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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?

A Transparent Healthcare System: What’s More Clear?

Congressional democrats want more transparency in healthcare, believing it would further drive down the cost of care, reports Politico.

Hoping to drive competition, some lawmakers are grumbling to force doctors to reveal business negotiations between them and drug and device makers. Opponents worry that manipulating economics would backfire. If everyone knows their competitor’s business, why bother negotiating lower prices?

But transparency worked for Wisconsin’s hospitals, not in business dealings but in reporting outcomes, reports The Fiscal Times. By voluntarily revealing clinical outcomes on the Web, the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality was able to spur low-performing hospitals to improve, high-performing facilities to eliminate tests that didn’t improve outcomes, and create an informed healthcare consumer with choices where to receive care.

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*

Cutting Healthcare Costs Means Saying “No” To Patients

Let’s face it, the best way to cut healthcare costs is to say “no.” That means denying unnecessary tests that most patients in the United States are accustomed to having.

The New York Times‘ David Leonhardt has the best take on this issue that I’ve read. He acknowledges the difficulty of telling the American public “no,” and cites examples ranging from the breast cancer screening controversy to the managed care backlash in the 1990s:

This try-anything-and-everything instinct is ingrained in our culture, and it has some big benefits. But it also has big downsides, including the side effects and risks that come with unnecessary treatment. Consider that a recent study found that 15,000 people were projected to die eventually from the radiation they received from CT scans given in just a single year — and that there was “significant overuse” of such scans. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*

Saving Primary Care: What Will It Take?

“Bold changes are needed in how the United States delivers and pays for primary care if the key goals of national health reform are to be achieved,” according to the health policy journal Health Affairs, which has released a thematic issue devoted entirely to the crisis in primary care.

(The complete articles are available only to subscribers, but Health Affairs’ blog has a good summary.)

I have spent much of the day reading the journal — 47 articles, and a combined 300 pages of text. Here are my “take-home” messages from the articles. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*

Why Creating Healthcare “Consumers” Won’t Work

I [recently] gave a speech at the Midwest Business Group on Health’s (MBGH) 30th Annual Conference. The MBGH is one of the country’s leading organizations on healthcare, and its members include the leading innovators and thought leaders on healthcare in America. It was a privilege to present to them.

I spoke about why healthcare just isn’t a consumer business in spite of all of the effort to turn people into healthcare “consumers.”

At Best Doctors, we have a closeup view of what happens to people when they try to find their way through the healthcare system. It’s not a pleasant picture. Healthcare consumers –- if you can call them that –- are often lost, confused, frustrated, alone. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*

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