News, Fun and Inspiration
Links for Wickford Family Medicine
Click here to make,change or cancel an appointment!
New patients please call or email before making an appointment online.
Appointments are confirmed by email.
Established patients click HowsYourHealth? to perform a web-based check-up. Use access code HTG800
Click "submit info" button to send your survey to me.
New patients please call or email before making an appointment online.
Appointments are confirmed by email.
Established patients click HowsYourHealth? to perform a web-based check-up. Use access code HTG800
Click "submit info" button to send your survey to me.
Why US Health Care is Obscenely Expensive !
Reliable Medical Information
As my patient's health care consultant it is my obligation to share unbiased and timely medical information. The following web links are reputable:
Evans Health Lab Medical school for patients. My #1 health site!
NHS Choices Britain leads the way in easy access to health data
NNT Quick summaries of evidence-based medicine
Medline Plus Excellent info from National Institutes of Health
Here to Help Worried about mental health or substance abuse? Go here.
Choosing Wisely Lists of tests or interventions to avoid
Health News Review Indepenent reviews of health news
FamilyDoctor.org Comprehensive A-Z resource
Everdayhealth Slick site with practical health suggestions
Lab Tests Online Explains lab tests
Drugs.com What do you want to know about your medication?
Mayo Clinic Patient Education Excellent readable data
Travelers' Health Information from Centers for Disease Control
refseek Comprehensive database of reliable health websites
The Cochrane Reviews Trusted evidence to support informed decisions
Vaccine Information Measles outbreak of 2015 prompts parent re-education
Evans Health Lab Medical school for patients. My #1 health site!
NHS Choices Britain leads the way in easy access to health data
NNT Quick summaries of evidence-based medicine
Medline Plus Excellent info from National Institutes of Health
Here to Help Worried about mental health or substance abuse? Go here.
Choosing Wisely Lists of tests or interventions to avoid
Health News Review Indepenent reviews of health news
FamilyDoctor.org Comprehensive A-Z resource
Everdayhealth Slick site with practical health suggestions
Lab Tests Online Explains lab tests
Drugs.com What do you want to know about your medication?
Mayo Clinic Patient Education Excellent readable data
Travelers' Health Information from Centers for Disease Control
refseek Comprehensive database of reliable health websites
The Cochrane Reviews Trusted evidence to support informed decisions
Vaccine Information Measles outbreak of 2015 prompts parent re-education
_
Vaccinate Your Child!
Beware of Dr. Oz- a TV Wizard
A study shows there is no evidence for most TV medical advice. Patients should be skeptical about claims and recommendations made on mainstream television medical talk shows, according to a Canadian media study published online December 17, 2014 in the British Medical Journal. Believable or somewhat believable evidence supported 33% of recommendations from The Dr. Oz Show, and 53% on The Doctors. In many cases, investigators found that specific details on the magnitude of benefit or harm and the cost and inconvenience of following recommendations were lacking, and evidence supporting them was contradictory or absent. Viewers had little basis for informed decision making. Be wary of TV medical advice.
Medical Tests: The Illusion of Reassurance
4,000 concerned but healthy patients were randomly assigned to have, or not have, tests added to their doctor visit. Then "illness concern" and anxiety of the two groups were compared . The results turn conventional wisdom on its head. Patients who underwent testing reported higher levels of anxiety suggesting that testing for reassurance has the opposite effect.
Statistics explains this paradox. Abnormal results are often right when illness is likely, but in error when disease is unlikely. When there is a low chance of serious illness, abnormalities found are usually mistakes. Such false positives lead to more unneeded tests and procedures.
Patients often request tests. Ordering a test takes little time. Explaining why a test is not needed is challenging and time consuming. Ordering tests to reassure patients, while easy, wastes health care resources and increases patient anxiety.
Choosing Wisely, a physician-led campaign to raise awareness of over-testing, seeks to reduce tests unlikely to improve health.
Statistics explains this paradox. Abnormal results are often right when illness is likely, but in error when disease is unlikely. When there is a low chance of serious illness, abnormalities found are usually mistakes. Such false positives lead to more unneeded tests and procedures.
Patients often request tests. Ordering a test takes little time. Explaining why a test is not needed is challenging and time consuming. Ordering tests to reassure patients, while easy, wastes health care resources and increases patient anxiety.
Choosing Wisely, a physician-led campaign to raise awareness of over-testing, seeks to reduce tests unlikely to improve health.
Medical Advertising? Patient Beware!
The lawyers advertising on TV are obviously looking to get rich. What of medical ads? Advertising by health care professionals was considered unethical until fairly recently. All hospital are engaged in branding- advertising to proclaim institutional excellence. But what of other medical providers who advertise? Most prominent among physicians who advertise are doctors who offer services not covered by insurance- hair replacement, plastic surgery or laser treatment for spider veins. These doctors perform cosmetic procedures which patients are eager to pay premium prices to obtain. Physicians promoting procedures paid for by insurance such as surgery to promote weight loss and elective orthopedic procedures should also be looked at with caution. Some of the retail clinics within pharmacies raise even more alarming concerns. Clinicians are encouraged to stroll through the aisles wearing lab coats and ask shoppers about their health-care needs. They approach customers in the aisles and offer to explain different products and schedule appointments for them in the clinic. What does this advertising really tell you as a health care consumer? Money drives much of American medical care. Like any marketplace, caveat emptor. Patients beware!
Wisdom
"Two wrongs don't make a right, but they make a good excuse."
- Thomas Szasz
- Thomas Szasz