October 7th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
Tags: Guest Blogger Post, Health Insurance, Health Policy
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While I was “homeless” my blogging friends kindly invited me to guest post at their websites. Henry Stern at InsureBlog posted this for me:
Are Health Insurance Dollars Being Wasted Due To Medication Non-Compliance?
In case the answer to that question isn’t obvious, it is a resounding “yes.” Non-compliance costs the health insurance industry a staggering 177 billion dollars a year. It is estimated that fifty percent of patients forget to take their meds and over 30 percent don’t refill their prescriptions. Twenty percent say they don’t take the full course of treatment and fifty percent of patients don’t take drugs as directed. So much for preventing that heart attack, stroke, or limb amputation.
The health insurance industry (as well as pharmaceutical companies) have invested heavily in patient compliance initiatives, most of which have failed to produce substantially improved outcomes. The reason?…
To read the rest of the post, please click here.
October 7th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
Tags: Dermatology, Guest Blogger Post, Infectious Disease, Podiatry
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While I was “homeless” my blogging friends kindly invited me to guest post at their websites. Allen Roberts (aka GruntDoc) posted this for me:
As many of my close followers know, I’m “in between blogs” at the moment. My new website has not launched yet, so I’ve asked a few close friends if I could guest-blog at their sites until further notice. Dear Grunt Doc actually offered me a password and authority to post directly to his blog. Now that’s trusting! I mean, I could fill up his site with LOLcats posts if I wanted.
A few blog-hijacking fantasies later, I decided to ask myself – “What sort of content would be appropriate to contribute to an Emergency Medicine blog?” The answer, of course, is “real photos of anything gross.”
And as luck would have it, I do have a nice photo of something gross (albeit mildly so). Even better, it’s my own grossness so there’s no HIPAA violation looming. What is it? Well, it’s the sadistic work of a dermatologist. (By the way, dermatologists have the best photo galleries of really gory conditions).
Let me explain…
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September 17th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
Tags: Humor
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KevinMD pointed me to this amusing USA Today opinion piece about an imaginary want ad for physicians:
“Idealistic Generation X/Y overachievers with low- to mid-six-figure student loans to work in imploding health care system currently subject to runaway entitlement spending. Future salary to be subject to government whim and guaranteed not to keep up with inflation. Will be subject to unreasonable expectations of patients and held responsible for less-than-perfect outcomes by consumer advocates and trial lawyers. Must be able to work 70-80 hours per week, not including on-call duties, and place family obligations a distant second to career pursuits.”
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August 20th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
Tags: Hospitals, Humor, Medical Art, News
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Usually I prepare a weekly (or bi-weekly) feature called “Heard Around The Blogosphere” but this time I’d like to devote my list to images – things SEEN around the medblogosphere. Here’s my top 10 list:
1. Paul Levy’s feet (he is the CEO of Beth Israel/Deaconess Hospital in Boston – and he has some pretty impressive bunions)
2. Doggie scuba gear – I doubt the dogs enjoy it
3. Prosthetic limbs inspired by “retro” furniture – from Medgadget.com
4. TV sunglasses for use at the dentist’s office – now that will keep your mind off things!
5. A fake necktie is actually a cooling device – anesthesiologist Joe found this interesting Japanese invention for men.
6. Beer goggles from the Happy Hospitalist
7. Bizarre bread sculptures that resemble human body parts – from Boing Boing
8. Too many fingers – art by Street Anatomy
9. A skeleton necklace – found by Happy Hospitalist
10. Margarine ad with something lost in translation – Fail BlogThis post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
August 17th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
Tags: Emergency Medicine, Hospitals, Humor
1 Comment »
I’m a big fan of GruntDoc (Texas ER physician Allen Roberts), one of the first medical bloggers on the Internet. To show my appreciation, I’ve decided to plagiarize repost this classic “rant” of his (in case you missed it in 2004):
I work in an Emergency Department, and have noticed that there is one common denominator in the majority of the assaulted patients I treat: they were all assaulted by “Some Dude“. (Also, they were all assaulted for “…no reason…”, but that’s the topic of another rant). This is true no matter where I work, the time of day or day of the week.
“Some Dude” has in the last two weeks shot my patients, sucker-punched, struck with bottles, beaten them with fists and a golf club (or perhaps the entire set), and pushed my patients down stairs.
Additionally, “Some Dude” has ’slipped drugs’ into the drinks of, transmitted sexual diseases to, and stolen the medications of my patients.
I have no idea how “Some Dude” is everywhere at once. I suspect he’s an evil superhero, though in the current times I cannot completely exclude an AlQuaeda conspiracy.
I advocate a vigorous police and public-health effort to locate and confine “Some Dude” due to the clear and present danger he represents to the health and welfare of our republic.
If you encounter “Some Dude,” please turn him in to the appropriate authorities. 
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
