Apart from the challenge of knowing what’s good medical advice from any medical advice, few things are as aggravating about the provision of health care as not knowing ahead of time what it will cost. We’ve addressed how medical procedures can be surprisingly unknowable – see our blogs, “The Cost Creep of Pap Smears” and….
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Suggested Reading — Doctor Experiences Critical Care From the Patient’s Perspective
Arnold Relman, a 90-year-old physician with more than 60 years’ experience treating patients in critical condition, gained a new perspective about medical care when he became a patient after tumbling down the stairs at his home. His chronicle in the New York Review of Books of what it was like to receive treatment is a….
Continue ReadingA Word of Caution About Near-Infrared Laser Therapy
A new, hot therapy is being promoted for a range of problems, especially among chiropractors. It’s called near-infrared laser therapy (NILT), and its enthusiastic practitioners say the noninvasive, benign-sounding treatment is good for victims of strokes and head injuries hoping to recover their motor function. But as reported on MedPageToday.com, the evidence supporting such claims….
Continue ReadingQ&A with Renowned Patient Safety Practitioner
Dr. Lucien Leape is on the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health. As one of America’s foremost proponents of patient safety (see our blog, “A Surgeon Outs the Deficiencies in Health Care,” ), he was interviewed earlier this month by MedPageToday.com as part of its ongoing series to learn what medical professionals consider….
Continue ReadingHow to Advocate for a Patient
It’s intimidating, speaking up for a loved one who has the new label “patient.” But it’s necessary, if you want your patient to stay healthy and avoid preventable injuries in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and wherever patients undergo medical care. A new video from a prominent health care standards organization aims to provide some essential….
Continue ReadingFree Apps, Get Your Free Apps!
A person could spend all day at the app store-it’s the new retail therapy. And the federal government is happy to enable your app downloading habit. Among the various free offerings on the U.S. government apps page are many relating to health, fitness and product safety. Here’s a roundup of a few that might be….
Continue ReadingLack of Oversight Promotes Dangerous Conditions for Health-Care Workers
Roofers, firefighters and athletes all have risky, injury-prone jobs. So do health-care workers. According to a recent report by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, nurses, nurses’ aides, orderlies and hospital/continuing care attendants suffer more musculoskeletal injuries than people working in any other profession. The reason, the report suggests, isn’t just because much of what….
Continue ReadingPulling Back the Curtain on Dr. Oz
Dr. Mehmet Oz is everywhere-on TV, all over the web and often cited as an authority in news stories. You have to wonder why he’s so popular, given how often his advice is bad, and sometimes dangerous. This isn’t the first time we’ve called Dr. Oz on the carpet, and our purpose is not to….
Continue ReadingCauses of Preventable Accidental Deaths at Home
Accidents happen. And it appears that the number of fatal accidents at home is rising. Between 2000 and 2008, more than 30,000 deaths occurred from unintentional injury at home. The most common causes of home accident death are poisoning, falls and fire/burn injuries. So says a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine whose….
Continue ReadingSuggested Reading: Medical Bill Manipulation, Cancer Test Harms, Alternative Medicine
Sometimes, we read an article about health, medicine and/or patient safety that’s utterly fascinating but too long to summarize fairly in a blog post. So here’s a shout out to a few recent stories you might want to look up. “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” by Steven Brill. Time magazine’s exhaustive examination….
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