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

Latest Posts

A Clinic For Diarrhea And International “Travelers?”

Diarrhea ClinicI’m not sure what country this photo was snapped in, but the clinic owners were smart enough to help international travelers seek care for traveler’s diarrhea. There’s no beating around the bush on this one. If you’re in this waiting room staring at strangers, they’re all going to know why you’re there.

Diarrhea Clinic — that’s simple brilliance. That doctor needs to be hired by the ACP and SHM and ABIM to help us answer questions like “What is an internist?” and “What is a hospitalist?” For these doctors, everyone knows exactly what he does — no questions necessary.

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

When A Patient Outgrows A Childhood Disease

At a [recent] session on caring for adult survivors of pediatric diseases, Bradley J. Benson, FACP, and Niraj Sharma, FACP, had some interesting statistics to share.

For example, more than 90% of children with a chronic or disabling health condition are expected to live more than 20 years, meaning they’ll eventually need an internist’s care, and every year more than 500,000 children with special healthcare needs turn 18.

As Dr. Sharma noted, “We’re not talking about a handful of folks.” Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*

Solving The Primary Care Crisis: Are We Training Enough Doctors?

In a few years, every American will be required to have health insurance. As a result, the 32 million people currently uninsured will seek out a personal physician. This role typically is filled by a primary care doctor, like an internist or a family physician.

While passage of the healthcare reform bill affirmed the belief that having health insurance is a right rather than a privilege, the legislation falls short on building a healthcare system capable of absorbing the newly insured.

Universal healthcare coverage is not the same as providing universal access to medical care. Having an insurance card doesn’t guarantee that individuals can actually get care. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*

What To Do When Your Patient Wants To Leave The Hospital Against Your Better Judgment?

When a patient decides they are leaving against medical advice what responsibility does the physician have to their care?  When I was a resident in training, and even early on in my position as a hospitalist, I would get a call from the nurse that  Mrs Smith was demanding to leave the hospital against medical advice.  I would tell the nurse “Fine. Let her go. I’m not her father.”  I would tell the nurse to discharge Mrs Smith with no medications and leave it up to them to find follow up.

I would suspect this is a prevalent attitude for many hospital and emergency based physicians.   I’ve seen it over and over again.  And I still see it today.  Many doctors and nurses feel obliged to let grown men and women make poor decisions.    However, being a grown man or woman able to make poor decisions is apparently not enough to keep a doctor for being sued and losing that lawsuit because a patient chose to make poor decisions.   Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at A Happy Hospitalist*

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