The following op-ed was published on February 25th, 2009 in The New York Times’ Room for Debate blog.
With the number of the uninsured having risen to 48 million Americans, clearly the need for reform is dire. But President Obama made no mention of who exactly will take care of these patients, even if they get insurance under a successful health reform initiative.
As a primary care physician in southern New …
Op-ed: More coverage requires more doctors
Cosmo Magazine, that bastion of reliable medical advice, declares, “An orgasm almost killed her.”
Intrigued, gynecologist Amy Tuteur reads further, and finds its about case where a woman developed stroke-like symptoms after intercourse, and was diagnosed with an embolic stroke.
The patient was taking the birth control pill, which can raise the risk of blood clots. In this case, it was also combined with the presence of …
Ways you can die from having sex
There’s no shortage of informed opinions on the Tom Daschle debacle, and how this will affect the chances of successful health care reform.
I don’t pretend to be a political pundit, so instead, here is a collection of selected insights from news sites and health policy blogs that I regularly read.
First off, the NY Times says it will likely halt the momentum for health reform, and …
Tom Daschle withdraws, and how that will impact health care reform
That’s a question I was asked more than once, in light of this week’s story about the birth of octuplets.
For the answer, I’ll refer to this article in Slate. The largest reported number of fetuses in a single womb is 15.
The limit is not so much the number of fetuses, but the combined size and weight. As Christopher Beam explains, “once the total …
How many babies can one woman carry?
Mariana Bridi da Costa, a 20-year old Brazilian model, tragically died early Saturday morning from Pseudomonas aeruginosa urosepsis.
How can this happen?
Miss Bridi da Costa initially presented on December 30th, and was diagnosed with kidney stones. An ultrasound, plain film, or CT scan likely would have been done to confirm the diagnosis. I assume that a urinalysis was also performed, and if …
The following op-ed was published on January 14th, 2009 in the USA Today.
Every patient’s worst nightmare is going to the hospital for a procedure only to have a surgical instrument left in his body, the wrong limb or organ operated on or, worse, dying from a medical mistake. These types of mistakes should never happen.
So when Medicare recently instituted a plan to deny hospital payments for …
Jett Travolta tragically passed away yesterday, after being found unconscious in his hotel room by his caretaker. There is speculation that he had a seizure and hit his head on a bathtub.
Travolta apparently had a long history of medical problems, including Kawasaki disease, which is a vasculitis that primarily affects children. It is one of the most common causes of acquired heart disease in children, and …
Jett Travolta’s seizure and death, was Scientology a factor?
This is an important article to read.
Many of the incentives today encourage doctors to order more advanced imaging scans, like CTs and MRIs. This expensive practice is invariably caused by this common scenario, as “patients who are in pain often demand scans hoping to find out what is wrong, doctors are tempted to offer scans to those patients, and then, once a scan is done, it …
Why too many CT and MRI scans can hurt patients
While I was driving my rental car a few days ago in another city, a man passed me on his chopper. He was covered in tattoos and his long hair was blowing wildly in the wind. He looked the very image of freedom, of unrestricted energy. Snug in my safe (boring) Chevy Cavalier, on the way to a meeting, with Mozart on the radio, I didn’t give him another thought. …
What emergency medicine teaches about our shared humanity
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady recently underwent repair of his anterior cruciate ligament at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. His doctor was Neal S. ElAttrache, who’s a renowned orthopedic surgeon and former team physician of an NFL team.
Unfortunately, his post-op course has been complicated by an infection. On his website, TomBrady.com, he acknowledged this and said that the original procedure was …
Tom Brady’s 2008 knee infection after ACL surgery
Most physicians and patients think that the MRI scan is one of the more sensitive and comprehensive diagnostic tests.
However, there is significant variability in reading and performing the scans, which makes having it done at a reputable institution more imperative:
Magnetic resonance machines, though, vary enormously, and not just in the strength of their magnets. Even more important, radiologists say, is the quality of the imaging …
Are MRI results accurate? Not all scans are equal.
A guest post by Val Jones, MD.
On the eve of our second presidential debate, I had the chance to interview Dr. Ken Thorpe, Executive Director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), about America’s healthcare crisis. Here’s what he had to say:
1. I was part of a press conference call with you and former Secretary of HHS, Tommy Thompson …
The cost of chronic disease is the real health care crisis
A reader writes:
I agree with you completely on the importance of having a physician functioning as the coordinator of care for a patient (I have always assumed that a primary care physician would do that) my experience has been that they resist that role. I have become my own and my wife’s primary care person because of that.
There are hospitals that discourage …
Hospitalists and the loss of continuity of care
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Comedian Bernie Mac dies at age 50 from pneumonia. Sad news.
He had been recently hospitalized, and as recently as two days ago, it was reported he was stable and responding well to treatment. What happened?
There is very little medical information to go on. It was known that he had …
Why pneumonia can still kill: Bernie Mac’s 2008 death
I have read many articles about professionals who left their career fields after many years and decided to teach. Many of them go into the public school system to share their knowledge and experience with the next generation. In fact, it sounds like a grand idea. Qualified teachers are a commodity of inestimable value.
But I have been stricken by a comment made by many of those who changed careers. Almost …
Why your work already counts as giving back to society
There’s an old joke about a guy waiting in line at the Pearly Gates, slowly working his way forward to sign in with St. Peter. Wearing a white coat, carrying a black bag and with a stethoscope slung around his neck, a man walks past those in line and is waved right into Heaven. “Hey, what’s up with that?” asks the guy in line. “How come that person gets to …
Doctors are not gods: a surgeon on empathy with patients
WSJ Health Blog: “Russert’s doctor Michael Newman said the tough-questioning but congenial host of NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ had been under treatment for asymptomatic coronary disease, but that it was under control with medication. He was carrying excess weight, Newman observed, but he got regular exercise and he performed well on an exercise stress test in April.”
GruntDoc: “I therefore propose a new sign in …
Tim Russert and the limits of a normal stress test
Maria writes: “I’d like your take on what you think constitutes a ‘good’ medblog . . . I am continually surprised with what people like about medblogs. Some people like brief links, some people like critical discussions, some people like stories.
This ultimately all boils down to opinion, but I’d like to know what traits you like in medblogs.
Can you start by opining that you strongly dislike …
What makes a good medical blog? 5 traits that matter
The following is a reader take by Dr. Rob.
I don’t remember why he came to see me on that day. He was anxious on most of his office visits, so I had to spend most of my time dealing with his surplus of symptoms. As I walked in to see him on this day, he started rapidly hitting two fingers of against the top …
Humor in medicine: why laughter helps patients open up
What does that mean to you? More patients than you think are confused by drug labels:
Did that mean a total of two, or a total of four? A third of patients who were deemed literate got confused. A more clear instruction would be: “Take two tablets in the morning and two tablets at night.”
The fix is not complicated. When I write a prescription, I spell out how …
What “take 2 tablets twice daily” really means on a label
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