From the monthly archives:

June 2006

Why physician salaries matter

June 30, 2006

Orac explains:
When faced with the prospect of taking anywhere from 4 to 12 years to finish training in a specialty so that they can actually practice, during which time they make a pittance in salary and work ridiculously long hours, even with the 80-hour work-week restrictions, more and more of the best and brightest are [...]

47 comments Read the full article →

Screening colonoscopies in Canada: What’s the point?

June 30, 2006

Same old single-payer story. Why have screening guidelines at all if it takes so long to get the test?
Quebecers hoping to be screened for colon cancer are facing up to a year-long wait for diagnostic tests that could save their lives.
That’s unacceptable, Barry Stein, head of the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada, said yesterday.
“You can’t [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Not all drug addicts fit the stereotype

June 30, 2006

Case in point.

10 comments Read the full article →

The "curse" of having a girl in India

June 30, 2006

An Indian BBC correspondent writes:
If our baby is a girl - her arrival is likely to be greeted, by some, with condolences. A friend - delighted with his new daughter soon became infuriated at comments that his home had been cursed with a girl.
“Relatives arrived laden with gifts of sweet meats,” he said. “They cuddled [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

Insurers are starting to cover the HPV vaccine

June 30, 2006

They’d better.

0 comments Read the full article →

How reimbursement woes hurts patient

June 30, 2006

Here’s a real-life example:
If you pay the front-line doctors they will take on the patients who will then have a place to go when they are sick, which will dis-impact the ERs of the country, encourage doctors to practice in rural areas, help stop disease processes before they get to the stage of needing intervention [...]

14 comments Read the full article →

A cure for cancer

June 30, 2006

At least for cervical cancer. A panel unanimously recommended the HPV vaccine for girls aged 11 and 12.

0 comments Read the full article →

The hierarchy of a medical team

June 30, 2006

Right on the money.

0 comments Read the full article →

ATLA: "There is no healthcare crisis"

June 29, 2006

The ATLA president talks about malpractice:
The only places where people have trouble finding an OBGYN to do any procedure are in rural, poverty-stricken areas, where the OBGYNs don’t want to live and practice. I do a lot of obstetrical negligence cases, and the cases seem to come out of poor areas. You see people getting [...]

18 comments Read the full article →

Not enough ER docs?

June 29, 2006

Just throw money at the problem.

0 comments Read the full article →

Six "must-have" medical tests for women

June 29, 2006

I always like to criticize articles on “must-have” medical tests, since they often get it wrong. This one isn’t bad. There is a mistake on the bone-density test recommendation:
All women under the age of 65 should have one, but any post-menopausal women with risk factors should have one.
It should be all women over [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Obese . . .

June 29, 2006

. . . or giant cyst?
A doctor is facing a charge of professional misconduct after allegedly failing to recognise a patient had a giant abdominal cyst.
A tribunal heard he told her she was overweight and prescribed diet pills.
The 44-year-old mother was eventually taken to hospital in severe pain, where a 14.7kg cyst was discovered [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

A mother kidnaps her child looking for alternative therapy

June 29, 2006

The child is in need of a kidney surgery, but the mother wanted to find “other options”:
The case of a mother who took her 9-month-old child on the lam, frantically searching for alternative therapies as state and medical authorities demanded kidney surgery for the boy, unfolded before the public last week like a high-drama television [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

shrinkette is leaving us

June 29, 2006

Sad to see. shrinkette has guest-blogged here several times, and will always be welcome to. She’ll be missed.

0 comments Read the full article →

The top five medical errors in comic books

June 29, 2006

Resident comic book expert/MD Scott takes an annotated look. For instance:
3. You Cannot Shock A Flatline When the heart goes into asystole (a term for when it stops beating and has no electrical activity), the treatment is NOT defibrillation. To restart a non-beating heart, the recommended treatments are CPR, epinephrine, atropine, and transcutaneous pacing. [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Site Meter