September 9th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in Health Policy, Opinion
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In a comment left on my blog, Jamie Bearse, the chief operating officer of Project Zero – The Project to End Prostate Cancer, showed how quickly and deeply discussions about screening tests can devolve into ugly rhetoric. Bearse wrote:
“Your comments along with Otis Brawley’s vendetta against the PSA sentence men to die from prostate cancer testing. Shame on you. It’s important to know your score to make a proper diagnosis and decision of if and how to treat prostate cancer. Groups that create screening guidelines for cancer such as American Urological Association and National Comprehensive Cancer Network say get tested. In fact, Brawley is at odds with his own organization. ACS supports testing as well. Otis Brawley has killed more men by giving them an excuse to not be tested. Don’t follow that path just because of your own bad experience.”
I responded:
“Jamie,
My comments policy states that I will delete comments that make personal attacks. You certainly did that with your statement that the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society “has killed” and that he has “sentenced men to die.”
Nonetheless I have posted your comment because I think it’s important for other readers to see how some pro-screening rhetoric so quickly and completely devolves into ugliness.
…
YOU ARE WRONG Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
September 9th, 2011 by PreparedPatient in Health Policy, Opinion
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It’s official now. The government has proposed that descriptions of health insurance policies will resemble those nutritional labels on canned and packaged foods—the ones you look at to find out how much sodium there is in Birds Eye peas versus the A&P brand. Instead of getting the scoop on salt or sugar, shoppers will learn what they have to pay out-of-pocket for various medical services. They’ll also get some general information, like what services are not covered, and how much they’ll have to pay for maternity and diabetes care and breast cancer treatment, all organized in a standard format designed for easy comparison shopping. Insurers will have to translate common insurance jargon into plain English.
The health reform law requires these “Coverage Fact Label” disclosures, and tasked the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) with creating them. The NAIC released some samples a few weeks ago. Theoretically, consumers armed with this information will choose wisely, and as free-market advocates say, their choices will regulate prices that insurers will charge. If consumers choose the low-cost plans, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
September 8th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
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Most patients with major depression require a second medication. A psychiatrist suggests that exercise could fulfill that need, too.
Because most patients with major depression don’t fully respond to just one drug, it’s common to try a second drug or cognitive behavioral therapy. But the rate of non-response in this group is prompting researchers to look for an intervention that most patients could do and that would add to current therapies.
Moderate and intense levels of daily exercise can work as well as administering a second antidepressant drug, as long as Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 8th, 2011 by Michael Kirsch, M.D. in Opinion
1 Comment »
A good friend of mine and Whistleblower reader contracted the sniffles and received a prescription for antibiotics at a local urgent care center. Nothing newsworthy here. So far this quotidian event sounds like a ‘dog bites man’ story. Had antibiotics been denied, this would have been ‘man bites dog’, as this denial would be a radical departure of standard medical practice, particularly in the urgent care universe.
No doubt, my friend was not assigned the dismissive diagnosis of ‘the sniffles’, but was likely given a more ominous diagnosis of ‘acute upper respiratory infection’, a term that sounds so serious that he might have feared that a 911 call had already been made.
Why are antibiotics prescribed so casually and so frequently? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*
September 8th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Opinion
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I think a lot about the slow, certain dissolution of medicine as we know it. Mental health issues crowd emergency departments, as few mental health clinics are available. Psychiatrists are in short supply. Drug abuse overwhelms the medical system, with either patients seeking pills or patients families hoping to get them off of pills.
Persons with little interest in their own health continue to smoke and drink, use Meth and eat poorly. Disability claims are skyrocketing as younger and younger individuals confabulate their misery in hopes of attaining a check, paid for by someone else.
The poor, with genuine medical problems, have increasing difficulty finding care as jobs, and insurance, fade away. Politicians, eager to be re-elected, eager to be loved, promise Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
