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Website Offers Tips For Dealing With Stinging Insect Allergies

There is a site on the Internet named “Bee Aware” that provides information for patients and physicians about stinging insect allergies and venom immunotherapy. The quality of the information is good, so this website makes an excellent reference for the average person and can be reliably used by doctors and other health care providers to assist in educating their patients.

For instance:

“It is impossible, not to mention undesirable, to avoid going outdoors, but there are certain precautions that can be taken that will allow you to enjoy the outdoors while minimizing your chances of being stung.

It is important to remember that stinging insects do not seek out humans. The sting of these insects is only used against people for self-defense or in defense of their nest. This is why it is important to never approach or provoke an insect of this kind unnecessarily.

  • If a stinging insect approaches, remain calm and stay still.
  • Never Read more »

This post, Website Offers Tips For Dealing With Stinging Insect Allergies, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

The FDA Provides The Dos And Don’ts Of Medical Waste Disposal

All medical offices must dispose of medical waste in a safe manner.  I closed my office at the end of September, but my last medical waste pickup is the first Friday of December.  My dear husband is going to open the office and wait for them.

How have you told patients over the years to deal with their medical waste?  Needles?  Syringes?  JP drains they pull out or that fall out before they get back for follow up?

Last week the FDA sent out a press release announcing the launch a new website for patients and caregivers on the safe disposal of needles and other so-called “sharps” that are used at home, at work and while traveling. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

How To Reach Your Fitness Goals Wirelessly

I recently come across BodyTrace, a nice way to combine a bathroom scale that wirelessly uploads and displays your weight and BMI and a website where you can track all the changes with visualized solutions. An excerpt from the description:

We are using the GSM network to transmit your weight to our website. We use these measurements to create weight and BMI charts and by combining this information with additional data that we collect (from food tracker, for example) we can better evaluate your progress and give you feedback on how to reach your goals.

They also have a collaboration with DailyBurn. You can read the whole story from the first idea on the blog.

See more examples of how Web 2.0 or social media can be used in fitness here.

*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

A Better, Better Health

betterhealth_logoPlease excuse the potential lapses in service (and comments interruption) through September 27. This site is being completely redesigned and improved for our readers.

The new design will feature:

1) Easier site navigation by topic

2) New video and multimedia content (some from Dr. Val at ABC News)

3) Newsletters

4) Content channels – available for sponsorship

5) Better Health calendar of events

6) Polls and Surveys

7) More bloggers, more great content

8.) Customized feeds by author or topic

9) A bold/clean new look

I can’t wait for the big “reveal”… please stay tuned for a better Better Health.

Berci’s New Favourite Blog: NCBI ROFL

Here is my newest favourite medical  blog, NCBI ROFL where you will find the funniest peer-reviewed articles published day-by-day. Just e-mail them the PubMed link and your discovery could appear there. A few examples:

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*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*

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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