Tag: medicine
Let's Talk The Hypocritical, Not The Hippocratic Oath When It Comes To Med Schools
MayorBob.
Posted to Etcetera on Thu Jun 05, 2008 at 06:24:40 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
To hear the medical schools talk about it, they are training doctors who will practice medicine with their patients' best health in mind. There are those who say one of the things many doctors learn early in their careers is that pharmaceutical companies can be quite helpful to them. What they'll find is that pharamaceutical company reps are a wondrous source of money, gifts and free drug samples. There is a group that believes many doctors learn these things right when they're learning to become doctors - at medical school. They also believe the first steps in correcting the situation has to be taken at the medical schools. According to the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), it's about time to take stock of just what the medical schools are doing about this situation. Which is what it did and the initial results are quite disturbing.
(19 comments, 448 words in story) Full Story
No Mothers Day Card For This Mother
MayorBob.
Posted to Etcetera on Sun May 04, 2008 at 08:10:04 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
Laurie Williamson presented herself as a totally involved, concerned mother whose kids had medical problems. Over a ten year period, she took her kids from one doctor to the next, pointing out a variety of physical maladies she said the children were suffering. The children, ages 8, 11 and 13 now, showed symptoms of the afflictions that Williamson told the doctors the children were suffering. The doctors responded by ordering medical treatments and, sometimes surgeries, to treat them. As it turned out, it was all a lie as Laurie Williamson made up the medical maladies, coached the children to act like they were really ill, and collected a whole bunch of money from the state and people who bought into her tales of woe. All that is at an end as the 40-year-old Spring, Texas woman is facing the next 15 years behind bars.
(1 comment, 585 words in story) Full Story
Who Failed Rebecca?
MayorBob.
Posted to Etcetera on Fri Apr 18, 2008 at 06:20:59 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
Rebecca Riley's story is the horrific stuff you'd expect to see at a cineplex. Before the 4-year-old from Boston died in December 2006, she had been on a steady regimen of some very strong psychotropic drugs, prescribed by a doctor to treat her bipolar condition. Allegedly, her parents used her in a scheme to collect Social Security disability payments. Bottomline is that the parents are facing second-degree murder charges and the doctor is being sued by Rebecca's estate as the "primary cause" of her death.
(18 comments, 569 words in story) Full Story
How Much Is Too Much For Your Life?
port1080.
Posted to SciTech on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 02:54:11 AM EST (promoted by 1fastdog). RSS.
The American Society for Clinical Oncology is preparing new guidelines for treatment which will, for the first time, include a discussion of cost considerations for advanced treatment options. The lack of universal health care in the US, combined with skyrocketing costs, has pushed this issue to the forefront for patients facing a terminal cancer diagnosis.
(10 comments, 496 words in story) Full Story
Which Ethical Guidelines Do You Follow?
MayorBob.
Posted to SciTech on Fri Mar 21, 2008 at 06:53:15 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
The abortion debate continues. Only this time, it's not about a state trying to criminalize abortions or make it impossible for women to receive abortions. It's not even about an attempt to sanction doctors for performing abortions. This time, it's about an attempt to stop doctors, who might have moral reservations about performing abortions themselves, from referring patients to doctors who would perform the operation.
(53 comments, 640 words in story) Full Story
Does "Medical Prayer" Work?
novy.
Posted to Religion on Mon Jan 14, 2008 at 11:57:30 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
"A 1998 Harvard Medical School survey estimated that 35% of Americans pray for good health and that 69% of those who pray find it 'very helpful' -- a bigger percentage than felt their visits to doctors had been very helpful. A much larger study conducted by the National Institutes of Health in 2002 found 43% of people in the United States pray for their own health, and 24% seek the prayers of others. Most strikingly, 73% of critical-care nurses in a 2005 national survey said they use prayer in their work."
(45 comments, 342 words in story) Full Story
Happiness: Threat Or Menace?
pO157.
Posted to Business on Mon Jul 09, 2007 at 05:28:55 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
In 2005, a US government study found that of the 2.4 billion prescriptions written, 118 million were for one type or another of anti-depressant, making this the most commonly issued drug in the country.
(14 comments, 319 words in story) Full Story
A Case Of Life Or Death In A Texas Hospital.
MayorBob.
Posted to SciTech on Tue Apr 10, 2007 at 08:20:24 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
By the time you read this story, Emilio Gonzales' life may be over. He is currently attached to a respirator which doctors and the hospital want to turn off. His mother Catarina Gonzales doesn't want that to happen but she's up against the medical community which has pronounced Emilio's situation "futile" and a Texas law which gives them the right to turn off the switch. Since early last month Catarina has been in pitched battle with the hospital and doctors intent on removing Emilio from life support.
(13 comments, 394 words in story) Full Story
What The Doctor Won't Discuss.
MayorBob.
Posted to SciTech on Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 06:18:32 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
If you go to an expert for advice, you can generally rely upon getting all the information you need to make a decision. But, if you go to a doctor, you might not get that sort of treatment. According to a major study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a disturbing number of doctors feel there are topics they can discuss and those they can't. The line separating what they'll discuss with a patient happens to be that doctor's personal moral code. In some instances, if the issue the patient most needs to know about is one their doctor believes conflicts with his or her moral code, they might not even be referred to a doctor qualified to perform it.
(20 comments, 489 words in story) Full Story
Suck The Fat Outta Me With That Thing, Doc. I Have My Teenaged Years Ahead.
MayorBob.
Posted to SciTech on Sat Dec 09, 2006 at 11:41:51 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
Brooke Bates of Pflugerville, Texas had weight issues. She weighed 180 pounds by age 11 and had ballooned to 220 pounds a year later. She tried her darnedest to lose the weight: low carb diets, Weight Watchers, and Richard Simmons Deal-A-Meal, to name a few - all without success. Then she found a weight program that worked, that removed pounds, and made her "about as happy as a little girl can be" in the words of her father, Joey Bates. But, if Brooke and her father and mother are happy with the program, that doesn't mean that many other people are. You see, Brooke literally had the excess pounds sucked out of her by liposuction. That's a procedure the medical community says shouldn't be used for weight control and certainly isn't meant for young people.
(10 comments, 518 words in story) Full Story
Report Puts US Transplant Centers On Critical List
MayorBob.
Posted to SciTech on Fri Jun 30, 2006 at 06:51:10 PM EST. RSS.
Whenever the topic of transplant surgery comes up, the primary complaint seems to focus on the shortage of organs to transplant and the difficulty of getting on a list so you'll have a shot at a transplant before your systems finally fails. Little concern has been expressed about the quality of the transplant once you win the lottery and end up on the operating table awaiting your new heart, lung, liver, etc. Perhaps it's time to give that area a bit more of the limelight. Because, according to a Los Angeles Times' investigation, almost 20 percent of medical centers currently performing transplant surgeries shouldn't be .
(7 comments, 507 words in story) Full Story
