From the monthly archives:

July 2007

What happens if you lower physician salaries?

July 31, 2007

Well, the best and the brightest will no longer be inclined to enter medicine. Is that really what society wants?

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The deterioration of "free" care in Canada

July 31, 2007

Physicians are demanding access to private care options in Canada:
Canada’s doctors want to be able to work simultaneously in both the public and private systems, a flexibility that critics say could lead to queue-jumping and further depletion of public health care.
It’s also a proposal that puts the medical community on a collision course with Prime [...]

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Kidney transplants: Paying it forward

July 31, 2007

The concept of paired donation. (via Freakonomics)

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Torture inside the Libyan jail

July 31, 2007

The recently freed doctor gives a harrowing account of the ordeal:
The Palestinian doctor who was held in Libyan custody along with five Bulgarian nurses on charges they infected hundreds of children with HIV, has described in detail how they were tortured during their eight-year ordeal. Ashraf Alhajouj, 38, said he was beaten, held in cages [...]

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Paying doctors by the hour

July 31, 2007

“Pay by the hour is the most difficult method to game,” says Half Sigma. Makes sense, but without any productivity incentive, appointment shortages may become more dire as the longer visits will fill more physician schedules.

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Single fathers and their children’s office visits

July 31, 2007

Apparently children of single dads make less well-child visits.

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Physician recruiters, redux

July 31, 2007

What to watch out for.

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Drug reps on doctors: "Everybody has a price"

July 31, 2007

More drug detailing tactics:
“It’s my job to figure out what a physician’s price is. For some it’s dinner at the finest restaurants, for others it’s enough convincing data to let them prescribe confidently and for others it’s my attention and friendship… but at the most basic level, everything is for sale and everything is an [...]

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Foreign doctors and US health care

July 31, 2007

A USA Today op-ed:
I tell you these facts because of the knee-jerk reaction I hear that we should take measures to prevent the entry of foreign-born physicians. This would be a disaster for American health care, and it would not make us safer. We need to increase physician immigration and increase the supply of U.S. [...]

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SCHIP and Medicare fee reductions

July 31, 2007

Hidden in the debate over expanding the SCHIP is the fact that the impending Medicare fee cuts will also be abated:
The bill’s main Medicare proposals include replacing the impending 2008 and 2009 physician fee cuts (projected to be 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively) with a 0.5 percent update for both years.

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"The AMA is proud of Dr. Pou"

July 31, 2007

The AMA comes out in support of the dropped charges:
“The AMA continues to be very concerned about criminalizing decisions about patient care, especially those made during the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, when medical personnel and supplies are severely compromised.”

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Pharmacists sue over Plan B

July 31, 2007

An “opt-out” clause wasn’t enough to satisfy these pharmacists:
Pharmacists have sued Washington state over a new regulation that requires them to sell emergency contraception, also known as the “morning-after pill.”
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, a pharmacy owner and two pharmacists say the rule that took effect Thursday violates their civil rights by [...]

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Placebo Television

July 31, 2007

A hilarious weekly vlog from the writers of Placebo Journal. “Scrotox” is classic.

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Talking about statins

July 31, 2007

Benjamin Brewer considers the questions when treating high cholesterol. (via The WSJ Health Blog)

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Pfizer: Going to the dogs

July 31, 2007

Having had setbacks with torcetrapib and Exubera, and with generic competition to Norvasc and Lipitor, Pfizer is putting more emphasis into animal drugs.

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