Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary

Latest Posts

“Killer” Grand Rounds From Down Under

Grand RoundsBetter 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.

Grand Rounds From The Shores Of South Africa

It’s not just the soccer world cup that’s on South African shores, but the great Grand Rounds (something that some would say is far more important than the world cup — okay, only one guy would actually say that, and he’s in a psychiatric institution in Outer Mongolia) is also presently hosted in South Africa! Proudly South African!

Time to see what the bloggers have dished up for us this week. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*

Public Health: What’s Digital Got To Do With It?

Better Health’s Dr. Val Jones recently expert-moderated TogoRun’s Digital Capital Week event entitled “Public Health: What’s Digital Got to Do With It?” featuring panelists Susannah Fox of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Maya Linson of the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, and Erin Enke of TogoRun. A capacity crowd in attendance at the Pew Research Center and another group following on Twitter sparked a vibrant online discussion of how health institutions are using social media and how digital innovation is improving public health:

A conversation with Maya Linson about “Public Hospitals and the Social Media Imperative” followed via podcast: 

SOURCE: Unleashed: The Health + Communications Blog

“Less Is More” In Medicine: Why Patients Aren’t Buying It

In a recent article, the editors of the Archives of Internal Medicine make the case that too much unneeded care is being delivered in physician’s offices these days. According to the authors, “patient expectations” are a leading cause of this costly problem.

Their solution? Get physicians to share with patients the “evidence” for why their requests are crazy, wrong, ill-informed or just plain stupid. But getting patients to buy into the “less is more” argument is a daunting task as most physicians already know. The problem is complicated by the fact that patients have a lot good reasons for not buying it. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*

Grand Rounds: Edition 6.34

Grand Rounds logoAs the newly-appointed director of content for Better Health and personal editorial advisor to the infamous Dr. Val, I’ve been given the honor of hosting this edition of Grand Rounds — a weekly summary of the best health blog posts on the Internet.

This week’s submissions cover a nice mix of issues important to health and medicine, which I’m presenting in super-organized, far-from-creative alphabetical order. (Excuse my conservativeness as I’m originally a product of the Mayo Clinic, and even after jumping ship nearly five years ago, I’m still affected due to my unchanged physical location — I’ll find my more liberal social-media sea legs soon, promise!)

From geriatrics to Viagra, PET scans to personality disorders, dentists to American Idol, you’ll find it in this ever-so-tidy session of Grand Rounds.

Best of health,
Maria

GRAND ROUNDS: EDITION 6.34

A Healthy Piece Of Mind puts cancer in the context of the Serenity Prayer: The Audacity Of Trope: Cancer Stories.

ACP Hospitalist reports that the FDA has launched a campaign to help healthcare providers report misleading drug advertising and promotion: Join The Ad Police!

ACP Internist writes that telemedicine is changing the playing field in primary care as internists sign up to diagnose patients over the Internet: Doctors Delivering Diagnoses Online.

Behaviorism And Mental Health shares the idea that it’s wrong to consider certain lifestyles and mindsets as pathological: Personality Disorders Are Not Illnesses.

Colorado Health Insurance Insider blogs about how hospitals that don’t treat Medicaid patients will end up losing money under the new healthcare reform law: Colorado Expanding Access To Medicaid And CHP+.

Diabetes Mine writes about American Idol contestant Crystal Bowersox and how the media has reacted to her having diabetes: Doin’ Her Thing With The ‘Betes.

EverythingHealth offers tips on how to keep kids safe when communicating with others on the Internet: Keeping Kids Safe On Social Networking Sites.

Health AGEnda discusses a recent article calling for improved training in geriatrics for primary care physicians: Report From The Brain Trust.

HealthBlawg tells how electronic health records will soon be required as a condition of licensure for doctors and healthcare centers in Massachusetts: HIT Incentives In Massachusetts: Less Carrot, More Stick.

HealthNewsReview comments on Senator David Vitter’s recent request to have the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services remove breast cancer screening recommendations from its website: Senator Strikes Out By Politicizing Mammography Recommendations.

How To Cope With Pain explains that change is hard and offers the helpful advice of trying “half a habit” at first: Change A Habit Slooowly.

In Sickness And In Health (U.K.) summarizes new research that suggests that Viagra may improve the delivery of chemotherapy drugs in women with breast cancer that has spread to the brain: Viagra Could Help Women Too, But Not How You Think.

In Sickness And In Health (U.S.) writes about couples and illness, describing how other relationships in your life can affect your health or your partner’s health: My Mother, My Partner?

Jill Of All Trades, MD provides a public health doctor’s tips for patients who don’t have health insurance: My Top-15 Resource List For The Uninsured.

Laika’s MedLibBlog highlights research on how lack of sleep can affect your risk for obesity, diabetes and heart disease: What One Short Night’s Sleep Does To Your Glucose Metabolism.

Lockup Doc talks about when non-psychiatric illnesses in people with mental health histories are minimized or dismissed by healthcare providers: Psychiatric Patients With Medical Illness May Not Be Taken Seriously.

MD Whistleblower warns that dentists’ habit of overprescribing penicillin has “serious consequences” for patients: Why Do Dentists Prescribe Antibiotics So Often?

MedInnovationBlog talks about the obsession Americans have with medical technology and how it affects healthcare: Americans And Their Medical Machines.

Mental Notes debunks myths about depression after childbirth and reports on a recent study that used PET scanning to identify new moms at higher risk: What Causes Postpartum Depression?

Novel Patient shares thoughts on facing life’s difficulties and how to keep a positive attitude: Seeing Double.

Nutrition Wonderland presents new research on obesity that helps explain why dieting doesn’t always work as expected: When Cutting Calories Doesn’t Cut It.

Nuts For Healthcare says that “big pharma” should pay attention to significant advances in vaccine development: Vaccines, Vaccines…And How We Got To Provenge.

Supporting Safer Healthcare highlights confidentiality concerns about using portable data devices to store sensitive healthcare information and patients’ medical records: Lost Data Causing “10-Out-Of-10” Pain For Healthcare.

Suture For A Living tells the story of a recent brush with domestic abuse and provides resources to get help if you need it: Domestic Violence.

The Covert Rationing Blog conducts an “intervention” on behalf of two fellow medical bloggers in regards to American obesity, discrimination, and “demonizing” the obese: Defending The Anti-Obesity Movement, Again.

The Examining Room Of Dr. Charles tells the story of how a patient triggered memories of a doctor’s first experience with human anatomy: White Silken Ribbons.

The Happy Hospitalist says one group of physicians at his hospital wants to be compensated for their time on call: Should Hospitals Pay Doctors To Be On Call?

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles