May 2009

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Hospitals are using social media, like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, for advertising to patients

in Social media | 2 responses

Traditionally conservative hospitals are opening up on social media platforms.For those who follow this blog, or are on Twitter, you'll probably notice that more and more medical institutions are having a Web 2.0 presence. Facebook groups, Twitter, blogs, or YouTube webcasts, for instance. Indeed, there's even reports of academic centers using Facebook to recruit for difficult to fill clinical trials.A recent article in The NY Times outlines the phenomenon, ...

6 top medical comments, May 31st, 2009

in Tech | no responses

Here are some of the more interesting comments readers have left recently.1. Dr. Grumpy on the art of medicine and electronic medical records: I do use an EMR, but patient’s routinely tell me I’m good at listening. I think it’s an individual basis. Some doctors are technophiles, and put that first. That ain’t right. Some doctors are so intent on listening, that they may forget a detail, and then it ...

Grading medical students, pass-fail or letter grades?

in Education | 9 responses

Medical schools have traditionally used letter grades for their students, but to decrease the competitive atmosphere between these prospective doctors, some of gone with a simple pass-fail system.Does it matter?A recent study suggests the answer is no. When comparing two groups, one who was graded "A-F" and the other pass-fail, there was no difference in absolute test scores, as well as no discrepancy in board scores or getting ...

Do female doctors hurt physician productivity?

in Physician | 6 responses

It's a sensitive subject, previously broached by a Canadian magazine last year.Now, to pour fuel onto the fire, a recent report finds that, in Canada at least, the growth of female physicians will cause a doctor shortage equivalent to 1,600 physicians over the next decade.It's a fact that female doctors work less clinical hours than their male counterparts. According to this article, "women, on average, provided 30 hours ...

Doctors and midwives need to cooperate more

in Patient | 18 responses

There has always been an underlying tension between obstetricians and midwives.From the doctor's side, the only times they interact with midwives is when trouble arises. Or, as this article in Time puts it, "When hospital-based obstetricians see midwives and their clients it's usually because something has gone wrong . . . OBs don't see the uneventful births that proceed successfully at home [and] doctors in this position find ...

Gratuitous and grisly x-ray images

in Potpourri | one response

A bizarrely morbid slide show of radiology images showing various patients impaled by foreign objects.If you need more reasons to be wary of nail guns, fishing spears, keys, or knives, look no further.Gratuitous and grisly x ray imagesGratuitous and grisly x ray imagesGratuitous and grisly x ray imagesGratuitous and grisly x ray images

A 10-year old girl with breast cancer, how much media coverage should she receive?

in Conditions | 5 responses

Is the media alarming the public by highlighting this exceedingly rare case?As reported by ABC News, a 10-year old girl was diagnosed with invasive secretory carcinoma.  She has a good prognosis, but must undergo a mastectomy and chemotherapy.Some are worrying that the media attention will alarm mothers and young girls, perhaps pushing them to obtain screening tests such as self-breast exams and mammograms.  But the last thing we need ...

How much time do doctors spend on paperwork?

in Physician | 7 responses

A common complaint is that doctors these days are spending more time doing clerical tasks.Examples include filling out pre-authorization forms, talking to health plans for pre-certifications on imaging studies, and spending time jumping through bureaucratic hoops. Generally, you do not need a medical degree to do these tasks.Bob Doherty points to a study that gives some numbers to back up the claims. Primary care doctors spend about 3.5 ...

Same-sex partners being denied visiting rights

in Patient | one response

A hospital that denied a woman from visiting her dying partner at a hospital is now at the center of a federal lawsuit.Tara Parker-Pope details the case, which is sparking outrage. I won't rehash the discussion, which has been quite vigorous over at her blog. Indeed, the results of the pending lawsuit can have far-ranging effects, including "the way hospitals treat all patients with non-marital relationships, including ...

Will smartphones replace the pager?

in Tech | 10 responses

It seems inevitable.A recent study showed that 64 percent of doctors use smartphones, such as an iPhone or a BlackBerry. Medical schools, such as Georgetown University and Ohio State University, are beginning to give them out to students.And I can certainly see the allure. They're more powerful than PDAs, and there's a wealth of medical applications that are being written for the devices. More importantly, they ...

What can World of Warcraft teach us about pandemic response?

in Potpourri | 4 responses

Plenty.What can World of Warcraft teach us about pandemic response? In an interesting blog post over at the Health Disparities Blog, the so-called Corrupted Blood incident at the massively popular online role-playing game was chronicled.The game designers created a virus that would infect virtual players and spread to others in the surrounding area. Eventually, this virus got out from the dungeon which was supposed to confine it, and into ...

Lose your fingerprints from chemotherapy

in Meds | one response

Interesting case of a man detained at an airport because authorities couldn't fingerprint him.According to MedPage Today, he was taking the chemotherapy drug capecitabine which causes so-called hand-foot syndrome, or palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia. The chronic inflammation causes the skin on the hands to peel and blister, which can eventually eradicate a patient's fingerprints.In a study looking at the drug, this type of inflammation occurs in about 65 percent of ...

Would you want your hands reconstructed if they looked like this?

in Potpourri | 6 responses

At what point does aesthetics trump function?Over at Better Health, Val Jones talks about cases where land mines blow off hands, necessitating the so-called Krukenberg operation, which recreates a pincer grasp in the hands.The result looks like this:Would you want your hands reconstructed if they looked like this?It's a remarkable procedure. But, as Val notes, not everyone may want this operation, as some may opt for aesthetics over ...

Should patients be paid to promote drugs?

in Meds | 4 responses

The story of Andy Behrman made the news a few weeks ago, most notably in The Wall Street Journal.Apparently, he was a bipolar "celebrity patient," and was paid $400,000 by Bristol-Myers Squibb for promoting their drug, Abilify.Things quickly went sour, as Mr. Behrman was afflicted with the drug's side effects, which included "dazed spells and agitation in his legs."Merrill Goozner comments on the case, casting the light on patient advocates, ...

How doctors should deal with physician rating sites

in Physician | 12 responses

Stuff the ballot box.The value of these sites, previously exposed as pretty useless in this Slate piece, is mainly due to the anonymous nature of the comments.Indeed, even if a doctor wanted to genuinely improve from this form of patient feedback, "posting anonymously on the Web (on sites a doctor does not regularly monitor) is probably the least effective way to accomplish that goal."So, physicians are fighting back by ...

Should primary care doctors embrace retail clinics?

in Physician | 10 responses

Yes, they should.Whether retail clinics will be a viable venue for the majority of minor medical conditions is in question, but in many cases, doctors seem to be taking an antagonistic front.As this piece in the NY Times writes, "Many primary-care doctors still denigrate the retail clinics as cheap, unworthy competitors." That's precisely the wrong strategy to take.Witness hospitals who do more to partner, rather than oppose, retail ...

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