The birth of Prince Louis Arthur Charles brought joy to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but the regal baby’s arrival also provided cause for harsh comparisons of maternal costs and safety for more ordinary expectant moms on this side of the Atlantic. Two magazines — Foreign Policy and the Economist — both poked at….
Continue ReadingArchives for April 2018
Doctors must give patients more help with medical uncertainty and complexity
Although Americans may love to wager on ponies, lotteries, and even church bingo games, they’re getting restive and confused about playing the odds with their health — and doctors need to step up their game a lot to help patients better cope with medical uncertainties. Dhruv Khullar, a physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and a researcher at….
Continue ReadingDistrict tests an alternative answer to what really ails too many 911 callers
Residents of the nation’s capital will participate in a public health test every time they pick up the phone to dial 911 for help. How their calls get answered says a lot about common sense, as well as the availability and affordability of medical services in Washington and the nation. National Public Radio reported that….
Continue ReadingHospitals and rise in health jobs blamed as medical costs head north, again
Although Americans’ spending for prescription drugs has taken a surprising dip, overall costs of medical care keep heading north. The rise this year is faster than it has been in a while. The culprit? Look to big, shiny hospitals. Or look around at people flocking to well-paying jobs in the health care sector. Modern Healthcare, a….
Continue ReadingSickening eggs and lettuce? Didn’t we pass a major law to fix food safety?
After fading from the headlines in 2015-16 when a major restaurant chain struggled with meals that sickened dozens in multiple states, big worries have erupted anew about the safety of the nation’s food. That’s because federal officials and a supersized-farmer are struggling with salmonella outbreaks tied to more than 200 million now-recalled eggs, even as….
Continue ReadingTrust your gut: Don’t swallow hype about ‘microbiome’ and dietary gee-whiz
Trust your gut: If anyone hypes a diet to you, saying it’s beneficial because it’s somehow tailored to the makeup of your complex, prehistoric, and individual intestinal microbiome, just wink and walk off. You know better, right? Healthnewsreview.org, the watchdog about accuracy of medical news reports, rightly has taken after the Wall Street Journal for….
Continue ReadingRetail clinics are booming, but can’t be a cheaper cure-all for patient needs
Americans are showing with their feet and their money how they feel about doctors’ offices and shiny hospitals, places they’re shunning more and more. They’re racing to neighborhood clinics and urgent care centers that seem to be popping up on every suburban street corner and shopping mall. Before these facilities transform U.S. health care, would….
Continue ReadingBig Medicine can’t hide patient inequities by calling them ‘disparities’ in care
Big Medicine can paper over its troubles with basic fairness by slapping fancy terms on them: take “health and gender disparities,” for instance. But doctors, hospitals, and the rest of us can’t make medical care more equitable, accessible, safe, and affordable without looking at inequities, square on. That’s why the New York Times, Washington Post,….
Continue ReadingWill opioid crisis raise red flags for long-term antidepressant use?
Even as the nation enters an even scarier phase in its battle against the raging opioid abuse epidemic, new and sterner warnings are flying about antidepressants. The costs of these powerful drugs add up, as does the toll of depression and its care. Users say antidepressants are a nightmare to get off of. And medical….
Continue ReadingAre we back to this? Kids targeted by nicotine and sugary cereal peddlers
Big Tobacco, Big Sugar, and technology may be targeting the well-being of young people faster than regulators can prevent them from heading back to the future in a bad way: Teens getting hooked on nicotine, while tots take in excess calories with super sweet breakfast cereals. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times….
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