November 3rd, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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Next week, it will be my turn to write our article for the Clinical Psychiatry News website. Over there, we try to have our writing more specifically aimed at an audience of psychiatrists. I’m going to be writing an article on Siri and the Psychiatrist….in honor of my new iPhone 4s and the “personal assistant” function named Siri. Okay, I’m obsessed. Everyday, I find new things it can help me with. Today, I asked it, “What’s the meaning of life.” What, you don’t ask your cell phone the finer existential questions? Siri answered, “All available evidence suggests chocolate.” Wow! How old is Liza Minelli? 65 years, 7 months, 20 days. Calculate a tip? No problem. Convert Celius to Fahrenheit? A cinch. And she takes dictation. “Siri, please text Patient A Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
November 2nd, 2011 by MotherJonesRN in Health Policy, Opinion
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Lillian Wald was a famous nurse activist and writer. She’s my role model. Lillian stood up for the little guy by providing health care to the poor, and she advocated for social justice during the Gilded Age. For those of you who may not know, the Gilded Age was a time of great wealth for a fortunate few in America. You might call these people the original 1%. Wall Street bankers and robber barons were buying politicians and running amok while building vast fortunes off the backs of the working poor. Sound familiar? It’s funny how history has a way of repeating itself.
I believe that Lillian Wald, the founder of public health nursing, would support the Wall Street Occupation if she were alive today. Lillian didn’t wring her hands when someone needed help. She got her hands dirty. I bet she would be encamped with the protesters, caring for the sick and blogging about Occupy Wall Street events. Nurses working the frontlines at the Occupy Wall Street protest rallies report that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*
November 2nd, 2011 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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On November 8, Mississippians will be voting on ballot amendment 26 , the so called “Personhood Amendment” that if passed, would declare a fertilized egg a person.
The question at hand is, would the Personhood Amendment be used to outlaw contraception?
Dr. Freda Bush, an Ob-Gyn and spokesperson for the Personhood amendment in Mississippi, seems to think it will not. In a press conference in support of the amendment in September, she stated this –
The personhood amendment will not ban the use of hormonal contraceptives.
The video of this press conference is being used to reassure voters about the intent of amendment 26. And yet the information Dr. Bush presents about contraception and the amendment stands in complete contrast to that which the personhood movement itself has presented. Here is the standard “talking point” on contraception from personhood sites at states across the country seeking to pass similar amendments – Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Blog That Ate Manhattan*
November 2nd, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Research
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I happened to see this press release from American Society of Nephrology via Eurekalert regarding an article in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN) advocating the safety of kidney donation in individuals over 70 years old. The press release does note that kidneys from these elderly donors do not last as long as those from younger living donors.
Currently, as noted on the University of Maryland Medical Center website:
Donors need to be between the ages of 18 and early 70s and can include parents, children, siblings, other relatives, and friends. An ideal donor should have a genuine interest in donating and a compatible blood type with the recipient.
Donors should be in good general health. Donors do not need to be Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
November 2nd, 2011 by KennyLinMD in Health Policy, Opinion
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Last month, my family was involved in a scary traffic accident en route to the Family Medicine Education Consortium‘s North East Region meeting. I was in the left-hand eastbound lane of the Massachusetts Turnpike when a westbound tractor trailer collided with a truck, causing the truck to cross over the grass median a few cars ahead of us. I hit the brakes and swerved to avoid the truck, but its momentum carried it forward into the left side of our car. Strapped into child safety seats in the back, both of my children were struck by shards of window glass. My five year-old son, who had been sitting behind me, eventually required twelve stitches to close a scalp laceration. Miraculously, none of the occupants of the other six damaged vehicles, including the truck driver, sustained any injuries.
Family physicians like me, and physicians in general, like to believe that the interventions we provide patients make a big difference in their eventual health outcomes. In a few cases, they do. But for most people, events largely outside of the scope of medical practice determine one’s quality and length of life, and Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Common Sense Family Doctor*
Next week, it will be my turn to write our article for the Clinical Psychiatry News website. Over there, we try to have our writing more specifically aimed at an audience of psychiatrists. I’m going to be writing an article on Siri and the Psychiatrist….in honor of my new iPhone 4s and the “personal assistant” function named Siri. Okay, I’m obsessed. Everyday, I find new things it can help me with. Today, I asked it, “What’s the meaning of life.” What, you don’t ask your cell phone the finer existential questions? Siri answered, “All available evidence suggests chocolate.” Wow! How old is Liza Minelli? 65 years, 7 months, 20 days. Calculate a tip? No problem. Convert Celius to Fahrenheit? A cinch. And she takes dictation. “Siri, please text Patient A Read more »
