Some companies are starting to develop health care cost comparison data so that people can “shop” for hospitals and doctors. This will not happen quickly or simply but it is important enough to start reading about now.

Topics: How To Speak Doctor

Psychiatrists dismissed the notion of a “nervous breakdown” decades ago. Now nervous breakdown may be enjoying a revival as a diagnosis. European researchers are leading the way on this topic.

Topics: How To Speak Doctor

Don’t go to a teaching hospital in July has been a running joke for years. A new study points to the possibility that this turn-over in July could be the cause of serious or fatal drug errors on the part of residents. Read tips about what you can do to help a patient stay safer.

Topics: How To Speak Doctor

On June 1, 2010, primary care physicians who see Medicare patients may start wondering if they can continue. Congress allowed a 21% payment cut to go through without stopping it. This is a statement from the largest specialists’ organization, the American College of Physicians. It is clear and explains who did what in this mess.

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A patient told me a funny story about his visit to his doctor. The doctor was talking about a man who’d been in ahead of him. “He does everything right. Doesn’t smoke. Exercises. Doesn’t drink martinis like we do. Of course, he will live longer than we will.” The patient thought harder, he said, about his habits because the doctor slid in the point about habits and lifespan so neatly.

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This blog is by Dr. Rob, a primary care physician who practices in the Southeast. He is a featured blogger on Medpage Today. The whimsy with which he chose his blog name hints at a physician willing to say whatever he thinks. He does. Make no mistake. This is a serious and good doctor. After the jump, you will find the first two of his 10 Rules for Good Medicine. Please read it.

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The good news from this meeting presentation is that the majority of heart attack patients are sexually active afterward.
There has been little information about this, said one of the University of Chicago researchers.
However, this research also showed that heart patients who don’t discuss resuming sex after recovery are less likely to do so. One infers [...]

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In the Doctor and Patient column by The New York Times columnist, Pauline W. Chen, M.D., she discusses patients who don’t take their medications—and do not tell their doctors that they are not taking them. Non-adherence or non-compliance are the two names for this doctors and nurses use.
All too often, doctors don’t ask. Almost always, [...]

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Postpartum depression is not “normal.”It is not the rude adjustment of having a tiny creature upend your life.
Bewilderment and fatigue are normal. This study is about a mental health problem which, apparently, has been in plain sight for a long time but no one was looking.
Postpartum depression can be a serious illness which should be [...]

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In the “be careful what you pray for, you may get it” department, evidence-based medicine is one of those prayed for results—which does not work quite as prayed for.

Topics: How To Speak Doctor