January 29th, 2010 by Michael Sevilla, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Medical Education, Medical Students, Mentorship, Primary Care, Teaching
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“Dr. A, your student is here,” the front desk squawks through the intercom. “Sheesh,” I say to myself as I look at my full schedule of patients. Now, don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy teaching. Something I do know is that I could not do teaching full time. I thought about possibly joining a residency program or exploring the possibility of teaching full time at the med school. But, at this point in my career, patient care is still my passion. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Doctor Anonymous*
January 28th, 2010 by Kimball Atwood IV, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: CAM, Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Distant Healing, ESP, Larry Dossey, Levitation, Paranormal, Pseudoscience, Psychokinesis, Reiki, Telekinesis
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A “Double Standard”?
Last week I had planned to write a comprehensive critique of a recent comment by Larry Dossey. He had posted it on Val Jones’s betterhealth website in response to Dr. Val’s essay, “The Decade’s Top 5 Threats To Science In Medicine,” originally posted here on SBM. Much of what Dr. Val had identified as the top threats involved recent dalliances, by government, medical schools, and the media, with the collection of implausible and mostly nonsensical health claims that advocates have dubbed “CAM.” As uncontroversial as Dr. Val’s assertions ought to have been—similar to suggesting that closing one’s eyes and “using the force” would be a threat to safe driving (even if some might quibble over the top threats to science in medicine)—Dr. Dossey demurred by distraction: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
January 27th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Choice, COPD, Critical Care Medicine, healthcare, Internal Medicine, Personal Responsibility, Physicians, Responsibility, smoking, Spending, Tough Love
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Have you ever stopped bothering to care about a patient? A doctor sent me his own personal account of the smoking Mr Jones:
Dear Happy. I read your article on bounce backs with great interest, and was astonished by some of the vitriol it elicited. I remember having one COPDer bounce back to me three times within a month at the VA when I was a medicine resident. He would leave, smoke and drink, and then come back and be readmitted to my service with exactly the same course each time. It was like Groundhog Day.
Finally I had a little talk with him and said: “Mr. Jones, each time you come in, you’re on death’s door. So I come down to the ER, stay up with you all night and save your life. But you know, I’m really getting tired of having you come in after drinking and smoking and then working like a dog to save your life. So let me tell you, if you don’t quit smoking, the next time you do this there’s a good chance that I’m not going to bother. Why should I? It doesn’t seem to be doing either of us any good.”
To my complete astonishment, he actually quit smoking and stayed quit for about a year. Then he fell off the wagon, deteriorated too far before getting to the hospital and died. I was frankly proud of him for the effort, but somehow suspect that I’d be shot in a drive-by if I ever told that story in public. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 26th, 2010 by PhilBaumannRN in Better Health Network, Expert Interviews, Opinion
Tags: Advertising, AdWords, Google, MyLikes, Nursing, Predictions, Social Media, Technology, Twitter
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Do you advertise on your social networks? You might not think that you do, but every time you tweet or update your status on Facebook or post a picture to Flickr, you’re advertising – perhaps not with commercial or self-promotional intent, but you are advertising something: an item of news, a humorous post or a moment from your vacation. I don’t believe that Advertising is bad; but there is bad advertising, the kind that pointlessly interrupts and annoys and leads to no action.
As the Web expands and evolves from a tangle of static web pages towards social and real time streams, Advertising will need to evolve into a suppler and friendlier animal. Google may have perfected Advertising on the traditional web platform, but the door is open to new players who can socialize advertising. It’s not an easy task: the bull’s eye of targeting customers is getting tinier everyday. Enter MyLikes, a start up which has taken on the task of helping advertisers reach their base. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
January 26th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Dogs, Finding Your Calling, Happiness, Joy, Laborador Retriever, Living Life, Meaning, Personal Choices, Psychology
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One late afternoon, some summers ago, I was at the beach.
I was with our dog, a Labrador retriever. He was playing fetch with a stick I was throwing into the ocean. Every time I threw it, he darted into the ocean to find it. Swimming through the waves, he would get the stick and carry it
back proudly to shore. He would drop it in front of me, shake off some of the water soaking his coat, and stare at me, heaving, begging me to throw it in again.
We did this for a while, and it was always the same. He was joyous. Eventually I had to stop, even though I loved
seeing him that way. He would have kept doing it until he drowned.
I realized something else as I was watching him.
He was so happy because jumping into the North Atlantic to retrieve things is what he was born to do.
Now, people are much more complicated than dogs. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
