Blog, MD

Very interesting article in American Medical News (Nov. 26, 2007) on the recent introduction of a health care gift card.  It’s no secret that gift cards are a wonderful way for retailers to siphon more money from consumers using a variety of methods.  First and foremost, is the fact that only about 90% of gift cards […]

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As one can tell from scrolling through the sparse entries over the past 6 weeks, I’ve been laying low. It’s actually been a nice little holiday - I find that a break every now and again helps gets the creative juices flowing again. Plus I’ve been working on a couple of other projects, […]

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I hate my cell phone.
It’s not because it’s a bad phone. It works fine. The plan I have isn’t too terrible. And, I will admit that it is a valuable tool for my work.
I just hate having to have it.
It’s not unlike the relationship that I have with my pager. I […]

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One of the (good) unintended consequences of the recent reports of toxicities associated with over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold medications for children is a new willingness to re-examine these products. As many have shown, cough and cold medications are a multi-billion dollar a year sinkhole. You know that this is a valuable market […]

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You may be wondering whose owns these legs, and why they’re clad in little red and white ribbons. I was wondering that myself, as I was leafing through this week’s American Medical News. It turns out that they belong to television host Meredith Vieira, who apparently rented them to the pharmaceutical giant […]

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I was driving back from my overnight moonlighting gig this morning … well, driving may not be the best word choice. I was inching my way down Route 1 in the middle of morning rush hour traffic, with my trusty coffee at my side and WBUR on the radio, and exercising my extraocular muscles […]

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Ok. That’s a pretty unpleasant title for this rant, but then I awoke to an e-mail from one of the news aggregators I use proclaiming “FDA issues warning on rotavirus vaccine”.
I quickly turned to this story worried that the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) had picked up a cluster of intussception on […]

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I am never on time in clinic. Never.
I try - oh, believe me - I really, really try. I’ve tried preparing all of my orders and prescriptions the night before. I’ve tried showing up an hour early to make sure that I walk into the exam room at the exact […]

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As I’ve been scootering around town (more about this soon) on a truly beautiful, crisp winter day here in Boston, I’ve been thinking about what, if anything, to write as the final post for 2006.
I can’t say that it has been an easy year. It has been interesting, challenging, and at times, […]

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For some reason, my clinic schedule today is not particularly friendly to the concept of efficiency. My first patient was scheduled for 10:30a, which means that I could only get 2 or 3 hours uninterrupted lab time this morning. And now, it’s 10:31 and I’m sitting in the workroom waiting. So why not share some […]

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Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian physician who discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever could be reduced by enforcing good handwashing standards, must be tired from all of the rolling he has been doing in his grave. His discovery of the importance of hand hygiene in 1847 and his subsequent experiments clearly showed that physicians […]

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I’ve been sequestered in a 5-day intensive review of pediatric oncology since last Wednesday, and as a result I’ve had little time to write anything. The course finished this afternoon and of course tonight I’m on-call on the BMT floor. Well, at least it will give me a chance to catch up with […]

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There is an excellent McDonald’s parody page to be found here where you can make your very own McDonald’s sign (as well as protesting McDonald’s promotion of the Hummer in their Happy Meals).
Note: Even more McDonald’s weirdness at MetaFilter today.

Technorati Tags: Rant

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Anyone who has spent a lot of time in a children’s hospital knows that the quality of food served in the food courts ranges from poor to atrocious. And I’m not just talking about taste. I’m talking about nutritional content. When I was doing my residency at a fine midwestern hospital, […]

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From time to time, particularly when I’m on-call like tonight (yes, I’m on call again for bone marrow transplant), I surf some of my favorite little corners of the internet. One of the more morbid corners that I typical go to is the obituary section of the NY Times. I can’t explain it. […]

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