From the monthly archives:

December 2006

Medical Bankruptcy: Myth vs Fact

December 30, 2006

Recently, medical bloggers like NHS Doctor have referenced Himmelstein’s classic study which claims 54.5% of all bankruptcies filed in 2001 were medically related. However, as happens all to often, people fail to critically analyze published articles that support a particular preconceived viewpoint. Researchers David Dranove and Michael Millenson have published an [...]

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Documentary: The Man with the 7 Second Memory

December 30, 2006

Clive Wearing has the most severe case of amnesia ever and this clip from his documentary is both amazing and bizarre . . .

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On April 1st, Canadaian Pharmcists will be Allowed to Prescribe

December 30, 2006

I love and respect pharmacists, but they are not diagnosticians and their desire to be able to “prescribe medications independently” puts the patient at a significant risk. Even more alarming is that the new law will allow pharmacists to fill “emergency supplies” of narcotics which is a disaster waiting to happen when drug-seekers skip [...]

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What Makes a Good Doctor?

December 30, 2006

DB is asking patients and doctors to submit what they feel are the three most important traits for a great physician to have . . .

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Classic WOO: Teachers Produce ‘Pharmaceuticals’

December 30, 2006

Respectful Insolence has a classic post on the pseudoscience that is Airborne. I can’t help but think that if teachers are so good at curing the common cold, why don’t they try their hand at cancer?

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Consultant Check-ups After Surgery to be Scrapped to Cut Costs

December 30, 2006

The NHS would prefer patients to see their GP for post-operative care rather than waste the “precious time and expertise” of the surgeons.

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Doctoring The Truth About The Uninsured

December 29, 2006

This article from the Pacific Research Institute is a few years old now, but since we continue to talk about the ‘46 million uninsured,’ I’d like to share some statistics . . .
. . . a fourth of the 35 million uninsured adults are under 24, and half are under 35.
And the uninsured aren’t the [...]

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Three-year-old blogger’s inspiring chemotherapy diary

December 29, 2006

Samantha Hughes has been diagnosed with neuroblastoma and her blog documents her struggle.
The youngster’s diary – called simply “Samantha’s Story” – is written in the style her parents think she would use if she could pen it herself.

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Health Care is a Right, unless . . .

December 29, 2006

You’re obese, or smoke, or drink . . .Then the NHS will deny you ‘priority treatment.’

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The Impact of Killing & How to Prepare the Soldier

December 29, 2006

PBS has a series of excellent interviews with mental health professionals and soldiers about the psychological consequences of war.
I think it is a very important thing to understand that when your friends are wounded or dead, it’s a real loss. It’s a loss of your friend that you trusted and you loved in a very [...]

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Want to get out of hospital fast? Then don’t go in on a Thursday

December 29, 2006

Wait, we spent money studying this? Could this have anything to do with the fact that most doctors don’t work over the weekend . . .

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New York Dialysis Care Named ‘Worst’

December 29, 2006

This is a result of New York state’s ban on national dialysis chain centers even though they have been shown to provide superior care when compared to independent providers.

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Most Americans Want Public Policies to Prevent Obesity

December 29, 2006

Lets start with government mandated exercise . . .

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The Worst Comic Book Medicine of 2006

December 29, 2006

Scott over at Polite Dissent as compiled a list of the worst medical mistakes in the comics this year. My favorite was “the worst OR scene” from Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3, complete with an “arterial bleed of the ‘vena cava.’

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Pseduo-Journalism: Health Care Olympics

December 28, 2006

Its as sad as it is scary if this is accepted as ‘legitimate journalism’ . . .

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Computer Characters Tortured for Science

December 28, 2006

Professor Mel Slater has recreated the classic Milgram Experiment and found that shocking fake people is still stressful.
The computer program would correspondingly complain and beg as the ’shocks’ were ramped up, falling apparently unconscious before the last shock. The skin conductance and electrocardiograms of the subjects were monitored. Even though the subjects knew they were [...]

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