Archive for the 'Current Affairs' Category

That’s a much better deal than I got…

Military sweetens the deal to entice medical students

A beefed-up scholarship program now offers a $20,000 signing bonus as well as full tuition and an increased monthly stipend.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. July 7, 2008.

---

Katie Doyle could have borrowed $200,000 to get through medical school. Instead, when she enters Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., this fall, she won’t borrow a dime.

Doyle accepted a military scholarship that will pay her tuition, books and other school fees. A monthly stipend will cover living expenses. The scholarship, called the Health Professions Scholarship Program, or HPSP, also comes with a new $20,000 signing bonus.
…
…, Congress authorized the three branches to bolster their recruitment packages, resulting in the $20,000 bonus, along with a $300 hike in the scholarship’s monthly stipend, which is now $1,900. The money comes from military appropriations earmarked for medical corps recruitment. In 2007, the Air Force recruited 211 medical school students; the Army, 242; and the Navy, which also recruits for the Marines, 181.

That’s got to be a BIG shortfall for the Navy.  My Intern class in San Diego had over 100, and that was only one of two big NAVHOPS’s, with several smaller facilities.  Thus, the enticements.

A reminder: the Navy HPSP Wki

Popularity: 10% [?]

Health Blog : Tim Russert: One of a Kind; One of 300,000

Prediman K. Shah, director of cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, says it was a classic episode, the way 80% of cases of sudden cardiac arrest occur. He wasn’t impressed with the report of Russert’s recent successful treadmill test. Even if a test is normal, “You can still have plaque and be at risk,” he tells us. It wasn’t clear whether Russert had been taking a cholesterol-lowering statin, but even if his LDL or bad cholesterol was under control, that wouldn’t assure protection against a heart attack.

“Statins do stabilize plaque (and thus reduce chances of rupture), but they haven’t eliminated every heart attack or sudden death,” Shah says. “We have to look for other means.”

Bring on the coronary CT’s please.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Demography is destiny:

Japan Steadily Becoming a Land Of Few Children - washingtonpost.com
…
The number of children has declined for 27 consecutive years, a government report said over the weekend. Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908.

The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling for 34 straight years and is the lowest among 31 major countries, according to the report. In the United States, children account for about 20 percent of the population.

European and Japanese non-immigrant populations have fallen well below replacement, and that means they’ll be substantially different in 20-30 years.

Popularity: 26% [?]

It is a SIX part series, and the first two installments are so bad it’s worse than a car wreck: you know a car wreck eventually ends.

At a certain point it’s just piling on. There are deficiencies highlighted herein that any hospital would be guilty of, and it’s painful to read. Yet it has to be read.

Isn’t this the press King-Drew got before the curtain fell?

For the record, it’s not my hospital system (but I feel a little, just a little, of their pain).

Popularity: 17% [?]

Dr. Val is showing the power of blogs (well, the power of professionally done blogs) by getting a one on one interview with the Surgeon General.  Read her post for the interview, but here’s the part that I enjoyed the most:

(Dr. Carmona):….The American public wants the best of everything, they want it yesterday, and they don’t want to pay for it. That pretty much characterizes the problem that we have. We see health as a right, we want somebody to give us a card, and if we want to smoke, that’s our right too. There’s this attitude that if we want to drink excessively, that’s our right, and if we want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, that’s our right (”you can’t tell us what to do”). However, when I crash my motorcycle and I have a head injury and I’m disabled for life, I also expect society to pay for that.

Heh.  I believe I’ve said something like that myself.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Medical News: Medical Community Mobilizes in Shadows of California Wildfires - in Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine from MedPage Today

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 25 — Despite the pervasive clouds of wind-blown smoke that enveloped southern California and displaced an estimated million persons, the emergency departments here did not face an exceptional strain.At the University of California San Diego Medical Center, elective operations and procedures were postponed. UC San Diego physicians were dispatched to triage duty at Qualcomm Stadium, where thousands of persons congregated after mandatory evacuations.

“So far we are only seeing very mild respiratory issues, some coughing or shortness of breath, but nothing serious,” said a spokesperson.

That’s good news.

Popularity: 24% [?]

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) — A grand jury Tuesday declined to indict Dr. Anna Pou, the surgeon accused of killing four seriously ill patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

…

The Orleans Parish grand jury had been investigating the charges since March.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Morales, who conducted the grand jury hearings, had asked the grand jurors to return one charge of second-degree murder and nine of murder conspiracy.

The grand jurors sat calmly while the judge read the possible charges and each response of “no true bill.”

Good.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Wife, 2 daughters dead after doctor’s family held hostage - CNN.com
CHESHIRE, Connecticut (AP) — At least two men broke into a prominent doctor’s home early Monday, kidnapped a female family member to withdraw money from a bank and then killed his wife and their two daughters, police said.

Utterly horrible.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Before you get too anxious, I’m pretty sure this is three years old, and got sexed up a bit due to the recent terror strikes in Great Britain by physicians.

A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang.

They were discovered at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London heard.

One message read: “We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America.

“The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy.” This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

The message discussed targets at the base, adding: “These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units.”

It also referred to using six Chevrolet GT vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.

Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

However, sources said it was “definitely spooky” that the use of doctors for terrorist purposes was being discussed in jihadi terrorist circles up to three years ago.

So, this was in an internet chat room run by would-be jihadists who would actually rather steal credit card numbers and defraud banks.  While it bears investigation, I’m not going to start sweating just yet.

Thanks to reader ‘Medic’ for the tip!

Popularity: 22% [?]

Unconscionable.

Two doctors held over bomb attacks | the Daily Mail
Two doctors were among five people being held as terror suspects last night after the bomb plots in London and Glasgow.

One was one of two men who tried to drive a blazing Jeep packed with petrol, gas canisters and nails into Glasgow Airport on Saturday.

Read the article, see the photos. How would a physician, one sworn to defend and protect life, come to this? I don’t want to know.

From my cursory glance, the surviving individual (from all accounts not worthy of being addressed as a physician) has third degree burns on at least 70% of the body. (In one picture he’s wearing clothing that covers the back of the torso, so it’s possibly less or un-burned). Still horribly disfiguring injuries, and hard to survive.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Bizarre event in a world already on edge from terrorist attempts:

More suspects held in UK terror attacks - CNN.com
LONDON, England (CNN) — Two people were arrested in Cheshire, England, in connection with terrorist incidents in England and Scotland, bringing the total number of people in custody to four, Scotland Yard said early Sunday.

On Saturday, a sport utility vehicle was driven into an entrance at Scotland’s Glasgow International Airport and burst into flames. On Friday, two explosives-laden cars were discovered at two locations in London.
…
Two men were immediately arrested at the airport. One was hospitalized with severe burns; early reports that he had died were erroneous.

A third suspect is believed to have died in the Jeep Cherokee that crashed at the airport terminal’s main entrance about 3:15 p.m. (10:15 a.m. ET). …

That ’s bad, but not the part that has me worried. It’s this bit:

William Rae, chief constable of the Strathclyde Police, said part of the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Glasgow was evacuated after a suspicious device was found on the injured suspect. The device was safely taken away and is being examined, Rae said.

That’s not something I’ve ever trained for. I (and you, if you’re in this business) need to at least consider what we’re going to do when and if this happens.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Congress hears from those who prepared last June’s IOM report on the impending ED disaster:

CQ HEALTHBEAT NEWS
June 22, 2007 – 7:24 p.m.

Emergency Rooms Labeled ‘Biggest Crisis in American Health Care’

By Mary Agnes Carey, CQ HealthBeat Associate Editor

Physicians told a House hearing Friday that the nation’s emergency medical care departments are overwhelmed, understaffed, underfunded and unready to take on the type of patient surge that could come with a major natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Despite numerous reports highlighting conditions such as patients being boarded in ER departments waiting for rooms elsewhere in the hospital or ambulances diverted to other facilities — creating treatment delays that have led to patients’ deaths — federal agencies charged with overseeing the nation’s emergency health care system have done little to ease the burden, witnesses told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“While the demands on emergency and trauma care have grown dramatically, the capacity to handle such demands has not kept pace,” said C. William Schwab, who heads the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s Trauma and Surgical Division. Schwab, who helped compile the Institute of Medicine’s report released last June detailing key problems with ER departments and recommendations to fix them, noted that there has been little response from Washington.

Read the whole article to get the flavor. The good news? At least one congressman is ticked at HHS for not acting strongly enough:

Committee member

Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., who chaired the hearing, said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “appears to be ignoring the mounting emergency care crisis” despite the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for biodefense and pandemic preparedness. Witnesses said the funding had not relieved any of the burdens in their emergency care departments, and Cummings said HHS has “not made a serious effort to identify the scope of the problem and which communities are most affected.” Cummings was clearly irritated that Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, did not accept the committee’s June 14 invitation to testify at the hearing. Of the 115 million emergency room visits in 2005, more than 40 percent were covered by CMS programs such as Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Read the rest for the denoument (Warning: mentions Rep. Henry Waxman). So, Congress is awakening to the idea that the ED’s are being over-run. Most likely that’s good news.

Popularity: 33% [?]

I buy a Prius, and what happens? Reality: Hybrid Cars’ Fantasy Mileage Ratings Drive Into the Sunset -

Good news: I’m not a horribly inefficient driver; bad news, 48/45/46 aren’t even close to what’s on my window sticker. The EPA decided to test more like people drive (speeding, etc), but with the 2008 model year.

Oh, and tank #2: 44 MPG by the calculator, 46.8 by the car computer. Hmmm.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Six Resentenced to Death in Libyan AIDS Case - washingtonpost.com

Six foreign health workers were condemned to death by a Libyan court Tuesday on charges they deliberately infected more than 400 children with the HIV virus, in a lengthy case that has set back Libya’s attempts to repair relations with the United States and Europe. The sentence drew immediate strong condemnation from Washington, European capitals and medical groups, which said the real culprit appeared to be poor hygiene and medical services in the hospital where the children were infected.

In case you haven’t been following this:

Independent medical studies have shown that the infections, which prosecutors allege occurred in the late 1990s at a hospital in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi, predated the 1998 arrival of the six workers at the hospital by at least several years.

Geez.

Popularity: 12% [?]

DALLAS (AP) A group headed by the Dallas Mavericks team physician said Wednesday it plans to raise $1 million for at least one automated external defibrillator in every Texas public high school after a recent mandate requiring the device.

The donations would help solve how some cash-strapped school districts will afford the life-saving heart stimulator, also known as AED, which costs about $1,200.

The University Interscholastic League voted last week to require that all 1,300 public high schools have at least one AED on campus but did not address how schools would pay for them.

The Texas Sports Medicine Foundation has already raised about half its goal and will give priority to rural school districts with smaller budgets, said Dr. T.O. Souryal, the group’s founder.

“We’re the safety net,” said Souryal.

Putting AEDs on high school campuses vaulted to the forefront of the UIL’s agenda after a recent rash of students who collapsed with suspected heart trouble, including three teenage football players who died in a 10-day span in Houston.

At least 600 high schools in Texas already have the devices in place, and most large school districts own several for their many campuses.

Niice.

Popularity: 12% [?]