July 7th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Bad Doctor Ratings, Cosmetic Surgery, Customer Service In Healthcare, Damages, Defamation, Disgruntled Patients, DoctorScoreCard.com, Dr. Kimberly Henry, Free Speech, Interference With Prospective Economic Advantage, Internet and Medical Practice, Invasion Of Privacy, Legal Battle, Legal Issues, Libel, Medical Lawsuits, Online Physicians Ratings, Online Reviewers, Patient Complaints, Patient Satisfaction, Patients On The Internet, Patients Sued By The Doctor, Plastic Surgery, SLAPP, Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, Unhappy Doctors, Unhappy Patients, Yelp.com
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I must say I think Dr. Kimberly Henry, cosmetic surgeon, has made a big professional mistake. She has filed a lawsuit to stop online reviewers from badmouthing her on the Internet. She is seeking injunctions against at least 12 reviewers from sites such as Yelp.com and DoctorScorecard.com. Dr. Henry claims libel and defamation, invasion of privacy and interference with prospective economic advantage and is seeking $1million in general damages and $1million in special damages, etc.
Now I don’t know Dr. Henry nor do I know of her plastic surgery technique. I don’t know who the disgruntled patients are or if they are unfairly targeting her. What I do know is that the Internet is here to stay and there’s no place to hide if you don’t provide excellent customer service. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
July 7th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News
Tags: 2009 Median Compensation Increase, Doc Fix, Doctor Payments, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Legislation, Healthcare Politics, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, Medicare SGR Cut, Physician Income, Physician Salaries, Primary Care Compensation, Primary Care Doctors Paid More
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The Senate has further tweaked its doc fix legislation to restore the extension to six months (from June 1 through Nov. 30) and the pay raise to 2.2 percent, reports a Senate Finance Committee Republican advisor. In Northern Michigan, the doc fix can’t come soon enough, as yet more physicians contemplate not accepting any more Medicare patients. The legislation continues to see revisions in the Senate, following the U.S. House refusal to consider the doc fix as a stand-alone bill. (TwitDoc, WWTV/WWUP-TV News)
But primary care physicians saw a 2.8 percent median compensation increase in 2009, according to a Medical Group Management Association survey. MGMA attributed the rise to employers’ and payers’ increased commitment to primary care, but noted threats to Medicare payments still exist. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
July 7th, 2010 by AlanDappenMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays, True Stories
Tags: At-Home Care, Bedbound, DocTalker Family Medicine, Dr. Alan Dappen, Elder care, Family Caregivers, General Medicine, Geriatrics, Homebound, Housecall, In-Home, Internal Medicine, Knee Replacement, Lesion, Nodule, Older People, Opting Out Of Medicare, Osteoarthritis, Primary Care, Referral, Word-Of-Mouth
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One of my patients is an elderly woman who is completely bedbound due to osteoarthritis. Since she’s considered “too old,” she isn’t considered a surgical candidate for a knee replacement. Her son, George, is her caregiver.
George had been referred to our practice through word-of-mouth from a geriatric care consultant. When he called me for an initial visit, his mother had a spot on her left forearm that was growing rapidly. The nodule was red and tender. Both of them wanted a doctor to look at and remove it, and at the house if possible. Read more »
July 6th, 2010 by Steven Roy Daviss, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, True Stories
Tags: American Psychological Association, APA, Cab Driver, Dr. Steven Daviss, Life-Changing Experience, My Three Shrinks, Psychiatry, Psychology, Self-Awareness, Self-Care, Self-Help, Single-Session Psychotherapy
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Here’s a story that came out of the American Psychological Association (APA) conference:
I was in a cab going to dinner. The cab driver found out I was a psychiatrist so he told me about his life-changing experience with therapy.
At one time he was having an incredible problem with his life. He was using cocaine, couldn’t keep a job, and his relationships were going down the tubes. Therapy helped him quit cocaine and change all that. (Which was good, since he was the driver of my cab. I really wanted him not to be high or in distress.) This kind of turn-around story isn’t unusual for me — parolees will often come back and tell me about things they’ve done in free society that they’re proud of. The unusual part of this story is the fact that he made all of these changes after a single one-hour session. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
July 6th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Anthropology Studies, Armed Forces, Dictatorship Governments, Forensic Medicine, Geographic Variability, Hair Proteins, Hydrogen And Oxygen Isotope, IsoForensics, Isotope Ratio, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Security And Intelligence Services, Travel Habits, Travel History, University of Utah, War Crime Investigations, Water
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Researchers at the University of Utah and IsoForensics, Inc. in Salt Lake City have demonstrated that water can potentially be used as a tracer to determine the travel habits of individuals.
Because of the natural geographic variability in the hydrogen and oxygen isotope content of water, proteins within hair should contain evidence of these ratios and therefore act as signatures as to where someone has traveled. The current study has shown that the geographic source of tap water, bottled water, beer, and soda can be distinguished simply by measuring the isotope ratio of the water within these drinks.
In our opinion if the technology pans out for real-world use, IsoForensics has a bright future with dictatorship governments, security and intelligence services, armed forces, and maybe even some legitimate forensic causes such as war-crime investigations or even anthropology studies.
Abstract in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry: Links between Purchase Location and Stable Isotope Ratios of Bottled Water, Soda, and Beer in the United States
Image credit: David Hannah
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
