People are dying because of emergency room waits
11 percent of patients leave the ER because the waits were too long (8 to 9 hours in Ontario). A case in point was a 24-year old with meningitis. After waiting 8 hours without being seen, she went home and later died.
These problems are not confined to Canada, but reflective of a larger problem.
A hospital is urging patients who had recent colonoscopies to get tested for hepatitis and HIV because the instruments may not have been disinfected adequately
One instrument you want to be sure is disinfected properly would be a colonoscope.
A doctor was sued after penis lengthening surgery ruined the patient's libido
"Eric Neuberger, 31, contends his pre-operation libido let him 'engage in intercourse approximately 30 to 50 times a month.'
But his sexual appetite was destroyed by Dr. Rodney Barron's work, Neuberger said."
Not sure that phalloplasty commonly causes a decreased libido. Any urologists care to comment?
Another case of PML hits the MS drug Tysabri
PML is a rare demylinating disease that occurs in 6 per 10 million patients. This is the third case that is associated with Tysabri. Investors are not happy.
An alternative medicine physician is in trouble for prescribing steroids to football players on the Carolina Panthers
"A South Carolina doctor accused of writing steroid prescriptions for three players on the Carolina Panthers says he prescribes the drugs only when medically necessary.
Dr. James Shortt, an alternative practitioner under investigation by federal and state officials, said in Wednesday's editions of The Charlotte Observer that he prescribes steroids only ...
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A student is saying many of his colleagues graduating from Pennsylvania medical schools may move to neighboring states because of the rising cost of malpractice insurance
The malpractice situation is affecting new graduates as they become more attuned to the current crisis.
Today is National Doctors Day!
"* The first Doctors Day observance was March 30, 1933, in Winder, Ga. The idea came from Eudora Brown Almond, wife of Dr. Cha Almond, and the date was the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery. (On March 30, 1842, Dr. Crawford Long of Barrow County, Ga., used ether to remove a tumor from a patient's neck.)
* The Barrow ...
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"I will not treat you and I don't need this shit."
The response of a physician in South Africa who refused to treat a patient with HIV.
No surprise, the neurologist who testified that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state is under constant fire
"He's called some doctors who disagree with him 'pro-life fanatics,' and others quacks and charlatans.
No legitimate neurologist in the world, he says, would look at the evidence in this case and dispute that Terri Schiavo is in a permanent vegetative state."
People who rely on their primary-care doctor to coordinate their health-care needs fare better than those who don't
"In addition, having a long-term relationship with a doctor resulted in fewer hospitalizations and other reductions in health-care costs, the researchers found."
"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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