With many investments declining up to 40 percent in the past year, Canadian doctors are not immune to the financial pain.
Many physicians who are close to retiring are changing their career plans, and opting to continue working. Luckily, medicine, especially in Canada's single-payer system, is pretty much recession-proof, meaning that there is always work to be found.
Indeed, in the midst of the current economic ...
February 2009
All Stories
Should a doctor be banished from medicine after having sex with a patient?
That's a question this case in the UK is trying the answer.
As Dr. Crippen, the crusty blogger who notes the inanities of the UK medical system, notes, extra-martial affairs are commonplace.
But should a physician be censured, effectively ending his medical career, for having a dangerous liaison?
"If every man and women in Britain who had an extra-marital affair were to be prevented from working," writes ...
Nadya Suleman’s fertility specialist Michael Kamrava, and how he’s able to stay in practice despite a poor history of successful implantations
The furor over the California octuplet case refuses to die.
Attention has recently been focused on her doctor, one Michael Kamrava. MedPage Today cites a LA Times story, shedding more light on the physician and his Beverly Hills practice.
In addition to the Suleman case, another one of his patients his currently hospitalized with quadruplets. Apparently, in reproductive medicine, any result greater than twins is ...
Universal care, increasing patient safety, and tort reform, all in one fell swoop?
Is it possible?
Medical Justice's Jeffrey Segal proposes a model that benefits both patients and doctors, as well as cut costs.
The premise is based on immunizing doctors who follow evidence-based practice guidelines from liability.
As Dr. Segal writes, "Physicians would be armed with knowledge of how to predictably avoid an adversarial legal process. The conventional tort system remains as a backstop incentivizing the doctor to voluntarily ...
Waiting hours to see a doctor, and patients billing physicians for lost time
After waiting hours to see the doctor for a 2-minute visit, some patients have resorted to giving a bill to their physician.
It sounds extreme, but economist Alan Krueger writes that the cost of patient waiting, estimated to be $240 billion in 2007, is neglected when considering the cost of health care.
I'll be the first to admit that many doctors do not appropriately value patient time, ...
Will doctors get a pay cut under a public health option?
It appears so.
The public health option is the centerpiece of a progressive vision of health reform. Some consider it a "backdoor" to a single-payer system, since in theory, a publicly funded option like Medicare should have the cost advantage when compared to its private plan counterparts.
According to some models, however, some of the cost savings will also come at the expense of physician salaries. ...
Andrew Wakefield exposed as a fraud, the autism-vaccine belief is based on falsified data
The man responsible for one of the most significant public health threats of our time has been exposed as a fraud.
Andrew Wakefield, the discredited British scientist whose study "linked" vaccines and autism, has been accused of falsifying data.
According to investigative reporter Brian Deer, "confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients' data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine ...
Does coordinating care save money, and if not, is it worth the effort?
Bad news for primary care advocates and the future of the proposed patient centered medical home.
Showing how difficult it is to coordinate care and focus on prevention, MedPage Today reports on a recent article from JAMA showing that, of the 15 Medicare pilot projects that used nurses to promote medication adherence and facilitate communication with doctors, only one reduced hospitalizations and none cut costs.
That's a ...
Are hospitals the primary beneficiaries of the health IT stimulus?
There's a lot to digest in the economic stimulus bill, but it appears that hospitals will be the recipient of the majority of the $19 billion allocated to health IT.
MedPage Today takes a closer look at the language and finds that "the Senate bill allocated about $19 billion to upgrade hospitals' electronic records systems and limited how much an individual hospital could receive to $1.5 million . ...
Dr. Gregory House makes the medical literature
An article in the British Medical Journal accuses him of medical paternalism.
Calling Dr. House (via ScienceRoll) a "paradigm of a paternalistic physician," who, "repeatedly disregards their wishes in order to diagnose and treat their illnesses," Mark Wicclair of the University of Pittsburgh wonders why, at a time where American patients value autonomy, so many love the crusty, oft poor-mannered, doctor?
Too bad the full article is ...
Do free sample medications really save patients money?
No, they don't.
In many cases, drug companies like to leave sample medications for doctors to dispense. In most cases, they are for heavily publicized medications, and are often expensive or on a high co-pay tier. So although these medications may initially be "free," when patients ask for a refill, they will eventually pay more for their treatment course.
Matthew Mintz, in his piece ...
Can a Cuba Gooding Jr. television film save anesthesiology’s image in the movies?
It's safe to say that the former Oscar-winner has been somewhat floundering in his recent movie roles.
That said, his recent effort, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, has the thumbs up of this anesthesiologist.
After losing faith of how anesthesiologists were portrayed, ranging from cheap horror movies to cowardly behavior in Grey's Anatomy, she is impressed with how "they bothered to show ...
UnitedHealth leading the way on the medical home?
Read it to believe it.
The traditionally physician-hostile health insurer is backing up its commitment to the patient-centered medical home with dollars. In a pilot project involving IBM workers in Arizona, they are listening to physicians, and helping small and solo practices meet the strenuous requirements that the medical home demands.
If all the goals are met, primary care doctors in the program could see a ...
How companies make money from unnecessary screening tests
Most patients think that more testing equates to better medicine, and companies are profiting from that myth.
Some offer non-invasive screening tests (via Schwitzer), often times performed in church basements, screening the healthy, general population for carotid artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, or abdominal aortic aneurysms.
The typical cost is $50 per test, or five tests for $159. The price transparency is welcome, especially when ...
Is moral distress preventing doctors and nurses from providing good patient care?
Doctors and nurses are increasingly unable to provide appropriate patient care as they care caught between the demands of administrators, insurance companies, and even patients' families.
Surgeon Pauline Chen writes about the phenomenon in her latest column in the NY Times, where she describes cases where medical providers are unable to do what is ethically right.
The interests of the medical staff conflict with those of insurance ...
Why do medical helicopters crash so often?
There have been a rash of news lately on tragic medical helicopter crashes, with 35 deaths since February 2008.
Who's to blame?
MedPage Today reports on the National Transportation Safety Board hearings, where witnesses suggested that pilots were "not taking proper safety precautions, inadvertently flying into severe weather, and becoming disoriented at night."
Several interesting questions were raised, including whether medical flights were overused rather than ...
Do electronic medical records lead to fraudulent documentation?
A known problem with electronic medical records is the use of template-based documentation.
This saves a tremendous amount of time, as paragraphs upon paragraphs of information can be documented with a single keystroke.
Problems arise when doctors, inadvertently or not, document history or physical exam findings that do not exist. The issue occurs more often than you think, and with the traditional mindset of "if you ...
Should you be screened for oral cancer, and are companies profiting from the uncertainty?
Most dentists do a thorough visual mouth evaluation to screen for oral cancer.
Whether there is data to support this practice is in question, with few studies suggesting a mortality benefit. The recommendations themselves are extrapolated from studies looking at other cancers.
Like other diseases where there is a gray area surrounding the efficacy of screening, like ovarian, lung, or pancreatic cancer, companies are rushing in ...
How banning pharmaceutical gifts to doctors may be hurting the economy
Massachusetts is considering implementing some of the toughest laws in the country regulating the pharmaceutical industry from giving gifts of any kind to doctors, and restricting drug company funding.
MedPage Today (via Dr. RW) reports that one unexpected consequence is that many major physician conferences are pulling out of the city.
For instance, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology pulled its 2015 convention out ...
Poll: Do we need to hang up the white coat to limit infection?
Even more than the stethoscope or the black bag, perhaps nothing symbolizes the medical profession more than the white coat. Medical students enter the profession with a "white coat ceremony," and patients see a doctor in a white coat as a trusted authority.
Historically, doctors wore white coats to act as a barrier against disease and infection. However, that assumption has been contradicted recently, by numerous studies showing ...
Kevin Pho, MD
-
Why more primary care doctors are referring patients to specialists
According to a recent study from the Archives of Internal Medicine, primary care physicians are referring more patients to specialists than ever...
-
Should Google censor anti-vaccine claims?
One of the reasons there is such a movement against vaccines is the democratization of information, perpetuated by search engines like Google....
-
Radiologists who cheat on their board exams: Who’s to blame?
In a widely circulated CNN article, many radiologists have been found to cheat on their board exams: "Doctors around the country taking an...
-
Doctors: Don’t be ashamed about going bankrupt
Are doctors really going broke? According to this piece from CNN Money, some are: "Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising...
Physician
-
Patients will understand an honest mistake if the doctor tells the truth
It was 1976 and I was a junior resident in urology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. I was assigned...
-
Diagnosing an illness is an art
Diagnosis is the foundation on which all care and treatments rest. If the diagnosis is wrong, most probably so is the treatment. ...
-
Physicians have a natural role as advocates
As physicians, we are often called upon to be advocates for our patients. Sometimes they have no other person to turn to....
-
Our society expends huge sums on futile care
Mike was a runner, outdoors-man, and fitness nut. This was not so much as for health reasons as for "feeling good", but...
Patient
-
How will the Baby Boomers age and die?
I love listening to life stories. As a hospice chaplain, I loved sitting with our patients and their loved ones engaging in...
-
Patient engagement is the holy grail of health care
For health care professionals, patient engagement is the holy grail of health care. It is the key to patient adherence – a...
-
Why do doctors delay hospice referrals?
This is a response to Deb Discenza's article requesting a one page informational sheet informing a patient about hospice or palliative care. This would...
-
How touch can calm patients
So, Megen at Not Nurse Ratched wrote post recently about therapeutic presence. The following passage really caught my attention: "Question is: are...
Policy
-
Improve patient safety to improve healthcare quality
It has taken 13 years for us to revisit the issues in To Err Is Human, the 1999 landmark government report that...
-
A lack of incentive for medical schools to train primary care doctors
A social media movement is happening before our eyes with action starting to take shape. The #occupyhealthcare movement has begun within to...
-
What should be the stated aim of health care in America?
The triple aim of health care, as defined by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is: improving the experience of care, bettering...
-
How Moneyball applies to healthcare
The storyline is familiar. An organization is challenged to achieve better results without spending more money. An executive is committed to obtaining...
Tech
-
New classes of devices to diet and exercise
For many celebrities, their livelihoods depend on their physical appearance and they rely on armies of personal assistants, schedulers, stylists, trainers and...
-
Repetition is the curse of the doctor-patient engagement
How many times as a doctor do you ask the same questions over and over again as part of the routine process...
-
Why the prognosis of patients is difficult
Many clinical decisions in older persons are dependent on life expectancy. For example, as life expectancy declines, cancer screening is likely to...
-
Innovative technologies can markedly enhance safety
“To Err Is Human” is the title of the now famous book from the Institute of Medicine on patient safety published about...
Social Media
-
The Internet is where patients go for pre-visit consultations
As a physician, technology cannot replace you, but it can make you more efficient and effective. This was the message from Richard...
-
5 ways doctors can benefit from professional connections
Looking ahead to the next several months, I’ve found myself frequently wondering how many physicians will make this their year to take...
-
Twitter Is my third office location
The physician’s decision to first dive into social media can be stress-inducing. Issues of time management, maintaining professionalism, and determining a return...
-
The impact of social media on a physician assistant
The impact of social media on medicine could arguably be compared to the impact of the industrial revolution on the human condition....
