December 29th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, True Stories
Tags: Fybromyalgia, Health Insurance, Hospitalist, Internal Medicine, Lyrica, medicaid, Pharmaceuticals, Primary Care
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I have yet another example of how third party insurance rules obstruct efficient patient care. I was asked to see a patient with fibromyalgia who was asking about about the drug Lyrica she heard about on television (one example of how direct to consumer marketing increases health care expenses). Lyrica is about the only medication approved by the FDA to treat fibromyalgia. I don’t know if it really works or if it’s just an expensive placebo effect.
Maybe fibromyalgia is all in the head, and that’s why this medication works. I don’t really care. I know it’s FDA approved, which means it has more going for it than most pharmaceuticals used for off label purposes. At least doctors who prescribe Lyrica for fibromyalgia aren’t going to get charged with homicide for prescribing medications for unapproved reasons. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
December 28th, 2009 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Adipose Tissue, Brown Fat, Fat, Metabolism, NEJM, Obesity, wilderness medicine
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Most of us have learned that bears use brown adipose tissue (“brown fat”) to assist them in hibernation during the winter, and that other animals use it to regulate body weight and adaptive thermoregulation (control of body temperature). What is less well known is that humans also take advantage of their own version of brown adipose tissue. How it functions in humans may not only have implications for thermoregulation, but for a targeted strategy to combat obesity. The ratio of “white fat” (“bad” fat) to brown fat (“good” fat) may also be important. Read more »
This post, Brown Fat Plays A Role In Human (And Bear) Fat Regulation, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
December 28th, 2009 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Costs, Finance, Graph, Healthcare reform, Healthcare Systems, International, Life Expectancy, Right Care, US Spending
2 Comments »
A friend sent me this interesting graph from the blog of the National Geographic.
You’ll have to click on it to see a bigger version. It captures a lot of data very elegantly on a single graph– Professor Tufte would love it.
What it shows is health care spending per person across a group of countries, along with life expectancies, average number of doctor visits per year, and whether a country has a system of universal health coverage. Although putting all of this data on one graph is novel, the graph makes what by now is one of the oldest political arguments for reform – for all the money they United States spends on health care we don’t get a good deal.
So why blog about this graph? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
December 28th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion
Tags: celebrity, Health, Misinformation, Paul Offit, Science Based Medicine, USA Today
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. . .or a spread in Playgirl.
Huh?
Orac has a nice essay today for your Christmas Eve reading about a USA Today article yesterday by Liz Szabo that called out celebrities for their pseudoscientific proclamations and advice entitled, “Are celebrities crossing the line on medical advice?”
So that’s where I came up with this thought: it would be great if some folks who talked science-based sense became celebrities so they’d at least have the same platform to counter people like Jenny McCarthy. On his comment thread, I suggested that we can only hope that Orac someday gets a movie deal and acquires the public celebrity that some of these jokers have. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
December 28th, 2009 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, True Stories
Tags: Data, Downfall, Electronic Medical Records, Emergency Medicine, EMR, Problem, Technology
1 Comment »
We have a new EMR system. I like it because I type well. I’m facile at using a keyboard and touch-screen. Not everyone in my group is so blessed, and we’ve had some difficulties using the voice-transcription software. Nevertheless, my gut tells me that in a month or two more, we’ll be getting along with our new system swimmingly. It’s the sort of thing I have wanted for a while, since I truly hate to dictate; and especially hated dictating the information the nurses had already entered into the computer!
However, I have an issue. Not so much with our EMR, but with all EMRs. I have an issue with the deeply-held delusion that computerization will automatically improve charting and patient care.
Some time ago, the inimitable, world famous blogger Dr. Wes (who can be found at http://drwes.blogspot.com/ ) told me that his facility’s conversion to EMR caused him to spend far more time at the computer than with the patient. And true to his great wisdom and insight, that’s where I find myself. It isn’t the location of the computers. We have portable ‘tough-books’ that can go to the bedside. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
