August 29th, 2011 by admin in Better Health Network
Tags: Boost Self-Esteem, Cost-Effective, Creative Thinking, Diario Medico, Doctor Patient Relationship, Easily Implemented, Happiness, Health, laughter, Pain Threshold, Problem-solving Skills, Psychological Well Being, Reduce Depression, Social Interaction, Spanish Clinical Journal, Stress Hormone Levels
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I stumbled upon the article ‘Laughter: gender-specific variations’ in Revista Clínica Española (‘Spanish Clinical Journal’) and I can’t help thinking about the need for taking this into account to improve doctor-patient relationships. The text can actually be read as a guide to understand how every person laughs and how to use it in clinical practice.
Table 1. Laughter effect on health Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Diario Medico*
August 28th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network
Tags: Archives of Internal Medicine, Diagnosis, Diagnostic Power, Hospitalists, Medical Education, Patient Care, Patient History, Physical Exam, Senior Residents
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Four out of five doctors agree that they don’t need scans to make the right diagnosis.
It’s an old-fashioned concept frequently discussed among ACP members, but the history and physical combined with basic tests is way more important to diagnosis than ordering scans and advanced tests. A recent research letter in the Archives of Internal Medicine makes the case.
In the letter, Israeli researchers described a prospective study of 442 consecutive patients admitted from the emergency department in 53 days.
A senior resident examined all patients within 24 hours of admission (mean=14), including a history, physical, and review of ancillary test findings done at the emergency department, such as blood and urine tests, electrocardiography, and chest radiography. The resident also reviewed additional tests such as Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
July 29th, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network
Tags: Archives of Surgery, Arrogance, Behavior, Civil behavior, Civility Initiative, Code of Conduct, Incivility, New York Times, Reputation, Surgeons
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It seems to me this topic of surgeons and their lack of civility gets pulled out on a fairly regular basis. This latest discussion in the news media is due to a short article in the current Archives of Surgery (full reference below).
Surgeons as a group have a reputation (which even nice ones have trouble overcoming) of arrogance and incivility.
The authors, Klein and Forni, of this article state (bold emphasis is mine):
Uncivil behavior is so present in society at large that we should not be surprised to find it among health care workers. This article is meant to raise the awareness of the costs—both in dollars and in human misery—of incivility in the practice of medicine by looking in particular at the case of surgeons.
Uncivil behavior brings misery wherever it occurs. If the individual tends to behave in an uncivil fashion prior to medical school and prior to residency, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
July 13th, 2011 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Better Health Network
Tags: Cost Drivers, Healthcare Insurance Industry, How To Control Costs, Imaging Equipment, Medicare, Patient-Centered Healthcare, Radiology
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The primary stakeholders in the healthcare system are patients and physicians. The incentives for patients and physicians to save money are non existent. The secondary stakeholders have taken advantage of non existent incentives to create a healthcare system that generates ever increasing costs.
Patients and physicians are the only stakeholders that can control costs. They initiate the use of the healthcare system’s resources.
Healthcare costs for medical procedures such as an MRI or CT scan have been found to vary by as much as 683% in the same town, depending on which physicians patients choose, according to a study by Change: Healthcare.
The implication is that individual physicians are responsible for the differences. Most physicians do not own MRIs, CAT scanners or PET scanners. Secondary stakeholders own the equipment. They price the procedures and profit from the equipment, not the physicians. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
April 11th, 2011 by Michael Craig Miller, M.D. in Better Health Network
Tags: Children's Health, Health, Mental Health, Uncategorized
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As many who were children before the era of cell phones will remember, contacting a friend by phone often involved mastering at least the following script: “Hi, Mrs. Doe. Is Johnny home?” Not so today, in the world of cell phones, texting, email, Facebook, and Twitter.
If you are a parent and don’t use or understand the new technologies, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has just issued a guideline saying that you probably should. More than half of teens connect to a social media site at least daily. Three-quarters have cell phones that they can use for social networking as well as texting. In a guideline published in March, the AAP makes the important (if obvious) point that today’s children are growing up on the Internet. Since children and adolescents now spend a great deal of time there, parents have good reasons to know what the place is like. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
