A lawyer uses his background as a doctor to recruit Vioxx plaintiffs. However, Overlawyered looks deeper at this shady marketing:
The newspaper asks medical ethicist Arthur Caplan about Goldstein's "selective use of parts of his medical background to recruit legal clients". Caplan's response: "I think it's sleazy".
More are searching for a doctor by affinity group:
Several Web sites can help consumers find doctors and other health care providers with specified characteristics, including race, religion and sensitivity to sexual orientation.
The sites -- which list physicians who are African American, Christian or "gay- or lesbian-friendly" -- are putting a new spin on affinity-group marketing, a tactic usually associated with insurance or real estate sales.
"We ...
Via Grand Rounds, Dr. Charles talks about being sued:
But instead of hearing his words I only saw them twisted and misrepresented by a phantom lawyer pouring over my notes, even as I presently jotted them down in the chart. The lawyer was fat, sweaty, and angry as he sat his corpulence upon my shoulder to see what I was writing. I recognized him from daytime television commercials on ...
The Boston Globe reports on the "flying ICU", which evacuated the wounded ABC newscasters from Iraq:
"What you saw is why these two guys are alive, and why so many of our soldiers are still alive," said Dr. Laurence Ronan, a Massachusetts General Hospital internist who was on the flight that carried Vogt and Woodruff out of Iraq. "It is amazing, cutting edge medicine."
A nursing home employee raping a 92-year old demented resident is not medical malpractice.
A physician on futile end-of-life care: ". . . the health care equivalent of Hail Mary passes."
I often wonder what medical malpractice is like overseas. Here's a story of medical malpractice in Japan:
"We are at war with hierarchical, old-fashioned Japanese society," says Doctor A. "But we are doctors so it is our responsibility to put the dignity of patients first."
Mr. Cummings was operated on by doctors using a relatively new neurosurgery procedure called endovascular coiling, which involves threading a catheter from a ...
Are children of scientists more prone to autism? "The recent rise in autism may have been driven by the tendency of like-minded engineers, physicists, mathematicians and other 'systemizers' to marry each other, according to a Cambridge University professor."
NY Times: "The homeless die at twice the rate of other New Yorkers, and AIDS and substance abuse account for a third of all their deaths but fewer than 5 percent of deaths in the general population, according to the study released yesterday."
Feds drop fraud case after physician dies. How thoughtful of them.
E-mails from a military doctor in Iraq:
"These guys don't complain," the doctor wrote. "They only ask over and over, 'How is Sgt. Smith doing?' or 'When can I go back to work?' These guys are true heroes. I am so lucky to be a part of taking care of them."
Below, we had the lawyer's view. Now we have the reality:
Rashelle Perryman's first two babies were born at Crittenden County Hospital in Marion, Ky., about 10 minutes from home.
But her third child, due in June, is to be born in Madisonville, 40 miles away in Hopkins County, because rising malpractice-insurance rates caused doctors at Crittenden County Hospital to stop delivering babies last year.
That forced ...
"Blaming the lawyers is just killing the messenger." Medical malpractice as viewed by the trial lawyers.
Changing his story: Frist tries to defend his tele-diagnosis of Terri Schiavo.
The American Academy of Dermatologists doesn't agree with the black box warning on Elidel:
"The AAD is very disappointed with this ruling by the FDA," AAD spokeswoman Abby Van Voorhees, MD, tells WebMD. "We don't think the science supports this harsh labeling. The link to cancer was not proven, and the data shows these medications to be quite safe."
Eczema patients -- and their doctors -- are going ...
A physician turns his practice into a brothel. "Neil Benson, who shut his Coopers Beach practice in April last year, plans to call the new business venture Whalers.
He said he would hire 'professional girls' from outside the region and cater for locals and visiting tourists.
He admitted his plan was contentious, but said there had been 'a lot of support from the men in the community'.
RIP primary care? Regular readers of this blog already know this:
Primary care -- the basic medical care that people get when they visit their doctors for routine physicals and minor problems -- could fall apart in the United States without immediate reforms, the American College of Physicians said on Monday.
"Primary care is on the verge of collapse," said the organization, a professional group which certifies internists, in ...
Banning cell phones in hospitals may do more harm than good. "The prohibition against mobile phones in hospitals may do more harm than good, a new report reveals.
Medical facilities prohibit cell phone use, but some doctors already use them. And it turns out they reduce medical errors because communication is more timely, a new study finds.
Mobile phones rarely cause electronic magnetic interference, Yale School of ...
The Year of the Dog:
Dogs are born under the sign of idealism and no matter what size or shape they come in, a Dog's honesty and loyalty is there for all to see. Whether a stray down on his luck or a Cruft's champion of champions, the eternally touching expression in a Dog's eyes is invariably ...
A pedicatrician is sued for "behavior modification therapy":
The malpractice suit, filed Thursday in King County Superior Court by an unnamed plaintiff, accuses Schnall of improperly prescribing psychiatric medication and conducting "behavior modification therapy" in an attempt to groom the patient, now 16, for sexual contact.I've never heard of psychiatric treatment to "groom" a teenager for sexual contact. Perhaps the psychiatrists who read this blog can educate me.
Ovarian cancer screening clearly touches a nerve. No one doubts that ovarian cancer is a devastating diagnosis, often found when the disease...
According to a recent study from the Archives of Internal Medicine, primary care physicians are referring more patients to specialists than ever...
One of the reasons there is such a movement against vaccines is the democratization of information, perpetuated by search engines like Google....
In a widely circulated CNN article, many radiologists have been found to cheat on their board exams: "Doctors around the country taking an...
I've only had to declare death a couple of times. Once in a three-year-old and once in an adult. In each case...
Billionaire Teddy Forstmann had been diagnosed with a serious form of brain cancer. There’s a tragic twist to the story: according to...
One of the things I love about family medicine is that I get to care for people of all ages. I almost...
I just finished reading George’s recent post on Evelyn Lauder, who recently passed away from ovarian cancer, and am still stirred by...
Here is a toast to the miracle of love. Not to the romantic, chocolate, dance club nightlife type of love. Not warm...
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet...
One morning this May, I woke up with a stiff neck. I applied hot and cold therapy all day and took an...
Visiting someone who is dying or critically ill is an experience many of us will have in the course of our lives....
A guest column by the American Medical Association, exclusive to KevinMD.com. This week, I’m joining hundreds of physicians and medical students in Washington, DC...
Everyone in the world is talking about “value-driven health care.” Or so it might seem if you pick up a medical journal...
CNN recently posted an article titled "Doctors Going Broke." It described several cases of independent physicians who are near bankruptcy although they once...
One of the things that I like most about my job is engaging with ACP’s physician leadership—the internal medicine doctors who dedicate...
As a follow-up to my post on why patients with implantable defibrillators should have access to their device’s data, I am going...
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reviewed the emerging role of email in healthcare, arguing that doctors should more aggressively...
Paul Conslato, MD, director of clinical affairs for Lancaster General Medical Group, recently was quoted in the PAMED Better Health Network eZine...
Don’t get me wrong, EMRs (electronic medical records) are inevitable. Over the long-run they are almost certainly good for physicians, patients and...
I have decided to spam for public health. Phone calls, text messaging, and even apps have been shown to help improve health...
Does your medical practice allow anybody to post links and comments on your Facebook page? The short answer is yes. We do....
As a physician, technology cannot replace you, but it can make you more efficient and effective. This was the message from Richard...
Looking ahead to the next several months, I’ve found myself frequently wondering how many physicians will make this their year to take...
