Bioethics.net

December 24, 2012 12:29 pm

Blood agency puts out appeal for holiday donors (CBC News)

Canadian Blood Services is hoping people will stop by a clinic over the holiday season and make a blood donation.  The agency says collecting blood at this time of year is a challenge.  There’s a demand for blood because many people are receiving cancer treatment or undergoing life-saving surgery and emergency care.

November 30, 2012 2:22 pm

Is Concierge Medicine the Future of Health Care? (Businessweek)

“There aren’t enough primary-care people around now,” says Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at the NYU Langone Medical Center. “When concierge practices spread, that means more and more people will be left without any access to primary care.”

November 28, 2012 6:54 pm

Study on safest hospitals shows some surprising results (CBS News)

A study by The Leapfrog Group shows that out of 49 states, Massachusetts and Maine have the most “A” grade hospitals at 83 and 80 percent respectively. Trailing at the bottom of the class are New Mexico’s hospitals: Only seven percent of the state’s establishments make the top grade.

October 22, 2012 4:43 pm

Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries (PBS NewsHour)

How much is good health care worth to you? $8,233 per year? That’s how much the U.S. spends per person.

Worth it?

That figure is more than two-and-a-half times more than most developed nations in the world, including relatively rich European countries like France, Sweden and the United Kingdom. On a more global scale, it means U.S. health care costs now eat up 17.6 percent of GDP.

September 10, 2012 1:57 pm

When Patients — Not Doctors — Make Medical Mistakes (TIME)

For most patients in the real world, getting good medical care involves complicated decisions. It’s not as simple as what often gets shown on TV, where a patient goes in, the doctor figures out what’s wrong, and then he performs some lifesaving surgery. Most of modern medicine, especially for the elderly, is a lot messier — usually there’s not “right” answer, no perfect treatment.

September 5, 2012 7:54 pm

Video Dial-a-Doctor Seen Easing Shortage in Rural U.S. (Bloomberg)

Until recently, when children in Ware County, Georgia, needed to see a pediatrician or a specialist, getting to the nearest doctor could entail a four- hour drive up Interstate 75 to Atlanta.  Now, there’s another option. As part of a state-wide initiative, the rural county has installed videoconferencing equipment at all 10 of its schools to give its 5,782 students one-on-one access to physicians. Telemedicine sites for adults have also sprung in the area. Instead of taking a full day off from work or school, residents can now regularly see their specialist online.

September 5, 2012 7:51 pm

Docs, nurses may overestimate quality of their care (Chicago Tribune)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Doctors and nurses may overestimate the quality of the care they provide hospital patients in the hours leading up to a serious complication, according to a small new study.  After reviewing the records of 47 patients, Dutch researchers found that for more than half there were delays in recognizing that the patients’ conditions were deteriorating in advance of a crisis, such as an unplanned admission to intensive care. Meanwhile nurses, doctors-in-training and specialists reported far fewer delays.

August 28, 2012 12:45 pm

Doctors Refuses To Treat 200-Pound Woman Because Of Her Weight (Business Insider)

In an interview with WCVB-TV, Dr. Carter explained, “After three consecutive injuries (with other patients) trying to care for people over 250 pounds, my office is unable to accommodate a certain weight and we put a limit on it.”
And Carter is completely within her professional rights to do so. Under Opinion 9.12 of the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, both physicians and patients are free to decline a relationship. “A physician may decline to undertake the care of a patient whose medical condition is not within the physician’s current competence,” the code says.

August 22, 2012 5:08 pm

Doctor burnout: Nearly half of physicians report symptoms (USA Today)

Differences varied by specialty: Emergency medicine, general internal medicine, neurology and family medicine reported the highest rates. The authors note other studies show burnout can decrease the quality of care, lead to increased risk for errors and push doctors into early retirement, as well as cause problems in their personal lives.  “There have been other studies done on doctor burnout, but we assumed it was the surgical specialties who would be at primary risk,” says Shanafelt. “Instead we found out it’s the physicians on the front line of care who are at the greatest risk.”

August 20, 2012 7:09 pm

Coming Next: Using an App as Prescribed (The New York Times)

The idea of medically prescribed apps excites some people in the health care industry, who see them as a starting point for even more sophisticated applications that might otherwise never be built. But first, a range of issues — around vetting, paying for and monitoring the proper use of such apps — needs to be worked out.