As most of my readers know, I teach Public Health graduate students and the University of Massachusetts, sometimes on campus, and sometimes online. This is an open letter to all of my past and future students. First, I want to thank everyone in my June course who took the time to complete the evaluation -- the feedback is very helpful to me. I also want to thank the whole class (and all my previous and future classes) for the privilege of learning...
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Friday, 23 September 2011
Clinician as the Politbureau of medicine?
Do you think that medicine in the US is centralized? I do, but not in the way that we generally understand centralization. And furthermore, it is this centralization that I believe is making the idea of shared decision making so intimidating to some. Here is what I mean.If you read management texts, centralization refers to an organization that is run predominantly top-down. In other words, a couple of oligarchs at the top of the ladder make all...
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Why patient lab data should be liberated, with a few caveats
I am admittedly not an expert on health IT, but I am a firm believer in the empowerment of patients to be the driver of her/his health decision making. So this whole discussion about lab data being available directly to the patient is of great interest to me. But it does seem like yet another instance of the two sides coming together not to listen to each other but to be heard by the other side. And as well know, this works so well for any relationship!Each...
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Eminence or evidence, or how not to look like a fool when reporting your own data
A study presented a the ICAAC meeting was reported by the Family Practice News that piqued my interest. Firstly, it is a study on C. difficile infection treatment, and secondly it is counter to the evidence that has accumulated to date. So, I read the story very carefully, as, alas, the actual study presentation does not appear to be available.Before...
Monday, 19 September 2011
Adventures with American or Flying, American Style
So, we all know that the time for a doctor's appointment is merely a suggestion, not a mandate, as the doctor is hardly ever on time. We have even started of necessity to apply this theory to air travel. But to end up arriving 5 hours late and... to the wrong city? Well, this was a new one on me. Here is what happened.I went to ICAAC for the day yesterday to present some of our data on predictors of a mixed skin and soft tissues infection. If it...
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
So I got my son a tracfone...
Wanted to post some follow up to my absurd interaction with AT&T, the beginning of which can be found here. Briefly, all I wanted to do was add one more line to my family plan for $9.99 per month. Instead of making it simple, the web site demanded personal information (including my social security number) for the purpose of doing a credit check....
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Supersize me, the AT&T way
File this under "etc."I had one simple goal -- add a line to my AT&T family wireless plan for my son. I know, I know, I did check other carriers' plans and deals, since my contract with AT&T ran out long ago. But for various reasons I decided to stay with them. Why trade a known headache for an unknown one? Anyway, I went online with every intention of being finished in the space of 10 minutes. How naïve...I wanted to get a basic plan, with...
Thursday, 1 September 2011
You want to know #6?
Actually, it should really be #1. I am referring to the list I blogged yesterday of my top 5 reasons for rejecting a manuscript. The most important reason, which I failed to mention is...... drum roll, please...6. No "Limitations" paragraphThis is something that no manuscript should neglect, as every study, even the most well designed and executed randomized controlled trial, has limitations. So, in every paper that I write, my third paragraph from...
