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The Problem Of Medical Homelessness

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Please allow me to coin a new term:

Medical HomelessnessNot having access to a consistent familiar medical setting.  Not having a care location where one is known or where the medical information is accurate.

Down_and_out_on_New_York_pier

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I think medical homelessness is one of the main problems in our system.
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*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*

Contest: Guess Who’ll Win The Nobel Prize In The Sciences?

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Next Monday, the Nobel Foundation will announce the winner(s) of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the following two days, two more Nobels will be revealed: in Physics and in Chemistry. Because of the success of last year’s inaugural Guess-A-Nobel Contest, we decided we’ll repeat this event annually until there is no more science worthy of the prize. This year we’re giving out three 8GB Apple iPod Touch devices to those who correctly guess in each of the three science categories. Because we profile a good deal of apps for the iPhone/Touch platform, we thought this might be a useful tool beside all the fun it can provide on the off time. Furthermore, if someone does manage to guess all three correctly, he or she will be getting the souped-up 64 GB version of the iPod device with all the trimmings.


Here are the rules of the game: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

Why Health Insurance Companies Hate High Deductible Plans

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Joe Biden unveiled a White House study on the rise of health insurance premiums.  He pressed for consumer protections the President wants to see in any reform legislation.  Among these are a pledge to pass a law that “ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays.”  Presumably this is meant to address worries many feel over the growth of high-deductible health plans.

The St. Petersburg Times looked into it to find out what this pledge means, in practical terms.  David Axelrod at the White House pointed them to the proposed House legislation, which would create limits on out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles and co-pays of $5,000 a year for an individual, and $10,000 a year for a family.
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*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*

UN’s Sex Education Guide Generates Opposition

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The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) proposed sex education guidelines are stirring up quite the controversy – before they are even published! I will give you one guess who is attacking them – oh come on, guess!

That is correct – conservative and religious groups are attacking the guidelines because of their portrayal of issues like sex education, abortion and homosexuality. Specifically, the guidelines describe sexual abstinence as only one of a range of choices available to young people to prevent disease and avoid pregnancy. The guidelines also dare to suggest that families discuss masturbation with their children, starting as young as five, but definitely with preteens.
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This post, UN’s Sex Education Guide Generates Opposition, was originally published on Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..

Nursing Tips To Prevent Medical Errors

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teamThis post isn’t being written to frighten you or to cause you to mistrust hospitals.

It’s to make you aware that medical errors do occur, but there are steps that you can take to help prevent medical errors from happening.

First, some vital information

According to a recent investigation by the Hearst Corporation, a staggering 200,000 Americans will die each year from preventable medical errors and hospital infections.  This report comes ten years after the highly-publicized report, “To Err Is Human” which found 98,000 Americans were dying each year of medical errors.  Instead of the number of medical errors decreasing, it nearly doubled.
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*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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