Answers To Diseases

Should a convicted murderer ever be allowed to become a doctor?
Lawrence Altman writes about the strange situation in the NY Times, where, after a convicted murderer was expelled from Sweden’s most prestigious medical school, was admitted to a second medical school.
Dr. Altman also points to another case, where a medical student, convicted of rape, was [...]

Representatives from drug companies are undergoing some hard times, as physicians increasingly are closing their doors to them, or seeing them only via an appointment.
Subsequently, the number of drug reps is predicted to fall from about 102,000 at its peak in 2007, to 75,000 by 2012.

A couple of interviews I recently did have been published.
Over at Modern Medicine (via the Cosmetic Surgery Times, of all places), I talk about pro-actively creating an online presence, and how it can make or break the marketing of your practice:
“Patients are eventually going to find you on the Internet,” whether or not you have [...]

JAMA forcefully responded to the recent allegations of a small university professor going behind their back to mainstream media outlets.
As MedPage Today reports, JAMA sought to preempt any form of criticism, saying, “The person bringing the allegation will be specifically informed that he/she should not reveal this information to third parties or the media while [...]

And if so, is this the best time to start a turf war?
The ACP’s Bob Doherty highlights a study from the research arm of the American Academy of Family Physicians suggesting that, “Medicare spending by general internists and subspecialists is significantly higher than for family physicians.”
I haven’t seen the study myself, but if this is [...]

I’ve often said that forgiving medical school loans, often exceeding $140,000, can help more students choose primary care.
Students at Harvard Medical School were the lucky recipients of an offer by an anonymous donor, offering $60,000 to students who entered, and completed, a primary care residency.

Ah, a perfect question for comparative effectiveness research.
Surgeon Jeffrey Parks takes a look at a study looking at breast MRIs during the pre-operative workup of patients with breast cancer.
Essentially, surgical outcomes were not improved, and worse, “leads to a higher rate of unnecessary mastectomy, and is extremely expensive (about $1600 a pop, out of pocket).”

Would Natasha Richardson be alive today if she had gone skiing in the United States instead?
I don’t think it would have made a difference.
To recap the tragedy, Ms. Richardson died from an epidural bleed, after she fell while skiing. Her presentation was somewhat classic, with the well-described “lucid” period before she deteriorated.