A doctor responds after being attacked on his views of malpractice
"Malpractice attorneys are in the business of making money, just as are physicians and surgeons. But this is no reason to excuse their inclination to assault practitioners with frivolous lawsuits.
In such instances, arbitration is superior (but not endorsed by attorneys because of money), as is a cap on malpractice awards.
I, too, trained in prestigious ...
September 2005
All Stories
A doctor in the UK is under fire for mistreating a child's asthma
"A sobbing mum yesterday accused a GP of treating her dying son worse than a dog. Heartbroken Michelle Hynes said Dr Julie Mallon refused to accept that eight-year-old Owen Charleston was having a life-threatening asthma attack.
Michelle branded the doctor rude and patronising and claimed that she dismissed Owen's attack as"a wee stushie".
Owen ...
Grand rounds 50 is up
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The effects of the "incidental finding"
The downside of patients demanding evidence-bereft screening tests and scans: "'Increased use of scanning technology raises the likelihood of the 'serendipitous detection' of abnormalities, said Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of the Department of Veterans Affairs in White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth Medical School. 'This is a side effect of our ability to see things so well,' he said, 'and it's a ...
After New Orleans, a doctor ponders about the importance of the physical exam
"Most of us know, when we train as doctors in this country, that along with our phenomenal professional arsenals - our diagnostic tests, our imaging machines, our life-support systems, our wonder drugs and even our not-quite-wonder drugs - comes a certain dependence on the complex web of technical support.
Even in the kind of relatively ...
Looking at situations where religion and medicine collide
"Few medical conflicts are as morally vexing"”or as legally risky"”as when a patient's religious beliefs limit a physician's treatment options. Some fundamentalist Christian patients, for instance, may decide to forgo treatment, preferring to rely on prayer instead. Patients in some sects refuse vaccination; others would refuse an appendectomy, because the body must enter the afterlife with all its organs. Even the ...
Some doctors find it hard to be expert witnesses for the plaintiff
"Eichler said he'd testified numerous times in defense of doctors but he'd never taken the stand for a plaintiff. 'I just don't like doing it,' he said at the time. 'I'm a neurosurgeon, and I would hate to be sued. I think that people always frown upon physicians who testify against other physicians.'"
Another doc talks about his experience in New Orleans
"Paz and his fellow physicians scrambled, ran, power-napped, canoed and treated critically ill patients in the dark, crowded, powerless parking garage. He heard babies and adults screaming during the night after a gigantic explosion nearby.
He watched police run down looters threatening to take hostages at the hospital. He smelled urine, vomit and feces along a line of destitute would-be ...
The Boston Globe examines cultural and language barriers prevent effective doctor-patient communication
"Such cultural misunderstandings and language barriers are quite common between American doctors and their foreign-born patients, causing a host of problems from discrimination and confusion to major medical errors and death. Language barriers and cultural misunderstandings are the main reason, after finances, that immigrants get fewer and poorer quality medical services than US-born English speakers.
Miscommunication can ...
A hospital in London is offering alcohol to patients
"If you thought that hospital stays were the last thing you ever wanted to go through, think again as patients at the North Hampshire Hospital are to be given free booze, in a bid to help them sleep and digest hospital meals.
The tradition of trundling round a drinks trolley is being reintroduced at the hospital after a gap of ...
hospital impact summarizes the recent coverage on the power of physician apologies
A doctor tells of his experience honeymooning in New Orleans during the hurricane
"Worse was the aftermath. The floods outside kept medical supplies from coming in. They were so desperate that in cases of diabetics needing insulin they were even forced to commit a real bugaboo in today's medical world, they had to share the needles.
'Sanitized with a little alcohol wipe and water and then we ...
WebMD has pictures and stories from people around the Gulf Coast
Medscape has resources for scattered New Orleans medical students
"Within the next several days, a new school Web site will be created by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), he said. That should facilitate more official communications.
Meanwhile, medical students have been trying to communicate with each other and with school officials via Internet discussion groups (see links below). One of their biggest concerns is how their ...
A nurse blogs about her experiences in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast
"We created an area just to treat wound care. We had diabetics who had waded through muddy water to get evacuated out, others with cellulitis (bites received while walking through the waters), and people with surgical wounds that were becoming infected. We even had 1 person who was 2-day discharge following a coronary artery bypass procedure. We transported ...
The American College of Physicians has a hurricane Katrina help page
A shock from a Taser stun gun sent a teenager into ventricular fibrillation
"A shock from a Taser stun gun caused a teenager in Chicago to go into ventricular fibrillation, a usually fatal heart disturbance, according
to a letter published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine."
Hurricane Katrina: Friday health roundup
Slate: Are Dead Bodies Really Dangerous?
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told the press yesterday that 'we know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water' and warned that thousands in the city may have died during Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding. Do these dead bodies pose a threat to the survivors? In August 1999, David Plotz explained that decomposing corpses are "only a danger ...
Kevin Pho, MD
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Warren Buffett’s prostate cancer choices aren’t right for every man
A version of this column was published on April 24, 2012 in USA Today. There has been a recent uptick of elderly men...
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Many medical decisions require shared decision making
The following column was published on April 1, 2012 in USA Today. I recently saw a middle-age man in my primary care clinic...
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Patients deserve a medical malpractice early offer
The following column was published on March 25, 2012 in the Nashua Telegraph. Medical malpractice historically has been a contentious issue. Doctors...
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Discussing whether tests actually help patients or cause more harm
The following column was published on April 11, 2012 in CNN. When you visit the doctor, chances are you are given a...
Physician
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How we deliver bad news is critical to how families deal with grief
As a cardiac electrophysiologist, I have had to discuss bad news with patients and families more times than I would like during...
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His father’s suffering had already been too great
He looked dead. The paramedics brought him down the hall toward one of my critical care beds, and for a moment I...
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Diversity provides color to the tapestry of human experience
I was recently appointed the Assistant Director of the Yale Cancer Center with the portfolio of Diversity/Disparities. While I’m not sure I’m...
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Necessary is a word best defined when looking back in time
How do you define a “good” doc? I was reading the patient responses to an article here on KevinMD.com and was saddened...
Patient
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How death can be a beautiful experience
I was honored to be part of a beautiful experience in late January of 2011. It was the death of my mother-in-law...
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What meaningful encouragement can be given to someone who is dying?
Theirs is a lonely journey; to be moving towards the separation and end of all things known and loved. Being with a...
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Health care journalists have tendencies similar to those of doctors
As a patient who was asked to speak at the Association of Health Care Journalists 2012 conference, I felt a bit covert....
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Adaptation can be painful, but it can also be a gift
Nothing will force you to live life on your own terms faster than almost losing it. In 2008, I was on fire....
Policy
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Hospitals around the world aim to remain relevant to patients
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." So begins a story called A Tale of Two...
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Repairing the tear in health care’s safety net with social media
The nation’s “safety net” hospitals are designed to ensure that uninsured, lower income and indigent populations receive adequate medical care – a...
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Look to technology to reduce health costs
Technology to lower costs rather than accelerate them. Smart phones to increase physician and other providers’ productivity. Fewer primary care physicians but...
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How to save a trillion dollars in health care
It is both conventional wisdom and factual truth that, unimpeded, American healthcare cost inflation will bankrupt the United States economically, educationally, socially,...
Tech
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Doctors, use Google to get more patients in less than 7 minutes
Every month, hundreds of thousands of people look for a doctor on Google. As an amazing practitioner, your site deserves to be...
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The user interface for EHRs should be uniform
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the physician’s office were the tall cabinets filled with manila folders, tabbed with...
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EMR liability needs to go further than just the physician
This example of a disaster waiting to happen, in the form of an error-promoting CPOE, is a poster example of why the...
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AMA: Changes are needed in the stage 2 meaningful use EHR proposal
A guest column by the American Medical Association, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Continuing our efforts to move medicine forward while prioritizing patient care and minimizing...
Social Media
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We need to see the potential harm of social media
Prior to 1794, farms across the world could only pick cotton as fast as humanly possible. In the late 18th century, Eli Whitney...
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Why social media may not be worth it for doctors
Social media in healthcare is all the rage these days. You can’t visit even one physician-oriented website without someone breathlessly advising you...
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Transparency defines social media success for doctors
Want to understand social media? Physicians wanting to learn about social media must learn transparency. We must learn transparency on a personal...
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How Twitter was used in a potential mass casualty scenario
It was my first ER shift in charge of the resuscitation area. Needless to say, my adrenaline and nerves were firing like...
