The 10 most important things to know when you ask if new research might apply to you.

See our Alert below. A website gives you all the info you need about nursing homes.
More than three million people use nursing-home care at some point in the year.
Medicaid and Medicare pay for more than two-thirds of the patients.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) reports that federal oversight of nursing homes “fails to hold homes with […]

NOTE: The following advice is not meant to replace guidance from a physician, emergency responder or other qualified healthcare professional.
If you have an emergency, call 911 immediately!
Expert source links are provided.
Post 9/11, researchers discovered what they call the “milling effect.”
When something may be very wrong, people tend to gather, discuss and then act.
The American Academy […]

Hospital data is becoming available to you, but know what it tells you and what it doesn’t.
TPR OPINION
It will be a great day when you can get the same kind of information about patient care that you can get about any other service. Quality health care professionals and employers want this to happen.
Getting apples-apples data […]

In a new study released today, “The Affordability Gap,” a prestigious research organization explains why women cut corners on their own care—-even when they are insured.
 
“Although men and women have some similar challenges with regard to health insurance, women face unique barriers to becoming insured. More significantly, women have greater difficulty affording health care services […]

Is your doctor making critically important care decisions for you without you?
Patient autonomy is a term medical professionals use to describe patients’ rights to be informed and make care decisions for themselves—assuming there is not another friend or family member chosen to do it.
Elderly patients may have dementia, for instance. No one would expect them […]

This essay shows how even health care professionals have trouble speaking up and why.
In an essay in The New York Times, April 17, 2007, Barron H. Lerner, M.D., explains how hierarchies, meant to protect patients, also can suppress more junior professionals from speaking out.
This essay should make it easier for patients, even very confident ones, […]

Drug Digest: Pill Identifier: This 3,000+drug database will aid you in ID’ing a pill you have but do not recall why.

BBC: Stem Cells…Hope and Hype: British researchers foresee many stem cell uses but worry public expects too much too soon.
How Do We Make Drug Testing Work Right?: New England Journal of Medicine: FDA system needs fixes to protect patients. Experts explain how that can be done.

We are urged to do screening to catch disease early. Experts explain why not all tests help.
Screenings are important, but as the Washington Post notes, the best tests to find cancers early need to do three things:
1. “It (a test) needs to find the right cancers — the ones that kill people.”
2. “It […]