June 24th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Chronic Pain, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Emergency Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pain Crisis, Pain Killers, Pain Medication, Pain Relief, Pain Scale, Pain-O-Meter, Primary Care, Rational Science, Science Based Medicine, Science In Medicine, Treatment of Pain
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Every day in the emergency department I am confronted by pain. In fact, the treatment of pain is one of the most important skills emergency physicians, indeed all physicians, possess.
For instance, I recently cared for a child with sickle cell disease who was having a pain crisis which involved severe leg pain. His life is one of frequent, intense pain. I gently, and repeatedly, treated his pain with morphine until he had relief. I see hip fractures; all broken bones hurt. I am thrilled to alleviate that discomfort. Pain is one of the things I can fix, if only temporarily. It makes me happy to see the relaxed face of a man or woman with a kidney stone or migraine, who suddenly smiles and says “thanks!”
But pain is also the source of so much subterfuge. Emergency department are full of individuals who use controlled substances for recreation. I know because they have pain that is entirely unverifiable. They have terrible right flank pain with no gall-bladder, no pancreatitis, no kidney stone (documented by CT), no pneumonia or rash. They have nothing to cause the pain. And yet, dose after dose of narcotic later, snoring in their ER stretcher, they look up at me with hazy eyes and say, thickly, “Cann I gettt somethinn elsss for paaiin…it hurtssss so…bad. zzzz. Itzzz a tennn.”
So I began to wonder about science and the pain scale. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
June 24th, 2010 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: CAM, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Conventional Medicine, Energy Medicine, Eugenie Mielczarek, Evidence-Based, Informational Medicine, Medical Science, Mystical, Mythical, New Science of Healing, Phenomenon, Physics, Placebo Effect, Pseudoscience, Quantum Theory, Science Based Medicine, The Field, The Living Matrix, Traditional Medicine
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It’s boring to try to ferret out reliable health information from dry medical journals. It’s easier and more fun to watch a movie. A new movie promises to change the way you think about your health. To bring you breakthroughs that will transform your understanding of how to get well and stay well. To share the discoveries of leading researchers and health practitioners about miracle cures that traditional medicine can’t explain.
If this makes your baloney detector light up, good for you!
The Living Matrix: A Film on the New Science of Healing is an atrociously bad movie that falls squarely in the tradition of What the Bleep Do We Know? In his book Nonsense on Stilts, Massimo Pigliucci characterized the “Bleep” movie as “one of the most spectacular examples of a horribly tangled mess of science and nonsense,” and this new movie is more of the same. Bleep was just silly, but The Living Matrix is potentially dangerous because it might persuade patients to make poor decisions about their medical care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
June 24th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Doctors Online, General Medicine, Healthcare Social Media, Internet and Medical Practice, LinkedIn, Social Media In Medicine
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I recently wrote about why doctors don’t use LinkedIn. While the post intended to break down why doctors weren’t inclined to use LinkedIn, I never meant to suggest that it can’t be helpful for practicing physicians.
Enough people messaged me and commented that I feel I should address the issues of doctors and LinkedIn with a broader perspective. So how could LinkedIn be important for the average physician?
1. Dig your well before you’re thirsty. I remember reading Harvey Mackey’s book back in the day which suggested that you should always have options lined up in the event that things don’t work out. Times are definitely changing. Different practice environments and models of care may favor those with an unusual element to their background. The evolution of the healthcare environment may force you to change what you do. Think about your skill sets and what you’ve accomplished — how does that define you? LinkedIn is a good place to showcase that part of you.
2. LinkedIn is one element of your digital footprint that you control. Too many physicians are not concerned with their professional digital footprint. That is, the record of stuff that appears when you conduct a vanity search on Google or Bing. In fact, it’s been suggested that Google has replaced the CV. When I search myself I find interviews and keynotes long forgotten that never made my CV. And unlike other searchable sources, the information on LinkedIn in in your control. Think about LinkedIn as home plate for your personal brand. If you don’t think of yourself as a personal brand, perhaps you should. LinkedIn will force the issue for you. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
June 23rd, 2010 by Richard Cooper, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Family Medicine, Finance, General Medicine, Healthcare spending, IMF, Internal Medicine, Intersecting Fault Lines, Low-Income Families, Poverty, Primary Care Physicians, Raghuram Rajan, Safety Net For The Poor, University of Chicago
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Solutions to problems are generally sought from within the problems themselves. Two recent examples are healthcare and finance. In both cases, the solutions are believed to be better-structured and regulated systems. In blogs, articles and speeches, I have stressed that — while there are myriad ways that healthcare can be improved — the real solutions to high healthcare spending lie outside of healthcare.
Poverty and its associated manifestations are at the core of the healthcare spending crisis. The high costs of caring for the poor will continue to overwhelm the system, no matter how it’s structured and improved. Rather than looking for solutions through changes in process and regulation, the major solutions to healthcare’s excessive spending reside in areas such as K-12 education, neighborhood safety, and the creation of jobs that can lift low-income families from the cycle of poverty.
Simply stated, the U.S. does not and will not have the resources to provide equitable care for those among us who confront inequitable circumstances in every other aspect of their lives. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at PHYSICIANS and HEALTH CARE REFORM Commentaries and Controversies*
June 23rd, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: American College of Surgeons, Depression in Doctors, Doctor Suicide, Doctors Who Smoke, Family Medicine, Fat Doctors, General Medicine, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, Medical School, Overburdened Clinicians, Personal Life, Physician Burnout, Physician Stress, Practicing Medicine, Prescription Drug Abuse, Primary Care, Residency Training, Self-Care, Wall Street Journal, Work-Life Balance
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Do doctors take care of themselves? Sometimes patients may better follow the advice of physicians who aren’t obese and don’t smoke. That was a question asked in a post last year, entitled “When fat doctors talk to obese patients.”
According to studies, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, it’s a mixed bag:
Physicians as a group are leaner, fitter and live longer than average Americans. Male physicians keep their cholesterol and blood pressure lower. Women doctors are more likely to use hormone-replacement therapy than their patients. Doctors are also less likely to have their own primary care physician—and more apt to abuse prescription drugs.
Clearly there’s room for improvement. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
