Insurers should stop paying for robotic hysterectomies
This study indicates that there is little difference between the two types of surgery with one glaring exception, a robotic hysterectomy was $2,489 more expensive than a laparoscopic hysterectomy.
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Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 21, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Physician OB/GYN Surgery Source Type: blogs
The human side of the medical arms race
A woman on vacation takes a walk on the beach, recovering from a recent hysterectomy. All of a sudden, her colon falls out of her vagina down to her knees – but think on the bright side, the procedure helped meet the Clinical Sales Rep’s quarterly quota! (MAUDE Adverse event report.)This is a particularly damning report from Citron Research about Intuitive Surgical. They note:In over 12 years of publishing probative stock research, Citron is most proud of the work we published on Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) starting last December. Not because the stock suffered a decline of over 30% amid...
Source: Running a hospital - October 8, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Medical Mispronunciations and Misspelled Words: The Definitive List.
Hearing medical mispronunciations and seeing misspelled words are an under appreciated joy of working in healthcare. Physicians often forget just how alien the language of medicine is to people who don't live it everyday. The best part about being a physician is not helping people recover from critical illness. The best part is not about listening and understanding with compassion and empathy. Nope, the best part about being a physician is hearing patients and other healthcare providers butcher the language of medicine and experiencing great entertainment in the process. Doctors c...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - October 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
With the patient hemorrhaging, doctors are backed into a corner
We were pretty damn lucky that she was young and healthy.
The surgery had been technically successful. I watched as the resident finished with the last sutures. Although the attending had already left the room, I looked on with the eagerness of a third year student. Orders were written, and the patient was transferred to recovery.
It was a routine hysterectomy. None of the pizazz and flare of a gynecology-oncology surgery, but at such an early stage in my career, I thought I was witnessing rocket science. We left the OR and rounded for the rest of the afternoon. As I hunkered in for a long evening in the hos...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 23, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Physician Health reform OB/GYN Surgery Source Type: blogs
Menopause and Memory Loss
Recent studies seem to suggest that some women may suffer memory problems as they go through menopause. If you or a friend or family member has a menopausal brain, you may not be shocked by this finding.
However, this was apparently big news to the countless medical professionals who weren't taking menopausal women seriously when they were telling them "OMG I can't remember a goddamned f--cking thing anymore!" that they were experiencing memory difficulties.
As it happens, I'm 53 years old, and there is some possible evidence that my memory is less than optimal.
In fact, at the risk of putting one of the worl...
Source: Cranky Fitness - September 23, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Crabby McSlacker Source Type: blogs
A peek at life with cancer
This study also looked at anxiety in both patients and their caregivers. The caregivers also tend to cope with anxiety.If you have some sort of other chronic illness such as rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia or many others, patients tend to deal with it as a chronic illness. Cancer patients also deal with it as a chronic illness but its also a chronic threat because there is no way to control or prevent it from coming back or showing up with a new cancer some place else.How pleasant.It took this fancy research study to tell me something I know well, 32 years later, that it still looms over me. In 2005, 24 years after my...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 17, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: depression recurrence quality of life anxiety Source Type: blogs
My Ovarian Cancer Journey
Ovarian Cancer has been described as "the disease that whispers". Looking back I heard the whispers, but I did not know what they meant. The summer of 2007 I noticed that I had a small "pot" that was hard, but I did not do anything about it. I thought that I would mention it when I had my physical in the fall. Others had noticed my "pot", but at the time had only thought I had gained some weight. While we were at a cottage, I started to experience indigestion and bloating. I went to my family doctor when I returned home. She had initially thought that I might have a blocked intestine so she put me on stool softeners ...
Source: The Dance of Life - September 16, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: Life experiences cancer Source Type: blogs
The expert IVF patient
I saw an interesting patient today. She had been diagnosed
with early endometrial adenocarcinoma , and was concerned about her fertility,
which is why her cancer specialist had referred her to me. She wanted to know what her chances of having
her own baby were. This newly married 24-year old woman had been having heavy
periods because of her polycystic ovarian disease . She had a diagnostic hysteroscopy
done, which showed she had early ( preinvasive) localized cancer.
She wanted to know if it was possible to preserve her uterus
, as she wanted to have a baby eventually. Most doctors would advise her to remov...
Source: The Patient's Doctor - September 13, 2013 Category: Obstetricians and Gynecologists Source Type: blogs
Shannon’s Story: Confronting Ovarian Cancer
My name is Shannon. I am from Charlotte, NC. I am married.
In July of 2009, I had just returned from my dream vacation to France. Not even a month later, following a few trips to the gynecologist with complaints of abdominal pain, I was sitting in the office of a gynecologic oncologist. I had never even heard those words used in a sentence. I was being prepped for surgery to remove a cyst.
One week later, I was diagnosed with Stage IIa clear cell carcinoma, a form of ovarian cancer considered rare in younger women. Within two weeks of being diagnosed, I had a radical hysterectomy and a few weeks ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - September 12, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Cancer Caregiving Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Oh good. More expensive AND no benefit.
A story from Robert Langreth at Bloomburg, based on a scientific study. Excerpts:Surgery to remove the uterus using a $1.5 million robot from Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) doesn’t reduce complications and may raise pneumonia risk compared with conventional less-invasive techniques, according to a second extensive study to find no added benefit from the devices. Researchers examined data from about 16,000 women who had hysterectomies for benign conditions in 2009 and 2010. The robot operations cost hospitals $2,489 more per procedure with a similar complication rate as the standard practice of removing the uterus wi...
Source: Running a hospital - September 10, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Identity and Medical Theft
Wow, so not feeling good. I have not felt this amount of panic in so, so long! Yes, my husband is probably right. I've been very "intense" lately. I feel very passionate about things, I guess I am being a bit extreme emotionally. If I'm explaining or describing something to him that at that moment is incredibly important to me and I feel a certain way about it, I don't understand and am not happy if I do not get the reaction out of him that I think he should have. I may be happy one moment, and then just a look on his face can completely deflate me. My moods are VERY irrational rig...
Source: bipolar.and.me - September 4, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Another 5k down
I *really* did not want to go, not at all, but I went to the 5k race I had signed up for weeks ago, my husband coming along for the 10k I signed him up for. (Great wife, huh? Ha!) I wasn't feeling it, but as always, I got very anxious and then had diarrhea and it is so incredibly nasty to have that in a portapotty! In case anyone is wondering, no, of course I do not sit down, and it is very...awkward? The ear piece on my ear buds somehow feel INTO the portapotty after I was done and for a brief moment, I looked into that nasty hole to see if I could see it and "fish" it out, but then that idea...
Source: bipolar.and.me - September 2, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
A Lot to Deal With, But I Should Probably Count My Blessings
One of my weird symptoms is back, although people can be complete klutz's sometimes; however, everyone knows what is "normal" for them. I fell again, in the same weird way. My feet just came up from under me and I landed on my elbow I think (because it really hurts) on the hard wood floor and started yelling in pain. I chalked it up to the maids just coming that day so maybe the floors were slippery, no clue. But the next day I stubbed my pinkie toe so bad that it was bleeding from the toenail and still really hurts. Great, my race is Sunday with a painful pinkie toe.On their own, big deal, so ...
Source: bipolar.and.me - August 31, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Caution, pretty gross
I finally made an appointment with my family doctor, today at 1:00pm (unless I cancel which I am notorious for doing these days). The catalyst was not my concern about being tired and sleeping so much, but the fact that when I run really hard, like speed intervals, I...hmmm...I don't know how else to say it but be blunt. I urinate a little and cannot stop it. It wasn't a big deal when I would just have 20 second intervals and the little dribble would last for about a second. But when I did 16 intervals of 8 minutes fast/slow, the 2 minutes of running fast 8 times amounted to a LOT of urine.&nbs...
Source: bipolar.and.me - August 29, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
I Loathe Having to Get Presciptions!
I haven't posted in over a week, but seriously, I just haven't had the energy or desire to write. I've had so much in my head that I've wanted to get out, but it just wasn't in me.I totally blew off my therapist and psychiatrist visits AGAIN last week. I haven't rescheduled with either yet. I say "blew off", I called to cancel with my therapist an hour before the session, but I was a no show for my psychiatrist. They called about an hour after my appointment time to ask if I was okay and to reschedule. Of course, I let it go to voicemail as I do just about every call. This week, I am get...
Source: bipolar.and.me - August 27, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
