October 11th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in Opinion
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Doctors love their Apple Products. Just walk into any hospital ward, and see the types of mobile devices we are using. At weekly Grand Rounds conferences, you see plenty of iPads in use. At physician meetings, the laptop of choice is often the Macbook Pro. The data backs these anecdotal examples as well.
Doctors love their Apple Products – and Steve Jobs was obviously an extension of these products, often times cited as the singular force behind these products, and it’s why physicians who love his products mourn his passing.
There are three specific reasons why :
1) Simplicity
In medicine, we deal with enough complexity. Knowing disease pathology and the mechanism of various illnesses and their treatments is a fascinating exercise, but it’s taxing. For every known in medicine, there are at least five unknowns. It’s what makes being a physician exciting, but stressful as well. We’re always on high alert – especially those of us who practice in the critical care arena.
Juxtaposed to this is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
October 10th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in News
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Crucial drugs are running in short supply and patients are dying as a result.
Much of the problem stem from manufacturing problems that interrupt production. There may be only one or two companies making a drug, and when something happens such as contamination, it creates huge gaps. As a result, there’s been 213 drug shortages so far this year, or two more than all of the previous year.
The shortages have forced hospitals to resort to gray market purchases. These involved third parties that may corner the market on some drugs, and resell them at exorbitant mark-ups. The practice then fuels further shortages.
And this “new” crisis has been occurring for a decade. ACP Internist ran an article 10 years ago that could run in its pages today. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
October 6th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in News, Opinion
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Some breast cancer voices raise questions about simply raising “awareness” about breast cancer in October.
Some of them believe that raising awareness about screening, for example, should not be the only message or even the main message of the month.
Katherine O’Brien, who has metastatic breast cancer (MBC), and who publishes the ihatebreastcancer blog refers to being caught in “October’s pink undertow.”
Plunked down in the middle of breast cancer awareness month is National Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day on October 13.
O’Brien says that people like her with MBC have different concerns from those with early stage cancer. She wrote to me: “The day is not about general cancer awareness; it’s about acknowledging the distinct needs of people who have the advanced, incurable form of breast cancer.
She quotes Ellen Moskowitz, past president of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN): Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
October 5th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in News
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If you have watched any news over the past week you know there is a listeria outbreak from contaminated cantaloupes that has been traced to Jensen Farms in Colorado. The CDC has confirmed 72 illnesses, including 13 deaths linked to the melons and three other deaths may be involved. By now most of the cantaloupes should be gone as they usually last only a couple of weeks. The recalled cantaloupes were shipped between July 29 and Sept 10.
Listeriosis is a serious infection caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. It causes fever, muscle aching and sometimes diarrhea. It feels like a bad flu with headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and in severe cases, convulsions. As with many infections; babies, pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems and older adults are more likely to have severe illness. There are about Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
October 3rd, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in News
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Three young mothers under the age of 40 are dead because they wanted to be beautiful. Kellee Lee-Howard wanted a slimmer body. Ditto Maria Shortall and Rohie Kah-Orukatan. Shortall worked as a housekeeper; Lee-Howard was the mother of six kids and Kah-Orukotan died at the same place where she received manicures. What do these women have in common besides being minorities? They had liposuction procedures performed by men who offered a discounted price for an elective surgical procedure. These men professed to be competent in performing the procedures but never had accredited training.
I knew this day was coming. I saw the storm long before the clouds emerged. As the insurance payments for professional medical services decreased and declined, physicians began to look for alternative ways to earn money. But was it ethical? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
