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Medical Care in Tanzania--How does this East African republic take care of...
I just got back from Tanzania, where I supervised 7 medical students who were doing a couple of really awesome ultrasound projects in Mwanza, the second largest city in this East African country. I...
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The State of our Health 1990-2010, the very brief version
I was interested to read the recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association entitled The State of US Health 1990-2010, the Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors. It is a vast...
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Medical Tourism and the amazing project that University of California, Irvine...
There are many ways to visit exotic destinations, including cruises, tours, adventure travel, business related meetings and just plain going there. I always thought it would be most interesting to...
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Medical Tourism--some ideas, and maybe what not to do.
There are many ways to visit exotic destinations, including cruises, tours, adventure travel, business related meetings and just plain going there. I always thought it would be most interesting to...
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Health care in Eastern Europe, Singapore and the US: How could pre-paid and...
American healthcare is expensive. We pay lots of money for it and we have outcomes that we aren't proud of. We gnash our teeth at how terrible we are and look to other countries with lower costs for...
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Teasing out hospital budgets, especially how subsidizing doctors’ salaries...
I have been doing locum tenens work as a hospitalist for nearly two years. One of my reasons for doing this is that the practice of medicine in the US is very interesting, and by working in very...
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Water and hand sanitization: some thoughts about technology and hygiene and...
This summer has been full of adventures in and around water, alongside people with and without disease caused by infectious intestinal organisms. It's been lots of fun, and I dearly yearned not to be...
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What is "overdiagnosis"?
I got an invitation in my e-mail a couple of days ago for a dinner presentation to the Central Oregon Medical Society given by H. Gilbert Welch M.D. on the subject of overdiagnosis. I was intrigued. A...
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Free Prostate Screening! What's the catch?
I just got an email from a hospital where I sometimes practice with a picture of two aging but clearly active and vital men standing on a beach with the words "Free Prostate Cancer Screening" printed...
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Why it is cool to have an ultrasound in my pocket and the Second Annual World...
I admit it. I am an ultrasound nerd. Zealot would be another word. I am someone whose enthusiasm for bedside ultrasound is strong enough to overwhelm my desire not to bore other people. Still, it has...
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What to do with ancient people
A 100 year old woman is brought to the emergency room by a concerned friend because she can no longer get out of bed to get food or go to the bathroom. Other than being unwashed and a little confused,...
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Medical Errors: Do 400,000 people really die from these every year in...
I just read an article in the Journal of Patient Safety by a NASA toxicologist and patient safety advocate, John T. James PhD, which addressed the question of medical errors in hospital settings. Dr....
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The Green Journal speaks out on Bedside Ultrasound
I frequently throw away the American Journal of Medicine (the "Green Journal") without reading it because it is not one that I actually ask for and it doesn't address questions that I find interesting....
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Third trip to Haiti: inspiring projects on La Gonave
I just got back from the Haitian island of La Gonave (lagonav in Creole) after 8 days there visiting people who work on projects we help to fund. I'm glad to be home, because this is where I live and I...
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Who should take statins? What, exactly, do the new American Heart Association...
Statins made the news in a big way this week. The American Heart Association, in collaboration with the American College of Cardiology, just released recommendations that should change the way we...
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I'm now a certified ultrasonographer: passing the ARDMS test
I just finished taking an exam for the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Having passed it, I can now put RDMS after my name, standing for Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer....
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Medical Care in Old Fangak, South Sudan
Two days ago I got back from Old Fangak, a tiny town in Jonglei province on the banks of the Zaraf River, a branch of the Nile. Because I am on a self proclaimed sabbatical, and because I have wanted...
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Rural Medicine: Idaho and Africa and elsewhere
Rural medicine, I guess, can be defined as health care that happens in places that aren't big cities or referral centers. The vast majority of the populated earth's crust that has any health care at...
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This is what happened when I went to healthcare.gov to sign up for health...
Today in the mail I received a letter from my private health insurance company informing me that my current policy, which was being cancelled because it didn't meet minimum standards of the new...
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Healthcare Spending--moderating? David Blumenthal et al explain.
David Blumenthal and others recently published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled "Health Care Spending--a Giant Slain or Sleeping?" In it they look at the ongoing, and rarely...
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