June 2nd, 2010 by AlanDappenMD in Better Health Network, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays, True Stories
Tags: Christian Science, DocTalker Family Medicine, Dr. Alan Dappen, Failing Health, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Medicine and Religion, My Brother's Keeper, Primary Care, Primary Care Wednesdays, Progressive Pneumonia, Refusing Medical Care, Severe Shortness of Breath, The Science of Medicine
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Today my brother Arthur helped someone stay alive a little bit longer. He wouldn’t be happy with how I used his story, but he’s dead enough to not hear it.
Art had an enormous IQ which helped him dance through school, standardized testing, and academic awards like a hot knife through butter. But life requires many skill sets, genius being just one. My brother’s biography in many ways mirrors that of the Unabomber’s — move for move — until one decisive moment when Jesus walked into Art’s life.
Forever and irrevocably from that moment forward, Art became God’s logic pugilist. Heretofore, all of his training in science and math was used to prove that the truth in the Bible could be found only in literal interpretation. Read more »
June 1st, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: ACP, American College Of Physicians, Congress, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Healthcare Reform Law, Internal Medicine, Medicare SGR Cut, Primary Care
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Instead of blogging (again) about Congress’s failure to stop the 21% Medicare SGR cut, which went into effect today, I could just re-run my April 16 post. I wrote then:
“It is the failure of both political parties, over many years, to honestly deal with the SGR, including the cost of getting rid of it, which has resulted in the current ongoing SGR farce. And yet members of Congress wonder why the public holds them in such low regard.”
Blogging in DB’s Medicare Rants, Dr. Bob Centor captures the outrage felt by most physicians:
“I am mad. Every physician I know is mad. Patients should join us in expressing anger. Physicians cannot trust Congress if they cannot repair this absurdity.”
(Bob references ACP’s statement, released on Friday; click here to read it in its entirety.)
That Congress allowed politics again to get in the way of doing what is best for patients makes my blood boil. Voters can and should hold them accountable. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
June 1st, 2010 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Art, Assisted Reproductive Technology, Autism, Autistic Children, Fertility Treatment, In Vitro Fertilization, Infertility, International Meeting for Autism Research, IVF, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pediatrics
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In the latest media barrage on autism, fertility treatment has come into question as a possible cause for this increasingly common developmental disorder. The reason is two research abstracts recently presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia.
One study assessed the history of IVF (in vitro fertilization) among 574 children evaluated at a special center for autism in Israel. The researchers found that 10% of the group diagnosed as autistic had had IVF, compared to a background rate in the overall population which they quote as 3.5%. Not surprisingly, maternal age was higher in the IVF group and the rate of prematurity was higher in the autistic children.
The second study was a look into a pre-existing database — the Nurse’s Health Study — which collects data from a cohort of nurses over time. The researchers compared the reproductive history reported by women who also reported having a child with autism and compared it to that of women who did not report having an autistic child. Of those with autistic children, 48% reported infertility with 34% having used ovulation inducing drugs, compared with 33% and 24%, respectively, in women without autistic children, a difference that was statistically significant when controlled for maternal age and self-reported pregnancy complications.
A Time article getting a lot of media play calls the results of the second study “some of the strongest evidence to date” linking autism to fertility treatment. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog that Ate Manhattan*
June 1st, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Childhood Diseases, Children, Childrens Healthcare, E-Patients, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Health 2.0, In A Bubble, Individual Empowerment, Internal Medicine, Internet, kids, Online Health Information, Online Reverbosphere Of Opinion, Patient Empowerment, Pediatrics, Personal Health Decisions, Primary Care, Social Health, Social Health Activities, World Wide Web
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I regularly talk to my patients’ parents about social health. What parents do, what they think, and how they socially experience their child’s health problems has become an interest of mine.
I can hear it now: “Of course patients won’t discuss their social health activities with you, you’re a doctor.” Perhaps, but I don’t think so. Actually, I’ve had some very interesting open dialog with a few of my long-term patient-parents. Many have children suffering with chronic diseases such as Crohn’s disease, eosinophilic enteropathy, and the like. The relationships I cultivate are open, and the nature of my dialog has been just as consistently open as other aspects of our relationship.
Interestingly, while nearly all have used online search to understand their disease, most have never connected with other disease sufferers in the online space. The concept of crowdsourcing is met with puzzled looks. Sure they’re e-patients, but I would characterize most of my patients as e-patients. The question is: What does that really mean? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
June 1st, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
Tags: Ambulance Accidents, Ambulance Crashes, Ambulance Drivers, Ambulance Service, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Bleeding, Choking, Dangerous, Difficulty Breathing, Dr. Jesse Hines, Dr. Zachary Meisel, Emergency Medical Technicians, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Physicians, EMT, Endanger Lives, ER Doctors, Fast Transport Speed, Head Injury, Heart Attack, High-Speed Rescue Vehicles, Life-Threatening, Lights Flashing, Medical Transport Speed, Medics, Minutes Don't Count, Paramedics, Pedestrians, Save Lives, Sirens Blaring, Slate, Speeding Ambulances, Stroke, Survival, Time Sensitive, Trauma Patients, Uninvolved Motorists
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How fast should an ambulance go? The stereotypical speeding ambulance with lights flashing and sirens blaring is the image that most conjure up. But recent data suggests that transport speed may be overstated.
In a fascinating piece from Slate, emergency physicians Zachary F. Meisel and Jesse M. Pines examine that very question. They cite a recent study from the Annals of Emergency Medicine, which concluded that a fast transport speed didn’t necessarily save lives. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
