November 27th, 2011 by EvanFalchukJD in Opinion
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Guatemala is a developing country, with great natural beauty, hard-working people and many challenges. Most Americans look at places like Guatemala and see only the challenges. Some see opportunity.
I’ve just returned from Guatemala, where I met with our business partners, government officials, and others. And I can tell you a universal truth. People across the world want the best medical care they can get. They aren’t looking for the latest technologies and drugs and treatments – or, rather, they aren’t looking only for those things. No, what is most important to whoever I meet, no matter where they live, is that they are able to get the right diagnosis, and the right treatment.
It’s a harder thing to get in some places than in others. Americans don’t realize that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at BestDoctors.com: See First Blog*
November 23rd, 2011 by Berci in Opinion
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For the last 4 years, I’ve been teaching medical and public health students about the use of social media and generally digital technologies in medicine and healthcare and I got a good picture of what kind of medical professionals they would become soon. They represent the new generation of physicians.
Here are my points and observations:
- They are technophile. I remember the time when there was no internet, I remember the first website I first saw online. They were born into the technology and internet-based world. For them, websites, Facebook, Twitter and blogs represent the basics. They love gadgets and devices.
- They are fast. They use smartphones, read news online, follow blogs and know what RSS is, they are familiar with multi-tasking. They are much faster than the previous generations, therefore they need different tools and solutions in their work.
- But they use the technology for Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
November 15th, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in News
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All medical offices must dispose of medical waste in a safe manner. I closed my office at the end of September, but my last medical waste pickup is the first Friday of December. My dear husband is going to open the office and wait for them.
How have you told patients over the years to deal with their medical waste? Needles? Syringes? JP drains they pull out or that fall out before they get back for follow up?
Last week the FDA sent out a press release announcing the launch a new website for patients and caregivers on the safe disposal of needles and other so-called “sharps” that are used at home, at work and while traveling. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
November 6th, 2011 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Opinion
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I saw it begin to happen in the ’90′s. Residents came to rounds with their daily notes produced on a word processor. The notes were impressive. Legible, lengthy and meticulously detailed at first glance.
Then I started to notice a pattern. The impressive notes began to look very much alike. The thorough exam varied little from patient to patient. And problems that occurred on previous days seemed to persist in the medical record, even when it had resolved. In some cases the previous day’s note was printed only to have one or two additional elements added by hand. It was never really clear what was worse: the lack of effort or the illegible writing.
Our electronic health records (EHR) offer similar options. We can smart text our way to clinical efficiency. Some doctors have entire impressions and elements of the history pre-generated for common conditions. These are advertised features of the most common EHRs. Technology can make us look Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
November 5th, 2011 by Berci in Announcements
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There is a new social campaign being launched right now on Webicina.com that curates the medical resources of social media in 80 topics in 18 languages:
We receive hundreds of suggestions from empowered patients and medical professionals every week about which social media resources should be included in our selections, and we thought we must find a way to let them know how much we appreciate their help.
So now we kindly ask you to tell us your story about how social media helped you improve your health management or helped you get better in your specialty in order to win grand prizes.
As we curate resources in basically all the social media platforms, you can tell your story in any platforms from Twitter and Facebook to blogs and Youtube. Your submissions will be Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
