"
Guardian 24/7 combines best-in-breed technology with protocols designed to serve the President of the United States, offering unprecedented medical attention to a demanding audience. Thanks to Guardian, your medical care can finally look like the rest of your life[...]. Our innovative ReadyRoom™ strategy places essential equipment, medications and supplies where you live, move and work. Yet everything is hidden away until needed. [...]Before Guardian, this kind of medical protection was only available to one person. But now, presidential-level care can be yours — on your schedule and your terms." Don't miss the
embedded video. This appears to be in earnest.
posted by nobody
on Feb 10, 2012 -
41 comments
It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little.
How Doctors Die.
posted by Foci for Analysis
on Dec 5, 2011 -
54 comments
A simple question shows how complex the issue is. Chris at "Cynical C" asks his fellow citizens where they get thier health care (insurance) from and the incredible diversity of the current options and situations is immediately apparent. Quite spontaneously (but surely not unexpectedly), the question of "How much does it cost you?" becomes an essential part of the answers. Outsiders opine and tell stories and commiserate.
[more inside]
posted by sid abotu
on Aug 4, 2009 -
117 comments
In December 2003, Brent Cambron gave himself his first injection of morphine. Save for the fact that he was sticking the needle into his own skin, the motion was familiar--almost rote. Over the course of the previous 17 months, as an anesthesia resident at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Cambron had given hundreds of injections.
-
Going Under by Jason Zengerle of The New Republic [
print version] is heartbreaking article about the high rates of drug addiction among anesthesiologists. It tells the story of Brent Cambron and his spiral into addiction. His live was also sensitively chronicled in The Boston Globe by Keith O'Brien in
Something, anything to stop the pain [
print version].
[more inside]
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 9, 2009 -
96 comments
"
AngryJournalist.com, an increasingly popular site that consists of nothing but rants from pissed-off reporters, is now the most accurate summation extant of journalism as an industry," (
via Gawker). It's spawned a marvelously less popular HappyJournalist.com, and what appears to be an unrelated copycat called
AngryResident.com, for "for every doctor-in-training tired of suffering in silence."
posted by nospecialfx
on Mar 9, 2008 -
34 comments
The Surgery of Love. Dr. James C. Burt was an Ohio gynecologist who circumcised over 2000 women without their consent over a period of 22 years. He didn’t operate in secret, and actually published a book about it in 1975, which he called “The Surgery of Love”. He claimed that female genitalia were "structurally inadequate" for intercourse, and that by removing their clitoral hoods and "realigning" the vagina, he could turn women into
”horny little mice” (PDF). His surgeries often left women with
sexual dysfunction, infection and the need for corrective surgery. But although
other doctors in the area knew about him, they dismissed the problems with a laugh: “Oh, I see Jim Burt got hold of you.” At least 10 women who tried to sue Burt had their cases dismissed when no doctors would testify against him, and when one doctor finally reported Burt to the state medical board after treating one of his victims, he was
ostracized by the local medical community for breaking rank. But the lawsuits, and their attendant publicity, finally caused the Ohio State Medical Board to pressure Burt into
voluntarily surrendering his license in 1989. Further attempts to sue were dismissed because of statutes of limitation and a 1987 law giving hospitals
immunity from certain lawsuits. James Burt retired to a comfortable life in Florida, making no apology.
posted by kyrademon
on Jan 8, 2007 -
108 comments
Inside Surgery, Dr. Lisa Marcucci's surgical blog, will give you a lovely preview of exactly what they'll be doing to your guts, from
gallbladder surgery to
appendectomy,
artery plaque removal,
hemorrhoid removal, and more. Supplement the text with this extensive collection of
surgical videos (NSFW), and you'll be ready to operate -- or, at least, to understand what'll go on during your operation.
posted by vorfeed
on Dec 18, 2006 -
17 comments
"Doctor, it hurts when I do that." Doctors and patients agree - doctors are lousy when it comes to recognizing, diagnosing and treating pain. The AMA developed this free Continuing Medical Education tool (requires Flash) to help docs learn and understand how to deal with pain - but other folks, folks who are now in pain or might someday be in pain, might find it quite interesting as well. All docs in California have to complete this seminar or a similar one by the end of 2006 to get relicensed; the hope is that this will help the docs and the patients who have to deal with pain on a daily basis.
posted by ikkyu2
on Jul 1, 2006 -
24 comments
Doctors suing patients Are you angry and upset because of what a doctor did or did not do during a medical procedure? Did you express your anger online? Now doctors are suing patients for expressing their anger online.
posted by halekon
on Sep 17, 2005 -
31 comments
Communication Breakdown is a problem that often prevents doctors from treating immigrant patients effectively. Language and cultural barriers prevent patients from understanding doctors instructions, sharing their symptoms of illness, and even from being examined by the doctor in cases where religious beliefs prohibit contact with someone of the opposite gender.
posted by gregb1007
on Sep 6, 2005 -
9 comments
"Family Values, My Ass!" That article in the Lexington Herald-Leader inspired me to look up the
Nation article it referred to. Now I'm beginning to see why many women won't go to "evangelical Christian" MDs: this guy Hager (previously brought up on MetaFilter
in 2003, in fact
twice, and then again in
2004) is strongly anti-abortion -- so pro-conception that he tried to keep the
"morning-after pill" known as
"Plan B" away from women -- but he's apparently pro-
sodomy and pro-
rape.
It almost sounds like
fiction.
posted by davy
on May 13, 2005 -
86 comments
Fitness to Practice is a collection of songs written and performed by Amateur Transplants, two practicing doctors from the UK. The album consists of
original songs as well as witty parodies of songs originally performed by among others
Tom Lehrer and
The Jam (mp3 links). The lyrics contain a lot of medical in-jokes, but the humour is broad enough to appeal to everyone.
posted by bap98189
on Mar 31, 2005 -
9 comments
Conscientious Objector Policy Act would allow Michigander doctors and health care providers to refuse treatment on moral, ethical or religious grounds. Yet another OMG MORALZ OMG sort of bill. But wait, what are morals? And does
Nicole Kidman figure into this somehow?
posted by taursir
on Mar 30, 2005 -
59 comments
Conscience Clauses and Health Care --
"Yes, we need to respect individual freedom of religion. But at what point does it cross the line of not providing essential medical care? At what point is it malpractice?" she asked. "If someone's beliefs interfere with practicing their profession, perhaps they should do something else." The Protection of Conscience Project feels differently:
Protection of Conscience Laws are needed because powerful interests are inclined to force health care workers and others to participate, directly or indirectly, in morally controversial procedures, while
NARAL says: ... Many of these clauses go far beyond respecting individuals' beliefs to the point of harming women by not providing them with full information or access to medical treatment. Medicine, not ideology, should determine medical decisions.
posted by amberglow
on Sep 17, 2004 -
69 comments
Doctors refuse laywers. So your last client managed to get restitution from that quack who left the clamp in her abdomen, just in time to pay for your daughter's delivery. Good luck finding an OB. Or perhaps your husband works for a law firm. Good luck with that nursing job. Maybe you're a neurosurgeon making less take-home than your insurance premiums. What are you going to say to the next ambulance chaser with migrane trouble? The war between the two solitudes could start racking up a real body-count.
posted by bonehead
on Jun 17, 2004 -
60 comments
"The Conscientious Objector Policy Act" just passed the Michigan Assembly, and awaits voting in the state Senate.
The bill legalizes the right for a doctor, or any health provider, to deny treatment based on "ethical, moral, or religious grounds." In addition to the obvious notion of restricting abortion, in the most extreme example the bill technically allows doctors to deny treatment to gays simply for believing that homosexuality is immoral.
posted by XQUZYPHYR
on Apr 22, 2004 -
90 comments
They’re a little like
Operation. Today students can practice all sorts of skills on surgical models like
TraumaMan®, the
Hillway Man, or
Geri, the Geriatric, who comes complete with wrinkles. There’s
spinal surgery,
gall bladder surgery,
ultrasound/amniocentesis,
suturing, and
casualty kits. Some of them give me the I’m-a-silly-git giggles and naming a company Limbs & Things doesn't help. There’s the
head with all sorts of
things wrong with it, including
“Extraneous Lumps”. The
toe with refills is pretty nifty, but
disturbingly life-like. There are
strap-ons and
table-top models.
(Possibly NSFW) Some could make interesting
conversation pieces.
(Also poss. NSFW)
In addition, Somso, maker of the “dial-a-prostate” model above, also makes interesting non-interactive models like this
fandex of a head, a
larynx with tongue, or a
fingertip. They also have
neat models of
animals,
fungi, and
flowers.
posted by lobakgo
on Jul 23, 2003 -
7 comments
A court in the Netherlands has awarded damages to a severely disabled girl for having been born -- a so-called
"wrongful life" judgment. While we discussed French suits like this a while back (
1 2), this decision seems noteworthy because it allows
the child herself to receive damages, not just the parents who must pay for her care. In my mind, that opens up a whole new can of worms, both in terms of the message it sends and the incentives for doctors that it creates.
posted by boltman
on Apr 15, 2003 -
12 comments
Playing Doctors And Nurses Often Requires Loving Patients. Not to mention a high level of kitsch-resistance. Here's a delightful collection of nurse-obsessed penny-dreadfuls from the engaging
Tiny Pinneapple weblog, complete with
covers and zippy, erotocally charged made-to-order
blurbs: "It was fortunate that Portugal had always held a strong attraction for Nigel Baxter, for otherwise she might not have agreed to her uncle Evan's request that she give up her vacation plans in order to take on a case there. Evan Baxter was one of David Wycherly's doctors, and since Mr. Wycherly had suffered a leg fracture while vacationing at his home in Estoril, Dr. Baxter felt that Nigel could care for him and at the same time fulfill her wish to see Portugal."
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Feb 9, 2003 -
5 comments
Paracelsus: the mercucial mage. The Fortean Times' David Hambling on one of the 16th's century's most colorful figures. A rabble-rousing non-conformist medical genuis who arguably was centuries ahead of his time, but also an egomaniac, drunk, alchemist and self-described "Prince of Philosophy and Medicine" and "Monarch of all the Arts"
posted by skallas
on Aug 30, 2002 -
5 comments
Las Vegas obstetricians are turning away newly pregnant women, including existing patients who become pregnant, because they say they cannot afford to deliver more babies ... If newly pregnant women cannot find care in Las Vegas, their choices include moving elsewhere, traveling out of state for care or going without prenatal care and delivering in area emergency rooms or a casino?
posted by lola
on May 8, 2002 -
11 comments
I Am a Racially Profiling Doctor "In practicing medicine, I am not colorblind. I always take note of my patient's race. So do many of my colleagues. We do it because certain diseases and treatment responses cluster by ethnicity." (NYTimes link)
posted by Irontom
on May 8, 2002 -
30 comments
Marijuana use legal for terminally ill "Canada became the first country in the world on Monday to allow terminally ill patients to grow and smoke their own marijuana, overriding protests from doctors who said the decision could put them in an awkward situation."
posted by sylloge
on Jul 30, 2001 -
6 comments
