Time for Medicare to Quit Ignoring Primary Care

An article by Brian Klepper and Paul Fischer at Health Affairs has me all fired up.  Finally these two health experts are calling it like it is.  The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and EverythingHealth have written before about the way primary care is undervalued and underpayed in this country and how it is harming the health and economics of the United States.  A secretive,

Divorce rates higher in couples with long commutes

Researchers at Umea University in  Sweden found that divorce rates are 40% higher in people who have commutes greater than 45 minutes.  The study looked at 2 million households and found that long commutes were even more difficult for women.  The risk for divorce was highest during the first few years of commuting. 

We have been a commuting culture for decades...especially in large urban areas

Why Health Care Costs So Much

It is my job at EverythingHealth to steer the reader to great information.  For this reason I am providing you with a Link to The New England Journal of Medicine article titled "The $650 Billion Dollar question - why does cost effective care diffuse so slowly?"  I have retitled it "Why Health Care Costs So Much".

The United States spends much more on health care than other industrialized nations

Top Ten Greatest Public Health Achievements of this Century

The Center for Disease Control published the top ten public health achievements from 2001-2010, the first decade of the 21st century.  In no order they are:

Vaccine-preventable Diseases - new vaccines for herpes zoster, pneumonia, HPV and rotavirus have saved thousands of lives  When you add in the older vaccines for diptheria, pertussus, tetanus and measles/mumps millions of lives have been

Answer to Medical Challenge

This is a really good one and several of you got it right.  The answer is #1. Endometrioma.  (scroll to post on 5/19/2011 for the image)

The woman's medical history was significant for dysmenorrhea (painful periods) and two recent laparoscopic resections of endometriomas. Histologic examination after resection of the nodule revealed the presence of endometrial glands and stroma. Endometriosis of

California will release expensive medical prisoners

I wrote previously about the Governor from Mississippi who released two sisters from prison because the cost of providing dialysis was more than the prison system could bear.  This seems to be a nationwide trend.  Under a state law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September, prisoners who are in a highly incapacitated state and deemed to pose no threat to society can be released if the

This Weeks Medical Challenge

It's time again to test your diagnostic skill with the New England Journal of Medicine image challenge. (click on the image to see up close)   The nodule formed in this young woman in the umbilical (naval) area and bled intermittently.  What is the diagnosis?

1.  Endometrioma
2.  Metastatic adenocarcinoma
3.  Omphalith
4.  Umbilical hernia
5.  Urachal cyst

Give me your best answer as a comment

Powerful Men with Powerful Flaws

aArnold Schwarzenegger's revelation about his long-term  affair with his household employee that involved a child being born is the latest in a string of powerful men with career ending flaws.  Add to that the  shocking arrest this week of powerful Dominique Strauss-Kahn for allegedly raping a hotel maid and we must ask, "What the heck is going on with these guys?"

 I can't count the number of

Real Food Doesn't Need Hype

The article from The New York Times about "Foods with Benefits" is a great read.  (Don't click now...read this post first and then read the article).  It talks about what consumers are seeing at the grocery aisles as well as in advertising.  Food is being packaged and advertised as a miracle for good health.  They say certain foods can lower cholesterol, fix irritable bowel, cause weight loss or

NSAIDs are a problem for Cardiac Patients

New information published in Circulation advises against using any nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in patients who have had a prior heart attack.  These over-the-counter drugs are commonly used  like Advil, Aleeve, Diclofenac, Ibuprofen.  Using NSAIDs for even as little as one week was associated with a 45% increase for death or recurrent myocardial infarction (MI).  The researchers

Best and Worst Place to be a Mother in the World

Happy Mothers Day to mothers everywhere.  It is an important day for us to honor women and acknowledge the incredible hard work of mothering. There are some places in the world where being a mother is positively life threatening.  The worst place to be a mother is Afghanistan.

Childbirth in Afghanistan is  primeval.  One in 8 women in Afghanistan die during pregnancy or childbirth, more than any

Answer to Medical Challenge

The answer to yesterday's medical challenge is....drumroll.....

#4 -  Sugar

Plain granulated sugar can be applied to the mucosa of the prolapsed structure (such as the ileum in this case) to promote the osmotic shift of fluid out of the edematous tissue.  In this case, within 2 minutes, the edema had diminished sufficiently to allow spontaneous reduction of the prolapse.

Thanks to all who made

The Hardest Image Challenge

 Q:  A prolapse such as this can be effectively reduced by applying what common household substance to the tissue?
1.  Baking powder
2.  Flour
3.  Salt
4.  Sugar
5.  Tea


This is the hardest image challenge from the New England Journal Of  Medicine that I have seen.  Fellow physicians, and EverythingHealth readers, I want you to go out on a limb and give me the answer. 

For you non-physicians,

Pay It Forward With Organ Donations

With all of the news focus on Osama Bin Laden's death and memories of 9-11, it is time for a feel good story.  We have one compliments of Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois.   A total of 7 kidneys have been donated by perfect strangers and 5 of them were from hospital employees.  Loyola has set up a "Pay it Forward" program to inspire others to do the same.  When a person gets a good