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Why Did It Take Five Weeks For The New York Times To Correct Its Alzheimer’s Test Assertion?

September 21st, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research

Tags: Alzheimer's Test Assertion, Correction In Health Reporting, Gary Schwitzer, Health Journalism, HealthNewsReview.org, Inaccurate Health Reporting, Neurology, Responsible Reporting, Science Reporting, The New York Times

I have a lot of catching up to do after being in Europe for just 4 days. But I can’t let this one go by without comment. In fact, this issue was one of the first ones raised by German journalists I met with in Dortmund this week. Don’t think people around the world don’t notice the good AND the bad in American health/medical/science journalism — especially by The New York Times.

The Times took a long time (five weeks) to comment on what critics — including me, Paul Raeburn, Charlie Petit and many other journalists (including Times’ ombudsman Arthur Brisbane) — wrote about Gina Kolata’s August 10 piece on a “100% accurate” Alzheimer’s test. But [on September 16th] the paper published a correction. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*

Primary Care: Has It Been “Oversold?”

September 21st, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research

Tags: ACP Advocate, American College Of Physicians, Bob Doherty, Dartmouth Atlas, Family Medicine, Fixing Primary Care, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, More Primary Care Doctors, Patient-Centered Medical Home, Primary Care Crisis, Primary Care Oversold, Primary Care Shortage, Wall Street Journal

Citing a new study by the Dartmouth Atlas, the Wall Street Journal’s health blog provocatively asks: “Has the notion of ‘access’ to primary care been oversold?”

The Dartmouth researchers found “that there is no simple relationship between the supply of physicians and access to primary care.” That is, they found that having a greater supply of primary care physicians in a community doesn’t mean that the community necessarily has better access to primary care. Some areas of the country with fewer primary care physicians per population do better on access than other areas with more primary care physicians.

The researchers also report that the numbers of family physicians is more positively associated with better access than the numbers of internists, although they call the association “not strong.” Although both general internists and family physicians are counted as primary care clinicians, “in [regions] with a higher supply of family physicians, beneficiaries were more likely to have at least one annual primary care visit. In [regions] with a higher supply of general internists, fewer beneficiaries had a primary care visit on average.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*

To Change Patient Behavior, Change How You Talk To Them

September 20th, 2010 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research

Tags: Barriers to Weight Loss, Behavior Change, Changing Patient Behavior, Doctor-Patient Communication, Family Medicine, General Medicine, HBM, Health Belief Model, How To Lose Weight, How To Talk To Patients, Internal Medicine, Obesity, Overweight, Primary Care, Talking to Patients

According to Marshall Becker, PhD, MPH, a one-time professor of mine and prime mover behind the Health Belief Model (HBM), four things must be in place for health behavior change to occur. I am paraphrasing here: 

1. A person has to know that they have a particular health condition.
2. A person has to believe that having said health condition is bad.
3. A person must perceive the benefits of behavior change to outweigh the difficulties of behavior change.
4. There must be a “call to action” to spark the change.

Absent any one of these steps and the likelihood that behavior change will occur is diminished. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*

Debunking Fake Diseases

September 20th, 2010 by JenniferKearneyStrouse in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Quackery Exposed

Tags: ACP Internist, Adrenal Fatigue, Dangerous Side Effects, Endocrine Society, Fake Diseases, Faux Medical Conditions on the Internet, General Medicine, Hormone Foundation, LA Times, Public Safety, Wilson's Temperature Syndrome

Ever heard of adrenal fatigue? Wilson’s temperature syndrome? If not, there’s a good reason: They exist only on the Internet.

The Hormone Foundation, an affiliate of the Endocrine Society, recently issued two fact sheets for patients debunking these so-called conditions, which were “apparently conceived only in an effort to sell products promoted to treat them,” the LA Times reported. No medical evidence supports either faux disease and there are no tests or treatments for them, but patients still try to alleviate them with supplements, some of them potentially dangerous, the Times said.

Adrenal fatigue is characterized by such “symptoms” as having salt and sugar cravings and needing coffee to get you through the day, while the man who discovered Wilson’s temperature syndrome also coincidentally promotes a product to treat it, according to the Times. (Hormone Foundation, LA Times)

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*

Mayo Clinic’s Social Media Advisory Board Has No Physicians

September 19th, 2010 by KevinMD in Announcements, Better Health Network, Health Policy, Medblogger Shout Outs, News, Opinion

Tags: Doctors and Social Media, Mayo Clinic Center for Health Care Social Media, Social Media In Medicine

The Mayo Clinic has always been at the forefront of the social media and health care intersection, and is the first institution to have an official Center for Social Media.

When they recently announced the invited first 13 members of their Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Care Social Media, the first thing I noticed that there were zero physicians, and few with clinical experience. What a slap in the face.

There’s little question that the qualifications of the selected members are beyond reproach, and all are respected luminaries in the health care social media field. But this is the Mayo Clinic, one of the leading health care institutions in the country, so it’s odd that clinician-bloggers were blatantly ignored. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*