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How do I explain our inability to prescribe medicines to a patient who acutely needs them? Or explain our limitations to a doctor who rarely thinks about them? How do I justify not treating a patient to my own conscience?[read more]

BRCA1: should you be tested?

Upon hearing about Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo surgery to avoid her genetic predisposition to breast cancer, my wife asked, “Should I be tested? I had a great aunt who had breast cancer.” I suspect many women wonder the same thing. Here's what you need to know.[read more]

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Angelina’s decision to have a double mastectomy shows healthcare marketing’s inner potential. By pairing the sexy science of genomic medicine with the breathtaking boldness of patient empowerment, Angelina has given us a glimpse of its beautiful potential.[read more]

health news

One of the main tenets of the ACA is the assimilation by Medicaid of the eligible uninsured. In order to attract more physicians who will accept Medicaid CMS, the states have promised to increase reimbursements for physicians who accept Medicaid. But physicians are balking.[read more]

George Washington: truthteller

The fallacy is to expect certain professions and professionals to be more irreproachable than the rest of us. We are all vulnerable to experiencing a fall from grace. Staying straight and true is a struggle, at least for me. Yes, physicians lie. For more than one reason.[read more]

spinal indicators

The shape of an individual’s spinal column may predict his or her risk for nursing home admission or need of home assistance in old age, according to a new article published online in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.[read more]

Telemedicine: the doctor is always in?

Have you noticed the recent wave of TV commercials for one-to-one video calling or multiple participation video collaboration, or one-to-many webcasting? The mainstream adoption in business will be driving more medical provider and hospital applications…eventually.[read more]

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Obama is on the cusp of a nationwide re-introduction tour, of sorts, designed to persuade voters of the ACA's merits. Well, this news ought to put a feather in Obama’s cap: Massachusetts’ healthcare reform didn’t result in substantially more hospital use or higher costs.[read more]

We’re blown away by the quality of the more than 150 applicants to the HealthBeat 2013 “Grand Rounds Innovation Showdown,” one of the highlights of VentureBeat’s inaugural health tech conference (May 20-21 in San Francisco).[read more]

worklife/shutterstock

There is no such thing as time management. You and I get 24 hours in each day – 168 of them in a week. No more and no less. The seconds in an hour are a fixed resource that no one can manipulate or manage or finagle or cajole or multiply. So let’s all stop focusing on ” time management ” and do something MUCH more productive instead.[read more]

healthapp/shutterstock

In fact, if the BBC is to be believed (and, really, when isn’t it?), the mis-reading of doctors’ abbreviations puts lives at risk. The UK’s Medical Defence pointed out that difficulties arise because some abbreviations have more than one meaning.[read more]

We’ve read the stories: From bedridden patients sending text messages to their health workers, to young people receiving HIV prevention messages via SMS, the mobile phone seems to have morphed from communications device to essential life-saver. But is the evidence there yet that mHealth is an effective and suitable health delivery intervention in the developing world?[read more]