Monday, February 8, 2010
You can date your patients after all.
What with all those pesky ethics rules, it's not often that the line between romance and medicine gets blurred. But a new article (in the business section of AMedNews, of all places) brings the topics closer together than usual.
The story even begins like a romance novel. "The young woman wondered: Could Dr. Emmet be the right physician to perform her first pelvic exam?" Thankfully, before the situation deteriorated into any heaving bosoms, the article explains the woman and the doctor were participating in a physician-patient speed date. That's right, speed dating, an activity formerly confined to dark singles bars, could be headed to a hospital cafeteria near you.
At this Texan event, a group of physicians in need of patients and patients in need of physicians met and chatted to see if they were compatible. If they hit off, the pairs made appointments rather than second dates. But it's amusing to consider what kinds of icebreaker questions would have worked in both types of speed dating: "Are you looking to have children soon?" is probably OK, but "When was your last full-body exam?" might take some daters aback.
Labels: patient information
posted by Stacey Butterfield at
12:59 PM
0 Comments
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Doctors discuss the consequences of misleading medical news
Doctors have to spend a lot of time correcting patients' misimpressions of medical research based on mainstream media reporting, readers told ACP Internist in a survey.
Mainstream media coverage of medical news overstate results and include too few details, according to ACP Internist's poll, "Your Thoughts Exactly: Media reporting of medical research."
According to the poll results, all respondents voted that mainstream media reports of medical studies were exaggerated "extremely," "very much" or "moderately." There were no responses of "somewhat" or "not at all."
When asked to rate the level of detail of medical stories in the mainstream media, all but one respondent thought there was "somewhat" or "way too little" detail in coverage.
The poll is based on a study in Annals of Internal Medicine that concluded the public relations departments of academic medical centers overstate results or don't include important caveats when pitching study results to the media. Authors questioned if this was being passed through to mainstream media reports, which patients then carry into their visits with physicians.
In the daily grind of medical practice, doctors reported a "time drain" of calming patients who'd seen a news report, or deflecting false hopes and over-expectations from others.
One poll respondent summed it up perfectly: "Medical news is almost always distorted, and leads to false hopes and expectations from patients. However, it's part of my daily job to provide patients with accurate and useful information about their medical conditions."
Also, another respondent chastised the media for the lack of distinction made between test tube studies and phase 3 clinical trials, and also the lack of explanation that discoveries about the mechanisms of diseases do not immediately translate into treatments that can be made available.
"Dramatic results are not often carefully noted to be preliminary and unreproduced," another respondent said. "This leads patients to believe findings are ... established. This often requires time to properly balance the whole of the existing (or non-existing) data. Patients don't get the language of 'may be' that is usually reported in the media."
"Fortunately, patients trust their doctor more than the media," one concluded.
Perhaps the best way to overcome poor medical reporting is to do it yourself. One doctor successfully reports medical knowledge to his patients by appearing on TV as a medical commentator.
Labels: patient communication, patient education, patient information
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
11:36 AM
0 Comments
Friday, January 23, 2009
Let's talk about HIPAA (but not on your cell)
The sign in my pharmacy reads: "To comply with HIPAA regulations, we will gladly help you when you are finished with your cell phone conversation." I've seen similar signs in doctors' offices over the years.
HIPAA was meant to regulate health privacy, not common manners. HIPAA is being used as a bogeyman in this case. This makes HIPAA even harder for health care workers to understand, and they're already paranoid about not triggering a violation.
If the concern is that someone may disclose protected health information over a cell phone, follow the "elevator rule" and don't talk in open areas about private information. But if the concern is speeding service for all by making sure people aren't standing at the front desk gabbing, say that instead.
ACP's practice management staff say HIPAA is a frequent source of confusion, and they offer plenty of HIPAA compliance information. They're glad to help our members understand the rules, too ... as soon as you complete your cell phone call.
Labels: patient information
posted by Ryan DuBosar at
1:04 PM
1 Comments
Monday, August 4, 2008
More free patient info
The NIDDK has been busy. Here are more online patient resources for various conditions.
"What I need to know about Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome" booklet.
"Prostatitis: Disorders of the Prostate" fact sheet.
"IgA Nephropathy" fact sheet .
"Home Hemodialysis" fact sheet .
You can also go here to order a free print copy of a booklet or fact sheet, or call 1-800-891-5390 to order copies. Packets of 25 copies of booklets and fact sheets cost $10 and $5, respectively, to cover shipping and handling.
Labels: patient education, patient information
posted by Jessica Berthold at
3:26 PM
0 Comments
ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.
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Send comments to ACP Internist staff at acpinternist@acponline.org.
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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.
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EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
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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.
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