retired doc's thoughts

Physicians routinely recommend exercise for patients with the metabolic syndrome -typically walking.Exercise is a generally accepted strateg...

The possibility that health care providers (HCP) might try to game the system and treat the chart when offered or forced to play the P4P gam...

In spite of at least one terrible publication to the contrary-the criticism of which is reviewed here - there can be little doubt that exper...

The quote "Medical education drives this market" is attributed to an author of a Parke -Davis business plan found in a legal exh...

The idealized world of the medical student as he learns about randomized clinical trials (RCT) is one in which something like this is visual...

Osteoporosis is defined as a decrease in bone mass with pathological changes in the microarchitecture of bone and tendency to fragility frac...

Recent entries on DB's Medical Rants have called attention to a somewhat obscure cause of sore throat, namely a potentially very seriou...

What do some cognitive scientists and the folks who teach you how to take a test (Stanley Kaplan et al) have in common? Answer- a belief in...

Dr. Stuart Henochowicz, an allergist-internist blogger,recently posted some cogent comments about the use of LABAs in asthma including com...

I have been thinking lately about the type of medical problems that physicians face. Mathematicians and cognitive scientists talk about well...

Robert G. Newton in his book "The Truth of Science" (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997) talks about the Cr...

Several clinical trials are being funded by the government to investigate the efficacy of Reiki. Details can be found in the above link. Cl...

The July 19,2006 edition of "Morning Edition" on NPR revealed internal e-mails from the FDA concerning the discussions about the a...

One of the interesting features of Medicare Part D is the so called dough-nut hole, the time when the savings go away and the patients pay ...

In the July 13, 2006 issue of NEJM, S.W. Lagakos, a statistical consultant for the journal, writes about time-to-event analysis for long ter...

I suspect we will be hearing more and more about paying for "quality" since the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to be t...

I was eagerly awaiting the replies to the recent Salpeter meta-analysis (MA) posted about here . I suspect the rapid responses are availabl...

The FDA, after reviewing the fatal cases of liver disease associated with use of telithromycin( Ketex) decided to continue to allow its use...

Had I been aware of the degree to which CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) has been accepted, taught,and practiced in at least so...

The AMA passed a policy resolution supporting mandatory medical insurance for those persons and families that can afford it and subsidies fo...