June 28th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Doctor-Patient Communication, Dr. Matt Handley, General Medicine, Group Health, Home-Based Healthcare, Patient-Centered Medical Home, PCMH
No Comments »
Probably not yet. I think everyone would agree that Group Health of Seattle probably has a pretty good “take” on issues dealing with primary care redesign and the patient-centered medical home (PCMH). That’s why I surprised by a recent comment on a Group Health blog from by Matt Handley, M.D., in response to an earlier post here about patient question-asking. Dr. Handley is an Associate Medical Director for Quality and Informatics at Group Health.
Dr. Handley writes:
“While doctors often take pride in how open they are to patient questions, our self assessment doesn’t match up very well with empirical evidence. A recent post on Mind the Gap summarizes a small study that is relatively terrifying to me –- the take home is that doctors spend very little time explaining their recommendations, and that patients rarely ask questions.”
I picked up the phone and talked with Dr. Handley about his comments and work being done on PCMH at Group Health. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
June 27th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Medical Art, News, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Illegal Organ Trafficking, Lack of Organ Donors, Organ Harvesting, Organ Transplantation, Patients Waiting For a Transplant
No Comments »
I don’t plan to sell my organs on eBay, but as organ transplantation, lack of donors, and illegal organ trafficking gets more and more serious, this infographic comes just in time. It provides some interesting answers to questions like, “How much does a liver cost in South Korea?” and “How many patients are waiting for transplants?” Click on the image for the original larger version:
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
June 27th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Adaptive Optics, Cellphone, Eye Exam, Eye Health, Eye Testing Aberrometers, Focal Range, iPhone, Manuel Oliveira, MIT, Optical System, Optometry, Ramesh Raskar, Refractive Errors, SIGGRAPH, Vision, Vitor Pamplona
2 Comments »
Researchers at MIT have developed a method of using a basic cellphone coupled with a cheap and simple plastic device clipped onto the screen to estimate refractive errors and focal range of eyes.
Because of its simplicity, and the fact that soon just about everyone will have access to a mobile phone, eye exams may become available to the whole world at little to no cost. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
June 27th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Association Vs. Causation, Cancer Risk, Cause-And-Effect, CNN, Coffee, Evidence, Gary Schwitzer, Health News Consumers, HealthNewsReview.org, Inappropriate Use of Terminology, Language, Media Coverage, Media Inaccuracy, Misinterpretation, Misinterpreted Observational Studies, Online User Comments, Science And The Media, WebMD
No Comments »
People aren’t dumb. Even if — or maybe especially if — news stories don’t point out the limitations of observational studies and the fact that they can’t establish cause-and-effect, many readers seem to get it.
Here are some of the online user comments in response to a CNN.com story that is headlined, “Coffee may cut risk for some cancers“:
* “I love how an article starts with something positive and then slowly becomes a little gloomy. So is it good or not? I’m still where I was with coffee, it’s all in moderation, it ain’t gonna solve your health woes.”
* “The statistics book in a class I’m taking uses coffee as an example of statistics run amuck. It seems coffee has caused all the cancers and cures them at the same time.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
June 27th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Blood-Thinning, Cancer Treatment, Cardiology, Dangerous Dose, Early Detection of Cancer, Effective Dose, Internet Forums, Narrow Therapeutic Window, Oncology, Online Health Conversations, Patients in the Internet, Pharmacology, Social Networking, Warfarin
No Comments »
In cancer treatment, detection of a tumor in an early stage markedly increases the chance of favorable outcomes.
Can the much-aligned blood thinner, warfarin, occasionally help in early detection of cancer?
Few pharmacologic agents receive more bad press than warfarin. Stories, which are too numerous to count, like “Did warfarin kill my father,” can be widely found on Internet forums, search engines, and are often quoted by reluctant patients — whose numerator of bad warfarin experiences is one.
It is true that warfarin has a narrow therapeutic window — a small difference between an effective dose and dangerous dose. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
