Faculty Bibliography

SINCE I first began to criticize the health-reform legislation several months ago, I've received hundreds of e-mails and blog entries from other doctors who are also upset with the direction that the 'reform' is taking. They disagree strongly with the American Medical Association and its president, Cecil Wilson. With only 20 percent of physicians as members, the group has come out in support of the Senate health-reform bill, and it is focused on issues (blocking the cosmetic-surgery tax and the 5 percent tax for high Medicare users, for example) that most practicing physicians aren't really concerned about. Most practicing docs are opposed to the current reform bills because they: * Lack tort-reform measures for medical malpractice. * Don't do away with scheduled yearly Medicare cuts and other across- the-board decreases in reimbursements. * Expand insurance to 30 million more people without taking into account the doctor shortage and drop-out rate. * Increase government oversight and extend a third-party payer system in which the doctor-patient relationship is obscured and most primary-care docs are paid less than veterinarians. * Imperil our best technology, which is moving in the direction of personalized preventive health solutions, not one-size-fits-all, low-quality insurance that won't cover it

NCIS [Television Program] -- A new neurological problem such as a stroke, cancer or infection cannot be excluded without a work-up including an MRI of the brain, blood tests and possibly a spinal tap, says Dr. John R. Burton, director of the Johns Hopkins Geriatric Education Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore

Next on the task force 'research' menu are the elderly and the usefulness of hearing aids; the effect of falls; and coronary heart disease screening and whether or not it is cost effective to intervene

Nip/Tuck [Television Program] -- [...] sexual relationships with patients are considered unethical not just by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons but also by every other doctors organization

Given the recent US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations discouraging the routine use of mammograms in ages 40 to 50, it is important to re-examine this test But this analysis ignores the fact that though only 1/1,900 women between 40 and 50 have their lives saved by 10 years of screening, many more see a significant improvement in their quality of life when their cancer is diagnosed before it escapes the breast

An article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in the spring had suggested that older people were more likely to have partial immunity to the H1N1 strain causing the current pandemic, thought to be because of past exposure to a related flu virus that was circulating before 1957. [...] a study published in the British journal Lancet in September reminded me that influenza could be a trigger for a heart attack, especially in a susceptible patient like him.

Brothers and Sisters [Television Program] -- [...] a surgical biopsy would be performed, followed by a bone marrow biopsy to see how far the disease had spread. Since the adoption of the chemotherapy drug rituximab over the last decade, the cure rate for this type of cancer has grown to at least 60%, Pinter-Brown says

Three Rivers [Television Program] -- A cardiac angiogram has revealed that he has normal coronary arteries. Because Scott has not used drugs in six months, Dr. Andy Yablonski (Alex O'Loughlin), the head transplant surgeon, is able to persuade a transplant committee to ask the United Network for Organ Sharing to put Scott on the list for heart transplant