July 25th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Better Medical Care, Cost Vs. Quality in Medicine, Denied Healthcare, Doctors Are Falliable, Enough Is Enough, Evidence Based Medicine, Evidence-Based Guidelines, Expensive Treatments Are Best, General Medicine, Health Affairs, Healthcare Quagmire, Healthcare reform, More Care Is Better, Retain Healthcare Consumers, Substandard Care, US Healthcare
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A new survey in the journal Health Affairs synthesizes nearly everything I believe is wrong with the U.S. healthcare system. The survey found that patients believe that more care is better, that the latest and most expensive treatments are the best, that none of their doctors provide substandard care, and that evidence-based guidelines are a pretext for denying them the care they need and deserve.
Sigh.
Until we can retrain consumers (that would be all of us) to understand that in medicine more is NOT better, that evidence-based guidelines may translate in some instances into less but better care, that doctors are falliable and should be questioned, and that the cost of a treatment has nothing to do with the quality, we will never get out of the healthcare quagmire in which we find ourselves.
Your thoughts?
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine, Health Care, and the Writing Life*
July 24th, 2010 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: Academic Sites, Commercial Sites, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Health and the Internet, Health Content, Health Information on the Web, Health On The Net Foundation, HON, Individual Sites, Internal Medicine, Internet-Based Health Information, Medicine and Healthcare Online, Online Health Information, Patients in the Internet, Primary Care, Quality Health Information, SBM, Science Based Medicine, WebMD
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Recently some Science-Based Medicine (SBM) colleagues (David Gorski, Kimball Atwood, Harriet Hall, Rachel Dunlop) and I gave two workshops on how to find reliable health information on the Web. As part of my research for this talk I came across this recent and interesting study that I would like to expand upon further: Quality and Content of Internet-Based Information for Ten Common Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Diagnoses.
The fact that the article focuses on orthopedic diagnoses is probably not relevant to the point of the article itself, which was to assess the accuracy of health information on the Web. They looked at 10 orthopedic diagnoses and searched on them using Google and Yahoo, and then chose the top results. They ultimately evaluated 154 different sites with multiple reviewers for quality of content and also for their HON rating. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
July 24th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: American Users, Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, East Coast, Harvard Medical School, Health of Americans, How Words Make People Feel, Mood of the Country, Mood Scores, Nation's Mood, National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH, Northeastern University, Psychiatry, Psychological Health, Psychological Word-Rating System, Psychology, Public Mood, Tweets, Twitter, U.S. Health, West Coast, Word Analysis
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A team from Northeastern University and Harvard Medical School has been analyzing words used in tweets by American users in an attempt to gauge the public mood around the country.
What they discovered was that users on the West Coast seem to be quite a bit jollier than those on the East Coast. It’s not clear whether the data was collected during the summer or winter months and accordingly adjusted, for that surely would affect the readings.
Researchers were able to infer the mood of each tweet using a psychological word-rating system developed by the National Institute of Mental Health’s Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention. The system ranks words based on how they make people feel. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
July 24th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Caffeine, Coffee, Fetal Health, Miscarriage, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pregnant Women, Preterm Birth
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The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued a statement that moderate caffeine consumption (<200mg/day — about a cup of coffee) does not increase a woman’s risk for miscarriage or preterm birth. The review of recent studies was published in Obstetrics and Gynecology and should reassure women about drinking coffee when pregnant.
Caffeine does cross the placenta, but there was no difference found between the moms who drank caffeine while pregnant and those who did not.
If you wonder how much caffeine is in certain drinks or foods, click here.
One fact the study did not mention is that many women have a natural aversion to coffee when they are pregnant. Maybe nature knows best.
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
July 22nd, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Aesthetic Surgery Journal, Cosmetic Surgery, Dermal Filler, Facial Plastic Surgery, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Kathleen Stegman, Maxillofacial Surgery, Midwest Medical Aesthetics, Orthopedics, Plastic Surgery SmartBrief, Platelet-Rich Fibrin Matrix, PRFM, PubMed, Selphyl, Skin Rejuvenation, Skin Volume, Soft Tissue Regeneration, Twilight Movie, Vampire Craze, Vampire Facelift
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I first saw mention of the “vampire facelift” two weeks ago as a news article listed in the July 9th issue of the Plastic Surgery SmartBrief: “Vampire facelift” uses patient’s platelets and fibrin in dermal filler.”
The article begins:
Instead of a traditional facelift, patients are being offered another option to get rid of wrinkles. It’s called Selphyl or the “vampire facelift,” and it uses a person’s own blood to sculpt the face.
Selphyl, according to the company’s website:
The patented SELPHYL® System enables the safe and rapid preparation of an activated Platelet-rich Fibrin Matrix (PRFM). A small volume of the patient’s blood is collected and the platelets and fibrin are concentrated during a simple centrifuge process. The resulting product (liquid, gel or membrane) can be applied to a treatment area of the face or body to stimulate natural, new tissue growth. SELPHYL® prepared PRFM has been shown to increase skin volume and rejuvenation.
SELPHYL® ensures a preparation of fibrin and platelets, with virtually no red or white blood cells. Studies have shown these platelets to be viable and intact. Platelets will release proteins, which have been reported to trigger cell migration, proliferation and differentiation over time.
With over 45,000 procedures performed world-wide, this technology has been extensively used for soft tissue regeneration in plastic surgery, orthopedics and maxillofacial surgery.
So how does Sephyl create any face-lifting effect? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
