August 3rd, 2010 by Maria Gifford in Announcements, Better Health Network, Humor, Medblogger Shout Outs, Opinion
Tags: Australian Physicians, Best Of The Medical Blogosphere, Better Health, Deadly Aussie Animal, Down Under, General Medicine, Grand Rounds, Heard Around The MedBlogosphere, Killer Posts, Life in the Fast Lane, Medbloggers, Medblogging, Medical Blogging, Medical Humor, Utopian College of Emergency for Medicine
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Better Health’s Grand Rounds this week is hosted by the ever-so-crafty Life in the Fast Lane team of Australian physicians at the Utopian College of Emergency for Medicine.
These docs “take great pleasure in sharing their medical experiences, clinical knowledge and insights into waiting-room medicine with health-conscious technophiles to facilitate the learning process by providing diverse and hopefully entertaining reading material.” It’s always worth a read (and a chuckle), no doubt.
With the theme of “Killer Posts” (just a hint — hate to blow the surprise), this edition of Grand Rounds is sure to educate in more ways than one! Experience it HERE.
August 3rd, 2010 by Michael Sevilla, M.D. in Better Health Network, Interviews, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Emergency Medicine, Leigh Fazzina, Lifesaver, Social Media, Triathalon, Twitter
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Lots of people know about Twitter and what its many functions are. But Twitter as a lifesaver is probably something that you don’t hear about a lot. Leigh Fazzina was in a triathalon race last week in Connecticut when her bike crashed. Her cell phone could not make any voice calls. However, she did figure out that she could send out text:
3 Twitter accounts, SMS and MMS messages, BlackBerry Instant Message (BBM) and voice. I knew Twitter would get me an immediate response as my messages would be sent to the 1,000 or so people in my network. I also knew that my Twitter network being comprised of mostly healthcare communications/public relations colleagues would take me seriously…Remember, it was getting dark and I needed help immediately…
One of her many followers was @DrJonathan on Twitter and he describes in the video interview above from Doctor Anonymous Show 175, what he and a lot of her other followers did — they called the local authorities to let them know their friend was hurt and could not make a voice call. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Doctor Anonymous*
August 2nd, 2010 by Steven Roy Daviss, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: A Doctor's Guilt, Cheaper Healthcare, Cost Containment, Cost of Care, Cost-Conscious Care, Cost-Effective Medical Care, Cutting Healthcare Costs, Expensive Medications, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Healthcare Cost Drivers, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, Medical Ethics, Overtesting, Perscription Medications, Pharmacology, Physician Responsibility, Primary Care, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Save Money, Too Many Tests
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Times are tight and we’re all looking to save money, be it our own or someone else’s. Many will say that when it comes to the skyrocketing costs of healthcare, doctors are responsible for part of the problem.
Doctors order too many tests, either to cover ourselves in the event of a malpractice suit, or because patients pressure us, or because we genuinely believe that the tests are necessary for patient care, but in many circumstances, a cheaper option is available. We order medications that are expensive when cheaper medications are available. And psychiatrists offer care — like psychotherapy — that could be done by clinicians who are cheaper to educate and willing to work for less money. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
August 2nd, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
Tags: General Medicine, Healthcare reform, HHS, Human Subjects for Research, Office of Human Research Protections, OHRP, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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Every time an experiment on human subjects in proposed in our hospital (or any hospital in the United States for that matter), there is an exquisitely sensitive tuning fork that exists to protect human subjects: the investigational review board or “IRB.” Any researcher who has ever brought a research proposal before an IRB knows that any hint of potential harm to a human subject that exists in a research project will kill the proposal faster than you can say “boo.”
An IRB submission is required for all research projects using human subjects in accordance with the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Rights 45 CFR 46, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations 21 CFR 50, 56 , and with the Federalwide Assurance granted by the H.H.S. Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP). Every doctor, nurse, hospital administrator, drug or device company involved in human research knows this. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
August 2nd, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Avoiding Preventive Screenings, Becoming Sicker, Center for Studying Health System Change, Consumer-Driven Healthcare, Cut Back on Doctor Visits, Cutting Corners on Healthcare, CVS, Decreasing Reimbursement for Doctors, Die Sooner, Family Medicine, Fewer Doctor Office Visits, Fixing American Healthcare, General Medicine, Health of Americans, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare reform, Higher Copays, Higher Deductibles, Internal Medicine, Lab Testing, Leaving Primary Care, Less-Aggressive Consumer of Healthcare, Less-Healthy Workforce, Maintenance Medications, More Preventable Health Complications, Not Becoming Healthier, Patient Behavior, Patients Saving Money, Paul Ginsburg, Physician Burnout, Primary Care Crisis, Single-Payer Government-Run System, Skimping On Care, The Perfect Storm of a Worsening Healthcare System, US Healthcare, Wall Street Journal, Work-Life Balance, Worse Quality of Life
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The Wall Street Journal reported that overall medical use fell as patients had fewer doctor office visits, lab testing, and maintenance medications possibly due to the recession or as a result of consumer-driven healthcare in the way of higher deductibles and copays. This is very worrisome.
Certainly patients should have some financial responsibility for their care, but skimping on care will only result in Americans not becoming healthier, but sicker. Though the article cited some examples of patients saving money by not seeing their allergist for a refill of medication and simply calling for one and getting an athletic physical at a local urgent care clinic for $40 rather than $90 at the doctor’s office, these tiny behavior changes aren’t going to bend the cost curve in medical care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
