Friday, July 18, 2008
Pacemakers for centenarians
An article in today's New York Times discusses a now-104-year-old woman who received a biventricular defibrillator when she was 99 (after being rejected by one cardiologist for the operation). We've covered the ethical debate over dialysis for the very elderly, but the general dilemma of interventions for the oldest patients seems likely to become a bigger issue as more people enter that age range. How do you make determinations about their likely quality of life? (The woman in the story's very happy just to be alive, but lots of people wouldn't feel that way about being so incapacitated.) Can you apply a standard of cost-effectiveness to these decisions? (There are certainly many ways that the $35,000 Medicare spent on her operation could have been used to sustain more healthy life-years.) Who should decide this--patients, docs, insurers?
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
10:36 AM
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
Contact ACP Internist
Send comments to ACP Internist staff at acpinternist@acponline.org.
Previous Posts
- Amid Medicare debate comes mandatory e-prescribing...
- Drugs going to the dogs
- Is there a web cam in your future?
- Medical News of the Obvious
- A new day for mental health parity
- The long arm of your chromosomes and the law
- Yeah, yeah, I need to lose weight. But how?
- Unveiling the secrets of a long life
- Medical News of the Obvious
- Watermelon can have Viagra-like effects
Blog log
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, 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, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, 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.
Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.
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 a doctor.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home