I have to say, this sounds to me like trying to market an expert system for experienced woodworkers to choose the best chisel for a particular task based on the type of wood, size of the cut, etc. Practitioners have…
Impressive utility of the single-lead ECG recording, but I have to say that if I'm in charge, that patient's headed for bypass surgery, not stenting.
Drug reps in the US quit giving away pens and coffee mugs in the US in 2008, in accord with PhRMA rules (that's the drug manufacturers' association/lobby). They got to say it was improved ethics, but it was also a…
Headline is imprecise. The study is saying that higher doses of vit D do not strengthen bone more than lower doses, not that they don't strengthen bone at all, which is suggested by this headline.
He rejoined the pulse-bearing mass of humanity when he received a heart transplant in 2012.
My experience with such a system has been that it would quote ridiculously high prices for generic medications, so I'd simply tell patients their drug is on the $4 list at WalMart. An information source that's…
Not a risk, a certainty. Until this ruling, not having a physician-patient relationship was an absolute safe harbor against professional liability. It was understood that the clinician seeing the patient had the…
Whether or not Merck "did some fraudulent science," I'd need a better source than RFKJr to believe it. Preferably a scientific source. Here's some scientific sources on Gardasil, mostly after its introduction to the US…
It's worth pointing out that CT is extremely sensitive for calcium and hence bone, so that bones could be scanned at a lower Xray dose than soft tissue. 30 seconds of Googling showed a study where a whole body CT bone…
One of the truisms of medicine is that ultimately every disease and every treatment has a 100% mortality, so we can never truly save a life. What we can do is promote the quality and quantity of life. In the US, the…
Any patient who tells me they've got to have my private number will be told that they've got to get a different doctor. It is vitally important for me to be able to disconnect from patients and their potentially…
I have to point out the obvious confounder here. The kids who get their tonsils and adenoids out are the ones with recurrent respiratory infections to begin with. Really the only way to control for this is to randomize…
Cost-effectiveness guidelines somewhat arbitrarily state that an expense of $50,000 per year of life is reasonable, since this is the estimated average annual cost of dialysis therapy. This gene therapy is sight-saving,…
digital signalling
'The simplest definition of a "mass casualty incident" is when you need more resources than you have.' This definition is an example of the logical fallacy called begging the question. Nobody would deny that an incident…
Not a surgeon or robot-user, but just by way of example, conventional wisdom in the medical world is that the best niche for robotically-assisted surgery is radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. Conventional wisdom…
Traditionally, cancer was considered "cured" when the patient survived 5 years without evidence of disease. We now know that quite a few cancers, including breast, have a significant rate of late recurrence, ie, after…
Looking at the article in BMJ Open, I don't see that they controlled for obesity, either by BMI or any other measure. This is a huge confounder, making reflux symptoms worse and being an independent predictor of…
It's important to recognize that capitation provides a powerful economic incentive to provide as little care as possible. Every pill, X-ray, MRI, or surgery comes straight out of the insurer's bottom line. You'd like to…
Not that the author of the linked piece will see this thread, but my experience has been that those patients who leave for personal reasons, as opposed to logistical reasons, e.g., changed insurance, moved away, etc.…
"the "spray bottle" tells us that the agent was targeting respiratory system, not dermal. " I'm not sure this follows. If the cloth was impregnated with one of the binary components and the other was sprayed on the…
My guess is gas chromatography mass spectrometry, which yields a characteristic signature for many compounds.
Off the top of my head, stress reduction and meditation are part of the Dean Ornish program, which has some evidence for slowing atherosclerosis progression. Next question is, would causing a reduction in activity in…
Surgeons talk about a "look test" that refers to that certain something not captured by objective risk measures. A patient who doesn't look too bad on paper may look in person like they might not survive a haircut, let…
Every one of these proposed quality signals is prone to error. Publication history I would see as a negative quality signal. Less experience means more likely to be up-to-date on latest treatment techniques and…
I have to say, this sounds to me like trying to market an expert system for experienced woodworkers to choose the best chisel for a particular task based on the type of wood, size of the cut, etc. Practitioners have…
Impressive utility of the single-lead ECG recording, but I have to say that if I'm in charge, that patient's headed for bypass surgery, not stenting.
Drug reps in the US quit giving away pens and coffee mugs in the US in 2008, in accord with PhRMA rules (that's the drug manufacturers' association/lobby). They got to say it was improved ethics, but it was also a…
Headline is imprecise. The study is saying that higher doses of vit D do not strengthen bone more than lower doses, not that they don't strengthen bone at all, which is suggested by this headline.
He rejoined the pulse-bearing mass of humanity when he received a heart transplant in 2012.
My experience with such a system has been that it would quote ridiculously high prices for generic medications, so I'd simply tell patients their drug is on the $4 list at WalMart. An information source that's…
Not a risk, a certainty. Until this ruling, not having a physician-patient relationship was an absolute safe harbor against professional liability. It was understood that the clinician seeing the patient had the…
Whether or not Merck "did some fraudulent science," I'd need a better source than RFKJr to believe it. Preferably a scientific source. Here's some scientific sources on Gardasil, mostly after its introduction to the US…
It's worth pointing out that CT is extremely sensitive for calcium and hence bone, so that bones could be scanned at a lower Xray dose than soft tissue. 30 seconds of Googling showed a study where a whole body CT bone…
One of the truisms of medicine is that ultimately every disease and every treatment has a 100% mortality, so we can never truly save a life. What we can do is promote the quality and quantity of life. In the US, the…
Any patient who tells me they've got to have my private number will be told that they've got to get a different doctor. It is vitally important for me to be able to disconnect from patients and their potentially…
I have to point out the obvious confounder here. The kids who get their tonsils and adenoids out are the ones with recurrent respiratory infections to begin with. Really the only way to control for this is to randomize…
Cost-effectiveness guidelines somewhat arbitrarily state that an expense of $50,000 per year of life is reasonable, since this is the estimated average annual cost of dialysis therapy. This gene therapy is sight-saving,…
digital signalling
'The simplest definition of a "mass casualty incident" is when you need more resources than you have.' This definition is an example of the logical fallacy called begging the question. Nobody would deny that an incident…
Not a surgeon or robot-user, but just by way of example, conventional wisdom in the medical world is that the best niche for robotically-assisted surgery is radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. Conventional wisdom…
Traditionally, cancer was considered "cured" when the patient survived 5 years without evidence of disease. We now know that quite a few cancers, including breast, have a significant rate of late recurrence, ie, after…
Looking at the article in BMJ Open, I don't see that they controlled for obesity, either by BMI or any other measure. This is a huge confounder, making reflux symptoms worse and being an independent predictor of…
It's important to recognize that capitation provides a powerful economic incentive to provide as little care as possible. Every pill, X-ray, MRI, or surgery comes straight out of the insurer's bottom line. You'd like to…
Not that the author of the linked piece will see this thread, but my experience has been that those patients who leave for personal reasons, as opposed to logistical reasons, e.g., changed insurance, moved away, etc.…
"the "spray bottle" tells us that the agent was targeting respiratory system, not dermal. " I'm not sure this follows. If the cloth was impregnated with one of the binary components and the other was sprayed on the…
My guess is gas chromatography mass spectrometry, which yields a characteristic signature for many compounds.
Off the top of my head, stress reduction and meditation are part of the Dean Ornish program, which has some evidence for slowing atherosclerosis progression. Next question is, would causing a reduction in activity in…
Surgeons talk about a "look test" that refers to that certain something not captured by objective risk measures. A patient who doesn't look too bad on paper may look in person like they might not survive a haircut, let…
Every one of these proposed quality signals is prone to error. Publication history I would see as a negative quality signal. Less experience means more likely to be up-to-date on latest treatment techniques and…