Doctors control emotions with patients

From UPI, via GruntDoc:
A U.S. study suggests physicians shut off the portion of their brain that helps them appreciate the pain their patients are experiencing.
Instead, the University of Chicago research indicates physicians activate a portion of the brain connected with controlling emotions during such patient encounters.
Because doctors sometimes have to inflict pain on patients as [...]

Obesity Threatens Emergency Services: Report

ABC News’ take on the effect of obese (and “super-obese”) patients in EMS and the ED.
Extra wide beds, stronger toilets and special patient lifting devices are becoming more and more common in emergency rooms. The reason for such new equipment? Hospitals across the United States are struggling to handle increasing numbers of extra-large patients.
And [...]

Hospitalists Shorten Patient Stays

From the Washington Post:
Being cared for by hospital-based general physicians — also known as “hospitalists” — can shorten patients’ hospital stays, a U.S. study finds.
The study looked at more than 9,000 patients discharged from an academic medical center between July 2002 and June 2004.
The 2,913 patients cared for by hospitalists had an average [...]

Tamper-Proof Prescriptions

From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog:
It looks like doctors and pharmacies will get a reprieve from a new rule requiring tamper-proof prescriptions for Medicaid patients.
Congress created the rule earlier this year, and it’s set to go into effect on October 1. But the Senate last night passed a bill that would push that back [...]

Obese and Super Obese Patients Challenge Emergency Medical Care Providers

From ACEP:
Obese patients are presenting new challenges in emergency care, from burdening patient transport systems to complicating diagnosis and treatment. As rates of obesity and super obesity accelerate, emergency departments struggle to cope (“Emergency Departments Shoulder Challenges of Providing Care, Preserving Dignity for the ‘Super Obese’”).
“Higher levels of obesity will lead to more people getting [...]

WSJ: "Chatty Neatnik Docs Ace Malpractice Insurance Tests"

Love that title. From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog.
Paying premiums isn’t enough to get malpractice insurance for some docs these days. Some insurers now require an online personality test, reports American Medical News.
The test gauges a doctor’s “interpersonal communication skills,” “attention to detail” and “propensity for risk-taking behavior,” according to the Web site [...]

U of I med school eyes expansion in DM

From the Des Moines Register:
The University of Iowa Hospitals and the Des Moines Area Medical Consortium is looking at a new downtown location in order to double the number of medical students receiving training in the city.
“It will improve the medical education of our students and hopefully entice more of these students to stay in [...]

Hypothermia Treatment

From Medgadget:
Life Recovery Systems, HD, LLC, of Alexandria, LA was just issued the CE Mark of approval by the EU to market their ThermoSuit system, indicated for emergency cooling of patients to “preserve cardiac and brain function in victims of cardiac arrest, stroke, heart attack, traumatic brain injury and hyperthermic patients.”
The ThermoSuit System uses innovative [...]

Mayo Clinic Calls for Universal Coverage

From the (excellent) Wall Street Journal Health Blog
Make everybody in America buy health insurance, and give subsidies to help the poor afford it. Force insurance companies to offer some coverage to everyone, regardless of health status. And have everybody buy their insurance directly, rather than getting it through their employer.
Those are the broad outlines of [...]

Newsweek article about eICU’s

From Newsweek:
Here’s the sub-heading: Small hospitals use technology to run remote ICUs.
Swedish Medical is one of a growing number of hospitals opting for a radical form of outsourcing by using technology and doctors stationed off-site to monitor the well-being of critically ill patients. Instead of listening through a stethoscope, a single doctor can track multiple [...]