August 28th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: College Basketball Arena, Community-Based Corrections, Courier-Journal, Dismas Charities Inc., Doctor Career Day, Doctors As Government Employees, General Medicine, Government-Dependent, Government-Funded Care, Healing The Body, Healing The Spirit, Louisville, Luxury Box, Medical Business Model, Medical Business Profit, Non-Profit, Ray Weis, Yum Center
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Yes, it’s true — most doctors may soon be government employees. No, not the Lasik surgeons, the plastic surgeons, or the dentists — they were clearly more focused on career day. But is it necessarily a bad thing if all of your income comes from federal, state, or local governments?
If your business is caring for the medical needs of the less fortunate, a Medicaid doctor or a VA doctor perhaps, then your luxury box may be something more Thoreau-like, maybe some nice lawn furniture in the backyard. On the other hand, if your business model involves caring for recently-released prisoners or drug addicts, then you are in the financial sweet spot. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
August 27th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Broadband Access, California, Connecting Healthcare Facilities, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Services, Followup Care, General Medicine, Healthcare Cost, Healthcare IT News, Primary Care, Tele-Health Network, Tele-Visits, Telemedicine
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California launched the nation’s largest tele-health network, a $30 million public/private project to bring broadband access designed to reduce the cost of followup care by 40 percent and overall costs by 6 percent. The network seeks to connect more than 800 California healthcare facilities, including rural, underserved, and Indian health facilities, to a statewide network of healthcare and emergency services. (Healthcare IT News)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
August 27th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Breast Cancer, Breast Reconstruction, Cancer Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery, Doctor-Patient Communication, Healthcare Law, Oncology, Patient Education, Plastic Surgery, State of New York, Susan G. Komen, Treatment Options, U.S. Department of Labor, WHCRA, Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act
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Recently the [state of] New York signed a law requiring hospitals and doctors to discuss breast reconstruction options with the patient prior to her undergoing cancer surgery. It troubled me that this law was needed. Is it not the duty of the physicians and surgeons to educate the patient on the options available?
We need to make sure the patient and their family know of the treatment options which may vary depending on the diagnosis and stage: Radiation, chemotherapy, surgery (lumpectomy, mastectomy, axillary dissection) — a combination of treatments.
Even if the patient and her physicians don’t chose to do immediate reconstruction, isn’t the discussion and information part of the discussion? At least inform the patient of the option.
Do we physicians and surgeons need another law to ensure we do right by our patients? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
August 27th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Medblogger Shout Outs, News, Research
Tags: Definition of Health 2.0, Definition of Medicine 2.0, Lucien Engelen, Medblogger crowd, Medblogger Shout Out, Online Health Community, Online Survey, Social Health Media, Systematic Review
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My friend and fellow blogger Lucien Engelen asked the health community to help define what Health 2.0 exactly means through an online survey:
After our systematic review about the definition of Health 2.0, one of our next steps will be sorting out what “the crowd” thinks that has to be part of a definition of Health 2.0. For this purpose we’ve set up a little questionnaire that you could fill in below.
To make the crowd as big as possible, we have also made it available to put on your own blog or website. We would encourage you to do this and inspire others to do the same.
You may remember that Lucien and his collegues published a review about the definitions of Health 2.0 and Medicine 2.0 currently available.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
August 26th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
Tags: Doctors On Twitter, Gary Schwitzer, General Surgery, HealthNewsReview.org, Patient Safety, Safe Medical Practices, Surgeons Tweeting in the OR, Surgical Twitter Practices, Twitter Doctors, Twitter Exploits By Healthcare Professionals, Twitter Overload
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Why are so many stories so unquestioning about these runaway surgical Twitter practices? Just look at this frame grab from a Google search showing all of the stories (so far) on one hospital team’s surgical Twitter exploits. One story stated:
“Senior hand fellows…when not actively involved in the surgery, sat at a laptop just outside the operating suite and tweeted real-time updates during the procedure, according to a hospital press release. According to the Twitter feed, expert teams of hand surgeons rotated in and out of the operating room throughout the surgery.”
Oh, phew, their hands were tweeting when their hands weren’t operating! I might rather that my surgeons — even when not actively involved in the operation and when rotating out of the OR — would just rest their digits and not flex them digitally. But what an old-fashioned guy I am.
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
Yes, it’s true — most doctors may soon be government employees. No, not the Lasik surgeons, the plastic surgeons, or the dentists — they were clearly more focused on career day. But is it necessarily a bad thing if all of your income comes from federal, state, or local governments?
