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Commentary
At the root of the debate over ObamaCare is the Marxist notion that all profit is waste, and if we can just take profit out of health care, we can reduce costs and improve services.
–Congressman Tom McClintock R-Calif. (4th District) April 26, 2013
Over the last several decades I’ve become accustomed to the dismissal of wacko notions from California as... »
I know many people who are not doctors that are capable of being one. What separates them from doctors is not intellect or drive, but the opportunity to go to medical school. Just as in professional athletics, opportunity and circumstance can determine the fate of two equally talented people. Educational crossroads direct people on radically divergent paths... »
Until the early 1980s, the combination of the antihistamine doxylamine succinate and the vitamin B6 analog pyridoxine hydrochloride was marketed in the United States as Bendectin to treat nausea and vomiting of pregnancy – the same combination that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in April and is being marketed as Diclegis.
Bendectin was... »
Can health reporting in the popular press get any worse? Every time I think it has reached a new low in accuracy and reliability, somebody comes along and blows that last new low right out of the water.
I have a dear friend who runs a news clipping service. From her base as a teacher of emergency medicine in Saginaw, Mich., she posts links to articles... »
As Anton Chekhov wrote, "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." That is the essence of the incomplete macro manifesto.
Before I have even laid eyes on a patient, I often open the "assessment and plan" section of the patient’s chart and begin documenting.
This is, of course, mild blasphemy for... »
Pain is supposed to be the fifth vital sign. How we evaluate it now is just a load of hooey. There are many pain scales out there, but the main ones we use are the numerical one (rate your pain on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain, etc.), and the Baker-Wong pain scale (the one with the faces), mostly used in our pediatric patients.
No matter how... »
A year ago I published my first article in ACEP News. Titled "Change From Below and EBM," the article was written to encourage providers of all levels, from medical students to attendings, to be open to embracing evidence-based practice, even if new ideas ever-so occasionally came from the lower ranks.
The issue arrived in the mail the very day I... »