The Veteran’s Administration is under fire for covering up deaths. Men and women who were eligible for care languished on impossibly long waiting lists and even worse when some died waiting for care their deaths were covered up. This is horrific and everyone wants to know how this tragedy could have happened? Veteran’s hospitals have …
Continue reading “The VA tragedy exposes the dark side of medical metrics”
There is a recent and interesting piece in the Washington Post by an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Craviotto, about the maddening aspect of forced mandates and bureaucratic requirements in medicine that seem to have very little to do with actual medical care and more about hoops through which we must jump that seemingly lead to nowhere. While …
Continue reading “Why this doctor loves electronic medical records”
I just spent a week in Canada. Most days were spent enjoying the glory that is a Manitoba summer on the sandy shores of lake Winnipeg, the kids playing in the water and building sandcastles while the parents chatted. As often happens, when people find out that I’m a doctor, the conversation turns to medicine. …
Continue reading “The one horror story that’s missing when Canadians talk about health care”
Full disclosure. I have 4 board certifications and dutifully do all of the required reading, continuing medical education (CME) and recertification exams to maintain my status (I am board certified in OB/GYN in both the US and Canada as well as board certified in pain medicine by both the American Board of Pain Medicine, ABPM, …
Continue reading “Why I disagree with the AMA over the need for physicians to be board certified”
On Friday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, the Queen of misogyny herself, signed the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act (HB 2800) into law. This law states that: “THIS STATE OR ANY POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE MAY NOT ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH OR MAKE A GRANT TO ANY PERSON THAT PERFORMS NONFEDERALLY QUALIFIED ABORTIONS …
Continue reading “Arizona steps up the war on women using Medicaid as a weapon again Roe”
The patient in the emergency department smelled of advanced cancer. It is the smell of rotting flesh, but even more pungent. You only ever have to smell it once. She had been bleeding irregularly, but chalked it up to “the change.” Peri-menopausal hormonal mayhem is the most common cause of irregular vaginal bleeding, but unfortunately …
Prenatal testing during pregnancy is offered with the goal of identifying medical conditions that affect a fetus. Some of these medical conditions can be treated, other times knowing about the diagnosis in advance will affect how or even when the delivery occurs, and sometimes a condition is identified that leads a woman to choose an …
Continue reading “9 states have legalized malpractice against women. Arizona hopes to be the 10th.”
In the wake of the discussion about contraception and whether insurers should have the right to deny coverage based on religious or moral beliefs many newspapers and bloggers have jumped on the cost of generic birth control pills at Target and Wal-Mart: $9 a pack. Someone even posted, in reference to Sandra Fluke at Georgetown, …
Continue reading “Birth control pills may be $9 a pack at Target, but that’s not the point”
She knew she was supposed to be careful about getting pregnant, although truthfully she didn’t think it could happen because of her blood pressure and kidney problems. The nurses at the county clinic started her on the pill, but her blood pressure went all crazy. They asked her to come back on a Wednesday night …
Continue reading “A dispatch from Texas, the front line of the war against women”
If there’s a whiff of a story about vaccine safety or controversy, expect the major media outlets to be on it like buzzards on carrion. Michele Bachmann spouts anti-vaccine crap and it’s a headline. Everywhere. Rick Perry back peddles over his HPV vaccine policy in Texas and it’s discussed for days. The war cry of …
Continue reading “The mainstream media perpetuates HPV vaccine mythology”
Dr. Jen Gunter 