JAMA forcefully responded to the recent allegations of a small university professor going behind their back to mainstream media outlets.

As MedPage Today reports, JAMA sought to preempt any form of criticism, saying, “The person bringing the allegation will be specifically informed that he/she should not reveal this information to third parties or the media while the investigation is under way.”

I’m not sure how enforceable that (more…)

A recent California court denied extra time for aspiring medical students with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder when taking the MCAT.

The body that administers the test has to straddle a delicate line, in granting extra time to a broadening definition of the disabled student versus maintaining the overall fairness and integrity of the high stakes test.

Despite the ruling, three of the four plaintiffs have gone on to medical (more…)

The work ethic instilled in most physicians may actually be a detriment to patient care.

In this piece in Slate, emergency physicians Zachary F. Meisel and Jesse M. Pines write about the culture in medicine where doctors are expected to show up for work (via RangelMD.com), no matter what their malady is: “Sick doctors have been known to do rounds while dragging IV poles and receiving fluids for GI illness. Gross, but it happens. This culture (more…)

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…)

With doctors seeking gag orders on patients who use their service to stop them from presenting negative doctor ratings about them, the reality is that the sooner doctors accept these online doctor ratings sites, the better their own patient satisfaction will become. Using the company Medical Justice, is just a waste of time and money and not in a million years will a lawsuit succeed against a patients First Amendment Rights. My $0.02 (more…)

Reading an article about eliminating HIV/AIDs via somewhat controversial means of basically corralling everyone, testing them for HIV and those that are positive placed on antiretroviral-drug therapy, hence limiting the spread till those with HIV eventually die off, thereby eliminating the disease. My question is, with the stigma of living with HIV still lingering, albeit more in developing countries where the epidemic (more…)

There is a growing call to have Nadya Suleman’s premature octuplets be put in a foster home with a loving family with better resources to take care of the octuplets likely hefty health care needs.

Dr. Phil McGraw quoted in the LA Times saying, “What she is telling me is that unless and until she has a better living arrangement, that they are not likely to release the children to her.” Faced with an impending (more…)

The Physician Payment Sunshine Act of 2008 (S.2029) is basically a bill to amend title XI of the Social Security Act to provide for transparency in the relationship between physicians and manufacturers of drugs, devices, or medical supplies for which payment is made under Medicare, Medicaid, or SCHIP.

For physicians, it would require disclosure of payments to physicians by the pharmaceutical industry. I am for the passage (more…)

It’s an age-old question that many parents still ask.

Pediatrician Perri Klass gives her take in a NY Times column. In general, you can’t prevent every child who’s shedding virus from going to school, as “that’s everybody all winter long.”

The only confirmed way to prevent the transmission of infection is hand-washing, a habit that should be regularly taught and enforced.

Dr. Klass’ bottom line: “Keep your child (more…)

Much has been made of Betsy McCaughey’s analysis of how the economic stimulus package will affect health care.

Although she takes a partisan swipe at the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, perhaps what’s more frightening is that billions of dollars may potentially be poured into an inadequate health IT infrastructure.

Blogging over at Health Care Renewal, MedInformaticsMD asks whether government can succeed (more…)