Thursday, October 29, 2009
QD: News Every Day--public option in da House!
ACP Internist's daily digest of news and events covers how health care reform is being reconciled in Congress, how the primary care shortage impacts local emergency rooms, and how community doctors in Bermuda are reacting to the introduction of hospitalists.
Health care reform
While the Senate stares down a threatened filibuster of legislation that includes a public option, the House introduced its version, which includes it. As the House and Senate reconcile their respective bills into one per each chamber,
Cecil B. Wilson, MACP, who is also the American Medical Association's president-elect, told Floridians at a union-sponsored rally that the majority of Americans, including physicians and AMA members, want reform. (Washington Post, Miami Herald)
Primary care shortage
A column in The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.) points out that the community already has universal health care. Unfortunately, it's the local emergency room. In Palm Beach, Fla., county commissioners are considering whether to build a public hospital for just that purpose. Jose Arrascue, ACP Member, representing the Palm Beach County Medical Society, told commissioners, "We believe the health care delivery system in Palm Beach County is in critical condition. We have escalating numbers of uninsured, diminished access to care, an aging physician population and a lack of specialty care." (Palm Beach Post)
University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan told an audience in Bakersfield, Calif., that one way to alleviate the primary care shortage is to forgive medical school loans. (Bakersfield.com)
H1N1 influenza
Now, there's an app for that. Harvard Medical School has launched an iPhone application that includes information on the pandemic's spread, practical steps people can take to mitigate their risk of infection, key symptoms to watch for, and what to do in case of infection. The application includes text, video and links to government databases. It also provides information to businesses for managing through the pandemic. People need all the help they can get. Richard Wenzel, MACP, reports that half of all outpatient H1N1 influenza cases don't develop a fever, so the patients don't take precautions. Even among hospitalized patients, 15% don't get a fever. (Minnesota Public Radio)
In case you missed it ...
Family doctors claim that the switch to hospitalists has shut them out of their community hospital ... in Bermuda. The chief of staff at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital feared being hanged in effigy outside his office after general practitioners lost their hospital privileges and communication suffered between community and hospital doctors. But, the chief said outcomes have improved and the move is needed as his facility moves from being a rural provider to a modern metropolitan facility. (Bermuda Sun)
Labels: flu, H1N1, health care reform, hospital medicine, primary care shortage, QD
Contact ACP Internist
Send comments to ACP Internist staff at acpinternist@acponline.org.
Previous Posts
- Trick or treat!
- QD: News Every Day--public option unsettles Senato...
- QD: News Every Day--the need for health reform
- QD: News Every Day--H1N1 'emergency' and vaccine s...
- Medical News of the Obvious
- QD: News Every Day--slow start for H1N1 vaccine
- Denied health insurance
- QD: News Every Day--health care reform and H1N1
- The future is now.
- Is the evidence piling up everywhere or just aroun...
Blog log
Members of the American College of Physicians contribute posts from their own sites to ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist. Contributors include:
Albert Fuchs, MD
Albert Fuchs, MD, FACP,
graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of
Medicine, where he also did his internal medicine training.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Fuchs
spent three years as a full-time faculty member at UCLA School of
Medicine before opening his private practice in Beverly Hills in
2000.
David Katz, MD
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACP, is an internationally renowned
authority on nutrition, weight management, and the prevention of
chronic disease, and an internationally recognized leader in
integrative medicine and patient-centered care.
DrDialogue
Juliet K. Mavromatis, MD, FACP, provides a conversation about
health topics for patients and health professionals.
Dr. Mintz' Blog
Matthew Mintz, MD, FACP, has practiced internal medicine for more
than a decade and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at an
academic medical center on the East Coast. His time is split
between teaching medical students and residents, and caring for
patients.
Everything Health
Toni Brayer, MD, FACP, blogs about the rapid changes in science,
medicine, health and healing in the 21st century.
FutureDocs
Vineet Arora, MD, FACP, is Associate Program Director for the
Internal Medicine Residency and Assistant Dean of Scholarship &
Discovery at the Pritzker School of Medicine for the University of
Chicago. Her education and research focus is on resident duty
hours, patient handoffs, medical professionalism, and quality of
hospital care. She is also an academic hospitalist.
Glass
Hospital
John H. Schumann, MD, FACP, provides transparency on the workings
of medical practice and the complexities of hospital care,
illuminates the emotional and cognitive aspects of caregiving and
decision-making from the perspective of an active primary care
physician, and offers behind-the-scenes portraits of hospital
sanctums and the people who inhabit them.
Gut Check
Ryan Madanick, MD, ACP Member, is a gastroenterologist at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and the Program
Director for the GI & Hepatology Fellowship Program. He
specializes in diseases of the esophagus, with a strong interest in
the diagnosis and treatment of patients who have
difficult-to-manage esophageal problems such as refractory GERD,
heartburn, and chest pain.
I'm dok
ACP Member Mike Aref, MD, PhD, ACP Member, is an academic
hospitalist with an interest in basic and clinical science and
education, with interests in noninvasive monitoring and diagnostic
testing using novel bedside imaging modalities, diagnostic
reasoning, medical informatics, new medical education modalities,
pre-code/code management, palliative care, patient-physician
communication, quality improvement, and quantitative biomedical
imaging.
Just Oncology
Richard Just, MD, ACP Member, has 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology. His blog is a joint publication with Gregg Masters, MPH.
KevinMD
Kevin Pho, MD, ACP Member, offers one of the Web's definitive sites
for influential health commentary.
MD
Whistleblower
Michael Kirsch, MD, FACP, addresses the joys and challenges of
medical practice, including controversies in the doctor-patient
relationship, medical ethics and measuring medical quality. When
he's not writing, he's performing colonoscopies.
Medical
Lessons
Elaine Schattner, MD, ACP Member, shares her ideas on education,
ethics in medicine, health care news and culture. Her views on
medicine are informed by her past experiences in caring for
patients, as a researcher in cancer immunology, and as a patient
who's had breast cancer.
Prescriptions
David M. Sack, MD, FACP, practices general gastroenterology at a
small community hospital in Connecticut. His blog is a series of
musings on medicine, medical care, the health care system and
medical ethics, in no particular order.
Reflections
of a Grady Doctor
Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, reflects on the personal side of being
a doctor in a community hospital in Atlanta.
Technology in (Medical) Education
Neil Mehta, MBBS, MS, FACP, is interested in use of technology in
education, social media and networking, practice management and
evidence-based medicine tools, personal information and knowledge
management.
White Coat Underground
Peter A. Lipson, MD, ACP Member, is a practicing internist and
teaching physician in Southeast Michigan. The blog, which has been
around in various forms since 2007, offers musings on the
intersection of science, medicine, and culture.
ACP Internist and ACP Hospitalist also contribute to and draw upon content from Get Better Health, a network created by Val Jones, MD, to support and promote health care professional bloggers, provide insightful and trustworthy health commentary, and help to inform health policy makers about the clinician's point of view on health care reform, science, research and patient care.
Other blogs of note:
American
Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine
publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in
internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and
community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, MD, ACP
Member, associate program director at New York University Medical
Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents
and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news,
commentary and more.
db's Medical
Rants
Robert M. Centor, MD, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating
medicine and the health care system.
Interact
MD
Michael Benjamin, MD, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so
he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the
Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news
of the day.
PLoS
Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a
blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by an emergency
room physician.

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