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Why The French Don’t Go To The Gym

gettinbigwithrivaroxaban 300x187 Work out in a Gym? The French say Sacre Bleu!Like their counterparts in other first-world countries, French people know about the health benefits of exercise. And French culture has emphasized, even worshipped, good looks (which these days translates to “fit and trim.”)

So it’s surprising that the French avoid fitness centers as vigorously as factory-produced croissants. But they do.

According to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, just 5.4 percent of French people were members of a fitness club in 2008. That’s substantially less than their counterparts in Italy (9.5 percent), the UK (11.9 percent), and Spain (16.6 percent).

“It appears that more people are sitting in cafes smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee than working out … the French don’t see fitness as a lifestyle,” American-born fitness consultant Fred Hoffman told MSNBC. Hoffman has lived in Paris for two decades. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*

It’s All the Same: Love The Docs, Hate The System

I’ve spent the last few days with much of our European team, today in Madrid, Spain.

Here are a few quick observations, as the American reform process continues.

1.  Every country’s health care system has developed in the unique circumstances of its history.  That is, the health care system of each country is the result of a collection of changes, fixes, restrictions, reforms, market developments and whatever else has happened over the last several decades.   The result in each country are systems that work better or worse, but which in most all cases are very confusing to the people that work in them or get care from them. Read more »

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

Live Show: March 4, 10:30am EST: Twitter Unites Physicians From Spain And The USA

Will Twitter wonders never cease? I was recently contacted by one of my Twitter followers from Spain – Alain Ochoa Torres, a journalist with Diario Medico (Spain’s leading publication for healthcare professionals).  Alain has spearheaded a creative new social media strategy: the Twitterview. I am the eighth interviewee in a series featured on Twitter. Tomorrow (March 4th) at 10:30am EST I’ll be typing back and forth – live – with Spanish physicians who have questions about American medicine and the media. You can tune in by following me “drval” on Twitter, or by searching for this word on Twitter: #dm8 (that stands for Diario Medico, interview #8).

For those of you who don’t know about Twitter, it’s a micro-blogging platform that is limited to 140 characters per post. That means I’ll have to master the “sound bite” in my interview responses! To see how I do… you can watch the interview live or search for it later on Twitter by entering #dm8 in the search box at the bottom of the Twitter home page.

This is a really innovative use of Twitter technology – and one that brings together physicians from both sides of the Atlantic. I’m really honored and excited to be part of this social media event and hope to do more of them.

And the good news is that this interview will be in English (my Spanish vocabulary is limited to things like “where is the pain?” and “turn your head and cough” – hardly substantial enough for a Twitterview.)

Hope you’ll join the experiment with me.

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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