November 9th, 2011 by Michael Kirsch, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Congress, Enterprises, Hospitals, Large medical institutions, Medical Liability, Medical Malpractice, New York Times, premiums, Private Practice, Reform, Self-Insured, Solo Practice, Sued, Tort Reform
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With regard to physicians’ support for medical malpractice reform, the times they are a changin’. These iconic words of Bob Dylan, who has now reached the 8th decade of life, apply to the medical liability crisis that traditionally has been a unifying issue for physicians.
The New York Times reported that physicians in Maine are going soft on this issue, but I suspect this conversion is not limited to the Pine Tree State. Heretofore, it was assumed that physicians as a group loathed the medical malpractice system and demanded tort reform. The system, we argued, was unfair, arbitrary, and expensive. It missed most cases of true medical negligence. It lit the fuse that exploded the practice of defensive medicine. Rising premiums drove good doctors out of town or out of practice.
What happened? The medical malpractice system is as unfair as ever. Tort reform proposals are still regarded as experimental by the reigning Democrats in congress and in the White House. The reason that this issue has slipped in priority for physicians is because Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*
November 9th, 2011 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Botulinum toxin injections, Chemical peel, Cosmetic Surgery, DIY, Do it yourself, Plastic Surgery, Popular, Safe
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It seems that DIY plastic surgery as a theme is becoming popular. A month or so ago I was contacted by a producer in the UK about submitting images of some DIY plastic surgery types who found their way into my office. Assuming, like much of my mainstream entertainment bits, that they don’t end up on the cutting room floor, they should be featured in a show sometime in the future.
Now the OC Register’s “In Your Face” blog is reporting on some new reality television shows looking for some fresh DIY plastic surgery talent…meaning you. A pretty scary post for Halloween.
This topic begs the question (scariness aside) as to whether or not there is ever any safe DIY plastic surgery?
The answer, of course, is conditional like most things in life: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
November 7th, 2011 by AnneHansonMD in Opinion
Tags: Civil Rights, Crime, Discussion, Juvenile offenders, Law, Mental Illness, Pete Earley, Peter Ash, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopathy, Sovereign Citizen, Violence
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Regular readers know that every year I tweet and blog from the conference of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law. This group of forensic psychiatrists consists of about 1800 of the country’s practitioners. Topics are quite diverse and sometimes rather unusual. It’s a lot of fun. Here’s just a small smattering of factoids I picked up last week:
- The “sovereign citizen” defense can prompt a competency eval, but is not a delusion. The sovereign citizen movement is a recognized subculture of people who believe the government has no jurisdiction over them.
- Of 200 defendants cleared by DNA, one-fourth had confessed to the crime.
- According to FBI uniform crime reports, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
November 7th, 2011 by Mary Lynn McPherson, Pharm.D. in Opinion, Research
Tags: Addictive, CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Death, Drug Abuse, Fatal, Ibuprofen, Institute of Medicine, Medications, Naproxen, Narcotics, National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Opioids, Overdose, Pain, Pain Management, PainSafe Alliance, Prescriptions
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The overdose death rate from prescription opioids, referred to as “narcotics”, has reached “epidemic levels” in the US according to a report just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report further states that the intentional misuse and abuse of popular opioids such as OxyContin, Vicodin, methadone and others now cause more deaths than those caused by heroin and cocaine combined.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC Director told reporters that “Narcotics prescribed by physicians kill 40 people a day.” He continued by stating “Prescription painkillers are meant to help people who have severe pain. They are, however, highly addictive.”
The report states that increased prescribing of pain medications by doctors is a significant cause of this growing number of deaths. However, the situation is far more complicated than this report presents. Poor pain management and prescription drug abuse has become Read more »
November 6th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Cut-And-Paste, Documentation, Efficiency, EHR, Electronic Health Record, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, Laziness, Medicine, Pen and paper, Regulations, Technology, Thorough
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I saw it begin to happen in the ’90′s. Residents came to rounds with their daily notes produced on a word processor. The notes were impressive. Legible, lengthy and meticulously detailed at first glance.
Then I started to notice a pattern. The impressive notes began to look very much alike. The thorough exam varied little from patient to patient. And problems that occurred on previous days seemed to persist in the medical record, even when it had resolved. In some cases the previous day’s note was printed only to have one or two additional elements added by hand. It was never really clear what was worse: the lack of effort or the illegible writing.
Our electronic health records (EHR) offer similar options. We can smart text our way to clinical efficiency. Some doctors have entire impressions and elements of the history pre-generated for common conditions. These are advertised features of the most common EHRs. Technology can make us look Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
With regard to physicians’ support for medical malpractice reform, the times they are a changin’. These iconic words of Bob Dylan, who has now reached the 8th decade of life, apply to the medical liability crisis that traditionally has been a unifying issue for physicians.
