January 2nd, 2012 by PreparedPatient in Opinion
1 Comment »
“We’re Listed With the Plumbers Now”
Angie’s List can help you locate a reputable handyman. Yelp can push you in the direction of the perfect restaurant for your anniversary dinner. Amazon’s consumer reviews can even help you choose the TV that will fit in the corner of your den. So why wouldn’t you turn to the Internet to find your next doctor?
39-year-old Jennifer Stevens did just that when she needed an obstetrician for her first child. Not wanting to reveal her pregnancy too soon by asking friends for suggestions for a good OB, she turned to the Web for more information on potential physicians. She soon found that a lot of the information she needed to make this important decision was missing. “A lot of sites gave stars, but I didn’t really know what those stars meant. I just wasn’t comfortable picking an OB based on that kind of vague information,” she said.
Lindsay Luthe, a 30-year old Washington, D.C. resident, consulted the popular ratings website Yelp after asking her friends to recommend a physician. “I perused the reviews for this particular doctor and saw how positive they were. Those reviews, combined with my friend’s personal recommendation, led me to make an appointment with the doctor. I think I even used the contact info on the Yelp page to call the office,” she said.
The success of physician ratings websites—such as HealthGrades, or RateMyMD, among many others—has been mixed. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
January 2nd, 2012 by EvanFalchukJD in Health Policy, Opinion
No Comments »
How Did My 2011 Predictions Turn Out?
Pretty well, actually.
As predicted last December, there was no big change to health care reform, doctors still didn’t have enough time with their patients, Microsoft (disclosure: Microsoft is a Best Doctors client) made moves to create a “Windows” for electronic health records, and “ACO” became the hot buzzword in health care. Some state governments started major redesigns of their benefits programs, saving money in the same ways private sector employers do. Meanwhile, more than ever, private sector employers are penalizing employees who don’t take care of themselves.
Misdiagnosis finally started to be recognized as a public health problem. At Best Doctors we got a great deal of press coverage in 2011 on this (for a few examples, go here, here, here, here and here). I will sneak in a 2012 prediction and tell you that you will hear a lot more about this this year, and not just from us.
What did I get wrong? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at BestDoctors.com: See First Blog*
January 2nd, 2012 by Michael Kirsch, M.D. in News, Opinion
No Comments »
A hundred bucks doesn’t buy much these days. A crisp Ben Franklin can be exchanged for
- 50 Big Macs
- A Broadway show ticket
- A night in a New York City hotel (just joking)
- A college textbook (paperback)
- Your life
Your life? Yes, 5 crumpled Andy Jacksons can save your life, as was reported earlier this year in a front page article in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s only daily newspaper. University Hospital is now offering a $99 spiral computed tomography (CT scans) of the chest in individuals who are at increased risk of developing lung cancer. The rationale is that if cancers can be detected early, then the cure rate for surgical removal is very high.
Gary Schwitzer, medical blogger and press watchdog, tries to bring some balance to the distorted media coverage of CT lung cancer reportage.
The test is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*
January 1st, 2012 by BarbaraFederOstrov in Health Policy, News
No Comments »
Medical Marijuana: Advocates are pushing forward a California ballot initiative that would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement to oversee the state’s burgeoning industry, Lisa Leff reports for the Associated Press. We’re imagining the snacks at board meetings.
Health Reform: California Healthline’s Dan Diamond highlights five health reform issuesfor reporters and policymakers to watch closely in 2012. First among them: the Supreme Court review of health reform’s constitutionality.
Medicare: Scammers create intricate webs of Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing*
January 1st, 2012 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Opinion
No Comments »
Online resources for tummy tuck information suffer with a great deal of misconception. Even surgeons may disagree regarding choosing between different tummy tuck operations for a given patient. Reduced cost, pain and extent of surgery tend to push patients toward lesser surgery. These days “less invasive” is a popular selling point. As my practice has progressed, however, I have found the satisfaction rate of mini tummy tuck to be too low to support doing many of them. I do “minis” only in rare circumstances these days.
Mini tummy tuck surgery corrects much less than more involved full versions of the operation. If there is any significant looseness above the belly button, the mini will not address it much. If there is any more than a tiny bit of excess skin, the mini will not touch it much at all. The feeling of having been “under corrected” is common after mini tummy tuck surgery. If patients are unhappy with the results of a mini tummy tuck it is not always possible to Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
