- Jeff Singer proposes a new Hippocratic Oath.
- Critique of a new code of medical ethics based on the “Tavistock Principles.”
- NEJM op ed: medical students should be segregated by race.
- The Chevron precedent explained.
- Congress appropriated $4.6 trillion for pandemic response and recovery in six Covid-19 relief laws enacted between March 2020 and March 2021. More than two years later, $444 billion of the total remains unspent. (WSJ)
Physician Visits are Inconvenient, Inefficient and Outdated: They Don’t Have to Be
The last major productivity increase in medical care was the physician’s waiting room. Back in the day house calls were common. If the doctor had to walk, drive or ride a horse to your house that was not a good use of his time. Of course, 100 years ago your doctor couldn’t help much either….
The High Cost of Poor Mental Health
There is a growing mental health crisis today. Numerous people report being depressed or anxious due to Covid and its aftermath. As the Texas mall shooting illustrates there is a lot of untreated mental illness in the United States. Indeed visits to the emergency rooms (ER) for mental health problems are on the rise. A mental health issue such as a panic attack can mimic other problems. I met a cab driver who said he went to the ER for a heart attack but it turned out to be a panic attack. Purportedly, hundreds of thousands of Medicaid patients seek treatment in emergency rooms for mental health.
Monday Links
- Data show that sizable portions of SNAP (food stamp) dollars purchase non-nutritious foods, such as sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor health.
- The solution to anorexia: No one seems to know.
- Looking at three years’ worth of data, researchers found nurse-led care increases lengths of stay by 11%; raises 30-day preventable hospitalizations by 20%; and increases the cost of emergency department care by about $66 per patient and $74 million annually.
- Doctors against giving nurses more authority to practice medicine.