December 10th, 2010 by DavidHarlow in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Accountable Care Organizations, ACO, AOL News, Care Coordination, David Harlow, Doctors and Social Media, Dr. Kamal Thapar, EHR, Emergency Medicine, Facebook, General Medicine, Health 2.0, Health IT, Health Outcomes, HealthBlawg, Healthcare and Social Media, Healthcare Cost Containment, Healthcare reform, HIT, Internal Medicine, mHealth, Mobile Health, Newt Gingrich, Patient Engagement, Patient-Centered Medical Home, Patients and Social Media, PCMH, PHR, Primary Care, Social Media, Social Media and Medicine
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I’ve seen at least half a dozen links to the op-ed coauthored by Newt Gingrich and neurosurgeon Kamal Thapar about how the doctor used information on Facebook to save a woman’s life. (It was published by AOL News. Really.)
In brief, a woman who had been to see a number of different health care providers without getting a clear diagnosis showed up in an emergency room, went into a coma and nearly died. She was saved by a doctor’s review of the detailed notes she kept about her symptoms, etc., which she posted on Facebook. The story is vague on the details, but apparently her son facilitated getting the doc access to her Facebook page, and the details posted there allowed him to diagnose and treat her condition. She recovered fully.
Newt and Dr. Thapar wax rhapsodic about how Facebook saved a life, and sing the praises of social media’s role in modern medicine. (I’m not sure how this really fits in with Newt’s stance on health reform, within his 12-step program to achieve the total replacement of the Left…but, hey, nobody has the patience these days for so many details anyway.)
Regular readers of HealthBlawg know that I would perhaps be the last to challenge the proposition that social media has a role to play in health care. However, I think Newt got it wrong here. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*
December 10th, 2010 by AnnMacDonald in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: Ann MacDonald, Antidepressants, Archives of General Psychiatry, Bipolar Disorder, Citalopram, Dr. Roy Perlis, Emotional Health, Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Mental Health Letter, Harvard University, Major Depression, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Psychology, Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression, STAR*D Study, Treatment-Resistant Depression
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Only one-third of people with major depression achieve remission after trying one antidepressant. When the first medication doesn’t adequately relieve symptoms, next step options include taking a new drug along with the first, or switching to another drug. With time and persistence, nearly seven in 10 adults with major depression eventually find a treatment that works.
Of course, that also means that the remaining one-third of people with major depression cannot achieve remission even after trying multiple options. Experts are hunting for ways to understand the cause of persistent symptoms. In recent years, one theory in particular has gained traction: that many people with hard-to-treat major depression actually suffer from bipolar disorder. However, a paper published online this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests otherwise — and the findings provide new insights into the nature of treatment-resistant depression. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
December 10th, 2010 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Anesthesiology, Breast Implants, Breast Reconstruction, Dr. John Di Saia, General Anesthesia, Local Anesthesia, Pectoral Muscles, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Safe Surgical Practices, Surgical Patient Alertness, Truth in Cosmetic Surgery, Twilight Anesthetic, Twilight Sleep
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Reader question:
A surgeon I’m thinking about seeing said on his website that breast implants were able to be done under local + intravenous anesthetic (like twilight). Can this really be done? I always thought it was too invasive for just twilight, especially if it is under the muscle. Is there an advantage to using twilight? After looking it up, there are lots of differing opinions out there, but I think that this may just be a way for the surgeon to cut costs. What is the cosmetic surgery truth here, Dr. D?
I am not a fan of local anesthesia or twilight sleep for breast implant surgery except in rare cases (simple redos and such). The reasons are patient comfort and practicality. I place most of my breast implants under the pectoral muscles, and these muscles need to be relaxed for this to work out. That relaxation is suboptimal under less than a general anesthetic. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
December 10th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: American Healthcare System, Big-Ticket Healthcare Items, Dr. Rob Lamberts, Drive Down The Cost of Healthcare, Fighting For Patients, Fixing American Healthcare, General Medicine, Healthcare Crisis, Healthcare Economics, Musings of a Distractible Mind, Patient Care, Paying For Unnecessary Care, Primary Care, Unnecessary Medical Care, Wasteful Healthcare
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I case you didn’t hear the news, the American healthcare system is in financial crisis. One of the biggest culprits indicted in this crises is “unnecessary care,” with estimates ranging from $500 to $650 billion (total spending estimate is $2.6 trillion) going toward things labeled “unnecessary.” Personally I think this is an underestimate, as it doesn’t take into account the some big-ticket items:
- Brand name drugs given when generics would do.
- Antibiotics given for viral infections (and the additional cost due to reactions and resistance).
- Unproven costly care considered “standard of care” (PSA testing, robotic surgery, coronary stents).
- The unnecessarily high price of drugs.
One of the main reasons I am an advocate of EMR is to measure and analyze care, eliminating that which is wasteful, futile, or even harmful. The biggest burden on our system is not the fact that we have a hyper-complex payment system that hides the true cost of care. The biggest burden is the wasteful care that this system agrees to pay for. In fact, I suspect that the main reason our system has become hyper-complex and covert in its spending is to hide this waste from prying eyes.
It sounds easy: Just eliminate costly unnecessary care and save the system. While you are at it, why not bring world peace, eliminate poverty, and make a detergent that cleans, softens, and deodorizes all at once? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Distractible Mind*
December 10th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Berlin, Birth Canal, C-Section, Caesarian Section, Charite Hospital, Germany, Labor And Delivery, Live Birth, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Maternal-Child Health, Maternity Care, Medgadget, Medical Imaging, MRI, Newborn, OB/GYN, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Radiology, The Local
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At the Charité Hospital in Berlin, researchers have built a specialty MRI machine with enough space to fit a woman undergoing labor. The Local, a German newspaper in the English language, is reporting that the first images of a baby moving through the birth canal have been captured, and that the mother and child are doing just fine. The clinicians involved in the project hope to be able to study why some women end up requiring a Caesarian section, while others do not.
More at The Local: MRI scans live birth…
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
