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Latest Posts

What Solicitations To Medbloggers Actually Mean

I entered the wonderful world of blogging in 2006, full of enthusiasm and wide-eyed innocence. I still have the enthusiasm, but the naivety is fading fast.

Over the years I’ve seen so many scams and dishonest “partnership” propositions that I’m beginning to wonder if the Internet is an exceptionally seedy place. The medbloggers I know are genuine, caring people – and that’s probably why they are regularly targeted by unscrupulous people trying to make a buck off blogger credibility.

Take for example an online salesman who contacted me recently. He began the conversation with, “Better Health has such great content. My online network has 5 million unique viewers per month and we’re looking for more high-quality content, so would you like to talk about a content partnership opportunity?”

Silly me, assuming that he meant he’d like to syndicate our content and understood the value of good writing. Here’s how the conversation actually went: Read more »

GE’s Pocket Ultrasound Machine

As we wrote yesterday, GE released a handheld ultrasound system unlike any other. Yesterday, at a GE press conference in New York, we saw the device first hand and we brought a video back of a company rep demonstrating its use. At 3 inches wide, 5.3 inches long, and about an inch high, the device already has FDA and European approval. GE plans to first conduct a real world study of how the Vscan will be used by clinicians before releasing it to the general market. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Healthcare Reform – A Guide For the Perplexed

As the great campaign to reform the American healthcare system heats up and enters an important new phase – the phase in which key legislative leaders take the five bills that have been passed, here and there, by sundry Congressional committees, and, behind closed doors, attempt to cobble together a compromise bill which they believe they can threaten and/or bribe a majority of Congresspersons into supporting – many Americans find themselves confused about what it all means. What, after all, are we attempting to accomplish here? How much will it cost, and who will pay for it?  Why does the whole process seem so darned difficult and confusing?

Fear not. As a public service, DrRich will now explain healthcare reform in a very simple way, so that – whether you study the issue closely on a day-to-day basis, or just accidentally come across some relevant headlines now and again as you look for the sports page – you will always know what’s going on. For, once you understand a few key concepts, this thing is really pretty easy to follow. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The Covert Rationing Blog*

Should Halloween Contact Lenses Be Prescription-Only?

That depends on if you can afford to get them.  Costume lenses are all the rage for Halloween by adding an exciting dimension to the costume wearer.   But did you know it’s illegal to market them as over the counter?

Many consumers do not realize that they are FDA- regulated medical devices, and that recent legislation has made it illegal to market them as over-the-counter products. Still, they are commonly available in costume shops, beauty shops, convenience stores, novelty shops, and other places that people shop for Halloween items, as well as over the Internet.

Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*

Is Rape A Pre-existing Condition?

Charming, if true. I’m so glad we have Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln working tirelessly on the Hill to protect and preserve the insurance companies and their profits.

Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month’s worth of anti-AIDS medicine.

Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable.

Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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