Patients in need of a kidney often wait years for a suitable donor.

Instead of waiting, more patients are taking matters into their own hands by arranging private kidney transactions, through internet classifieds on Craigslist or social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace. Those who seek organs outside the traditional system can potentially save up to ten years of waiting.

But ninety percent of the transplant centers in (more…)

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 that (more…)

Which events of 2008 most affected and will continue to affect practicing physicians?

Here are my top 3.

First, is Medicare’s institution of “never” events, where payment is denied for certain medical errors. In addition to uncontroversial events like operating on the wrong patient, Medicare has also included conditions where total prevention is impossible, including patient falls and hospital acquired infections. By doing (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?
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The patient centered medical home is a health care setting that facilitates partnerships between patients and their physicians, through the use of both an integrated team-based approach and information technology. It is a model that is often hailed as a savior of primary care medicine.

What is the biggest obstacle to the patient-centered medical home becoming a reality?

Infrastructure costs. Transforming a (more…)