years and begin to drive down the federal deficit after that first decade.

The price tag is lower than Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) previous …

When political discourse is like borderline personality disorder

Marya Zilberberg, MD, MPH

Health Policy

October 7, 2009

When I was a kid in Odessa my Dad and I went to see The Sound of Music at least 17 times in the span of 3 months. Remember that song sung by the nuns when Maria is late for the vespers, “How do you solve the problem like Maria?” One nun says “She’s an angel”, another one counters “She’s a demon”, when the voice of reason from Mother Superior …

Is a cocaine abuse vaccine coming soon?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 7, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent

A vaccine against cocaine was effective in nearly 40% of users of the drug, researchers said.

In a randomized, placebo-controlled study, volunteers who reached a high level of antibodies after vaccination used less cocaine than those whose response was lower, according to Thomas Kosten, MD, of Baylor College …

Read more…

Is a cocaine abuse vaccine coming soon?

Is incident reporting effective in reducing medical errors and increasing patient safety?

Robert Wachter, MD

Health Policy

October 6, 2009

When the patient safety field began a decade ago with the publication of the IOM report on medical errors, one of its first thrusts was to import lessons from “safer” industries, particularly aviation. Most of these lessons – a focus on bad systems more than bad people, the importance of teamwork, the use of checklists, the value of simulation training – have served us well.

But one lesson from …

Does Chantix increase suicide risk?

Kevin

Medications

October 6, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer

Contrary to information that led the FDA and other regulatory agencies to release warnings about varenicline (Chantix), a new study has found “no clear evidence” of a relationship between the risk of suicide and the smoking-cessation drug.

Both varenicline and bupropion (Zyban), another drug used in smoking cessation programs, were …

Read more…

Does Chantix increase suicide risk?

Flu and H1N1 influenza vaccine recommendations for doctors and health care workers

American College of Physicians

Conditions and Diseases

October 5, 2009

The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American College of Physicians.

by Steven Weinberger, MD, FACP

In the Fall of 2009, we physicians should perhaps change the Biblical phrase, “Physician, heal thyself” to “Physician, immunize thyself” and then follow the phrase twice – once for seasonal influenza and once for H1N1. To date, physicians and other health care workers have too often been lax …

Did the 1918 flu pandemic increase the risk of heart disease?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 5, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent

Men who were in utero during the peak of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic were at increased risk of heart disease when they reached their 60s, 70s, and 80s, researchers said.

In those men, the rate of heart disease was more than 23% higher than among those whose mothers …

Analysis of the Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill

Kevin

Health Policy

October 3, 2009

Originally posted in MedPage Today

by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent

The Senate Finance Committee finished work on its healthcare reform bill in the wee hours of Friday morning, paving the way for a committee vote next week.

After considering hundreds of amendments, the committee is now waiting for a cost-estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) before it …

Health care reform analysis from a former insurance and hospital executive

Kevin

Health Policy

October 3, 2009

by Marie Cooper

I have been in senior executive management in both managed care and a major hospital system. I find the hysteria over “reform” bitterly amusing because it is so misdirected.

The real problem with health care in America? Greed, indifference and incompetence, pure and simple. But not in the places everyone is pointing.

Insurer side

Insurance companies have to maximize their revenue because they answer to their boards. They …

What the United States health care system can learn from Mexico

Kevin

Health Policy

October 2, 2009

by Esther Buddenhagen, MSW

I write as a lay person concerned about the gap between what many people should receive and what they actually receive. The question of good medical care for ordinary people is being buried not only by insurance issues but by failure to come to terms with what primary care should be about.

Even Atul Gawande, who is particularly good at making distinctions between good and …

Not all doctors discuss the risks and benefits of prostate cancer screening to patients

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

October 2, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer

Men might not be getting the information they need to make an educated decision about prostate cancer screening, two new studies suggest.

Among 375 men surveyed by telephone, only 69.9% had discussed a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test with their physician before making a decision about screening, according to the …

Informed consent is central to the doctor-patient relationship

Dr. Martin Young

Conditions and Diseases

October 1, 2009

The doctor-patient relationship must remain the central focus of good health care. Diminish or hinder that relationship, and no technological advance, funding system, or government intervention in the world will be able to compensate. Many complaints about present health care systems can be seen as evidence of relationship dysfunction, not in the least due to the interference of third parties, administrators, payers and insurers, who wield the financial clout. Transparency …

Medical ghost-writing influences doctors to prescribe more drugs

Daniel J. Carlat, MD

Medications

October 1, 2009

Recently, a former staff medical writer at a MECC (Medical Education Communication Company) anonymously alerted me to a particularly sleazy advertising tactic used by a medical writing company. This person had worked as a pharma-supported medical writer for several years, but recently quit because, “I really couldn’t stomach the ethical problems associated with writing for the pharma industry.” Recently, looking for medical writing jobs, this writer came across a company …

A formula to help Congress with health care costs

Kevin

Health Policy

September 30, 2009

by Gary R. Gibson, MD, FACP

In his 2007 book Critical, Tom Daschle said lawmakers were “flummoxed” when attempting to craft specific reform legislation. They seem flummoxed again as they fail to recognize the primacy of the patient-physician covenant and try to analyze a complex problem without a suitable conceptual model.

The formula below represents a valid conceptual model describing health care costs.

“E” is expressed in monetary units …

What doctors can learn from patients in the health care reform debate

Wendy S. Harpham, MD

Health Policy

September 30, 2009

Two things are missing from the bustling conversations on health care reform jamming the Internet highway. First, where among the finger-pointing anecdotes and critical analyses of our “broken” American medical system are the stories and discussions of all that is right? Second, where is our sense of hope?

I’ve experienced American health care from an unusual, yet useful, vantage: that of a physician with chronically recurring cancer. From both sides of …

Are hospice doctors relying too much on symptom scores to assess pain?

Eric Widera, MD

Conditions and Diseases

September 29, 2009

A recent issue in The Lancet included an article entitled “The Death of Ivan Ilyich and pain relief at the end of life.” This is a thought provoking article focused on the question of whether there is overuse of pharmaceuticals to treat various forms of suffering in hospice and palliative medicine.

The authors argue that a good death, as seen through their interpretation of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, may include …

Migraines and the stigma of chronic pain medication use

Kevin

Medications

September 28, 2009

by Diana Lee

A recent episode of the A&E show Intervention about a woman with occasional migraines and other serious health problems who takes up to 50 Percocet pills a day made me uncomfortable. Maybe Danielle, the woman featured in the episode, really does have migraine attacks. But she is also an addict. One condition really has nothing to do with the other. Many people with acute or chronic pain use …

Will there really be an impending shortage of cardiologists?

Larry Husten, PhD

Health Policy

September 28, 2009

There can be little doubt that the lethal combination of aging baby boomers, the obesity epidemic, and the growing success of medical and interventional therapies for CV disease (resulting in more and more survivors of major events) is going to produce a flood of cardiovascular disease in the coming decades, and cardiologists in great numbers will be needed to care for these people.

However, that doesn’t mean that the message conveyed …

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts