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Headache and Pain Infographic: All About Headaches

Posted on 18. Jan, 2012 by wisdom.

Here is an interesting infographic on headaches from the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

The infographic offers statistics on those who suffer from headaches and also offers some remedies to help cure your headache and ease the pain.

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Medical School Student Costs in the U.S. are Affecting Mental Health

Posted on 24. Dec, 2011 by wisdom.

A research letter titled “U.S. Medical Students’ Health Insurance Coverage for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association  vol. 306, no.9, pages 931-933, in September 7, 2011, and written by Rachel Nardin and et al. discusses how medical students are often sleep-deprived, depressed, and have thoughts of suicide. This can lead to lack of empathy for their patients and contribute to additional medical errors once they graduate. It can also lead to substance abuse. Even so these medical students are not being adequately treated for their psychiatric disorder or substance abuse due to wanting to avoid adding additional costs to their already substantial debt from school.

The study looked at health insurance offered by 115 of the 129 U.S. medical schools between June and December of 2010. It found that the coverage for mental health varies substantially.

J. Wesley Boyd one of the study authors says via an article published on wbur.org titled Study: Cost s keep Med Students From Much-Needed Mental Health Care written by Carey Goldberg and published September 7, 2011, located at http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2011/09/med-students-psych-care/

“Troubled students often resist seeking treatment at the onset of their symptoms, fearing high out-of-pocket costs and an accumulation of more school debt. But with any psychiatric disorder or substance abuse early intervention definitely correlates to better outcomes….mounting debt from long stints at expensive schools weighs very heavily upon the students and most will do anything they can to avoid increasing it…. We need our medical schools to push themselves to provide students with more affordable care. What’s best for the health of our students will result in better physicians and the future wellbeing of their patients.””

I have previously discussed the issue of increasingly out of control costs of college and medical school in the U.S. http://blog.teethremoval.com/astroturfing-and-how-your-thoughts-are-being-manipulated-by-corporate-interests/ and http://blog.teethremoval.com/lets-give-our-kids-a-chance-to-succeed/. Many students graduate after medical school with debts higher than $150,000. Private school debts are naturally higher than those of public schools.  Also see this article http://blog.teethremoval.com/college-conspiracy-and-united-states-hyperinflation/.

Things in the U.K. are very different than in the U.S. with regards to cost. An article titled Patient Safety in the US and UK, Part I: The Doctors written by Bob Watcher and published September 4, 2011, and located at http://community.the-hospitalist.org/2011/09/04/patient-safety-in-the-us-and-uk-part-i-the-doctors/ discusses how in the U.K. medical school students enter a 6 year program right after high school and graduate from their medical school with very little debt. In the U.S. students go to a 4 year college to get an undergraduate degree and then on to a 4 year medical school. With the average student debt of an undergraduate degree of around $27,000 and the average student debt of a medical degree of around $158,000 (depending on the school and if private or public of course)  students in the U.S. can expect a debt of around (if not much more)  $185,000 to become a doctor.

As I have previously discussed on this blog in an earlier post:

“Unfortunately I am beginning to think that the ballooning out of control cost of higher education is a scheme designed by large corporations and special interests so that things such as medical procedures promoted on shaky scientific ground and continuing to lower the definition of various diseases so that more and more drugs can be sold will become more and more the norm since the doctor will be an indentured servant to their debt.”

Additional Sources:

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/medical-student-section/advocacy-policy/medical-student-debt/background.page?

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/16/136214779/college-student-debt-grows-is-it-worth-it

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Free Speech Rights For Patients Online

Posted on 08. Dec, 2011 by wisdom.

An interesting article appears over on drbicuspid.com over at http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=309247 titled “Lawsuit claims dentist stifled patients’ free speech rights” by Donna Domino and posted on Dec. 1 2011.

A discussion is made of a New York dentist and a class action lawsuit that was filed in late November. The complaint was filed by the Public Citizen Litigation Group.

In the case a patient went to the New York dentist and signed an agreement by Medical Justice  in which the patient agreed not to denigrate or disparage the dentist on the Internet or other broadcast media.

The patient went to the dentist because of a sore tooth and was charged $4,766 for two office visits. The patient says the insurance claim was sent to the wrong insurance company and was 25 times the going rate. The patient requested his records so he could submit the claim by himself but was told he would have to go to a third party who would charge 5% of the total bill just for copying the records.

This led the patient to get frustrated and posted negative ratings of the dentist on Yelp and DoctorBase.

This prompted the dentist to demand the comments to be removed and began invoicing the patient $100 per day for copyright infringement.

The lawsuit filed attempts to address the issue of restricting online criticism and seeks to show that the agreement signed by this patient is null and void. Further it alleges that patients signing these types of agreements violates dental ethics.

Paul Alan Levy, an attorney at Public Citizen involved in this case is quoted as saying

“What began as a case of a sore tooth is now showcasing an unconscionable practice in which doctors and dentists force patients to leave their constitutional rights at the office door. If people are upset about their care, they have a First Amendment right to tell people about it by going online and posting their thoughts on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and the like.”

As commented by a user of the article on drbicuspid.com the patient did have a week to potentially find another dentist.

Even so I can see how if the patient was in pain and being asked to sign forms limiting their ability to make comments online this could be problematic.

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What is Science Up to?

Posted on 06. Dec, 2011 by wisdom.

A hilarious piece aired on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart back in October 26, 2011 titled “Science: What’s It Up To?”

In the segment Aasif Mandvi sits down with Republican Strategist Noelle Nikpour

She says

“Scientists are scamming the American people right and left for their own financial gain.”

Aasif Mandvi comments

“Why are surgeons the only ones allowed to perform surgeries and other surgeons are the only ones who get to say whether this surgery is necessary or not? Doesn’t make any sense. And the only other people that can check to make sure that they are not manipulating ….are other scientists.”

Dr. Martin Chalfie later comments

“All that we do in science is subjected to peer review.”

Of course the issue as pointed it in the segment is that the peers are other scientists like them.

Watch the segment below.

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Dentist and Patient Flame War over Reasons People and Dentists Hate Each Other

Posted on 04. Dec, 2011 by wisdom.

A recent post was made by a 36 year old female dentist who has recently decided to leave the profession. Of course she couldn’t just leave dentistry, she had to cut her hair http://lolabees.me/2011/11/23/the-big-reveal/ and write a post about the 10 Reasons Your Dentist Probably Hates You Too http://lolabees.me/2011/11/28/10-reasons-your-dentist-probably-hates-you-too/

Reading over the 10 Reasons Your Dentist Probably Hates You Too I totally see where she is coming from.

The first on her list is often patients sit down and the first thing they say is “I hate the dentist.” Other issues on her list include patients not brushing their teeth before the appointment, complaining about the size of the bill after the work was completed, failing to get a cavity or filling performed when it is recommended, not showing up or canceling at the last minute for an appointment, and denying that you grind your teeth.

Hundreds of comments follow this post and it results in a flame war.

A 19 year old female patient calls dentists “greedy basterds.”

Numerous dentists and others chime in to say that while there are some unethical dentists, this is of course the norm in any profession. If you don’t like your dentist they recommend you find a different one.

Of course the flame war wouldn’t be complete without a medical doctor chiming in with the comment

“Remember, though that at the end of the day you’re a dentist, not a real doctor.”

Somehow the discussion erupts into disputing the difference between TMJ and TMD/TMJD.

One person chimes in by saying

“You might as well call your children idiots for not knowing how to find the Lagrange multiplier equations for the point of the surface x4 + y4 + z4 + xy + yz + zx =6 at which x is largest. In fact most of you probably don’t know how to do that, dumbasses.”

Clearly a post discussing reasons why dentists hate their patients was bound to receive some comments of the like above from patients. With tensions brewing between dentist and patients and other medical professionals and patients it would seem more communication skills should be taught on both ends.

Perhaps a course or lecture should be added to schools explaining how to behave when seeing a medical professional. Of course parents need to also make sure they pass on such knowledge to their children.

Likewise dentists should look into ways to help improve communication with their patients so tensions and hatred are at a minimum.

Clearly everyone should behave more nicely on the internet

I wish this dentist well and hope that she finds passion and a sense of calling in her new career and endeavors.

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