September 11th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Autism, Cinchcast, Emotional Health, Emotional Support, Location Applications, Newly Diagnosed, Private Support, Psychiatry and Psychology, Public Support, Robert Scoble, Social Community, Social Media and Personal Life, Social Media and Personal Support, Social Media As Personal Therapy, Social Media Behavior, Social Media Privacy, Social Media Standards, Transparency Threshold
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Last week Robert Scoble announced on Cinchcast the news that his son, Milan, had just been diagnosed with autism. I often listen to his Cinchcasts, and the disappointment in his voice was heartbreaking.
Then I began to wonder: If one of my children were to receive a devastating diagnosis, would my first impulse be to share the news on a public platform? Probably not. And that, among a number of obvious things, is what differentiates me from Robert Scoble.
Everyone’s got their transparency threshold. You can see it with attitudes surrounding location applications. The importance of community to each of us varies tremendously. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
September 11th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Antibacterial War, Antibiotic Overuse, Antibiotic Resistance, Bacteria-Resistant, Bacterial Infections, Cockroach Brains, Filthy Places for Antibiotics, Immunology, John Rennie, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylcoccal Auerus, MRSA, Penicillin, PLoS, The Gleaming Report, UCSD, University of Nottingham, Vancomycin
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Bacteria may be having a renaissance. Back in the days of the discovery of penicillin, doctors gleefully handed out antibiotics like they were candy and patients were more than happy to munch them down. They were quite effective too, but bacteria rapidly became resistant.
Doctors and scientists worry that we are approaching a time where if we don’t come up with novel antibiotic mechanisms, we will face an epidemic of untreatable bacterial infections. MRSA, methicillin-resistant staphylcoccal auerus, is probably one of the biggest fears.
John Rennie wrote about this issue in the PLoS blog The Gleaming Retort. He describes two strategies scientists are using to try to come up with new weapons in the great antibacterial war. So, naturally one of the first things they turned to was cockroach brains. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 10th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Caring For Patients, Doctors' Pay, Dr. John Mandrola, Dr. Saul Greenfield, General Medicine, Less Compensation, Loss of Physician Autonomy, Physicians' Salaries, Uniformity of Medical Practice, Wall Street Journal
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“Ouch! That really hurts! You win, please stop torquing my arm behind my back. “Uncle! I said, Uncle!!”
Yes, the threshold has been reached. We docs no longer need a tennis court or a Mercedes, our kids are fine in public schools, and we will happily buy our own damn pens.
But, please, just give us some modicum of autonomy. Throw us a measly scrap and let us take care of our patients as we see best. Like Dr. Saul Greenfield so beautifully said today in the Wall Street Journal. The paragraph that stood out the most for me is as follows:
Physician autonomy is a major defense against those who comfortably sit in remote offices and make calculations based on concerns other than an individual patient’s welfare. Uniformity of practice is a nonsensical goal that fails to allow for differing expression of disease states.
Really, it isn’t hyperbole to surmise that the overwhelming majority of doctors would decide, if faced with a choice between less compensation and less autonomy, to choose less compensation.
As a teen my dad told me the best part of being a doctor would be the autonomy. He was right, and that’s what hurts the most these days.
JMM
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
September 10th, 2010 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Avoiding Preventive Screenings, Cervical Biopsies, Cervical Cancer Screening, Colposcopies, International Health Policy, Jade Goody, National Health Campaign, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Oncology, Pap Smears, Preventive Healthcare, Preventive Medicine, Public Health Initiative, WHO, Women's Health, World Health Organization
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The Telegraph reports that the number of screening pap smears performed in the UK has declined after an 8 percent blip upwards in 2009 when publicity surrounding the death of Jade Goody from cervical cancer may have led more women to have this important screening test:
NHS laboratories processed 415,497 tests in 2009-2010, about 35,000 fewer than the previous year when 450,522. Miss Goody’s death in March last year prompted a 20 percent increase in the number of Scottish women taking tests. More than 122,000 were processed between April and June last year, the statistics revealed.
The irony of course, is that British reality TV star Jade Goody did have pap smears, but chose to ignore her doctor’s recommendations for treatment when her pap smears came back abnormal.
Nonetheless, the decline in pap smears has led NHS of Scotland to initiate a campaign to reach the up to 25 percent of young women who do not respond to invitations to have pap smears. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at tbtam*
September 9th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Doctors' Pay, Family Medicine, Female Physicians, Gender Barrier In Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Nurse Practitioner, Physician Salaries, Primary Care, Women In Life Sciences, Women In Medical School
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It’s only a matter of time before female physicians outnumber men, say medical school heads who are seeing more women in their programs. Although women have broken the gender barrier in medicine, they may want to keep going into nursing, because nurse practitioner salaries grew faster than primary care physicians’ pay — nearly 5 percent compared to nearly 3 percent.
Physicians can take some comfort that their average pay is more — $191,000 compared to more than $85,000 — unless they’re women, who among all the life sciences average $13,000 less than their male counterparts in comparable positions and with similar experience. (WCSC TV, Fierce Practice Management, Academic Medicine)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
