February 20th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: bureaucracy, Business of Healthcare, Business of Medicine, Costs, Finance
1 Comment »
Most medical schools do a reasonably good job clinically preparing medical students to be future physicians.
But they can do better, especially in our fragmented health system where millions of Americans have to contend with costs as much as they have to with their medical conditions.
In her recent New York Times column, Pauline Chen cites a study showing that students exposed to more non-clinical topics, like medical economics, health policy, and the “business” of medicine, were more satisfied with their education. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
February 20th, 2010 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
Tags: Animal Bite, Deaths, Dog Bite, Emergency Medicine, Infectious Disease, Killer dogs, Mortality
1 Comment »
Dog attacks are a major public health concern worldwide. In the United States, dogs bite more than 4 million people each year, occasionally resulting in fatalities. In an issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (2009;20:19-25), Ricky Langley from the Division of Public Health in Raleigh, North Carolina published an article entitled, “Human Fatalities Resulting From Dog Attacks in the United States, 1979-2005.”
The statistics are instructive. In the years studied, there was an average of 19 deaths each year from dog attacks. Not surprisingly, males and children less than 10 years of age had the highest rate of death from dog attacks, with Alaska reporting the highest death rate. The number of deaths and death rate from dog attacks appear to be on the rise, perhaps for no other reason than there are more people and more dogs, in both absolute numbers and in proximity.
I am a dog lover (of friendly dogs), but am aware both as an owner and as an emergency physician that dogs will sometimes bite people, sometimes with serious consequences. Read more »
This post, Killer Dogs And US Dog Bite Statistics, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
February 19th, 2010 by Bongi in Better Health Network, Humor, True Stories
Tags: Aspirin, Gastric Bleed, General Surgery, Inappropriate, Patient Behavior, Proposition, smoking, South Africa, Surgery, Twilight Zone, Ulcer
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We can sometimes look good in our jobs. I suppose it comes with the territory. But sometimes this is not a good thing.
Danville is an interesting place. Actually the place itself is drab but it is full of interesting people. To say it is populated by the lower echelons of the gene pool is an understatement of note. For some reason every reprobate and inbreed seems to have found their way there. Throw a few generations of fetal alcohol syndrome into the mix and you have the average Danville resident. Then add a strong predilection to grandpa (a local aspirin caffeine headache powder) to round off with. Usually when they presented to the hospital it is with a bleeding peptic ulcer or a perforated peptic ulcer. In fact they seldom present to us with anything else. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*
February 19th, 2010 by Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Clinician, Confidence, CT, Doubt, Emergency Medicine, Lab Tests, M.D., Need, Ph.D., Radiology, Researcher, Want
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There’s an adage I often think about: “A physician’s job requires the expression of confidence. The researcher’s role is to express doubt.”
This was never more apparent than when I transitioned from the research environment into the clerkships of medical school. The language of decision-making had abruptly changed — in the lab, a year’s worth of experiments is summarized with “seems” and “suggests,” and every assertion is carefully calibrated to acknowledge uncertainty and a high standard for proof.
As a student on clerkships, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the residents’ ambitious plans for patients: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
February 19th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Amygdala, Brain Damage, Brain Injury, Caltech, Gambling, Monetary-loss aversion, Neurology, Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation
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Have Caltech scientists discovered an area of the brain evolved since the development of currency? The headline effectively suggests that, but the truth is probably a bit more nuanced.
The research team responsible for these findings consists of Benedetto de Martino, a Caltech visiting researcher from University College London and first author on the study, along with Caltech scientists Colin Camerer, the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics, and Ralph Adolphs, the Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and professor of biology.
The study involved an examination of two patients whose amygdalae had been destroyed due to a very rare genetic disease; those patients, along with individuals without amygdala damage, volunteered to participate in a simple experimental economics task. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
