A few days ago the Deputy Minister for Cultural Affairs and I watched “Lars and the Real Girl“. It’s great – funny, moving*, and well-acted.
It’s about a guy who is sick. Lars is mentally ill, and he gets treatment from a doctor, played by Patricia Clarkson. The doctor comes off as the most sensitive and [...]
Tue, March 31 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Grand Rounds is up at Running A Hospital. The theme this week was “When Things Go Awry” – ie. medical errors – and there are a number of contributions from blogs I have not seen in GR before. Thanks to Paul for hosting, and for putting a lot of effort into the presentation of the [...]
Tue, March 31 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments
I think it’s time for a blog carnival for patient-centered posts. I enjoy Grand Rounds, but I always get the impression that patient blogs are a bit of a distraction. I thought about offering to host GR, but if I’m going to the effort, I might as well be doing it for patient blogs.
What I [...]
Sun, March 29 2009 » Uncategorized » 5 Comments
Paul Levy is hosting this week’s Grand Rounds, and he wants posts about “When things go awry“ – namely, medical errors. I’ve posted on this topic before, but I might as well revisit a couple of these stories. I have experienced innumerable minor errors in my life, but at least two were serious. I’ll tell [...]
Sun, March 29 2009 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
The last couple of days, I’ve gotten a number of visits via Twitter and StumbleUpon. My stats plugin only takes me back to the home pages for those sites, so I have no idea where this traffic is coming from.
If you’re visiting this site via Twitter or StumbleUpon, can I ask you to tell me [...]
Fri, March 27 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
In his response to my post about Billy Tauzin and the patient’s perspective, Ken Johnson said:
Fortunately, both of you continue to beat the odds.
He meant me and Mr. Tauzin: I have Crohn’s, Mr. Tauzin had stomach cancer. You can read more about how Tauzin beat the odds in a previous post; now I want to [...]
Fri, March 27 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
A few posts back, I pointed out that Billy Tauzin presumes to speak for patients, despite not appreciating the typical experience of patients in our health care system. I wrote that knowing Mr. Tauzin had survived a bout of cancer against long odds. My point was not that Mr. Tauzin has no experience with illness, [...]
Thu, March 26 2009 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
I started to write this post as an “I told you so”: a while back I noted that the health insurance industry had coined a new term to blame their flaws on the government, to beef up their rhetoric against health reform. Now here’s Karen Ignani, head of the health insurance lobby, quoted on the [...]
Thu, March 26 2009 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
One of the best things about blogging is the people that interact with me here and elsewhere in the blogosphere, and what I learn from them. For example, Joe Wright commented on my post about disease organizations, and points to a response on his own blog. You should read his post – in particular, towards [...]
Thu, March 26 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
This is probably not as gross it seems, but still extremely gross:
On Monday, the VA disclosed that water tubes and reservoirs used in colonoscopies and endoscopies were being rinsed between procedures, but not disinfected as required by manufacturer’s specifications. About 3,260 South Florida veterans had medical procedures since May 2004 using the faulty procedure.
Vara said [...]
Wed, March 25 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
A novel crime against decency by Duncan Cross
