Watch health insurance premiums soar


By DONALD JOHNSON Enactment of ObamaCare will open the floodgates for new federal mandates that insurers cover expensive wellness and alternative care services and send health insurance premiums soaring. While the New England Journal of Medicine says 50% of physicians…

Bankruptcies: Most Caused By Medical Bills


This is the time of the year that I go on a rampage against the health care industry. Mainly because it’s the time of year that my health insurance is renewed — and my premium usually goes up, in spite of the fact that we rarely use our health insurance. (This year, I was lucky [...]

Alzheimer’s, Aging and the Brain


Alzheimer’s is a disease of the very old: While only 5% of people between 65 and 74 have the disease, nearly half of those who are over 85 have it.

So we were interested in a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine that looked at Alzheimer’s, aging and the brain.

Researchers in [...]

FDA Top Dogs: Product Approvals Shouldn’t Be Litmus Test


If you’ve even remotely paid attention to the FDA in recent years, you’ll have noticed that the FDA gets a lot more criticism than praise. The agency has been accused of approving too few new products and of approving products too hastily, of taking too many cues from industry while at the same time acting [...]

What Do You Think of Work Limits for Medical Residents?


The controversy over work limits for medical residents rolls on. An editorial in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine argues that studies haven’t clearly shown whether the caps imposed in 2003 have improved outcomes for patients.

Residents are newly minted med-school grads doing their intensive clinical training. Even under the caps, residents are allowed to [...]

Face Transplants: Further Reading


Cleveland Clinic via Associated Press
Connie Culp, shown before and after her surgery.

Connie Culp, the first U.S. patient to get a face transplant, appeared in public for the first time today. As the result of a gunshot wound, she had no nose and no palate, and could not breathe on her own or eat solid food. [...]

Abraham Verghese on the KevinMD Live Q&A: Monday, May 4th at 10:30pm Eastern


Abraham Verghese will be answering your questions at my next live Q&A.

Dr. Verghese, a Professor for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, is one of the most accomplished and admired physician educators today. His pieces have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, [...]

Free From Uncle Sam: VA Software for Hospital EHR Systems


Midland Memorial Hospital
A doctor uses the IT system at Midland Memorial.

As the New England Journal of Medicine reported in a study last month, only 1.5% of U.S. hospitals have adopted “comprehensive” electronic health records throughout their facilities and another 7.6% have basic systems installed in at least some portion of their operations. A key stumbling [...]

Op-ed: Not all screening tests lead to early, better treatment


The following op-ed was published on April 23rd, 2009 in the USA Today.

As a primary care doctor, it’s heartening to hear President Obama call for “the largest investment ever in preventive care.” That means more people, for one, will be undergoing tests to screen for various forms of cancer. But this might be one of [...]

Unrestricted Low-Carb Diet Wins Hands Down


The New England Journal of Medicine has just come out with perhaps the most definitive comparison of low-fat, Mediterranean and low-carb diets ever, and the findings dovetail very nicely with what we’ve been discussing here recently about the merits of the Primal Blueprint. I think it also…

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