Health Business Blog

Welcome to Grand Rounds 3:45! I’m just back from Singapore where I’ve been doing research for my new medical tourism/medical travel website MedTripInfo. I’m looking for contributors, so let me know if you’d like to write a post or else just leave a comment in one of the forums.

GET FATTY

By now you must have heard about the study that concludes that obesity spreads across social networks. Clinical Cases and Images and Med Journal Watch have. Then along comes Junkfood Science and blows the whole thing out of the water: it’s not a rigorous study of people but a computer simulation relying on dubious inputs, questionable assumptions, and improper interpretation of the results. Ouch!

SPEAKIN’ OF BIG FELLAS

Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis lost his malpractice lawsuit, which alleged his surgeons botched a gastric bypass operation. New York Personal Injury Law Blog and NY Emergency Medicine cite a new study showing that –unlike in other personal injury cases– defendants usually win malpractice trials. One reason could be Advanced Practice Strategies (APS), a litigation support and eLearning company that aided the defense in the Weis case and many others. (Disclosure: I’m Chairman of APS.)

ANOTHER REASON TO STAY ACTIVE

Exercise, learning and social interaction may help people establish a “cognitive reserve” to offset the impact of Alzheimer’s, according to Sharp Brains. And folic acid may not actually prevent or treat Alzheimer’s. Rather “the link between high folate and lower risk of Alzheimer’s may really be due to exercise,” says The Tangled Neuron.

PATIENT TALES

Digital Doorway shows there’s hope even for hardened heroin addicts and Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good says the same about alcoholics.

Six Until Me shares her girlhood excitement in finding Stacey, a book character with diabetes.

Cancer Treatment and Survivorship asserts that cancer treatment in community settings in the US is often woefully poor.

Rebuild Your Back suggests sucking up to your doc to get more attention. (Whatever happened to the squeaky wheel getting the grease?)

PROVIDER PERSPECTIVES

Dr. Anna Pou, the New Orleans doctor accused of murder, is off the hook and The Doctor Blogger offers a spirited defense of her actions. “If I am ever a patient in a hospital under these conditions, may God provide me with an Anna Pou to hover over my bedside…”

Medical students spend a lot of time with dead bodies. No wonder Vitum Medicinus has developed aversions to 10 foods (including cream cheese) and Anatomy on the Beach is fixated on his cadaver. Meanwhile Medicine for the Outdoors is far from the beach, attending the Wilderness Medical Society’s Annual conclave.

Other things amanzi must have been paying attention in med school, since he was able to rip out a spleen successfully on his first attempt.
How to Cope with Pain explores the nirvana of coordinated care. (Don’t hold your breath.) Tech Medicine explores the reasons docs don’t use email much with their patients.

Musings of a Befuddled Pharmacist shares some ramblings along with photos of some pretty funny signs. “Licensed to Sell Drugs and Poisons” is my favorite.

TECHNO TALK

Med Valley High describes female leadership traits, which are increasingly relevant as female physicians become the norm. Speaking of which, Web 2.0 physicians are more likely to be female, says Science Roll.

Eye on DNA explores a case involving genetic testing and “wrongful life.”

Diabetes Mine has been outfitted with DexCom’s wireless continuous glucose monitor. Sounds better than the previous version but still a lot of kinks to be worked out. Speaking of kinks, ChronicBabe reviews a range of sex toys (btw a latex allergy need be no barrier to enjoyment).

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Spine-Health has 31 back pain tips your doctor didn’t mention. The Fitness Fixer shows how to stretch your hips, and The Diet Dish has a list of behaviors to avoid if you’re nursing.

A Chronic Dose lets us know that the gluten intolerant can still eat out.

Are you a physician thinking of starting a blog? Read Health Care Law Blog’s guidance first.

POLICY AND POLITICS (FOR YOU HEALTH WONK REVIEW JUNKIES)

InsureBlog boils health care reform down to two choices: rationing or fee cuts. Freedom from Smoking endorses SiCKO. Dr. Val shares the definition of a Canadian: an unarmed American with health care.

Hope for Pandora and Healthline Connects examine the muzzling of former Surgeon General Richard Carmona.

Anxiety, Addiction and Depression Treatments proclaims New York City’s smoking ban a success, based on reduced exposure to secondhand smoke.

Allergy Notes explores the different rates of EpiPen prescribing by region.

WHEN THE TRUTH IS FOUND TO BE LIES

Are the Chinese exporting tainted White Rabbit candies to the Philippines? Parallel Universes struggles to sort it out. Go ask Alice…

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That does it for this edition of Grand Rounds.

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Gill Kamaljeet Singh is General Manager of the International Business Development Unit for Singapore’s National Healthcare Group or NHG. Gill took a group of international media on a tour of NHG’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital recently. Before the tour he gave us this introduction to health care in Singapore and NHG specifically. You can’t see the slides as you listen to the recording, but Gill’s passion and the impressive nature of NHG come through loud and clear.

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The summer 2007 issue of CommonWealth magazine has an in-depth article on Massachusetts’ out-of-control health care costs. Health Care for All’s John McDonough uses the term “cost-control emergency” to describe where things are heading. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration.

Meanwhile, there’s a provocative potential answer to all of this over at The Covert Rationing Blog.

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From Kaiser Family Foundation (Medicaid Proof-of-Citizenship Rules Lead to Enrollment Decline Among U.S. Residents, Not Undocumented Immigrants):

New Medicaid proof-of-citizenship rules have reduced the number of beneficiaries in many states, although most of those dropped from the rolls were eligible for the program but could not provide adequate documentation, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on Monday…

Like I said in March and last year, citing other sources to whom this result was also kind of obvious.

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Check out Change of Shift, the nursing blog carnival, at Musings of a Highly Trained Monkey.

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I’ve wrapped up my medical tourism research trip to Singapore and am at the airport for my return journey. I’ve made several posts on MedTripInfo and will continue to churn out more thoughts over the next several days. Here’s what’s there so far:

Interviews and speeches (audio recordings)

• Chong Pik Wan from KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, fertility services and OB/Gyn
• Dan Snyder, COO of Parkway Health, the largest private hospital chain in Asia
• Kevin Tan, Singapore Economic Development Board, talking about Singapore’s overall biomedical strategy
• Jim Plouffe, from Reader’s Digest Asia, sharing results of a pan-Asian consumer health survey
• Dr. Steven Tucker from the International Medical Travel Association and West Clinic. (This one has a transcript, too)

Travel log

• Part 1: The trip from Boston
• Part 2: Arrival in Singapore

 

 

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I almost laughed out loud when I read the Economist’s article on US health care reform: Economics focus, Creeps and bounds (July 21, 2007)

…Massachusetts obliges individuals to buy insurance or else face higher taxes. This requirement lowers premiums overall, by forcing relatively healthy, low-risk people into a system they might otherwise avoid. Their premiums help to cover the costs of people who are more likely to need health care.

Sounds logical doesn’t it? But it’s hard to square with my 26.3 percent premium increase for next year, which coincides with the mandate’s phase-in. Am I supposed to believe that my increase would have been 30 or 40 percent otherwise? What does “lowers premiums overall” really mean in a market where premiums are rising rapidly for most everyone?

One reason that the Economist’s logic doesn’t hold up is that once people are insured they may want to try out their shiny new health care insurance by going to the doctor. They may even go to the emergency room more frequently, which flies in the face of the typical argument that the newly insured will substitute care in more cost effective settings for their previous emergency room visits.

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I’ll be hosting the next edition of Grand Rounds, so please submit your posts by midnight on Sunday.

PS — Click on David E. Williams under my picture on the right to send me an email.

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The latest edition of the Health Wonk Review blog carnival is posted at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review.

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As part of my ongoing medical tourism research in Singapore this week, I visited KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, a 900-bed tertiary care facility. After a tour of the facility, which matches anything I’ve seen in the US in terms of physical plant and creature comforts, I sat down to speak with Chong Pik Wan, the hospital’s Director of International Medical Services. She shared information about KK’s OB and fertility services and their relevance for medical travelers.

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