tagged w/ Doctors
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This guest post is a commentary from Dr. Sanjeev K. Sriram, MD, MPH a member of the National Physicians Alliance. Dr. Sriram writes about the controversy raised by new federal guidelines regarding mammogram screenings for breast cancer.
As a pediatrician, I have had a love-hate relationship with guidelines over vaccines and children’s nutrition. They can be sources of information and guidance one day, and then create confusion and frustration the next. Nonetheless, I recognize this back-and-forth as the necessary process of building scientific knowledge for medicine and public health. That process is imperfect, and can be clumsy, as was the case with the release of last month’s US Preventive Services Task Force report on mammogram screening for breast cancer.
These reports pose a tough question for clinicians, patients, public health advocates, and policymakers: How do we make sense of new information based on studies of populations that conflicts with our personal experiences as individuals?
To start an answer to this question, let’s consider a complex process many of us take for granted: driving a car. Today, as drivers we are provided with a broad range of information. Traffic laws and roadside signage tell us about speed limits; radio traffic reports tell us about jammed routes; and GPS technologies tell us where we are in relationship to our destination. All of this information is useful in keeping us safe and oriented as individual drivers, and collectively speaking this information protects and guides populations of commuters.
But none of this information replaces the need for individualized judgment and common sense. A highway may have a speed limit that lets us drive at 65 miles per hour, but that’s not necessarily wise when it rains or snows. Driving directions and GPS technology can give us a route to follow, but we might have to improvise a new course if there is highway construction or an accident. In addition to these decisions in day-to-day commuting, drivers have to rotate the tires, change the oil, and do other routine maintenance on their vehicles.
This dynamic process of obeying traffic laws and using changing navigational technology can be frustrating for all of us as commuters. But that frustration needs to be kept in check. No one’s situation is served by road rage.
Which brings us back to clinical guidelines. For most physicians and patients, these guidelines are helpful sources of information, like roadside signage or satellite directions. The reports from groups such as the US Preventive Services Task Force can provide guidance and safety to the practice of medicine. But each clinical scenario needs to be carefully judged, and no doctor or patient should drive blindly. Regardless of whether we are physicians, patients, public health practitioners, or policymakers, when we encounter challenges in our journey, we need to remember the basic rules of the road. All of us need to demonstrate patience, use common sense, and communicate with others so all of us can share the road and get to our destinations safely. “Road rage” is irrational, irresponsible, and costs lives.
Recently on the Current News Blog:
- Mexico City legalizes gay marriage
- Lists! End of 2009 and end of the 2000s!
- Iranian spirital leader Montazeri dies; Opposition protests at his funeral
- Malnutrition and education in Guatemala - Global Citizen Year
- Arturo Beltran Levya, Mexican drug lord killed - Graphic PhotosThis guest post is a commentary from Dr. Sanjeev K. Sriram, MD, MPH a member of the... more
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One of the biggest flash-points of the health care debate has been the so-called "public option" - a government-run alternative to insurance companies. Most conservatives have said they absolutely can't support it and many liberals have said they absolutely can't support a bill without it. Well today the public option took a blow in the Senate Finance Committee as an amendment to add it to the present draft of the bill in the Senate was voted down 15 to 8. The vote against included 5 Democrats, including Sen. Max Baucus (D. - MT) who heads up the committee. He said he voted against the amendment because he feared it would keep the bill from getting the 60 votes its needs on the Senate floor.
There is a second amendment including the public option introduced by Sen. Chuck Schumer out of NY who vows to get it in there no matter what.
Will the public option kill health care reform? Moderate Senate Democrats are certainly trying their darnedest not to let it. But there's another danger for them: if they pass a bill without a public option, will liberals in the Democratic Party count that as actual reform? What do you think - Comment over here on Current News.
Also on health care:
- Your Health Care Stories - From the Current News Blog
- No Healthcare For Me (Video)One of the biggest flash-points of the health care debate has been the so-called... more
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So in the midst of all the international high drama happening between New York and Pittsburgh this week, let us not forget that back in Washington, lawmakers are still grappling with a monster of a health care debate. About a week ago I asked for you guys to send us some of your personal experiences with health care and health insurance in the US. Mostly we heard stories from people without insurance or with costly bills. Here are a few of them:
From user Justanks:
I have no health insurance. I can't afford it since I am an independent contractor and my husband is out of work. I have been able to get my daughter on the state medical but when I was paying out of pocket when we were better off it was costing over $600 a month for the 3 of us to have medical.That didn't include co-pays. Twice my daughter has had to stay at the hospital due to emergencies and they bill came out WAY over $700 each time. I know that is better than full price, but when you are still in school it is not realistic to pay that in full before you leave the hospital. I already pay taxes that are spent on govt.' officials medical and the BS they decide to spend it on, why shouldn't some of it go to my family having medical?
It's an oft-mentioned number but it's estimated that as many as 45 million Americans are without health insurance. Of course, even with health insurance, costs can pile up. Millions of Americans are weighed down by medical debt, like user cafiredancer:
I am in over $17,000 in medical debt (from just day to day things such as child birth and family misshaps, choked on a piece of meat, dislocated shoulder, broken foot from soccer and more recently a diagnosis in myself of Melanoma). At times we had insurance but could not pay deductables or had a large out of pocket. My husband and I have been without medical insurance for a majority of our 13 years together....it's already becoming the demise of a chance at any sort of financial freedom. At one point in time we were homeless, they didn't care, they still wanted their money...
One example for health care reformers has been Massachusetts, which has instituted a state wide health insurance mandate. This requirement for all citizens to have health insurance is a model that may in Congress are considering. Current.com user bc_f is from Massachusetts:
i live in MA where it's already illegal not to have health insurance. i am on unemployment and because of that i have subsidized health care from the state. it's actually not that bad, although i don't get dental or anything like that. a few months ago i had to have emergency surgery and had to stay overnight in the hospital. if it weren't for subsidized care i would be thousands of dollars in debt. i only had to pay $100 for the emergency room copay
On the News Blog we heard from a couple of people who had specific questions about how college students would be affected. From John Dye:
I’m a college student. I’m currently uninsured, unemployed, and I’ve been wondering how I will be affected if healthcare reform is passed? Will I be penalized for not having insurance? How am I supposed to pay for that if I’m a full time college student? I have zero income except for what the govt already gives me in financial aid.
The good news for college students who would be compelled to find health insurance by a legal mandate is that those costs would be subsidized by the government. That's true for anyone with a low income.
We did see one counter-example in the comments, from user courage:
My insurance is cheap and i have never had a problem with it. I have a eye desease i have to visit the doctor all the time and recieve expensive eye drops so as not to go blind all i ever pay is 10 dollars even for 90 dollar a gram drops....This country is powerful thanks to capitalism and free markets and personel responsibility and finacial and personel liberty, dont give it away for a false since of security.
If you have a story, let us know. We'll keep covering this for the next several weeks and beyond. Also if you're interested in working with someone on the Current News staff to tell a deeper story about your experience with the health care system, speak up. Leave your comments over here on current.com.
Related posts:
- No Health Care For Me (Video) - Christina Heller learns about the Massachusetts system as she searches for her own health coverage.
- Obama speaks on health care (video)- Obama's big health care speech to CongressSo in the midst of all the international high drama happening between New York and... more
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A couple of people have posted to Current the story about the very sobering figure of 45,000 deaths a year caused by people lacking health insurance. (That one comes from user WakeUpPeople).
I'm interested in an little informal poll of you guys. Do you not have insurance? Was their a period in which you didn't? If you do have it, what's your insurance story?
Mine's not too exciting. I was lucky enough to get job out of school with benefits and have stayed employed with benefits since. I have been surprised by my insurance a few times. Nothing serious, but paying for check-ins and physicals I wasn't expecting to have to. In my personal experience, deductibles can be a pretty effective deterrent to preventative care. Why shell out $100+ to go get checked out when I'm feeling fine. One of those 'Oh, I'll get to it eventually' things.
How about you?
Comment here.A couple of people have posted to Current the story about the very sobering figure of... more
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Where have all the doctors gone in ObamaCare? Judd Gregg of New Hampshire asked today on the floor of the Senate trying to pass the U.S. House of Representatives healthcare reconciliation bill.
An IBD/TIPP Poll shows 45% of all doctors in the United States are considering closing their practice or retiring early now that ObamaCare has passed. Also, 65% say they oppose government take over of the health care system. Just 33% supported it.
Given that the White House and Congress plan to provide health care coverage for 31 million new patients while at the same time cutting costs from the $2.4 trillion a year we spend on medical care, I thought it was important to reveal that doctors won’t go along with this insanity.
What I found was that of the 800,000 physicians practicing in the U.S. in 2006, as many as 360,000 may leave the profession now. So with this healthcare overhaul, we're trying to cover 31 million more patients with up to 45% fewer doctors.
Impossible. It can't be done.
-Where have all the doctors gone in ObamaCare? Judd Gregg of New Hampshire asked today... more
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Here we have the physicians per 1,000 by country according to sources compiled by nationmaster.com:
Cuba – 5.91
Belarus – 4.55
Greece – 4.4
Russia – 4.25
Italy – 4.2
Turkmenistan – 4.18
Georgia – 4.09
Lithuania – 3.97
Belgium – 3.9
Israel – 3.82
Uruguay – 3.65
Iceland – 3.62
Armenia – 3.59
Bulgaria – 3.56
Azerbaijan – 3.55
Kazakhstan – 3.54
Czech Rep. - 3.5
Austria – 3.4
Germany – 3.4
France – 3.37
Portugal – 3.3
Sweden – 3.3
North Korea – 3.29
Lebanon – 3.25
Hungary – 3.2
Spain – 3.2
Estonia – 3.16
Norway – 3.1
Holland – 3.1
Slovakia – 3.1
Latvia – 3.01
Argentina – 3.01
Ukraine – 2.95
Denmark – 2.9
Ireland – 2.79
Uzbekistan – 2.74
Luxembourg – 2.7
Moldova – 2.64
Mongolia – 2.63
Finland – 2.6
Kyrgyzstan – 2.5
Poland – 2.5
Croatia – 2.4
Cyprus – 2.34
United States – 2.3
Are we really going to say that Cuba, Belarus, Greece, Russia, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Lithuania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Lebanon, Hungary, Spain, Estonia, Portugal, Latvia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland and Croatia have more people willing and able to go through medical school and become doctors than the US? Now perhaps the number of doctors in Cuba is artificially high because of state intervention, or the stats are fudged, but even if the throw Cuba out – Turkmenistan? That there is the problem in the US, and I would say is the problem in all the European states on that list: supply is restricted.
And the reason supply is so restricted is because of the state, and would not form on a free market. And doctors would be certified and graded on a free market to the extent that people wanted it, and it’s a virtual certainty that it would be cheaper and more useful to consumers.Here we have the physicians per 1,000 by country according to sources compiled by... more
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HERE WE GO AGAIN!
Another study proving doctors are over testing and over
prescribing. NO SHIT! These studies pop up now and then but nothing happens to change the nefarious doctoring methods here in the good ole US of A. Maybe for a short period but then it’s business as usual. I remember a time when pediatricians’ handed out prescriptions for antibiotics to every child with a case of sniffles. As a young mother I was led to believe that if I didn’t give my child this “miracle” drug they would surely die. My kids had this potion pumping through their veins at least 2 or 3 times a year.
Then, sometime later, it was found that this over treating was causing the antibiotics not to be so ANTI anymore and bacterials were turning into HULKS so it stopped! Nice after I raised my kids on the stuff! I’m so cynical now, that I BELIEVE ‘NUTTIN HONEY’!
BTW, TO YOU teabaggers bellowing, "HANDS OFF MY HEALTHCARE!".
What healthcare?
Oh, you mean the one that uses your body as a guinea pig to increase “THEIR” wealth? thinkingblue
Experts say US doctors overtesting, overtreating http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100312/ap_on_he_me/us_med_unnecessary_tests
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner,
CHICAGO – Too much cancer screening, too many heart
tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports
suggest that too many Americans — maybe even President
Barack Obama — are being overtreated.
Is it doctors practicing defensive medicine? Or are patients
so accustomed to a culture of medical technology that they
insist on extensive tests and treatments?
A combination of both is at work, but now new evidence and
guidelines are recommending a step back and more thorough
doctor-patient conversations about risks and benefits.
As a medical journal editorial said this week about Obama's
recent checkup, Americans including the commander in chief
need to realize that "more care is not necessarily
better care."
Obama's exam included prostate cancer screening and a virtual
colonoscopy. The PSA test for prostate cancer is not
routinely recommended for any age and colon screening is not
routinely recommended for patients younger than 50. Obama is
48. MORE HERE http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100312/ap_on_he_me/us_med_unnecessary_tests
___
On the Net:
The National Institutes of Health: http://bit.ly/a8c7P0
The American Cancer Society: http://bit.ly/9w0fli
Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making: http://www.informedmedicaldecisions.orgHERE WE GO AGAIN!
Another study proving doctors are over testing and over... more
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A collection of my prescriptions after 3 years of being misdiagnosed, arranged into a piece of art.A collection of my prescriptions after 3 years of being misdiagnosed, arranged into a... more
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James Wong thinks you should grow your own drugs.
No, we're not talking about the illicit kind. We're talking about a living pharmacy of plants from your own backyard: fennel and rose hips; echinacea and dandelion; horse chestnuts and nettles.
Wong is an ethnobotanist. He trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, and he's written a medicinal recipe book called Grow Your Own Drugs, an offshoot of his BBC television series.
In his book, Wong looks at plants as bright chemical factories.
"I think so many people have this stereotyped idea of what herbal medicine is," Wong tells NPR's Melissa Block.
"To me as a scientist, whether a chemical is found within a pill or the cells of plant is really irrelevant — that's just packaging," he said.
more at link...
Notice how they're called "drugs" and not herbs or vegetables. What happens when they pass Codex Alimentarius (look it up) or John McCain's (as if he wrote it) dietary supplement bill? Will "drug growers" be locked up? Probably.James Wong thinks you should grow your own drugs.
No, we're not talking about... more
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According to researchers, blood-sugar levels that were once considered normal for pregnant women are not safe for the baby or the mother. These blood-sugar levels that were once seen as normal can cause premature labor and other complications. “Previously doctors had thought that between five and eight per cent of women suffered from [gestational diabetes] during their pregnancy. But a new international study involving 23,000 women in nine countries suggests that more than twice as many mothers to be, 16 per cent, developed the disease,” reports Kate Devlin from Telegraph.co.uk.According to researchers, blood-sugar levels that were once considered normal for... more
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According to researchers, blood-sugar levels that were once considered normal for pregnant women are not safe for the baby or the mother. These blood-sugar levels that were once seen as normal can cause premature labor and other complications. “Previously doctors had thought that between five and eight per cent of women suffered from [gestational diabetes] during their pregnancy. But a new international study involving 23,000 women in nine countries suggests that more than twice as many mothers to be, 16 per cent, developed the disease,” reports Kate Devlin from Telegraph.co.uk.According to researchers, blood-sugar levels that were once considered normal for... more
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A report that focused on finding the best hospitals in America was just released by HealthGrades.com; the full list of the best ranked hospitals is available on their site. The study revealed that “164,964 lives may have been saved and 18,900 major complications avoided during the three years (2006 – 2008) studied, had the quality of care at all hospitals matched the level of those distinguished as America’s 50 Best Hospitals.”A report that focused on finding the best hospitals in America was just released by... more
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Mike Adams, The Health Major
www.naturalnews.com
March 1, 2010
Weapons of Mass Prescription
What if a nation wanted to reduce its own civilian population but do it covertly? The way to accomplish that would be to slowly poison the civilian population through exposure to toxic chemicals, heavy metals, hormone-disrupting molecules and nerve toxins.
And as any terrorist can tell you, the most covert way to accomplish that would be to inject such chemicals into the everyday products that people routinely consume: Water, food, personal care products and medicines.
Here’s another interesting fact: If you examine what’s in the water, food, products and medicines sold across North America, you’ll discover a dangerous assortment of chemicals that, taken together, could quite reasonably be considered weapons of mass destruction.
Interestingly, the fluoride dumped into public water supplies was originally an offshoot of the enrichment processing facilities for uranium to be used in nuclear weapons. These days, however, fluoride is usually just the toxic waste from fertilizer manufacturing factories or the waste from smokestack scrubbers of coal-fired power plants. Either way, it’s not good for your teeth: The entire fluoride agenda largely a convenient, low-cost way to dispose of industrial waste chemicals while calling it a public health program.
Antibacterial soaps derive their antibacterial properties from chemicals that are molecularly quite similar to the infamous Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War. And yet these products are openly marketed for use by children.
more sections at article, including links...very powerful articleMike Adams, The Health Major
www.naturalnews.com
March 1, 2010
Weapons of Mass... more
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The AMHE has sent over 400 doctors to Haiti since the quake, this is a short video about the first group that landed 4 days after the quake.The AMHE has sent over 400 doctors to Haiti since the quake, this is a short video... more
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Medical providers have asked the question of whether offering cash discounts for certain health services jeopardizes their insurance contracts- especially regarding Medicare/Medicaid, as they have the most complex rules and regulations. Unfortunately, after reviewing various documents on the matter, there are no clear and absolute answers; but certainly there are prevailing opinions and recommendations.Medical providers have asked the question of whether offering cash discounts for... more
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For nearly two months prosecutors have suggested that Dr. Earl B. Bradley, the alleged pedophile pediatrician from Lewes, had molested an untold number of children, far more than the nine he was charged in December with raping.
Today, the Attorney General’s Office made their suspicions official, with a Sussex County grand jury indicting Bradley in the rapes of 102 girls and one boy he treated, a more-than-tenfold increase in the number of victims originally alleged.
Bradley filmed many of his attacks, police have said, and for weeks investigators have been poring over hundreds of videotapes seized from his office and home as they amassed more evidence.
“I know that today’s indictment will reopen painful wounds for Lewes and the Sussex County community that has already been deeply traumatized,’’ said Attorney General Beau Biden, who announced the staggering toll detailed in the 471-count indictment that was handed up earlier in the day by a Sussex County grand jury.
The case against Bradley, believed to be one of the most heinous allegations of patient sexual abuse against a doctor in American history, will now move toward a trial that could take place later this year. Unless he posts $2.9 million cash bail, Bradley, 56, will await his day in court at the state prison near Smyrna.
Police and prosecutors have charged Bradley with almost unspeakable depravity -- holding toddlers upside down and yelling at them while committing sex acts; penetrating a girl's vagina with his hand when she was brought in for a sore throat. In one Dec. 13 recording -- made three days before his arrest, a 2- to 3-year-old girl was seen screaming and trying to run away from Bradley, police wrote.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100222/NEWS/100222028/Grand-jury-indicts-Dr.-Earl-Bradley-in-rapes-of-103-child-patientsFor nearly two months prosecutors have suggested that Dr. Earl B. Bradley, the alleged... more
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Following doctor’s orders has become synonymous with danger. Every year, FDA approved drugs kill twice as many people as the total number of U.S. deaths from the Vietnam War. Death by medicine flourishes because deceit, not science, governs a doctor’s prescribing habits. This deceit comes in many forms. Medical ghostwriting and checkbook science are the most prominent. ... http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=163:how-drug-companies-deceive-doctors-and-how-hire-ghostwriters-to-produce-articles&catid=38:recentnews&Itemid=55Following doctor’s orders has become synonymous with danger. Every year, FDA... more
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I did not understand that in a few hours, a Kafkaesque moment, I would turn yellow and the cancer in my soul would become the cancer in my pancreas. That was then — now I am a 7 year survivor of a cancer that few get to tell about.I did not understand that in a few hours, a Kafkaesque moment, I would turn yellow and... more
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