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X-Ray Of The iPad

An orthopedic doctor in Japan wanted to see what made the iPad tick, so he threw it under an X-ray machine and posted the images to his blog.

We guess the good doctor (whose name is Dr. Ambition, according to his blog) wasn’t happy with all of the teardown photos and videos of the iPad. Or maybe he just wanted to see what happens when you pump it full of radiation.

Appropriately enough, the iPad’s X-ray was processed with OsiriX DICOM medical imaging software for Mac.

The good news for the iPad is that nothing was broken and, as long as the stool samples come back negative, it seems it can look forward to a long life.

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

Ski Season, Knee Injuries, And Posterior Cruciate Ligament Tears

We’re in ski season and so a few unfortunate individuals will suffer few knee injuries. A while back, a reader asked me to describe an uncommon injury, which is a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

This injury usually occurs during a fall. As you can see from the drawing, the PCL keeps the lower leg bone (tibia) from moving too far back in relation to the upper leg bone (femur). If a sudden unnatural force is applied, usually a direct blow to the front of the lower leg near the knee while the knee is bent, the tibia is jammed backwards and the PCL may be torn. In the skiing situation, this usually happens during a fall and a tumble, when someone strikes an immovable object, or when the knee is bent or “twisted” and struck forcefully from the side.

The immediate sensation is pain, and there may be a feeling of instability to the knee, particularly when trying to walk or change levels (e.g., walk over the snowpack or on stairs). When the injury occurs, there usually is not the “pop” sensation noted with an anterior cruciate ligament tear. However, the knee will almost always swell, because there is bleeding into the knee joint and/or soft tissue swelling. Read more »

This post, Ski Season, Knee Injuries, And Posterior Cruciate Ligament Tears, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

Writing Skills And When Having A Physician Friend Can Save Your Life

I’ve always wanted to be a doctor.

Never a writer.

With a new year and a new decade, I am determined to become a better writer not because of some childhood dream or expectation from others, but because of a near mishap that occurred at the beginning of 2000. A simple phone call changed the destiny of my brother from having a good outcome to having a great outcome. A simple phone call may have been the difference between “you are cancer free” to “I’m sorry to tell you it’s come back.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*

A Fracture Risk Calculator (FRAX) May Reduce Need For Osteoporosis Prescriptions

This post is in response to Jane Brody’s recent NY Times article on the FRAX fracture risk calculator. FRAX is a clinical decision tool devised by the World Health Organization that allows physicians to account for the myriad of risk factors, including bone density, to determine a patient’s risk for osteoporotic fracture.

Now about 20 years into the practice of medicine, I have evolved from what they call an “early adopter” of new drugs, through a time of cautious use of new drugs, to what I am now – highly skeptical of most new medications and suspicious of Big Pharma, medical thought leaders and anyone else trying to “educate” me about a disease. I am also disappointed in my medical societies for failing to cut the ties between themselves and industry, but hopeful that we are slowly but finally starting to emerge from of an era of industry-dominated health care and into a time of patient-centered medicine. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The Blog that Ate Manhattan*

Even Physicians Are Shocked By Healthcare Costs

I took my son to the ER for a broken thumb. It was a minor injury but the thumb is the most important digit on the hand. The ER care was just fine…a quick look, an Xray and a small splint. We didn’t have to wait long and everyone was courteous.

Imagine my surprise to receive the bill from the hospital. Yes, I have insurance. My out of pocket expense was minimal but here is what the insurance company was charged:

  • Hospital Misc.- $56.00 (could this be the splint?)
  • Diagnostic Xray – $342.00
  • Emergency Care- $952.00
  • Surgery – $570.00
  • Total $1920.00

Take a look…surgery? There was so surgery, no procedure. There was no break in the skin. The doctor component of the visit was about 7 minutes (mainly because I knew the doc and we chatted about politics)

This bill is unreal and is comprised of unreal health care costs. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

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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