August 4th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
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Say the words, “Patient-centered medical home,” and you’re bound to get a variety of opinions.
On this blog alone, there are a variety of guest pieces critical of the effort, saying it does not increase patient satisfaction, nor does it save money. And that’s not good news for its advocates, who are pinning primary care’s last hopes on the model.
Medical homes hit the mainstream media recently, with Pauline Chen focusing one of her recent, weekly New York Times columns to the issue. She discussed the results of a demonstration project, showing some positive results. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
August 3rd, 2010 by Dr. Val Jones in News, Opinion
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I received this press release and was depressed by the prevalence of lawsuits filed against doctors in this country. More than 40% of physicians are sued at some point in their careers, and the vast majority of these suits are found to be meritless. If that doesn’t make you want to quit practicing medicine, I don’t know what does.
This kind of litigious climate definitely adds to my stress levels — and makes me fearful of caring for very sick and fragile patients who are likely to have poor outcomes, regardless of what I do. Many of my colleagues practice medicine with one eye always looking over their shoulder, wondering when that one bad apple will take them to court in an attempt at a financial windfall.
In Canada, those who bring frivolous lawsuits to court are responsible for all legal costs. Read more »
August 3rd, 2010 by Maria Gifford in Announcements, Better Health Network, Humor, Medblogger Shout Outs, Opinion
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Better Health’s Grand Rounds this week is hosted by the ever-so-crafty Life in the Fast Lane team of Australian physicians at the Utopian College of Emergency for Medicine.
These docs “take great pleasure in sharing their medical experiences, clinical knowledge and insights into waiting-room medicine with health-conscious technophiles to facilitate the learning process by providing diverse and hopefully entertaining reading material.” It’s always worth a read (and a chuckle), no doubt.
With the theme of “Killer Posts” (just a hint — hate to blow the surprise), this edition of Grand Rounds is sure to educate in more ways than one! Experience it HERE.
August 3rd, 2010 by Michael Sevilla, M.D. in Better Health Network, Interviews, News, Opinion, True Stories
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Lots of people know about Twitter and what its many functions are. But Twitter as a lifesaver is probably something that you don’t hear about a lot. Leigh Fazzina was in a triathalon race last week in Connecticut when her bike crashed. Her cell phone could not make any voice calls. However, she did figure out that she could send out text:
3 Twitter accounts, SMS and MMS messages, BlackBerry Instant Message (BBM) and voice. I knew Twitter would get me an immediate response as my messages would be sent to the 1,000 or so people in my network. I also knew that my Twitter network being comprised of mostly healthcare communications/public relations colleagues would take me seriously…Remember, it was getting dark and I needed help immediately…
One of her many followers was @DrJonathan on Twitter and he describes in the video interview above from Doctor Anonymous Show 175, what he and a lot of her other followers did — they called the local authorities to let them know their friend was hurt and could not make a voice call. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Doctor Anonymous*
August 3rd, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Researchers led by bioengineering professor David Gough at the University of California-San Diego have reported, in a paper in Science Translational Medicine, that they implanted a wireless telemetry continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in two pigs (222 and 520 days, respectively) and the device was successfully reporting glucose levels to an external receiver.
Following human testing and FDA approval, devices such as these could replace similar systems that are external to the body with a needle attachment that pierces the skin to take measures. Combined with potential transdermal or intranasal insulin administration, this technology could lead to less sticking and poking of people with diabetes. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
