Dr. Lei feels health blogs should be held to a higher standard:
We're not just blogging about the next generation of iPods or the latest celebrity to make a fool of himself. We're blogging about life and death.(via The Haversian Canal)
December 2005
All Stories
Imagine going in for a day procedure and being charged for the medications they give you there.
Kidney patients from the West are being lured to China by a group offering them new organs taken from executed prisoners. "It is thought that as many as 10 British patients may have gone to China this year to receive a new kidney, at a cost of approximately US$40,296."
Is the FDA on a black-box blitz? "The number of drugs given so-called "black box" warnings by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has more than doubled in the past year as concerns over the safety of everyday medicines continues to mount.
The dramatic increase in safety concerns from America's medicines watchdog comes as more than 10,000 patients prescribed Vioxx press ahead with lawsuits against Merck, the drug's ...
A mother who refused life-saving treatment to protect her unborn baby has died from cancer. "The doctors told her you are going to have to terminate the baby to receive the treatment."
A mistrial in the most recent Vioxx case. Some say this is not a good sign for Merck:
Legal analysts had predicted that the case would be decided in Merck's favor because the patient in question had taken Vioxx for barely a month. The mistrial points to some jurors' willingness to trace serious health problems to even short-term use of the drug, raising concerns for Merck as it faces ...
Dr. Charles: "How to Stand In for the Doctor - A Primer for the Layperson".
"I'm salivating at the notion." So says Mark Lanier in the wake of Merckgate.
An orthopedic surgeon chooses not to practice in Guam . . . since it lacks liability caps. "My decision is pending the cap. To be honest, I am looking at other possibilities. If it takes too long, I'll have to pick something else."
Liability risk is causing a shortage of ER docs in Florida. ". . . if your health-care emergency doesn't qualify as trauma - as most do not - you might be better off in Broward, Miami-Dade or other counties that unlike Palm Beach have large public hospitals where emergency room doctors are more plentiful. Public hospitals typically offer doctors sovereign immunity from lawsuits, so they don't have to worry about ...
Doc wanted. "In a new twist to the territory's doctor shortage, a man has resorted to newspaper advertisements in his hunt for a family physician.
Philip Gibson said he took out the ad in the Whitehorse Star because he has been searching for a family doctor for nearly a year and is still no closer to finding one."
Merckgate update
It seems that the lead author is off the hook:
A Toronto doctor does not appear to be involved in deleting heart attack data about Vioxx from a study that helped put the arthritis drug on the market, says the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Gregory Curfman, who on Thursday published an "expression of concern" about inaccuracies in the study, said yesterday that two of ...
Uh, that's the point: "According to the survey, more than 70 percent of those enrolled in consumer-driven programs said their plans made them consider costs when deciding to see a doctor or fill a prescription compared with fewer than 40 percent of those enrolled in traditional plans, which had lower deductibles."
The Vioxx jurors can't come to a consensus verdict.
Consumer Reports publishes its "drugs of last resort". "The drugs and drug types with undetected or underestimated risks at the time of approval are sold under many names and include -
- Celebrex, a pain reliever - Crestor for cholesterol - the contraceptive Depo Provera - Elidel and Protopic for eczema - Isotretinoin for severe acne - Lariam to prevent malaria - Meridia for weight loss - Ovide for ...
Dr. Do-Right Eric Topol is demoted. "The hardest thing in the world is just trying to tell the truth, to do the right thing for patients, and you get vilified. No wonder nobody stands up to the industry."
CancerDoc thinks something here doesn't pass the smell test:
It's pathetic. At my institution, many of the professors put up this stance that they are so pure and intellectual. However, ...
The oral HIV diagnostic test is showing an alarming rate of false positives in San Francisco. "Forty-seven people who tested positive after using the OraQuick Advance HIV test in city clinics were not infected at all, the San Francisco Department of Public Health said this week."
The face transplant patient signed a movie deal about her groundbreaking surgery.
Snowy
Should be about 10 inches today.
The HIV skeptic sure picked a winner to back her up. "In recent weeks, Maggiore has been touting a report by toxicologist Mohammed Ali Al-Bayati, who practices in Dixon, Calif., that concludes that Eliza Jane died of an 'acute allergic reaction' to amoxicillin. Less than two days before she died, she was given the drug to treat what Maggiore said was an ear infection. Al-Bayati's 44-page report, dated Oct. 25, ...
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...
