Edwin Leap tries to make sense of it: No one bats an eye at television shows about rappers or athletes and their elaborate homes, or extensive car collections. But doctors! Oh my! One reader commented on my column on free care with a very annoyed letter to the editor, ranting about doctors and their […]

Eric Novack in an op-ed: Just as it is morally repugnant for employers or the government to require workers to work extra hours without pay, it is unethical for a society that cherishes freedom to create a system where a right to health care obligates doctors to provide care at any time, and for a price […]

An ode to the colorectal surgeon. Published by KevinContinue reading: "Working where the sun don’t shine"

A parody of the Zoloft TV ad. More weekend hilarity, via Mad TV. Published by KevinContinue reading: Ecstasy commercial

Courtesy of the Howard University College of Medicine. Published by KevinContinue reading: "In my white coat"

Roy Poses outlines two instances where suggested P4P measures can lead to more harm than good. Published by KevinContinue reading: P4P measures causing harm

retired doc feels that the ACP’s “medical home” solution only would work within a single payer construct. Published by KevinContinue reading: Does the ACP covertly want a single payer system?

The tab started before he got to the hospital: On the other hand, what Palmer didn’t know is that as soon as the paramedics radioed ahead to say they were bringing in an accident victim, San Francisco General, as per the hospital’s procedures, issued a trauma alert to its staff. Basically, that means a page was sent […]

Maurice Bernstein laments the loss of the physical exam: The old doctors had less tests and more time and more attention to the patient. Whether they could do a better job in diagnosis and treatment of the disease than more modern medicine is doubtful. But one thing is clear, they had the time to do a […]

Zelnorm has been pulled, as there is a small association with heart attacks when taking this IBS drug: Swiss pharmaceutical maker Novartis AG will stop selling a drug to relieve constipation after it was linked to a higher chance of heart attack, stroke and worsening chest pain that can become a heart attack, federal health officials […]

Apparently access to this procedure is pretty good: Practically, those who can scrape together $700 can get an abortion from a doctor. Some of them will even bill health insurance for the procedure, by coding it as a complication of pregnancy, according to the article. Published by KevinContinue reading: Abortion in Mexico

John Mack goes to his doctor’s office yesterday and reports on his findings. Published by KevinContinue reading: How to observe drug reps

Panda Bear just has no quit in him. The third in a series post on single payer - there’s no way the American public, groomed to expect the best medical care, instantly - will stand for it: So, it may come to pass that our country adopts a single payer system in our impossible quest […]

An editorial in the San Francisco Examiner tells it like it is: Next time your doctor orders lots of blood tests and MRIs, you will be experiencing a slice of the estimated $124 billion annually in unnecessary costs imposed on American health care providers through malpractice and other liability lawsuits. Doctors call it “defensive medicine” when […]

Remove the financial incentive, and you get what’s happening in Canada - perceived doctor shortages: Now, we have a situation where the great doctor can only bill a maximum of $450,000 per year (minus overhead and taxes). When, prior to the cap, he was happy to work for “services rendered” and billed accordingly. However, now his $1.3 […]

An uncontrollable episode of coughing causes a girl to get kicked off a plane, even though a physician on board said she’d be ok to make the flight. Published by KevinContinue reading: Coughing fit

An economist suggests demerit awards instead of performance bonuses. With all due respect to guys like Matthew and Ezra, the problem with health policy wonks is that they base their opinions with zero clinical experience in medicine. Because of this, it is difficult for physicians put any weight into anything they say. Published by […]

An op-ed in the Boston Globe: And yet Elizabeth Edwards said at a news conference, “I don’t expect my life to be significantly different.” She calls herself “incredibly optimistic.” About his press secretary Tony Snow, President Bush said, “He is not going to let this whip him, and he’s upbeat.” Of course all people need hope: hope […]

Or, an IV flush for pancreatitis pain. Published by KevinContinue reading: Power of placebo

A physician is about to go through a malpractice trial. His wife goes off on a tirade: My physician husband is going to court next week, being sued by a woman whose husband died of esophagus cancer. She thinks she deserves money because someone died. SOMEONE must pay. Win or lose, the taxpayer pays […]

A Texas senator wants to pay women $500 if they change their mind about an abortion after showing up at the clinic. Steven Levitt thinks about this: Honestly, though, is it really such a bad idea? What if he left out the part about visiting an abortion clinic? Does it make sense to subsidize women […]

Panda Bear is on a roll with a follow-up missive against single-payer health care. He tries to explain it as simply as possible for those blindly support such an ill-conceived measure: In the quasi-single payer system of Medicaid and Medicare we have today, the goverment fixes the price at such a low level that those […]

Bard-Parker with the revealing CT scan. Wow. Published by KevinContinue reading: The biggest hernia you’ll ever see

CRNAs (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists) make almost as much, if not more, than primary care physicians - with 2 years of college education. This post from a forum wonders how: CRNAs make 224% as much as RNs and 156% as much as advance practice nurses (NP). According to the allnurses.com website, 58% of nurses are […]

Isn’t that the point? Published by KevinContinue reading: Anti-smoking ads too disturbing for kids

That is the plan some are considering: Democrats in the Minnesota state Senate want to give publicly insured patients $20 gift cards to stores such as Target as an incentive to follow their doctor’s orders. Sen. Linda Berglin, who leads the health budget panel, is betting that it will pay off for the state to sink $1 […]

The once-promising pill for obesity is facing challenges in the FDA due to its psychiatric side-effects. Published by KevinContinue reading: Acomplia: An uphill battle?

“When faced with the opportunity to read a book by someone who isn’t by profession a writer, I always go for the doctor.” (via DB) Published by KevinContinue reading: Freakonomics on physician-writers

Orac and The Cheerful Oncologist comment further. Published by KevinContinue reading: Tony Snow’s cancer: Blogosphere reaction

Physicians take Dr. Siegel to task for his baseless, emotional support of CT scans for lung cancer screening. Apparently, he doesn’t believe in evidence-based medicine. Money quote: “the plural of anecdote is not data.“ If physicians don’t believe in the evidence, how can we convince the public? Most importantly, he also neglects to take the […]