September 15th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
No Comments »
Newly minted MDs face student loans the sizes of mortgages and might go 18 months without an income if they try to start up their own practice. And although in the words of one student, “Medicine shouldn’t be treated like a business,” physicians still have to operate their practices like one.
That’s resulted in one doctor facing a half-million in operating expenses every year in Manhattan. A half-dozen other new physicians describe their first years in practice in these two profiles, while a third details how Leslie Saltzman, ACP Member, took advantage of some resources on hand and guidance from ACP’s “Running a Practice” section to quickly grow her solo practice into a full-service resource for women’s health. (New York Post, Kaiser Health News, ACP Internist)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 14th, 2010 by Berci in Announcements, Better Health Network, News
No Comments »
I got the honour to be included in the list of the top 5 [Twitter] doctors in medicine published by The Independent. The list was based on Twitterdoctors.net which uses the Klout algorithm for determining the influence of tweeting doctors:
TwitterDoctors.net updates hourly the influence of doctors tweeting based on their activity, RTs (retweets) and followers. The site began its list at the end of July and boasts “1287 doctors with more joining every day” from around the globe including Australia, Belgium, India, UK, Jamaica, Japan, Colombia and the USA.
On September 7, the top five most influential doctors are:
1. @DRoftheVaJayJay
2. @drdrew
3. @brontyman
4. @Berci
5. @hrana
It doesn’t mean that much, but it’s good to know people like the content I share day by day.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
September 14th, 2010 by Shantanu Nundy, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
No Comments »
The science of nutrition is changing and not in the way you might expect. After years of “reductionist” thinking — where food has been viewed as the sum of its parts -– a call to treat food as food has been sounded. No more poring over nutrition labels to calculate grams of fat or chasing down the latest go-to chemical –- be it vitamin E, fish oil or omega-3. Instead we are being asked to call a potato a potato and a piece of steak — well, a piece of steak.
If you haven’t heard about this sea change yet, you are not alone. The food science industry that markets “food products” for our consumption has done a good job giving their laboratory creations a semblance of health with phrases like “low fat” and “high in vitamin C.” For our part, the medical community is also to blame. Despite evidence to the contrary, we have been slow to renounce the “fat is bad” mantra or break away from the nutrient-based approach to eating that first swept the country over 30 years ago. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at BeyondApples.Org*
September 13th, 2010 by DavidHarlow in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
No Comments »
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released an advisory opinion at the end of last month okaying a hospital’s proposal to provide insurance pre-authorization services free of charge to patients and physicians. This is an issue that has long vexed folks in the imaging world.
Clearly, this is a free service provided to referral sources (to the extent they are obligated by contract with third-party payors to obtain the pre-authorization before referring a patient for an MRI, for example), so why is the OIG okay with it? In their opinion, the OIG blesses the arrangement for four reasons. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*
September 13th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion
No Comments »
New England Patriots NFL quarterback Tom Brady was on his way to practice when he crashed into a minivan which allegedly ran a red light. His Audi S8 car T-boned the other vehicle a few blocks from his home. A relieved New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft noted after the accident:
“[Tom] arched and prepared himself and we’re just lucky with the glass and angles. We have a lot to be thankful for. It was really a miracle…We’re very, very lucky. Patriot Nation is lucky he had his seatbelt on.”
Was it simply luck or good car design and mechanical engineering? Crumple zones and the passenger cage of a car when built for maximum safety decrease injury. Yet, unfortunately, there is significant variability among safety in cars. Brady walked away from the accident for a variety of reasons.
As a future hall of fame quarterback, Brady has lightning fast reflexes when analyzing defensive blitzes and options when throwing the football. Quickly bracing himself for impact may have helped. Wearing a seatbelt definitely helped. What may have helped the most was the type of car he drove. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
