Specialties

What's the definition of insanity?

This edition of the Health Wonk Review is a bit tongue-in-cheek, as I offer some interesting definitions of well-known words and make light of some of the more despair-inducing aspects of the world of health policy. Buckle up, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride![read more]

Brianna Garrison, oncology social worker

Do you have resources to deal with cancer that go beyond understanding treatment? Patients like me certainly spend a lot of time talking about treatments, and research into better treatments, which makes a lot of sense. But that’s just part of the cancer journey.[read more]

Pedro Arrabal, M.D.

“Fetal echocardiography allows us to diagnose fetal heart defects as early as possible – while a woman is still pregnant – and determine what diagnostic measures can be performed during the pregnancy to further advise the parents,” says Pedro Arrabal, M.D., one of Sinai’s high-risk pregnancy specialists.[read more]

Emergency department / Lisa Jarvis, Wiki Commons

Insightful new healthcare research from the RAND Corp, commissioned by the Emergency Medicine Action Fund, proposes that the 4 percent of U.S. physicians who work in emergency rooms serve as the major decisionmakers for nearly half of all hospital admissions in the U.S.[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]

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]

ADHD

What exactly is ADHD? ADHD stands for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. According to recent studies, 1 out of 5 children suffer from some sort of mental disease such as ADHD. To convert this figure in terms of healthcare costs, this equates to almost $250 billion.[read more]

With 130 million visits, 28% of all acute-care visits, and accounting for nearly half of all admissions, emergency medicine should be expected to represent a large share of health care spending….More attention should be devoted to quantifying the value of specific aspects of emergency care.[read more]

Preventative cancer surgery / People.com

Actress Angelina Jolie is making news because she chose to have both breasts removed, with reconstruction with breast implants following. She made that aggressive cancer prevention choice because she tested positive for the “breast and ovarian cancer genes": BRCA1 and BRACA2.[read more]

Person-centered healthcare

This is a story about the jacket painting of Tom Evans, MD. If you read Tom’s biography you’ll see many accomplishments in his long career. He has succeeded at so many things. He has a BA, MA and MD to his name. But today we are going to hear about Tom’s failure.[read more]

H7N9 & public health (Photo: AFP)

Over the last few months, H7N9 has been making headlines around the world. As of May 9, there have been 130 identified cases. There are four things we should learn from responses to H7N9, which have so far led to effective control of the disease.[read more]

Parkinson's Disease

While the progression of Parkinson's disease is different for everyone, five main stages have been identified. The Hoehn and Yahr Scale helps define the various stages of PD. Here's a look at what to expect in each stage.[read more]