False positive test results
One of the complaints about annual mammograms is the possibility of false positive results. They can cause emotional trauma years later.Any false positive test result can be very scary. I am very sympathetic to this. No one wants to be told they have something 'bad' and to be told that they have something 'bad' and then be told that they were wrong, would be worse. But from my point of view (with my medical history) I can say having something 'bad' is infinitely worse than not having something 'bad'.To understand my point of view, look at my medical history.In 1981, I was told I probably had a goiter on my thyroid or somet...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 13, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: medical tests Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update — 04-08-2013
Columbus, OH paper compares hospital wait times from 15 different hospitals throughout central Ohio. Metrics include minutes until diagnostic evaluation, minutes until pain medication, minutes until admission decision, and minutes from admission to room placement. I just wonder how accurate the metrics are. It isn’t like self-reported data like this can’t be manipulated.
Evanston Northwestern Hospital in Chicago suburbs also making news because of its wait times – nearly twice the national average.
The problem with providing patients with insurance: When the insurer cuts payments, what happens if providers won’...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - April 8, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
More tamoxifen may be better.
So you have been taking tamoxifen to prevent your breast cancer from coming back and are now approaching the 5-year mark. Time to stop? After all that was the deal your oncologist promised. And, enough hot flashes and worry about uterine cancer and blood clots developing. But things have changed. Your doc may recommend you keep taking the drug another 5 years. The good news is that your chance of having your cancer come back is reduced by around 25 percent. That is according to a new study just published in the journal Lancet (Mar 9 2013). There are lots of studies that show that 5 years treatment with tamoxifen is bett...
Source: Dr.Kattlove's Cancer Blog - March 20, 2013 Category: Oncologists Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update — 02-27-2013
Knowledgeable and honest. Yeah, that’s me. Study shows that doctors wearing white coats were most likely to be judged by patients as being the “best” physicians. Doctors wearing scrubs were also more likely to be highly rated. Of course my widespread appeal could also come from my stunning good looks or my debonaire personality …
Interesting dilemma. A patient in Washington DC called an ambulance at 1:26 AM when he was having trouble breathing. Just so happens that it was New Years Eve and about 25% of the entire DC firefighting force had called off sick that day. An ambulance arrived 30 minutes later and the patie...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - February 27, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
Birth Control May Increase Type 2 Diabetes Risk
By Diane Fennell
Obese women taking certain forms of hormonal birth control may be at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes compared to obese women using nonhormonal contraception, according to a new study from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
The metabolic effects of progestin-only, long-acting contraception, such as the progestin-releasing IUD (a small, T-shaped device that is placed in the uterus) and a progestin-releasing device implanted under the skin, have been studied in normal-weight women. To determine the metabolic effects of these contraceptives in healthy obese, r...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - February 22, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Diane Fennell Source Type: blogs
PCORI News Plus FDA Suggestons on Comparative Effectiveness Research
The Board of Governors of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) at its 19 November 2012 meeting in Boston, MA adopted 47 revised methodology standards that are intended to guide the comparative effectiveness research (CER) funded by PCORI, reported RAPS. The Board also authorized at the meeting the development of three new CER funding announcements:
Treatment options for uterine fibroids,
the safety and benefits of treatment options for severe asthma, and
fall prevention in the elderly.
One of the bigger pieces of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was the i...
Source: Policy and Medicine - February 14, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
In Armenia, Abortion Rates are High and Access to Contraception is Limited
Taleen K. Moughamian, a women’s health nurse practitioner in Philadelphia, traveled to Armenia in the fall of 2012. Working with the Children of Armenia Fund, she conducted health exams, including breast and cervical cancer screenings, and provided contraceptive counseling. The following account is based on her work and conversations with Armenian women.
by Taleen K. Moughamian
The differences between Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, and the rest of the country are vast. While Yerevan has most of the modern-day conveniences you could ask for, the villages I visited in the Armavir region have populations between 300...
Source: Our Bodies Our Blog - February 6, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: OBOS Tags: Abortion & Reproductive Rights Birth Control & Family Planning Feminism & Gender Global News Sex Education armenia Source Type: blogs
Serious Allegations against HPV Vaccine Trials Affecting Thousands of Girls Accepted by Supreme Court of India
CONCLUSION
There has been no evidence to suggest that any of the above crucial issues were ever considered by any of the organizations involved in these vaccination trials.
Time and again, according to the petition, PATH has denied that it carried out a trial in India. It insists that what it was doing was merely a post-licensure study. This explanation was unacceptable to the Indian government’s inquiry. It concluded that by whatever name PATH chooses to call its exercise, under the Indian Drugs and Cosmetics Act, it was indeed a clinical trial and all safeguards should have been observed. Yet PATH and WHO have hailed t...
Source: vactruth.com - January 8, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Christina England Tags: Christina England Top Stories Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Cervarix cervical cancer gardasil GlaxoSmithKline Gramya Resource Centre for Women HPV ICMR Indian Council of Medical Research NGO PATH State of Andhra Pradesh Wor Source Type: blogs
Annual Report to the Nation on Cancer Trends: Cancer Deaths Continue to Fall, But We Can Do Better
This report comes out every year. It is a summation of what we know about the trends in incidence rates for the most common cancers in the United States among both men and women as well as the trends in death rates from those cancers that lead to the highest mortality in the general population as well as specific ethnic groups. It is in a real sense a report card on our progress, which in large part is good but in a number of cancers, not so good.
The good news is what we have come to expect: since the year 2000, the overall cancer death rates have continued to decline 1.8% per year in men, 1.4% in women and 0.6% per year ...
Source: Dr. Len's Cancer Blog - January 7, 2013 Category: Cancer Authors: Dr. Len Tags: Access to care Breast Cancer Cancer Care Cervical Cancer Colon Cancer Early detection Lung Cancer Other cancers Prevention Prostate Cancer Rectal Cancer Research Screening Tobacco Treatment Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Minimal Reporting Guidelines for the Treatment of Cancer Patients
Minimal Reporting Guidelines for the Treatment of Cancer Patients As laboratory physicians, our contribution to patient care is knowledge: this is the starting point from which all informed therapeutic intervention proceeds. How that knowledge is obtained and communicated is the art and science of our profession. These minimal diagnostic guidelines are designed to be used as an aid, not a constraint, in that process. The guidelines are presented in a specific format out of necessity, but any format that effectively communicates the necessary information in a given patho...
Source: Oncopathology - September 5, 2011 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
