From the monthly archives:

July 2008

Spending money for a launch that won’t happen

July 31, 2008

The WSJ writes about the sad story of Myriad Genetics, who paid $200,000 for a huge coming out party at a conference for their Alzheimer’s drug.
Trouble is, the drug didn’t work, so they’re left with an empty, fancy booth.
Tragically comical.

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Night float

July 31, 2008

Frequent NY Times contributer Sandeep Jauhar has a piece in Slate talking about night float, where interns take a 12 to 14 hour shift overnight to cross-cover the entire hospital.
Sometimes the problem of caring for another doctor’s patients can lead to medical errors:
The nightmare of night float raises a central question about work limits for [...]

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Addicted to suing

July 31, 2008

Serial litigants, or those with a psychological need to sue.

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A doctor takes on Verizon, and wins

July 31, 2008

His name contained an expletive and wasn’t able to register with Verizon DSL. Verizon relented, but not without this newspaper pulling some strings.

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Losing weight, without even trying

July 31, 2008

Our car dependent society contributes to the obesity epidemic: “Recently, in a span of 3 weeks, I went from being somewhat out of shape to being reasonably in shape. I lost about 1.5 kilos, my posture improved, my skin got healthier. What exercise regime did I follow to accomplish this? I stayed in a rental [...]

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Prevention of Heart Disease

July 31, 2008
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Electronic records and economic sense

July 31, 2008

Stanley Feld has been doing a series on why physicians are slow to adopt electronic records.
The common perception is that they are expensive or ludditic doctors are desperate to cling to paper charts.
The main problem is that the current crop of EHRs are simply not ready for prime time. I recently read a story [...]

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The epidemic of anger towards doctors

July 31, 2008

Why patients so eager to hate the physician profession: “I suspect the payment system has something to do with it. When patients don’t know what we charge for things (we are not allowed to disclose our fee schedules), they assume we are milking the system for all it’s worth. The fact that the [...]

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The real Medicare myth

July 31, 2008

Arnold Kling argues that the administrative savings from a single-payer system is minimal and superficial:
After [getting rid of private insurance administrators], costs might be less than the existing system. By a small amount. For a short time. But innovation in health care management and administration would slow to a crawl. Health care providers would need [...]

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What angioedema looks like

July 31, 2008

A patient posts pictures on Flickr. Clinical Cases analyzes the case.

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When a patient shows up with a gun

July 31, 2008

The sad story of a mother who wanted to exact revenge on her obstetrician.

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No-fault malpractice

July 31, 2008

The patient comes out ahead in many cases: “All patients who suffer a treatment injury caused by medical care are eligible for no-fault, government funded, compensation (with no need to prove negligence). Claims are usually decided within a matter of days, and the package of care includes financial compensation as well as free treatment, rehabilitation, [...]

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Joint Symptoms Indicative of Arthritis

July 30, 2008
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DrRich to the NY Times: Chill

July 30, 2008

He takes exception to the hysteria about two-tier dermatology. A nice retort to the piece:
Until society sees fit to legislate otherwise (which, DrRich supposes, could happen as early as the next president’s administration), doctors will continue to spend some of their time engaging in hobbies and business or family activities outside of the [...]

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Get that ring off

July 30, 2008

I’m forced to cut 2-3 rings a year off swollen fingers. Patients are none to happy that that prospect. Here’s a method I’m going to try before reaching for the ring cutter.

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