The woes of chronic pain. Dealing with the pain, untrusting doctors, and federal drug charges:
"I don't think anybody ever thought the war on drugs was going to mean a war on pain patients and their doctors, but that is in fact what it has meant," said Siobhan Reynolds of the Pain Relief Network, an advocacy group that is helping with Paey's appeal.
Paey is a 47-year-old ...
Here's a tip: Don't go to a chiropractor for your hemorrhoids.
A judge allows a demented man to marry. "Davidson County Circuit Judge Randy Kennedy granted permission Tuesday for an 83-year-old man who lost control of his financial affairs because he has a mild form of senile dementia to marry his 48-year-old fiancée."
The next Vioxx? ADHD drugs may be linked to cardiovascular death:
New warning labels may be required on drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder following the deaths of 25 people who died after beginning treatment with the increasingly popular medicines.
The deaths occurred between 1999 and 2003, according to a report Wednesday from the Food and Drug Administration. Nineteen of them involved children. The report also detailed 54 cases ...
A reporter lectures to Vanderbilt medical students about medical blogs. Thanks for the mention. (via Notes from Dr. RW)
This frustrated doctor wants to get back at the system:
As a primary care physician, I've found that the most therapeutic way to combat the horrendous medical climate we practice under is to do your best to bankrupt it. Over the past few years, I've probably quadrupled my ordering of diagnostic testing (up to the point of patient safety) not only to CYA, but also to help financially melt the ...
I have written before that the physical exam is useless in American medicine:
This is why the physical exam is useless in American medicine - it cannot hold up in court. Clinical evaluation and judgment skills now needs to be supported with objective, and often expensive, tests. Here we have a case of three separate physicians who, in their clinical opinion, did not feel a CT scan was warranted. ...
Medical malpractice reform in Georgia: Going too far, or working too well?
Should academic physicians be protected by malpractice caps?
Some northeastern Wisconsin physicians are angered over a discrepancy their Madison colleagues have known for years.
University of Wisconsin doctors have a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering awards for victims of medical malpractice while private physicians do not.
A group of more than 100 specialty physicians at Aurora BayCare Medical Center say UW doctors have an unfair advantage over ...
More malpractice at the VA. The VA primarily serves adult males. This article illustrates an OB and pediatric case - cases that may not be as common in a VA setting.
(via the USA Today)
A 15-year old girl was given 17 potentially deadly radiation overdoses.
JAMA reports that low-fat diets disappoint for cancer and heart disease:
Despite the long-held hope that a diet low in fat and high in fruits and grains could reduce the risk of these ailments, no benefit was found, according to results from the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial.However, Medpundit and retired doc have their doubts about the findings.
The Chinese-equivalent of the FDA approved 10,009 new drugs in 2004, while just 148 medicines were approved in the United States.
Proud to be a Blogging Kevin. Yes, we're taking over the blogosphere.
Want to be in Michael Moore's new movie?
Back to my invitation to be in my movie. Have you ever found yourself getting ready to file for bankruptcy because you can't pay your kid's hospital bill, and then you say to yourself, "Boy, I sure would like to be in Michael Moore's health care movie!"?
Or, after being turned down for the third time by your HMO for ...
Talk about paying for performance. Drug clinics are paying people to stay clean:
There are worse things you can do for money than stay off drugs.
"And I've done them, too," chuckled Allen Price, a 43-year-old methamphetamine addict from Oakland, Calif.
So when a friend told him about a 12-week program in San Francisco that would pay him up to $40 per week just to stay ...
Informed consent be damned. A surgeon is still sued for malpractice after a patient died from a complicated esophagectomy:
Foster said the surgery Sadighi performed requires the esophagus to be removed from below the voice box to the level of the stomach.
The stomach is then tied to the remainder of the esophagus.
He said this type of surgery has been determined to be the ...
A version of this column was published on April 24, 2012 in USA Today. There has been a recent uptick of elderly men...
The following column was published on April 1, 2012 in USA Today. I recently saw a middle-age man in my primary care clinic...
The following column was published on March 25, 2012 in the Nashua Telegraph. Medical malpractice historically has been a contentious issue. Doctors...
The following column was published on April 11, 2012 in CNN. When you visit the doctor, chances are you are given a...
As a cardiac electrophysiologist, I have had to discuss bad news with patients and families more times than I would like during...
He looked dead. The paramedics brought him down the hall toward one of my critical care beds, and for a moment I...
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...
How do you define a “good” doc? I was reading the patient responses to an article here on KevinMD.com and was saddened...
I was honored to be part of a beautiful experience in late January of 2011. It was the death of my mother-in-law...
Theirs is a lonely journey; to be moving towards the separation and end of all things known and loved. Being with a...
As a patient who was asked to speak at the Association of Health Care Journalists 2012 conference, I felt a bit covert....
Nothing will force you to live life on your own terms faster than almost losing it. In 2008, I was on fire....
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." So begins a story called A Tale of Two...
The nation’s “safety net” hospitals are designed to ensure that uninsured, lower income and indigent populations receive adequate medical care – a...
Technology to lower costs rather than accelerate them. Smart phones to increase physician and other providers’ productivity. Fewer primary care physicians but...
It is both conventional wisdom and factual truth that, unimpeded, American healthcare cost inflation will bankrupt the United States economically, educationally, socially,...
Every month, hundreds of thousands of people look for a doctor on Google. As an amazing practitioner, your site deserves to be...
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the physician’s office were the tall cabinets filled with manila folders, tabbed with...
This example of a disaster waiting to happen, in the form of an error-promoting CPOE, is a poster example of why the...
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...
Prior to 1794, farms across the world could only pick cotton as fast as humanly possible. In the late 18th century, Eli Whitney...
Social media in healthcare is all the rage these days. You can’t visit even one physician-oriented website without someone breathlessly advising you...
Want to understand social media? Physicians wanting to learn about social media must learn transparency. We must learn transparency on a personal...
It was my first ER shift in charge of the resuscitation area. Needless to say, my adrenaline and nerves were firing like...
