December 16th, 2009 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Opinion
3 Comments »
Are gifts for doctors appropriate in the physician-patient relationship? Or should doctors refuse all offerings of gratitude that come their way?
Patients often give gifts to doctors as an appreciative sign of great thanks for for the care they provide. Some years I may go unappreciated for my efforts. Some years I get thanked for a job well done for spending time with the patient and their family. Some years I have patients that hate me. Some years I even I have patients that hate me and love me. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
November 4th, 2009 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Some physicians may be hesitant to participate in social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter.
Well, get over it.
Great post by pediatrician Bryan Vartabedian who addresses this topic. Indeed, physicians have lost control of the online message, especially with, according to recent data, 60+ percent of patients visiting the web first when looking for health information.
Instead, anti-vaccine proponents and homeopaths have embraced the Internet, and now exert tremendous influence on patients. We doctors have no one to blame but ourselves for being so slow to get online. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
October 29th, 2009 by Peter Lipson, M.D. in Better Health Network, Quackery Exposed
1 Comment »
Dr. Weil is often seen as the smiling “mainstream” of alternative medicine. He’s a real doctor (unlike, say, Gary Null), and much of what he advocates is standard and uncontroversial nutritional advice. But Weil illustrates the two biggest problems with so-called alternative medicne: once you’ve decided science is dispensible, the door is open to anything, no matter how insane; and no matter how altruistic you may start, sooner or later you start selling snake oil. Most doctors out there are working hard to help their patients prevent and overcome disease use the available evidence. Others decide that science is too constraining and start practicing at the periphery of knowledge, throwing plausibility and ethics to the wind.
The fact that Weil claims to donate to charity all of his ill-gotten gains does not mitigate the harm he causes. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
October 20th, 2009 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Opinion
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This year the topic of Blog Action Day is climate change, so I have decided to briefly mention the link between population control/contraception and climate. This connection is finally getting attention again. It was discussed when I was in college in the 70’s but became a political hot potato when China limited the number of children their citizens could legally have.
My roommate in college, KB, was an environmental science major. She and I had many discussions (arguments) over how many children a family should have. My mother had 8 children. I also had two half-siblings from my father’s first marriage and 5 step-siblings. She came from a family of 2 children. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
October 19th, 2009 by CodeBlog in Better Health Network, True Stories
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He knew she was angry with him.
“Whenever I come to see her, I reach out and take her hand, but she looks away.”
Husband and wife for well over 50 years, they had been through a lot. They met in another country in another time, and to hear him tell it, it almost seemed fated that they’d end up together. Since then, they’d moved many times, raised a family, supported each other through myriad illnesses. They were growing old together.
Unfortunately, “growing old together” doesn’t always work out like we hope it will. Diseases and illnesses ravage our bodies; dementia ravages our brains. She’d long ago given up on their little garden in the backyard. It was her favorite hobby, but she couldn’t manage it anymore. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
