August 2nd, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Accuracy of Medical Decision Making, Actors as Patients, Annals Of Internal Medicine, Change in the Plan of Care, Conversations with Doctors, Doctor-Patient Encounter, Doctors Under Time Pressure, Error-Free Care, Failure to Individualize Care, General Medicine, Hundreds of Patient Encounters, LA Times, Medical Errors, Medical Red Flags, Mystery Patients, Scripted Medical Situations, Wrong Medical Decisions By Doctors
No Comments »
According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, doctors make the wrong medical decisions surprisingly often.
Using a “mystery patient” technique –- in which actors pretended to be patients –- researchers found that doctors made errors in complicated cases in 60 percent to 90 percent of cases. Sixty to ninety percent. In uncomplicated cases, they made errors in nearly 30 percent of cases.
As one study participant put it, “I was shocked.”
The study took place over three years, and included more than 100 doctors in six Chicago-area hospitals. The doctors had agreed to participate in a study on medical decision making, but had no idea that they might see a patient who was actually an actor. The actors recorded their conversations with the doctors. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
August 2nd, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: 21st Century Medical Institution, Core Competency, General Medicine, Healthcare Professionals Online, Healthcare Social Media, Improving Health Literacy, Internet and Medical Practice, Internet-Based Medicine, Lee Aase, Medical Education, Medical Research, Online Healthcare, Social Media Tools, The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, Training to Hospitals and Medical Schools, Victor Montori
No Comments »
In a move that may represent a new level of social health organization within large institutions, the Mayo Clinic announced that it has launched The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. Mayo intends to “accelerate effective application of social media tools throughout Mayo Clinic and to spur broader and deeper engagement in social media by hospitals, medical professionals and patients to improve health globally.”
Look for more information in Mayo’s press release which is diplomatically vague while at the same time lofty and enticing.
So what does this really mean?
The Mayo Clinic recognizes opportunity. The opportunity to formally offer comprehensive social media training to hospitals and medical schools is huge. The Mayo Clinic can and should leverage what they’ve done both to their own advantage and to help create a new standard for providers. While the details are forthcoming, Mayo Clinic’s manager of social and sydicated media Lee Aase tells us that Mayo wants to make available its resources, training, toolkits and legal guidelines to fledgling hospitals. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 1st, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Internet Content Reviewer, Internet Moderitis, Legal Content, Mental Health, Online Communication, Online Health, Psychology, Social Disease, Social Networking Sites, The New York Times, Web-Based Illness
No Comments »
There’s a new profession in the Internet era, the so-called “Internet Content Reviewer.” These people check all of the submissions and uploads on huge social networking sites, review tens of thousands of pictures, and make sure only legal content is being uploaded to these communities.
It seems a new mental health, “social” disease is starting to spread: Internet Moderitis. An excerpt from a New York Times piece on the topic:
Ricky Bess spends eight hours a day in front of a computer near Orlando, Fla., viewing some of the worst depravities harbored on the Internet. He has seen photographs of graphic gang killings, animal abuse and twisted forms of pornography. One recent sighting was a photo of two teenage boys gleefully pointing guns at another boy, who is crying.
YouTube, a division of Google, is an exception. If a user indicates a video is inappropriate, software scans the image looking for warning signs of clips that are breaking the site’s rules or the law. Flagged videos are then sent for manual review by YouTube-employed content moderators who, because of the nature of the work, are given only yearlong contracts and access to counseling services, according to Victoria Grand, a YouTube spokeswoman.
Photo credit: Stephen Mally for The New York Times
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
August 1st, 2010 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Alcohol, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Appetite Control, Calorie Density, Calorie-Dense Foods, Cessation of Smoking, Consumption of Meat, Diet and Exercise, Diet and Nutrition, Diet and Weight, Eating Meat, Eating More Vegetables, Eating Out of Home and Obesity, EPIC-PANACEA Project, Epidemiology, European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Physical Activity, Food and Nutrition, Gaining Weight, Less Physical Activity, Macronutrients, Meat Eaters, Nutrition, Portion Control, Regular Exercise, Self-Reported Weight, Total Caloric Intake, Total Weight, Types of Diets, Weight Control, Weight Gain, Weight Management
No Comments »
A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is reporting an association with eating meat and weight gain. This is a fairly robust epidemiological study, but at the same time is a good example of how such information is poorly reported in the media, leading to public confusion.
The data is taken from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition–Physical Activity, Nutrition, Alcohol, Cessation of Smoking, Eating Out of Home and Obesity (EPIC-PANACEA) project. This is a long-term epidemiological study involving hundreds of thousands of individuals, and is therefore a great source of data. We are likely to see many publications from from it. This one looked at the association of meat eating –- poultry, red meat, and processed meat -– with total weight. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
July 31st, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Biomedical Engineering, Cervical Ring, CervoCheck, Early Detection, Early Labor Detector, Electrical Signals, External Tocodynamometer, Johns Hopkins University, Medical Device, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pre-Term Labor, Pregnant Women, Premature Birth, Preventive Medicine, Uterine Contractions
No Comments »
A team of biomedical engineering masters students at Johns Hopkins have developed a device that they hope will be able to spot oncoming pre-term labor in pregnant women earlier than by using an external tocodynamometer.
The CervoCheck device is meant to be inserted into the vaginal canal/cervical opening where it then can measure electrical signals characteristic of contractions. Prototypes of the device are currently being tested in animals. We sympathize with those who have to insert them into pigs(?). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
