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Live Reporting From Haiti: Dr. Paul Auerbach Calls Dr. Val Via Skype

paulauerbachhaiti

Paul Auerbach, MD (far right)

In this extraordinary first-hand account, Dr. Paul Auerbach (he is now the head administrator for NGOs at Port Au Prince’s largest hospital) describes what he has seen on the ground since his arrival one week ago.

[Audio:https://getbetterhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/paulauerbach12410.mp3]

“The floor was covered with bodies. Some were dead, some were alive, some were screaming… There were rows of children with missing limbs… The smell of dead bodies was coming out of the old nursing quarters where the peers of the women helping us lay dead… The Haitian people are the strongest people I’ve ever seen.”

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Dr. Val Tells Lee Aase (At Mayo Clinic) About Her Innovative Primary Care Practice

valabcThanks to my friends at #HCSM (a Twitter group created to spark discussion about healthcare and social media) for inviting me as a guest speaker on their 1 year anniversary. We had a special Blog Talk Radio event, moderated by Lee Aase (Mayo Clinic’s social media guru) and Dana Lewis. Tom Stitt and Meredith Gould were also critical in coordinating programming and technical arrangements.

The goal of the show was to discuss how social media and healthcare intersect – with a diverse group of 8 speakers (from patients, to physicians, to industry and insurance stakeholders). I’ve edited my clip for your listening pleasure (please excuse the technical glitch near the end – you’ll know it when you hear it). The full 2 hour show may be downloaded from Blog Talk Radio.

[Audio:https://getbetterhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/leeaasedrval.mp3]

For more information about my practice, check out DocTalker.com Read more »

Healthcare Engagement: Most Companies Are Not Meeting Employee Expectations

nancyturettEdelman has been a leader in surveying and analyzing consumer health opinion on a global scale. In 2008 they released the results of a Health Engagement Barometer, confirming the public’s strong desire for personal engagement with health experts and peers online and beyond. I clearly remember Edelman’s revelation that medical bloggers (particularly healthcare professional bloggers) are one of the most trusted sources of health information online. That made me feel good.

This time around, Edelman created a new survey (The Health Engagement Pulse) focused on consumer expectations of their employers. The results reflect a further shift away from traditional siloed roles and relationships (where employers have nothing directly to do with healthcare) and a new era of blended responsibility. To understand this shift, I interviewed Nancy Turett, Edelman’s Global President of Health. Please listen to the audio interview or enjoy the synopsis below.

[Audio:https://getbetterhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/nancytourettjan.mp3]

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Are Plastic Products Safe? An Overview Of The Science

bisphenol-a-cp-4695571There has been a lot of media attention surrounding the safety of polycarbonate plastic products containing bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is found in polycarbonate, hard clear plastic products like eye glasses, bicycle helmets, and food containers, and also in epoxy resins that act as protective coatings on everything from food and beverage cans to steel pipes and car engines.

In the next week or so, the FDA is expected to provide a new analysis of the science behind BPA safety. To gain some insight into what the fuss is all about, Dr. Steve Novella and I interviewed Dr. Steven Hentges (Executive Director of the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group of the American Chemistry Council) on a blogger briefing call.

You may listen to the entire conversation here (and please read on for my summary of the issues):

[audio:https://getbetterhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/bpacall.mp3]

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Defensive Medicine: Fear Of Law Suit Or Fear Of Being Wrong?

A thoughtful and (dare I say it) balanced look at medical malpractice in today’s NYT:

Malpractice System Breeds More Waste in Medicine – NYTimes.com

The debate over medical malpractice can often seem theological. On one side are those conservatives and doctors who have no doubt that frivolous lawsuits and Democratic politicians beholden to trial lawyers are the reasons American health care is so expensive. On the other side are those liberals who see malpractice reform as another Republican conspiracy to shift attention from the real problem. […]
The direct costs of malpractice lawsuits — jury awards, settlements and the like — are such a minuscule part of health spending that they barely merit discussion, economists say. But that doesn’t mean the malpractice system is working.

The fear of lawsuits among doctors does seem to lead to a noticeable amount of wasteful treatment. Amitabh Chandra — a Harvard economist whose research is cited by both the American Medical Association and the trial lawyers’ association — says $60 billion a year, or about 3 percent of overall medical spending, is a reasonable upper-end estimate. If a new policy could eliminate close to that much waste without causing other problems, it would be a no-brainer.

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*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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