April 21st, 2010 by AlanDappenMD in Better Health Network, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays, Research
Tags: Comprehensive Healthcare, DocTalker Family Medicine, Dr. Alan Dappen, General Medicine, GPS, Health Monitoring, Nutrition, Primary Care, remote monitoring, Telehealth, Telemedicine, U.S. Healthcare System
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Today, in a bold and not too distant place, 300 individuals who are at high risk for multiple health problems predictive of high mortality rates, are participating in a visionary experimental project for telemedicine and health monitoring.
Every day these individuals are tracked through GPS location. Their movement patterns and whereabouts easily can be observed by trained technicians who ascertain that the individuals are getting up and going about their daily activities in a normal fashion. Deviations in movements for any expected individual can be the earliest indicator that something has gone seriously wrong and might warrant an investigatory call or visit to look into a developing heath problem.
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April 21st, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Government Health Insurance, Medical Degree, Medical School, Medical Specialty, Medical Student, Nurse Practitioner, Physician Assistant, Primary Care Doctor, Primary Care Shortage, Speciality Practice, Specialty Care, Three-Year Primary Care Physician
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It’s well documented on this blog that the primary care shortage will only worsen once most of America has access to affordable health insurance.
As I wrote in a recent op-ed, not only will there a shortage of primary care physicians, but nurse practitioners and physician assistants won’t alleviate the problem either, mostly because they are also enticed by the lucrative allure of specialty practice. Enter the three-year primary care physician. Apparently, the fourth year of medical school was deemed expendable. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
April 20th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Emergency Medicine, General Medicine, Healers, Healing, Internal Medicine, Janet Cathey, Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society, Mothers in Medicine, Physicians' Experiences, Receiving End of Medicine, When Doctors Become Patients
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In my office mail this morning I found my medical school classmate, Janet Cathey, looking back at me from the front of the lastest issue of the Journal of the Arkansas Medical Society. Her photo was linked to an article entitled “When Healers Need Healing: Physicians’ Experiences on the Receiving End of Medicine.”
I knew that Janet had been injured in a car accident last summer. I have tried reaching out to her with notes, etc. She had “closed” herself off from me and many others trying to reach out, so it was nice to see the report on her.
Janet had a busy gynecology practice prior to the accident. I heard that she had since retired due to the back injury sustained in the accident. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
April 20th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Congress, Healthcare Legislation, Healthcare reform, Medicare, Medicare Claims, Obamacare, Physician Payment Cut, President Obama, SGR, Sustainable Growth Rate, U.S. Senate
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Once again, Congress is playing with fire by not enacting a permanent solution to the Medicare SGR (sustainable growth rate) physician payment cut problem.
Congress got itself tied up in knots trying to figure out a way to reverse a 21% cut in Medicare payments to doctors that went into effect yesterday. It ended up agreeing to legislation, which was signed into law late Thursday evening by President Obama, to restore payments to the pre-cut (2009) levels through the end of May.
The action, though, may have come a dollar short and day late. CMS has indicated that it had no choice but to tell carriers to begin processing claims with the 21% cut, starting yesterday. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
April 20th, 2010 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, Book Reviews, Opinion
Tags: Belief-Based Medicine, Breakdown, CAM, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Evidence Based Medicine, General Medicine, Homeopathy, Jon Queijo, Medical Breakthoughs, Medical Discoveries, Medical History, Medical Literature, Medical Mysteries, Modern Medicine, Natural Medicines, Naturopathy, Science Based Medicine
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In his new book Breakthrough! How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World, Jon Queijo describes what he believes are the 10 greatest discoveries. Nine of them are uncontroversial discoveries that have been on other top-10 lists, but his 10th choice is one that no other list of top discoveries has ever included.
Queijo realizes this, and even admits in his introduction that a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine refused to review his book because there is no such thing as alternative medicine, only treatments that work and treatments that don’t. But he “respectfully disagrees.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
