e-Patient Dave

Power to the Patient!

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Daily Digest: Life is 100% fatal, medical error stats, and more

“Life is 100% fatal“: I’m quoting myself there, and I’ve helped beloved family members navigate that final journey by holding their hand, and standing watch, as the light of their living selves flickered out. It’s a sacred human experience that’s become over-medicalized, particularly in the US. From the NY Times, written by a palliative care doctor, Ira Byock: “Dying Shouldn’t Be So Brutal”

Killer numbers: In a terrific post on Vox, Sarah Kliff, who’s built a solid reputation as a journalist who can break down complex statistical data into accessible information, tells us that we have miles to go before we’ve defeated the medical-error monster. “Medical errors in America kill more people than AIDS or drug overdoses. Here’s why.”

Doctors as family advocates: Dr. Pauline Chen makes a forceful case on the NY Times Well blog that doctors should advocate for their patients and families to get work policies in place, policies that let people get the time needed to care for sick family members. “Doctors as Advocates for Family Leave”

Why discharge instructions matter: On Forbes.com, a piece by Robert Szczerba on why care transitions, particularly from hospital to home, can present re-admission risk, and efforts to eliminate that risk. “Coming Home From The Hospital Is Actually More Dangerous Than You Might Expect”

Bad science, and how to spot it: Another post from Vox, this one by Susannah Locke, on how to spot weird (bad/fake) science reporting. Piece includes a great infographic, too. “15 ways to tell if that science news story is hogwash”

Dr. House of Cards: Wednesday humor comes from ZDoggMD – slightly funnier than placebo – and his mashup of House of Cards, Dr. Oz, and medical-science mayhem. “Dr. House of Cards: Oz vs. Underwood“

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Daily Digest: Monday, February 2, 2015

 

Welcome to a new feature: the Daily Digest, by my friend and fellow SPM member “Mighty Casey” Quinlan, of Richmond, VA. Her Facebook feed and Twitter feed are so constantly full of things I’d missed that I thought “Shoot, let’s post that!” So this month, Monday through Friday, she’ll post links to what she thinks are the best/hottest/most interesting healthcare, medicine, and bio-science stories that day. Here she goes:

Yeah, there might even be some humor, since we’re both fans of Gomerblog and ZDoggMD.

Today’s crop:

  1. The human brain is a fascinating instrument. This piece from the NY Times’ Well blog looks at the impact price awareness has on the placebo effect. The outcome is both surprising, and not surprising at all. “Expensive Drugs Work Better Than Cheap Ones“
  2. Are minute clinics, where patients can walk in for quick care on stuff like strep throat or flu shots, better patient experiences than care at a regular primary care practice? Geriatrician Dr. Leslie Kernisan had the opportunity to compare two of her own experiences, which she shared on The Health Care Blog: “A Tale of Two Sore Throats: On Retail Clinics and Urgent Care“
  3. How far would you go for medical care? Would you go all the way to Thailand? Morgan Spurlock, the guy behind “Supersize Me,” now has a CNN series called “Inside Man,” where he looked at the rise of medical tourism in the face of rising U.S. healthcare costs. “Surf, sand … and surgery? Inside the world of medical tourism“
  4. Our friends at Symplur, the healthcare data visualization gurus, asked and answered a great question on their blog recently about patient communities and New Year’s goals. Christopher Snider posted this, and it’s a great read. “Looking Forward to Looking Back – How Do Patient Communities Approach New Year’s Goals?“
  5. Connected health and quantified-self have gotten a lot of ink, both physical and virtual, over the last few years. With the rise of self-tracking tools, from Fitbit to AliveCor to Scanadu, patients with chronic conditions and early-adopter tech mavens are monitoring their physical status with more and more granularity. Can connected health penetrate the “actual medical practice” membrane? Here’s a list from The Doctor Weighs In blog: “Five Accelerants to the Adoption of Connected Health“
  6. Because we mentioned humor, and Gomerblog, and ZDoggMD in our intro, here’s a three-fer: a post about Turntable Health, ZDoggMD’s new comprehensive care clinic in Las Vegas, on Gomerblog. It’s not a new post, it dates from May of 2014, but it is definitely worth a read for the laughs. NOTE: this post is SATIRE. “Big Pharma and Mega Hospitals ‘Scared Beyond Belief’ of Tiny Las Vegas Health Clinic“

That’s it for today – check back tomorrow, we’ll have a fresh list of must-reads for you!