Advertisement

Author: SkepticalScalpel

Can Dreaming About Exercising Lead to Weight Loss?

I was about to write one of my infrequent but famous spoof articles, and the subject was going to be losing weight by dreaming about exercising. For fun, I decided to search the Internet to see if anyone else might have had the...

Read More

What Rule Do We Comply With Least?

My vote goes to “translation.” The rule is that you must use a qualified medical interpreter for any interview or discussion with a patient who does not understand English. How is lack of understanding defined? It is...

Read More

Should Resident Work Hours Be Capped?

Blogging at his site “Adventures in Emergency Medicine,” Dr. Sam Ko says resident work hours should be limited to 40 per week. Via Twitter, I warned him that I would rebut his assertion. Without any data or...

Read More

Uncertain Diagnosis or CT Scan Radiation?

It is so nice to be right. To summarize what I wrote 2 and 3 years ago, here and here—based on my experience, patients and families will accept the theoretical risk of a future cancer if it means they’ll get an accurate...

Read More

Choosing a Medical Specialty & Balancing Life

The following was posted anonymously as a comment on a blog I wrote about the difficulty one has in choosing a medical specialty. I was so taken with it that I wanted to give it more exposure. [Note: The comment contained a few...

Read More

One Step Closer to Third-World Medicine?

In a post 2 weeks ago, I discussed why elderly patients don’t get out of bed and walk when hospitalized. You can read it here. I wrote that a major reason that staff does not have time to walk patients is that they are too...

Read More

Even More Problems With Patient Satisfaction Surveys

A paper in April’s JAMA Surgery journal noted that patient satisfaction ratings have very little to do with the quality of care provided by a hospital. The study analyzed data from 31 hospitals that participated in patient...

Read More

Why Don’t Hospitalized Elderly Patients Walk?

Forty-three minutes—that’s the median length of time a hospitalized elderly patient spends standing or walking daily, reports a New York Times story. Not only that, the paper from which the 43 minutes number came also noted that...

Read More

Why Won’t the AMA Stop Asking For Dues?

Today I received another dues notice from the American Medical Association (AMA). For a mere $420.00 per year, I can become a member. Over 10 years ago, I dropped out of the AMA because it seemed to be run by a bunch of old guys...

Read More

Most Docs Practice Defensive Medicine

You may have missed this when it first appeared. Experts from Harvard and the University of Southern California say assumptions made by some analysts that defensive medicine is not an important facet of the high cost of...

Read More

Do BSN Nurses Provide Better Care?

A paper entitled “An increase in the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees is linked to lower rates of postsurgery mortality” appeared in Health Affairs in March and generated quite a lot of buzz on the...

Read More

Is the Impending Physician Shortage Real?

It’s crunch time for radiologists. The New York Times reported that an osteopathic radiology residency in the Bronx was abruptly terminated (the decision was later reversed for this year), casting its 12 residents adrift....

Read More

Why I Left Academic Medicine

A medical student who thinks he wants a career in academic surgery asks, “You were deep into academic medicine and walked away from chairman, program director, etc. Why?” [Background: For over 23 years, I was a full-time...

Read More

Does Anger Management Work for Disruptive Doctors?

A recent Washington Post/Kaiser Health News story about anger management led with an anecdote about a surgeon who broke a scrub tech’s finger by slamming down an improperly loaded instrument. The surgeon was suspended for...

Read More

For latest news and updates
Email-id is invalid