September 15th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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Please see my post on Clinical Psychiatry News and yesterday’s post What’s in a Note? along with the reader comments.
One reader asked why it’s weird to want to see your shrink’s notes and why shrinks refuse to show them on the grounds that they may distress the patients. Another reader asked why doctors write “patient denies” as though they don’t believe the patient. These are both great questions worthy of their own post.
Why don’t psychiatrists like to show patients their notes? Are they really going to “harm” the patient? There are a few reasons why a psychiatrist may not want to show a patient her notes. Here is my list of thoughts as bullet points. Please feel free to add to it. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
June 27th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
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People aren’t dumb. Even if — or maybe especially if — news stories don’t point out the limitations of observational studies and the fact that they can’t establish cause-and-effect, many readers seem to get it.
Here are some of the online user comments in response to a CNN.com story that is headlined, “Coffee may cut risk for some cancers“:
* “I love how an article starts with something positive and then slowly becomes a little gloomy. So is it good or not? I’m still where I was with coffee, it’s all in moderation, it ain’t gonna solve your health woes.”
* “The statistics book in a class I’m taking uses coffee as an example of statistics run amuck. It seems coffee has caused all the cancers and cures them at the same time.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
April 21st, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
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The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog says that cancer lab tests “aren’t always right.” They report on reports issued by two professional societies that point out that as many as 20% of a certain kind of test are inaccurate. According to the Health Blog the problem is the tests “aren’t black and white, and rely on a pathologist’s judgment.”
Now, judgment is a critical factor in most everything in medicine, but perhaps nowhere else are the consequences of incorrect judgment so serious as in pathology. As Dr. William Osler famously observed: “As is your pathology, so goes your clinical practice.” But how widespread is this problem? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
Please see my post on Clinical Psychiatry News and yesterday’s post What’s in a Note? along with the reader comments.
