Annoying acronyms and miserable mnemonics: AIDET and the H's and T's
Mnemonics can be incredibly cool. When I was in medical school there was just too much stuff to remember and memory aids were so very helpful. Most specifically I refer to the vile and inappropriate...
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Old Fangak, South Sudan--Bedside Ultrasound and other stuff
I just got back from a couple of weeks in Old Fangak, a community of people living by the Zaraf River in South Sudan. It's normally a small community, with an open market and people who live by raising...
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Why most published research findings are false, and why you usually can't...
In 2005 Dr. John Ioannidis, a Greek researcher and professor of health policy at Stanford University, best known for his critiques of the science of medicine, published a paper entitled "Why Most...
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What's up with people who are in the hospital a very long time?
I just finished reading a very delightful "A Piece of My Mind" essay in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association.) The JAMA is primarily a research journal, filled with new scientific or...
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How bedside ultrasound was awesome last week
I sometimes do locum tenens assignments as a hospitalist in rural hospitals. It is a good way to find out how other systems work, or don't work, and meet new people and interact with new communities....
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Practical and commonsense research from Ontario's Physician's Services...
Today in JAMA online (the Journal of the American Medical Association) a delightfully practical article was published regarding how to help little children recover from gastroenteritis (stomach flu.)...
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Medical error--the third leading cause of death, or not nearly so simple?
Splashed over news feeds this last week is a reference to an article published last week in the BMJ (formerly known as the British Medical Journal) that states that "medical error [is] the third...
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Is there a pill to make you live longer? The HOPE-3 trial and the hype that...
Today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) an article has appeared reporting the results of the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation-3 (HOPE-3)trial. Exciting simplifications are sure to...
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Thinking beyond hospice
I recently attended the death of a friend at his home. He had a disease that was terminal and untreatable and he and his wife had finally decided on no further medical treatments that would require...
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My thyroid nodule
About 4 years ago I was examining my neck and discovered a nodule in the right side of my thyroid gland. I was examining my neck because I very rarely see a doctor and figured that I should at least...
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Preventing Cervical Cancer in Tanzania
I visited Tanzania again this summer, once again helping a group of amazing University of California, Irvine medical students with their summer not-a-vacation trip to teach bedside ultrasound and do...
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The "Yearly Physical"
"I'm going to the doctor next week for my yearly physical."So normal. Of course you are. Everyone should do that.But the concept of a yearly examination of one's whole body to see if everything checks...
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T-mobile and medical billing nightmares--a rant
A few months ago I had a clever idea about how my husband could use my cell phone in England, because getting cell phone service across the Atlantic can be expensive and inconvenient. Â So I had this...
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What's wrong with socialized medicine? The Economist calls the National...
The British National Health Service (NHS) was born in 1948, based on legislation passed that year mandating free high quality healthcare for all paid by taxes. In contrast, the US started Medicare in...
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My week in ultrasound
After 5 years of doing bedside ultrasound, I'm still excited about it. Bedside, or Point-of-Care ultrasound is using an ultrasound machine during the physical examination of a patient in order to make...
View ArticleRecovering--a sacred time.
One day a few weeks ago, after returning from a set of seven 12 hour shifts in a hospital away from home, my husband convinced me to go to a concert. The group performing was the Deviant Septet, based...
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Suicide, psychiatric care and inadequate resources
An article released today in the JAMA sites evidence that the suicide rate in America has risen by 24% in the last 15 years associated with a significant reduction in the numbers of psychiatric beds...
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Presidential Election 2016 and the internet--the real winner
The last year has been difficult to watch, and the last few months even more so. News and quasi-news organizations have been bombarding my email with stories about the people vying for our presidency....
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Credit where credit is due
A couple of weeks ago I started taking medicine to lower my blood pressure and another to reduce my cholesterol. This was a controversial move, given my deep distrust of the practice of medicine, when...
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The 21st Century Cures Act--allowing drug companies to speed up development...
Early in December Congress came together in bipartisan support of HR 6, the "20th Century Cures Act." So unusual, these days, for a "landmark bill" to pass into law without major objections by...
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