From the monthly archives:

October 2006

Surprise! Tobacco-sponsored anti-smoking ads don’t work

October 31, 2006

And may actually encourage youths to smoke. Devilish reverse psychology from the tobacco industry.

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Is Exubera Pfizer’s white elephant?

October 31, 2006

It’s starting to look that way. It didn’t really stand a chance.

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Saw III causes a theater to call EMS three times

October 31, 2006

The film was too horrific for some.

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A hospice patient is stabbed to death

October 31, 2006

Apparently by a family member. Tragic.

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Newsflash: The majority of patients are non-compliant

October 31, 2006

50 to 75 percent don’t follow their doctor’s instructions:
Either they don’t fill a prescription, or they don’t change a dressing, or they forget to take their pills, or they fail to follow instructions in some other way. Even more surprisingly, the people with the chronic problems, such as high blood pressure, have the highest non-compliance [...]

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Lufthansa’s new selling point: "There is a doctor on board"

October 31, 2006

80 percent of flights have a doctor on board.

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Claudia Henschke fails evidence-based medicine 101

October 31, 2006

She is a proponent of CT-scans for early lung cancer detection, and doesn’t get that randomized-controlled studies are the only standard. The rules can’t be rewritten for her cause:
“I don’t get what the resistance is,” Dr. Henschke said.To her, it is a matter of simple logic: the earlier cancer is found, the better the [...]

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Should PFOs be sealed?

October 31, 2006

The medical device makers certainly hope so, they have lots of profit at stake. Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi had his sealed, chronicled here extensively.

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Multidetector CT scan - the new ER triage test

October 31, 2006

It’s touted as the 15-second heart scan that saves lives. Of course, cost isn’t mentioned. You bet that once it’s available, it will be a routine cya ER test. And we wonder why health costs are out of control.

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Wonderful article on the NEJM

October 30, 2006

Boston Magazine writes on the controversies and challenges facing The Journal. Primarily on its relationship with pharmaceuticals, and its association with the Massachusetts Medical Society. Required reading.

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Do drug expiration dates matter?

October 30, 2006

Yes, it does.

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Anti-vaccine activists: "They are enemies of the people"

October 30, 2006

I have maintained that not vaccinating children is akin to child abuse. Here’s taking it one step further:
Respectful Insolence and Kevin, M.D., characterize parents who refuse to vaccinate their children as guilty of child neglect. I’ll go one step further. These parents’ selfish decisions are hurting more than their own children. By defeating one [...]

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UnitedHealth: Not only physician-unfriendly, but one of the worst health plans in the nation

October 30, 2006

Remember, their priority is money, not health care, as seen in the recent NCQA rankings:
Health care is a public good, not just an industry, to be governed by the same economic principles that govern pure business. Value in health care can only be assessed by weighing cost and quality together. Quality health coverage not [...]

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Today’s doctor: "Low morale is here to stay"

October 30, 2006

There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel:
“I think that it is safe to say that no physician is optimistic about the future of medicine at this point,” one participant wrote. Others seemed downright hopeless: “One thing that rarely gets mentioned is that, unlike other industries that are cyclical, the practice [...]

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News flash: Most ER visits are non-emergent

October 30, 2006

What’s more, the patients know it as well:
Among patients who had recent visits to emergency departments, nearly half believed their health problems could have been handled in a doctor’s office, the study said.
Many of the patients said they did not have alternatives, such as same-day appointments with a primary care physician, or evening and weekend [...]

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