August 2007

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Why physicians get irked by "suits"

in Uncategorized | 9 responses

Like Billy Walsh on Entourage, doctors have disdain for "suits". Here's why:

But now the intrepid blogger of Over My Med Body may be getting an inkling why doctors who have had years of training like this can get so upset when their dedication, knowledge, or work habits are questioned by some "suit" with a six-, seven-, or eight-figure income, a "suit" who is comfortably in ...

Doctors treating themselves

in Uncategorized | no responses

As common saying goes, "A physician who treats him(her)self has a fool for a patient."

So, what to make of these numbers?

. . . a survey conducted of Michigan psychiatrists regarding their opinions toward self-prescribing. A survey of more than 500 Michigan psychiatrists showed that more than 40% would medicate themselves for mild to moderate depression and that 15% had actually done so in the past. Seven ...

Zero percent financing

in Uncategorized | one response

Coming soon to a doctor's or dentist's office near you:

For $3,500 laser eye surgery, $6,000 ceramic tooth implants or other procedures not typically covered by insurance, millions of consumers have arranged financing through more than 100,000 doctors and dentists that offer a year or more of interest-free monthly payments.
Richard Reece comments on the practice.

Resident work hours: An alternative view

in Education | no responses

Zagreus Ammon with a somewhat different take:

I don't think working forty eight hours straight is the problem. More likely the fact that those 48 hours have become as grueling and punishing as an ultra-marathon. The fact is that medical interventions have become much more intense than ever before and no patient lounges around the hospital waiting to get better. The cost-containment pressures on the health care system have ...

Big Pharma’s Wikipedia editors

in Uncategorized | no responses

Abbott Labs has an in-house employee editing various Wikipedia entries pertaining to their drugs:

As other observers have noted since the Wikipedia tool was released, other companies have edited their Wikipedia entries "” sometimes making small changes, sometimes making their entries sound more promotional "” but the Abbott case was particularly striking because it involved the deletion of a reference to safety study published in a major medical journal ...

"Doctors do best when they treat their patients by the numbers"

in Uncategorized | 3 responses

McArdle on Groopman's How Doctors Think. I agree with her, and continue to advocate global, evidence-based measures (which also would help the medical malpractice/defensive medicine problem) to guide clinical decision making:

Every profession resists being told that there is a standard way to do things, that a cookie cutter can cut better than their skilled hand. Journalists famously hate the "inverted U" style of writing ...

Labor day and resident physicians

in Uncategorized | 2 responses

Dr. Val thinks about the hardworking residents working this upcoming Labor Day weekend:

Physicians work for 3-7 years after graduating from medical school, and are paid (on average) about the equivalent of a home health aide or a medical secretary but work about twice the hours during residency. In fact, if you calculate out the salary by the hours they work, resident physicians are paid about $9 -$10/hour ...

First night on call

in Uncategorized | no responses

Graham's first night on call during his medicine sub-i: "Man it sucked."

Don't worry, it gets better. An attending once told me to always look at the orders first, then the note. When it comes to things getting done, the note means nothing. This is especially true out of academic medical settings when you have several consultants and cross-covering physicians writing orders on your patient.

Are opiate contracts "absurd"?

in Uncategorized | no responses

This anesthesiologist thinks so:

How do you protect yourself? An opiate contract! These things, for which there is no evidence of any effect whatsoever, are proliferating at a terrific rate (9). To sum it up: you compel the patient to sign a contract which states: Honestly, I'm not lying, I'm in pain. It's like asking a used car salesman if he's telling you the truth; it's not ...

About that amputated finger in Sicko

in Uncategorized | 2 responses

A hand surgeon comments on this vignette in the movie:

As a hand surgeon who treats many traumatic injuries, Moore's portrayal of a patient who amputated his middle fingertip captured my interest. He depicted this uninsured man as required to pay $23,000 to have his finger "saved." Moore lost considerable credibility here. Most hand surgeons would never consider micro-surgically replanting this table saw injury at the finger nail base. ...

Doctor shortage hits Japan

in Uncategorized | no responses

It's not only here that there's a critical shortage of physicians:

Japan's health minister promised to try to resolve a shortage of doctors after a pregnant woman miscarried in an ambulance during a frantic three-hour search for a hospital that would accept her.

Eight hospitals turned down the 38-year-old woman, who was six months pregnant, and the ambulance carrying her collided with a minivan on its way to ...

A man loses the top of his head

in Uncategorized | no responses

Apparently, it was argued that the replacement was better:

Doctors removed the top of the man's head and put it in cold storage while they operated on his brain, the court in the western city of Koblenz said Tuesday.

Because the refrigerator was defective, the section of skull was not kept cool enough and could not be reattached. Doctors replaced the bone with a plastic prosthesis.
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