For over a decade now, researchers have documented the effects of language barriers on health care. Patients who speak English poorly or not at all face longer hospital stays, an increased risk of misdiagnoses and medical errors, and decreased access to acute and preventive care services, often regardless of socioeconomic or insurance status. [...]
[Continue Reading "Disappearing Act: Doctor-Patient Conversations"]
The debate over if fructose, glucose, or sucrose have different effects on human health from one another is long and ongoing. However, a recent study has shines new light on the case against fructose: [...]
How much do you think it costs for an ambulance ride? Here is a hint: the two EMTs manning the ambulance have wages lower than most taxi drivers. Did you guess $700? Well, with a $650 base rate and an extra $15 per mile, $700 is roughly the cost for a short ride to the ER. [...]
This has been around for a while, but Sick Around The World, a FRONTLINE report with T.R. Reid., really caught my attention the other day. Essentially, it exposed the framework for the health care systems of five capitalist democracies: the UK, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, and Switzerland.
Each country has significant differences in how they approach providing [...]
A third of all deliveries done in the United States are done by C-section. With an infant mortality rate of 6.3 deaths per 1000 live births, trailing behind places like the Czech Republic (3.83 deaths per 1000) and Singapore (2.30 deaths per 1000), what benefit are mothers and newborns in the United States receiving from these procedures? [...]
This TIME article really puts a human face to a social issue. In a system where payers and providers battle over who pays the bill, what are doctors to do when they get the short end of the stick? Cost shifting from payers to providers harms patients, many of whom desperately need care. Doctors get stuck in a horrible position; they have to decide either to protect their livelihood or to treat the patient for free. [...]
A recent article in Reuters, “Overexposed: Imaging tests boost U.S. radiation dose“, pointed out that Americans are being exposed to increasingly high levels of radiation as a result of diagnostic testing. The author seemed to mostly point fingers at physicians for overusing scans. [...]