A JAMA study shows how our diets have changed since 2000. The big winners?
Nuts
Whole grains
Whole fruits
The big losers?
Sugar sweetened beverages
Fruit juice
White potatoes
Maybe there’s hope for us after all?
Shutterstock American physicians deserve to be paid well for their work. As a physician, myself, I know what it takes to become a doctor in the U.S. Four years of late nights in the college library in hopes of achieving a GPA commensurate with medical school admission; then four years of medical school, which makes…
I know, I know: I usually write about health and healthcare; why should anyone care about my opinion on whether Larry Summers should be Federal Reserve Chair? As it turns out, my work on doctor/patient communication has given me insight into the danger of judging job candidates—be they physicians or Federal Reserve chairs—based purely on…
Here is a fine story in the Los Angeles Times written by Lisa Zamosky about the importance of talking with your doctor about your out of pocket medical costs. Despite high medical costs topping Americans’ list of financial concerns, many of us have a hard time telling our doctors that the care they’re prescribing may…
Sometimes it is hard for hospitals to provide expensive care to poor patients. When a low-income patient needs $20,000 of chemotherapy, a hospital loses money if that patient cannot pay for the medicine, or pays through Medicaid, with its relatively stingy reimbursement. Fortunately, the federal government created a program for hospitals that care for a…
Every once in a while on my blog, I like to highlight great writing. In part, I guess, because my own writing has yet to rise to such a level. Anyways, here’s Robert Ballard in the Smithsonian trying to help readers understand why the topography of the ocean simply can’t be appreciated if you rely…
When Lorie Duff was pregnant with her third child, she did what all good moms are supposed to do. She went to the ObGyn clinic for prenatal care. But she fell behind on the clinic payments. She only made about $25,000 a year managing an auto parts store while her husband stayed home with their…