Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary

Latest Posts

Cash Strapped Universities Look For Retired Professors To Teach On Voluntary Basis

As state university systems are making budget cuts and furloughing professors while have to expand course sections to meet burgeoning enrollment, one solution may be to tap the expertise of retired professors in the area.

The Research Triangle area of North Carolina, home to over a dozen colleges and universities, is also home to at least 600 retired professors.

This morning, Eric Ferreri of the Raleigh News & Observer, one of the best higher-ed reporters in the biz, reports on the offers from very accomplished profs who want to give back to their community and the relative lack of response from the big universities:
Read more »

The Problem Of Medical Homelessness

Please allow me to coin a new term:

Medical HomelessnessNot having access to a consistent familiar medical setting.  Not having a care location where one is known or where the medical information is accurate.

Down_and_out_on_New_York_pier

credit

I think medical homelessness is one of the main problems in our system.
Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*

Contest: Guess Who’ll Win The Nobel Prize In The Sciences?

Next Monday, the Nobel Foundation will announce the winner(s) of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the following two days, two more Nobels will be revealed: in Physics and in Chemistry. Because of the success of last year’s inaugural Guess-A-Nobel Contest, we decided we’ll repeat this event annually until there is no more science worthy of the prize. This year we’re giving out three 8GB Apple iPod Touch devices to those who correctly guess in each of the three science categories. Because we profile a good deal of apps for the iPhone/Touch platform, we thought this might be a useful tool beside all the fun it can provide on the off time. Furthermore, if someone does manage to guess all three correctly, he or she will be getting the souped-up 64 GB version of the iPod device with all the trimmings.


Here are the rules of the game: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Why Health Insurance Companies Hate High Deductible Plans

Joe Biden unveiled a White House study on the rise of health insurance premiums.  He pressed for consumer protections the President wants to see in any reform legislation.  Among these are a pledge to pass a law that “ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays.”  Presumably this is meant to address worries many feel over the growth of high-deductible health plans.

The St. Petersburg Times looked into it to find out what this pledge means, in practical terms.  David Axelrod at the White House pointed them to the proposed House legislation, which would create limits on out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles and co-pays of $5,000 a year for an individual, and $10,000 a year for a family.
Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*

Interview With Paul Levy: How To Protect Yourself In The Hospital

My friend and fellow blogger, Paul Levy, is the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. He was recently listed as one of the “top 9 people to watch in healthcare” – thanks to his pioneering efforts on behalf of patient safety and transparency of hospital quality data.

I recently interviewed Paul to get his take on how patients can plan for a safe hospital stay, and what Paul is doing at BIDMC to advance quality care for all. Many thanks to Johnson & Johnson for the unrestricted grant that allowed me to create the videos.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV1oRLNtLhc

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY1GJPQ_0uI

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRWS4p9t-9Q

Check out Johnson & Johnson’s YouTube Health Channel for more great videos.

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles