Nicholas J. Gross, MD, PhD comments on a recent Archives of Internal Medicine study and several others that preceded it:This study follows a few other recent observational studies that have come to the same conclusion,[2,3] and a similar study limited to patients aged 65 years and older had the same outcome.[4] Although all of these studies have been observational, their unanimity makes it hard Read More...

Tom DesFosses is a grateful cancer survivor who has organized a biking event to raise funds for cancer research. It will be held on September 12, in Danvers, MA. See here for scenes from last year’s ride. You can register now, here. Here’s Tom making a pitch for the ride. If you can’t see the video, click here. Read More...

By MICHAEL MILLENSON The humble tonsillectomy has been at the center of controversies over practice variation, inappropriate surgery and avoidable harm for decades; indeed, well before the terms to describe those problems were formally articulated. Now, thanks to the recently… Read More...

By Bianca Grogan Cliquez pour la vidéo en français Read More...

You may have read and heard a lot about concussions lately. I recently cowrote a clinical report on sports-related concussions in children and adolescents that will be published today in Pediatrics. There have been some positive changes in the NFL and NCAA to improve safety, but you will be glad to know the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association has been following these improved rules for a few years now. Concussions are brain injuries and need to be taken seriously. They don’t Read More...

By Anthony Cirillo I’m insulted and you should be too. I knew when I read this FierceHealthcare blurb that there was a blog lurking. But right after I read it I had to leave my desk for a doctor’s appointment. Well that appointment sealed the deal. When you arrive at your 2 p.m. appointment and are not seen until 3 p.m. that is an insult. [More:] When you fly a certain airline and their idea of offering a better experience is to charge you thirty bucks to “upgrade” Read More...

The CDC has announced an expected 160 million doses of influenza vaccine this year, to be available by the end of September. The single vaccine will incorporate all 3 influenza viruses (including the 2009 H1N1) and will be universally recommended to all adult patients and all healthcare workers (CDC website) Read More...

It was recently reported that the University of New Hampshire is considering offering an amnesty program for underage students caught drinking on campus, in an effort to reduce alcohol related injury on school grounds. Those who support the program say students are drinking anyway, if the fear of suspension is removed they may be less inclined to be left alone when drunk, thereby reducing the risk of injury. Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston disagree. A recently released study by Read More...

My friend Nancy says that the whole point of the senior year of high school is to make parents so fed up with their kids that they can’t wait to send them to college. That’s certainly how it was with my second child, Zack. By the time he left, I was so frustrated and annoyed that I was counting down the minutes. Don’t get me wrong; Zack is a good kid. But increasingly he didn’t do things I asked him to do. He left garbage and destruction everywhere he went. His room, which he Read More...

The two regimens were equivalent in terms of treatment failure in this retrospective cohort study. Quinolones were associated with more diarrhea. Mortality was not evaluated. Read More...

On the high side, probably. It decreases encephalopathy. Explanation at Renal Fellow Network. Read More...

The talk around the country among health insurance companies is that their insurance business is dying. What is happening? First, the consolidations in other industries, resulting in large, multistate corporations, already mean that many companies self insure their employees. Even many local firms have large enough work forces that they can be self-contained risk pools. (One source I found says that in 2008, 89 percent of workers employed in firms with 5000 or more employees were in Read More...

Here is a story by Robert Gavin in the Boston Globe about the deteriorating financial condition of Massachusetts hospitals. This is another in the now all-too-familiar type of story about layoffs of health care workers in our state, something some of us predicted several months ago. While there are some who suggest that a move from fee-for-service to global, or capitated,* payments is the key element in solving rising health care costs, some questions need to be answered as part of the Read More...

by Gwen Darling As hospitals continue to focus on demonstrating “meaningful use,” one thing has become clear: The hunt for experienced Healthcare IT professionals is on, and the competition is fierce. Fortunately many excellent educational programs are in full swing, working to produce the workforce of tomorrow. But in the meantime, any hospital employee who has played an integral part in a successful EMR implementation is one hot commodity. And if that employee happens to be Read More...

By PAUL LEVY The talk around the country among health insurance companies is that their insurance business is dying. What is happening? First, the consolidations in other industries, resulting in large, multistate corporations, already mean that many companies self insure… Read More...

By Matthew Holt Next week there’s post-Labor day health care fun in San Diego. The 2nd mHealth Networking Conference is Sept 8-9 and Healthcamp San Diego is the day before (Sept 6). Both are run by good health care friends—Peter… Read More...

Medical terminology can be confusing for many patients, especially children. Have you ever suffered a medical nightmare like this? “Patient displays an acute communicable disease with an incubation period of 2 or 3 weeks and caused by herpesvirus, usually found in children. Manifestations include coryza, fever, malaise, and headache, followed in 2 or 3 days by the eruption of macular vesicles.” Chances are you have. The above paragraph is just a complicated description of a Read More...

Maybe so. Read More...

Here’s a publication from NCPA you should read. Forget the sound bite. Forget the government spin. This is the best source I’ve seen to find out what Obamacare will look like “on the ground” to the extent it’s possible to say right now. I add that last qualifier because there’s a lot we still don’t know. Many provisions of the law are under the discretion of a handful of czars who could Read More...

By Bianca Grogan Cliquez sur elle pour la vidéo en français Etienne Caniard of the French National Authority for Health spoke on the French governement’s approach to Health 2.0 technologies. Read More...

By JOHN GOODMAN Have you ever seen a fair, unbiased, evenhanded explanation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? Have you ever seen anything that even appeared to be objective? I haven’t. So to fill the gap, my colleagues… Read More...

Sometimes an expression that would be appropriate and kind in normal circumstances can add pain or anxiety in a clinical setting. A friend recently went to the Emergency Room because of some bad symptoms. After a few tests, the attending returned to give the diagnosis. He started out by saying, “I hate it when I have to give this kind of news” and then proceeded to summarize the test results and finally to tell my friend that she likely had a very serious, probably terminal form Read More...

Apparently, this is a very rare event. See here. An excerpt: “It has happened in this country before, but not in recent decades”. Blue whales are the biggest creatures to have ever lived on Earth. They can grow up to 30 metres and weigh up to 150 tonnes. Read More...

This week on Thrive: Empowering story form Healthy Family Fun Being a teenager can be rough. Simultaneously dealing with school, peer pressure and puberty can leave many young people feeling like forces outside their control are running their lives. But Jorge Medina-Barreto, a peer leader in the Adolescent Services Program at Martha Eliot Health Center, has taken a new path towards self-empowerment: improving his health through cooking and exercise. Injunction halts federally funded stem Read More...

In this systematic review of bedside assessments for delirium in hospitalized patients, the CAM had the best diagnostic accuracy of all tests reviewed, with a positive likelihood ratio of 10 and negative likelihood ratio of 0.2 (abstract). Read More...