My two cents is really? Maybe there will be other ways for pharmaceutical companies to drop some “goodies” to doctors that they want to push their drugs through. An article in the New York Times, reports that big pharma is cutting back on branded promotional items. Do you think it is really voluntary? Or is it because of a tough economic climate?

It seems like a very convenient time to impose a (more…)

Policy experts desperately want to reduce the amount of variability Medicare patients receive.

Studies have suggested that standardizing care is one approach to control health costs, and bodies like a comparative effectiveness institute would be helpful to bring evidence to the forefront of clinical care.

That may work well for a young, healthy population, but not in the elderly. Jane Brody writes an article describing the (more…)

Public reporting and transparency are frequent buzzwords in this consumer-directed era of patient care.

Bob Wachter wonders why patients aren’t using the data that’s already out there, as a recent study showed that most patients use word-of-mouth when choosing a doctor.

Is it because of technical limitations of websites, or something “more fundamental,” Dr Wachter asks.

I still think it’s the lack of awareness. A (more…)

When news came out in the Dec. 24 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association regarding how an extra hour of sleep can help control coronary artery calcification, a major risk factor for heart disease, I wondered how effective their research was. Don’t get me wrong, a good night’s sleep has many benefits, but how many people get an average of 7.1 hours of sleep per night? The 7.1 hours includes (more…)

Want to give birth at a Hello Kitty-themed hospital?

You can in Taiwan, where “patients enjoy the iconic feline theme on everything from baby blankets, nurse uniforms, and a statue of the cat dressed like a doctor.”

In case you can’t get enough of the medical setting, you can always eat at one of these high-end hospital-themed restaurants (via Pallimed), located in Latvia and Singapore.

(more…)

Researchers in Australia and the U.S indicate that when neuroblastoma was treated with the drug Difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) combined with traditional anti-cancer drugs such as cisplatin on mice, the tumors shrank and took longer to return. In some cases, neuroblastoma, the deadliest of all childhood cancers, never  returned on the mice treated in the drug trials.

An article in the Australian, (more…)

While spending the Christmas Holidays with my family, I noticed that my sister-in-law lays my baby niece who is only 2 months old on her belly. Knowing about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), I told her about it, and her first reaction was “that’s how I laid my 2 other kids when they were babies, and they turned out fine.” In between our Christmas dinner I brought it up again, and at least we (more…)

The Institute of Medicine recently recommended a requirement that medical and surgical residents have a minimum sleep period of 5 hours in any 24-hour work period, with a maximum shift length of 16 hours. This was a follow-up to the 2003 ruling which limited resident work-hours to 80 hours per week.

That is the focus of this week’s poll. Are the Institute of Medicine’s recommended restrictions on residents’ work hours good for medicine?
(more…)

Very dreamy for the Holidays!

Diet Types: Low Fat, Low Sodium, Macrobiotic, Vegan, Vegetarian

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup apple juice3 tablespoons agar flakes3 tablespoons Kuzu (kudzu)1 teaspoon vanilla18 ounces plain Amasake (rice drink)1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peelPinch of salt3 tablespoons lemon juice1 tablespoon (more…)

Boston is preparing for such a scenario in 2009.

The early returns however, are promising, as preparation for the upcoming law has forced hospitals to maximize efficiencies and minimize backlogs that can lead to bottlenecks.

One of the keys is decompressing the wait for inpatient beds, so emphasis has to be placed on adequately staffing the floors and maximizing the discharge efficiency.

One hospital is even instituting (more…)