There have been scores of recent articles about Congresswoman-elect Kathy Hochul's upset win in New York's 26th Congressional District special election. They all seem to share a thread of incredulity, followed either by chortling or spin depending on the source. These stories also share the sense that her victory was truly an underdog performance destined to become legend.According to The New York Times, "Two months ago, the Democrat ... was ...
July 2011
All Stories
KevinMD media mentions, July 2011
I’d like to thank various media outlets for recently citing KevinMD.com.Associated Press: MDs gather at AMA meeting amid reform uncertainty
"There's a lot of anxiety about how our practice is going to change," said Dr. Kevin Pho, a blogger and primary care doctor in Nashua, N.H.NPR's Shots: To Friend Or Not: The Facebook Challenge For Doctors
One doctor who does see potential is internist Kevin Pho, who practices in Nashua, New Hampshire ... ...
The side effects of cancer treatment go beyond losing your hair
If someone asked me at this point in the year, which happens to be nearly the end of my first one, what I liked most about medical school, it would have to be the patient's stories.I could do without the hours of science classes and my utter lack of motivation to learn any subject that I am told is important. I could also do without the people who need ...
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation improves patient safety
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. APSF is a patient advocate organization whose mission is to improve the safety of patients during anesthesia care by encouraging and conducting: safety research and education; patient safety programs and campaigns; and the ...
Why obesity should concern conservatives
Does it really matter how many ribs Michelle Obama ate on her vacation? For too many conservatives, the answer seems to be yes, with pundits poking fun at the anti-obesity guru's dinner choice. But conservatives need to give it a rest: many seem to prefer scoring easy points against the First Lady to arguing about the best way to attack the obesity epidemic -- and some even claim that ...
Are we providing health care, or just delivering health?
As a medical student I have come to appreciate two core goals of health care:1. Health: The delivery of medical knowledge, assessment or treatment to a patient2. Care: The compassionate approach to any patientIn my medical training, I have also witnessed clinical medicine practiced across a spectrum of situations. Taking my time to reflect on these experiences, I am not certain we are meeting our goals. Too often ...
It’s not an advocate’s job to save a patient’s life
Sooner or later, it happens to every patient advocate or navigator who works with patients on the medical aspects of their care (as opposed to other forms of advocacy, like billing or legal advocates).One of “our” patients -- someone whose hand we have held, who we have protected from problems in the hospital, who depended on our advocacy expertise as a way to make the ...
Female physicians on Twitter
I delivered a keynote presentation a few weeks ago entitled "Personalized Medicine: Tailoring Healthcare in the Information Age" to a group of parents who had taken their kids to the Bristol-Myers Squibb Science Horizons summer science camp.Aside from the jolt the parents received from my presentation regarding anticipated changes in 21st century healthcare, especially involving the myriad ELSI issues that would confront medical practices as a ...
Public and private cloud computing at a hospital
In a meeting with senior management at Harvard Medical School, one of our leaders asked, "What is our cloud strategy?"My answer to this is simple. The public cloud (defined as the rapid provisioning and de-provisioning of CPU cycles, software licenses, and storage) is good for many things, such as web hosting or non-critical applications that do not contain patient or confidential information.At Harvard Medical ...
Vaccines in the developing world
When we think of vaccines we need to divide the world into the industrialized countries, those with transitional economies and the developing countries.In the developing world, the proportion of the population less than 15 is very high, e.g., Mali has about 50% of its population under age fifteen compared to about 15% in the industrialized countries. This suggests that the emphasis in the ...
I don’t like that you do abortions, but if you didn’t, I would probably be dead
I was paged by labor and delivery three times during the 10 minute drive from my house. I headed straight from the parking lot to the labor ward expecting a patient of mine to be close to delivery. I was wrong.The chief resident and attending obstetrician were waiting. They looked tired and worried.A woman had arrived on Friday with ruptured membranes. She was 21 weeks ...
Taking zinc for the common cold
The Cochrane Collaboration is a very well-respected international non-profit whose 28,000 volunteers review the best, solid evidence to help determine if medications or other health interventions really work. They are, in short, da bomb.When Cochrane speaks, people listen.Cochrane recently released a review of studies examining the effectiveness of zinc supplementation on preventing and treating the common cold.They found that there was ...
Do non-compliant patients really sue their doctors?
The non-compliant patient who sues his physician for an adverse clinical outcome is a storied malpractice bogeyman. After failing to follow a screening regimen, show for appointments, undergo recommended tests, make health-related lifestyle changes, or take their medications, these patients (now plaintiffs) have the audacity to blame the doctors and nurses for not being adequately clear or assertive.Are they real?Yes and no. Not every “difficult” patient is a potential ...
Medicaid represents our nation’s moral commitment to help the poor
What if I were to tell you that Washington is trying to balance the budget by making cuts to a program that covers 70% of the nation's nursing home costs and 43% of all births in California? Well they are.The rancorous debate over how to balance the federal budget includes drastic cuts to Medicaid. And while this program may seem distant to people in power and the general public, ...
Why I love being a family physician
I love being a family physician. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t change a thing.I love the breadth of family medicine. I love being able to take care of just about every person that walks through the door. Even when another doctor is the right person to take care of a niche need, I love knowing that I was usually the person that ...
Women in medicine: Gender, mentors and role models
We are living a new era where the progress for the civil rights of women is undeniable, yet Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg points out in her compelling TED presentation:“We still live in a world where some women don’t have [civil rights]. But all that aside, we still have ... a real problem ... women are not making it to the top of ...
The dignity of risk and elderly patients
An excerpt from Alone and Invisible No More: How Grassroots Community Action and 21st Century Technologies Can Empower Elders to Stay in Their Homes and Lead Healthier, Happier Lives (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2011).by Allan S. Teel, MDWhenever I engage in a detailed discussion about our core mission of helping elders remain in their own homes, invariably the conversation turns to liability. "Aren’t you ...
Let go of guilt while trying to get your baby to sleep
Getting your infant, toddler, or even preschooler to sleep through the night is tricky at best.If you are one of the lucky ones, you may have an "easy" sleeper. You know, the one that seems content after some rocking, singing, and nursing. Things just flow and voila, you actually have a baby that, "sleeps like a baby" so to speak.However, for many of us, "sleep like a baby" is ...
The professional status of physicians is at risk
According to Wikipedia, up to the beginning of the 19th century there had been only 3 occupations that were considered to be professions, Divinity, Medicine and Law.A profession is considered a trade or occupation that transforms itself through "the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit, discipline members, and enforce adherence to an ethical code of practice."Professionals are ...
A private sector solution for wider, more affordable health coverage
by J.E.B. Johnson, MDLet me preface this comment by stating I am not an actuarial. I hated statistics and am no fan of insurance companies. That said I would like to know why patients and the US government think that health insurance companies should accept unlimited risk? My car insurance has limits, my homeowners insurance has limits, my malpractice insurance has limits. Why ...
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
-
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...
-
I learned the value of listening to the patient
William Osler famously said (among other things): “Listen to the patient. He is telling you the diagnosis.” I was doing my obstetrical...
-
Repeated experiences of shaming are not good for a young child
The little boy, who looked to be about two, darted away in a fit of giggles. His young mother, who seemed thoroughly...
Patient
-
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...
-
How I became a hospice volunteer
People often ask me how I became a hospice volunteer. For the record, nobody is more surprised than I am. You know...
Policy
-
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...
-
The problem of insurance gaps in cancer patients
Why are cancer organizations waiting until it starts to rain before they suggest buying an umbrella? “Join my Medicare Advantage plan and...
Tech
-
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...
-
Google knows more about certain diseases than physicians ever will
Professor Gunter Dueck, is a calm and eloquent german mathematician who’s also the CTO of IBM Germany. He studied mathematics and philosophy...
-
Robotics can revolutionize the delivery of medical care
Robotics has the potential to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare. It can help extend the delivery of information, expertise and clinical care...
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....
