Blog Profile / Kevin MD Medical Weblog
| URL : | http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Industries / Medical | |
| Posts on Regator: | 10076 | |
| Posts / Week: | 37 | |
| Archived Since: | March 4, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
The dark side of social marketing to physicians
As a Swede, I know all about socialized medicine. I grew up with it and I learned my trade in it. I worked under budget constraints, treatment protocols and formularies in the late 70?s and early 80?s while American doctors were essentially practicing the way they wanted here. I remember one of my surprises when [...]
Think of a soda ban like seatbelts
I’m sad that a New York judge struck down the 16-ounce size limit for sodas and some other sweet drinks. I think Mayor Bloomberg had the right idea. I get that whole personal freedom argument (although the court just said that it was arbitrary and out of Bloomberg’s purview), that this was a “nanny state” [...]
What is the excuse for not taking action on Alzheimer’s?
Having early-stage Alzheimer’s, I get extraordinarily sentimental when I hear the words of songs when I go for early morning walks with my headphones on. Yesterday morning, I heard the song, “Memories,” and some of the lyrics hit my heart, soul and mind. I looked up the lyrics on the Web: “Daylight (and the sun [...]
A proton therapy center opens: A radiation oncologist reflects
When I was a radiation oncology resident in Boston in the early 80’s, a few brilliant minds in physics and medicine came up with the notion that it would be a good idea to treat certain cancers with a beam of protons. Protons are the positively charged particles which are created with a hydrogen atom [...]
English is the second language of medical documentation
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. English is the international language of medicine, according to many. Regardless of whether that is true, what is becoming increasingly clear is that English is the second language of medical documentation. For those of you who blame EHRs for this, the replacement of [...]
Don’t call me a health care consumer
The highly charged political debates about reforming American health care have provided tempting opportunities to rename the people who receive health services. But because the impetus for this change has been prompted by cost and quality concerns of health care payers, researchers and policy experts rather than emanating from us out of our own needs, [...]
Transitional care programs are ripe for innovation
Right now hospitals around the country are being asked to reckon with some stark realities regarding readmissions. $17 billion a year is spent on readmissions for Medicare patients alone, and 75% of those readmissions are considered to be preventable. Of all Medicare patients who are admitted to a hospital, 18 percent will be readmitted in [...]
Family medicine residents need to learn reproductive healthcare
Jennifer was one of my first patients as a new doctor, and she came to see me about an unintended pregnancy. A single mom to a rambunctious 5-year-old girl, Jennifer was struggling economically and battling depression. We talked about the options available to her: continuing the pregnancy and preparing to parent another child, offering the [...]
It’s time to treat mental illness in the ER with dignity
We doctors who specialize in psychiatry have a sacred trust. We are given the opportunity to talk to people who are hurting every day, people who trust that we will listen to them, try to understand them, not laugh at them, and not think that they are stupid, crazy, or horrible. A tall order, granted, [...]
The impact of outdated communications technologies in healthcare
As a physician, I experience first-hand the impact that internal communication at a hospital—both good and bad—has on patient care. If I am able to quickly access clinical systems, analyze patient information and collaborate with colleagues, I can diagnose and interact with the patient much more efficiently and effectively. Conversely, breakdowns and inefficiencies in the [...]
Practice hassles are threatening our profession
Do you know anyone who has tried to find an internist recently? Good luck. Internists are either overflowing with patients, switching to retainer medicine, switching to hospital medicine or quitting. Internists are frustrated, burned out, and unhappy with the external transformation of our wonderful profession. We spend 20 years in school, and then 3 years [...]
Finding a doctor online and researching your physician on the Internet
Part of the KevinMD toolkit series. “How can I find a doctor online?” A seemingly simple question, but patients are often confronted with too much information on the Internet, with variable quality. Finding a doctor a similar to completing a puzzle. Like puzzle pieces, there are many resources available, including word of mouth, hospitals, insurance [...]
Is drug resistant bacteria a major public health issue?
Infectious disease is the most hyperbolic of all medical fields, at least when the media gets ahold of such. Right now we are to fear a new avian influenza virus. Previously there was another avian influenza strain whose outbreak threatened the world and of course SARS and, more distantly, the ebola virus and the threat of bioterrorism. And on the [...]
Top stories in health and medicine, May 23, 2013
Brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. More Evidence Fecal Transplant Clears C. Diff. Fecal transplant for Clostridium difficile infection is a safe and effective treatment and can alter patients’ fecal microbiota to resemble that of donors over time. 2. CT Lung Screens Catch Most Cancers. The National Lung Screening Trial found that CT scans [...]
When patients rely on financial assistance programs for drugs
I had been laid off a few months when my ulcerative colitis kicked in, and my doctor and I struggled to get it under control. After trying a variety of medicines, my health continued to deteriorate and I agreed to take Remicade. Remicade is a potent drug, administered through an IV infusion at the oncology [...]
Why banning curbside consults may not be the answer
Everybody hates curbside consults – the informal, “Hey, Joe, how would you treat asymptomatic pyuria in my 80-year-old nursing home patient?”-type questions that dominate those Doctor’s Lounge conversations that aren’t about sports, Wall Street, or ObamaCare. Consultants hate being asked clinical questions out of context; they know that they may give incorrect advice if the [...]
Why pay for performance saves lives in the UK but not in the US
This past November, the New England Journal of Medicine published results from the “Advancing Quality” program in the United Kingdom: hospitals in the northwest of England were paid up to 4% more based on quality scores for treating several common medical conditions. Patient outcomes were compared to other National Health Service hospitals not eligible for [...]
Is it possible to improve clinical performance without measuring it?
Like it or not, measuring physician performance is now a key part of the conventional wisdom on improving our health care system. Borrowing from management guru Peter Drucker’s mantra “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” health care policy makers have embraced performance measurement as being central to managing our heretofore unmanageable health care system. [...]
One morning I woke up and I wasn’t an intern anymore
One Saturday morning at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center, I got out of a call room bed and realized I had done it. The year everyone dreads, the year everyone says, “you just need to get through” was finally over. I had completed my write-ups on all the patients I admitted overnight. [...]
A surgeon interviews a medical malpractice attorney: Read and decide
My interview series continues, this time with local litigation attorney Andrew Thompson, Esq. The topic this time is medical malpractice. I asked him a bunch of questions. He answered. See what you think. 1. In your opinion, is there a medical malpractice crisis in this country? No. This is not even a close issue. The [...]