July 7th, 2010 by AlanDappenMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays, True Stories
Tags: At-Home Care, Bedbound, DocTalker Family Medicine, Dr. Alan Dappen, Elder care, Family Caregivers, General Medicine, Geriatrics, Homebound, Housecall, In-Home, Internal Medicine, Knee Replacement, Lesion, Nodule, Older People, Opting Out Of Medicare, Osteoarthritis, Primary Care, Referral, Word-Of-Mouth
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One of my patients is an elderly woman who is completely bedbound due to osteoarthritis. Since she’s considered “too old,” she isn’t considered a surgical candidate for a knee replacement. Her son, George, is her caregiver.
George had been referred to our practice through word-of-mouth from a geriatric care consultant. When he called me for an initial visit, his mother had a spot on her left forearm that was growing rapidly. The nodule was red and tender. Both of them wanted a doctor to look at and remove it, and at the house if possible. Read more »
July 6th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Anthropology Studies, Armed Forces, Dictatorship Governments, Forensic Medicine, Geographic Variability, Hair Proteins, Hydrogen And Oxygen Isotope, IsoForensics, Isotope Ratio, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Security And Intelligence Services, Travel Habits, Travel History, University of Utah, War Crime Investigations, Water
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Researchers at the University of Utah and IsoForensics, Inc. in Salt Lake City have demonstrated that water can potentially be used as a tracer to determine the travel habits of individuals.
Because of the natural geographic variability in the hydrogen and oxygen isotope content of water, proteins within hair should contain evidence of these ratios and therefore act as signatures as to where someone has traveled. The current study has shown that the geographic source of tap water, bottled water, beer, and soda can be distinguished simply by measuring the isotope ratio of the water within these drinks.
In our opinion if the technology pans out for real-world use, IsoForensics has a bright future with dictatorship governments, security and intelligence services, armed forces, and maybe even some legitimate forensic causes such as war-crime investigations or even anthropology studies.
Abstract in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry: Links between Purchase Location and Stable Isotope Ratios of Bottled Water, Soda, and Beer in the United States
Image credit: David Hannah
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
July 6th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: Big Pharma, Buy Doctors Lunch, Commercial Support, Drug Companies, Drug Rep Lunches, Drug Reps, Gary Schwitzer, General Medicine, Health Journalism, HealthNewsReview.org, Industry-Supported Medical Education, Misinformed, Misleading, Naive, Pharma-Paid Lunches, Pharmaceutical Companies, Pharmaceutical Reps, Pharmacology, Slate.com
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“Appetite for Instruction: Why Big Pharma should buy your doctor lunch sometimes” is the headline of an article on Slate.com that has upset many readers. I’m not terribly upset about it because it just seems too naive and misinformed to get upset about. The final line of the piece tells you all you need to know about the tone of the column:
“Ousting commercial support is creating a huge chasm in medical education, leaving doctors not only hungry but also starved for knowledge.”
A number of online comments were posted in reaction to the piece. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
July 6th, 2010 by DavedeBronkart in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Amanda George, Cancer Journey, Cancer Patients, Cancer Survivors, Dave deBronkart, ePatient Dave, Health and the Internet, Oncology, Online Health Communities, Online Tools, Patient Empowerment, Patients in the Internet, Person-Centered Health, Psychology, Social Networks, Take Control Of Your Illness And Treatment, ThinkAboutYourLife.org
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I love this — a website that could’ve ONLY been created by cancer patients. From ThinkAboutYourLife.org:
Find empowerment: Anything you can do to feel like you are taking control of your illness and treatment will help you. Think About Your Life was developed by cancer survivors. We have used the tools on this website in our own experiences, and we hope to inspire you do the same.
This website provides easy-to-use tools for each stage of the cancer journey to help you:
- Process your thoughts and feelings: Elizabeth shared the “Good Day, Bad Day” tool with her family to tell them how they could help her throughout treatment.
- Take control and make decisions: Amanda used her “One Page Profile” with her doctor to discuss the impact of treatment on her life.
- Think about the “what now” and the “what next”: The “Hopes & Fears” tool helped Susan think about the next few months of her life after treatment.
I learned about the site from its creator, Amanda George, who commented on a recent post about person-centered health. Hot diggety. Don’t you just love how the Internet lets us connect with each other and share ideas?
*This blog post was originally published at The New Life of e-Patient Dave*
July 5th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: ACEP, American College of Emergency Physicians, Angela Gardner, Anoxic Brain Injury, Appropriate Care, Combat Veteran, Diversion Of Narcotics, Doctor-Patient Trust, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Drug Databases, Drug Overdose, Drug Seekers, Drug-Seeking Patients, ED, Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Room, ER, Medication Refills, Micropopulation, Narcotic Dependence, Op-Ed, Opiates, Pain Killers, Pain Police, Patient Safety, Patient-Physician Relationship, Permanent Vegetative State, Prescription Drug Abuse, Trust But Verify, U.S. Navy, USA Today
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I don’t know what’s going on with American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) lately, but it’s disheartening. Their abdication of responsibility and engagement during the healthcare reform debate was depressing. Then there was a rigged poll designed to elicit a predetermined result. Now I see a bizarre op-ed piece in USA Today entitled “Opposing view on drug addiction: Don’t make us ‘pain police'” and authored by ACEP President Angela Gardener. An excerpt:
The patient-physician relationship is sacrosanct, demanding candor and trust. In the emergency department, trust is built in nanoseconds because patients and doctors do not have prior relationships. Knowing that any pain prescription will be entered into a large, public database might prevent patients from being truthful, or in the worst case, from seeking needed care. … As an emergency physician, I can assure you that the drug abusers who use the emergency room simply to get a prescription drug fix represent a micropopulation of the 120 million patients who seek emergency care every year in the USA. … Put bluntly, if legislators have money to spend, they should spend it where it will do the most good for our patients, and that is not on drug databases.
I really don’t know what to say, other than to wonder whether Dr. Gardner and I practice in the same United States in which abuse of prescription drugs is growing exponentially and in which “drug-seeking” patients are a part of each and every shift worked in the ER, where deaths due to overdoses of prescription medications are on the rise, and where diversion of narcotics is a serious and growing problem. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
