April 6th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Droid, Emergency Medicine, iPhone, Politics, Public Health, Technology, What Healthcare Can Learn From The Free Market
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So I have a Droid. I purchased it in July, not long after taking my old flip-phone for an oceanic bath at Hilton Head, SC. I waffled for a long time. In fact, I almost purchased a Casio phone that was marketed as water and impact resistant. ‘Mil-spec,’ was the phrase used…a phrase which appeals to me as a one-time Air-Guard flight surgeon. What it meant to me was, ‘you can’t hurt it.’
Still, I was attracted by medical applications and the assorted other cool things a Droid can do. I mean, my old phone didn’t have a Magic 8 Ball, for crying out loud! More to the point, my old phone didn’t have Epocrates, or the Emergency Medicine Residents Association Guide to Antibiotic Therapy. It lacked a flashlight, an mp-3 player, a protractor and a scientific calculator. (It also weighed a fraction of my Droid, but that’s what belts are for). On my old phone, I couldn’t have taken a photo of an ECG, turned it into a pdf file, and e-mailed it to our fax-impaired cardiologist. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
April 5th, 2011 by admin in Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Acupuncture, Alternative Medicine, CAM, China, Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Popularity, Taiwan
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Everybody’s Doing It
One argument that often comes up when skeptics and proponents of so-called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) debate is the question of the popularity of various CAM practices. Advocates of CAM often claim these practices are widely used and growing rapidly in popularity. Obviously, CAM proponents have an interest in characterizing their practices as widely accepted and utilized. Even though the popularity of an idea is not a reliable indication of whether or not it is true, most people are inclined to accept that if a lot of people believe in something there must be at least some truth to it. The evidence against this idea is overwhelming, but it is a deeply intuitive, intransigent notion that can only rarely be dislodged.
It might therefore be useful to get some idea of whether or not the claims of great popularity for CAM treatments are true. If they are not, fruitless debates about the probative value of such popularity could potentially be avoided, and it might be possible to diminish the allure associated with the belief that “everybody’s doing it.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
April 5th, 2011 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Humor, Opinion
Tags: British, Comedy, Doc Martin, House MD, TV Show, Uncategorized
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No, not the shoes. The British TV series.
Martin is surgeon, whose glittering career comes crashing down around him when he develops a phobia which prevents him conducting operations. He makes a life changing decision to retrain as a GP, and applies for a vacant post in the sleepy Cornish hamlet of Portwenn, where he spent childhood holidays.
Doc Martin is as grumpy, short-tempered and brilliant as House, and while he has no cadre of residents to torture, he does have a town full of varied and wonderful characters to annoy him. And of course, there’s a love interest.
We’ve barely started watching, and already there have been these memorable lines –
Patient – Am I your first official patient?
Doc Martin – You are indeed. Collect a thousand loyalty points and you get a free coffin. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog That Ate Manhattan*
April 5th, 2011 by BobDoherty in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Health Costs, Limiting Coverage, Obamacare, Rationing
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The New York Times reports on Washington state’s efforts to “to determine which medical devices and procedures Washington will cover for state employees, Medicaid patients and injured workers, about 750,000 people in all.” An expert panel, appointed by the state, is getting national attention, writes the Times, “in part because its process is public and open. . . [and] provides a living laboratory of the complexities of applying evidence-based medicine, something that is becoming more common as a way to rein in health care costs.” The American College of Physicians, in its policy paper on Conserving Health Care Resources, similarly called for a transparent process to allocate resources based on evidence: ACP wrote:
“There should be a transparent and publicly acceptable process for making health resource allocation decisions with a focus on medical efficacy, clinical effectiveness, and need, with consideration of cost based on the best available medical evidence. The public, patients, physicians, insurers, payers, and other stakeholders should have opportunities to provide input to health resource allocation decision-making at the policy level.”
So, how is that working out in Washington? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
April 4th, 2011 by PhilBaumannRN in Opinion
Tags: Kevin Kelly, Nursing, Social Media, Technology, What Social Media Wants
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Kevin Kelly wants us to undertand what he calls the “technium” and outlines his life’s work in What Technology Wants. I’d like to riff on the way Kelly uses the word “want” with respect to Social Media, and ask: “What does social media want?”
Social Media wants…
- Your time
- Your attention
- Your friends
- Your brand
- Your business
- Your data
- Your privacy
- Your publicity
- Your location
- Your behaviors
- Your wants
- Your life
There’s nothing wrong with “want” in itself – maybe it’s OK that Social Media wants all these things – and more.
The more critical question, rather, is: What do you want?
As the power of technology increases the number of choices we can make, we will have to intensify our awareness of who we are and where we’re headed.
Whatever Social Media wants, what you want determines how much it gets.
@PhilBaumann
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
