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commonsensemd.blogspot.com

Common Sense Family Doctor: Should women start having mammograms before age 50?

http://commonsensemd.blogspot.com/2015/04/should-women-start-having-mammograms.html

Common Sense Family Doctor. Common sense thoughts on health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Washington, DC. Wednesday, April 22, 2015. Should women start having mammograms before age 50? The best answer to this question, I tell both my patients and loved ones, is: it depends on you. As the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force affirmed this week in its updated draft recommendations. And as two of my mentors in preventive medicine observed. Some women might reasonably decide to say no:.

commonsensemd.blogspot.com

Common Sense Family Doctor: Everything but the kitchen sink in public health

http://commonsensemd.blogspot.com/2015/05/everything-but-kitchen-sink-in-public.html

Common Sense Family Doctor. Common sense thoughts on health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Washington, DC. Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Everything but the kitchen sink in public health. Initiative is an example of this kind of thinking.) Although I am skeptical that big data-driven genetic sequencing. In 2013. Counseling and cessation medications played a role, but so did raising tobacco taxes; restricting advertisements; requiring warning labels; and banning smoking in airplanes, restaur...

commonsensemd.blogspot.com

Common Sense Family Doctor: Too much medical care: do we know it when we see it?

http://commonsensemd.blogspot.com/2015/04/too-much-medical-care-do-we-know-it.html

Common Sense Family Doctor. Common sense thoughts on health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Washington, DC. Thursday, April 30, 2015. Too much medical care: do we know it when we see it? Although my work for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force was in the future, I already understood the lack of evidence to support performing this test in a young adult at low risk. Not wanting to be a difficult patient, though, I went along with it. In JAMA Internal Medicine. Explained, this is much ...

commonsensemd.blogspot.com

Common Sense Family Doctor: Partnering with community health workers for better primary care

http://commonsensemd.blogspot.com/2011/05/partnering-with-community-health.html

Common Sense Family Doctor. Common sense thoughts on health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Washington, DC. Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Partnering with community health workers for better primary care. Largely remains centered around the physician and his or her office practice. But when patients with multiple uncontrolled chronic medical conditions need intensive primary care. In the March issue of the journal Health Affairs. Describes a pilot program in Vermont where patient-centered medica...

commonsensemd.blogspot.com

Common Sense Family Doctor: PSA screening by the numbers: no benefits, many harms

http://commonsensemd.blogspot.com/2015/05/psa-screening-by-numbers-no-benefits.html

Common Sense Family Doctor. Common sense thoughts on health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Washington, DC. Monday, May 11, 2015. PSA screening by the numbers: no benefits, many harms. Previous studies found that two-thirds of men who receive prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer didn't have shared decision making. These findings, along with a Cochrane review. And another systematic review. Lists of tests and procedures that patients and physicians should question.

commonsensemd.blogspot.com

Common Sense Family Doctor: August 2014

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Common Sense Family Doctor. Common sense thoughts on health and conservative medicine from a family doctor in Washington, DC. Thursday, August 28, 2014. In US and U.K., statin debate goes on. As previewed in a previous blog post. The August 15th issue of American Family Physician. Features a concise summary. For assessing of 10-year and lifetime risk for ASCVD. An accompanying POEM. Dr Patrick McBride and colleagues emphasize that the recommendations are largely based on high-quality evidence from random...

xpostfactoid.blogspot.com

"Government-run healthcare," Singapore style | xpostfactoid

http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.com/2013/07/government-run-healthcare-singapore.html

Better late than never. Saturday, July 13, 2013. Government-run healthcare," Singapore style. In his long rhetorical war against the Affordable Care Act, Avik Roy likes to hold up Singapore's healthcare system. As a shining counter-example. He quite rightly points out that Singapore spends far less on healthcare than the U.S. (4% of GDP vs. 18% for the U.S.), and with better outcomes. How do they do it? Roy - while acknowledging one aspect of the government's heavy hand - credits free-market magic:.

xpostfactoid.blogspot.com

Can states "repeal and replace" the ACA? Nicholas Bagley on the scope of the law's "innovation waivers" | xpostfactoid

http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.com/2014/06/can-states-repeal-and-replace-aca.html

Better late than never. Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Can states "repeal and replace" the ACA? Nicholas Bagley on the scope of the law's "innovation waivers". There is a paradox in the power the Affordable Care Act lends to states to devise alternative means to meet the law's goals. On the one hand, the scope of the law's Section 1332 " innovation waivers. On the other hand, the alternatives proposed in waiver applications must provide. I posed the question to Nicholas Bagley, a health law scholar at the Uni...

xpostfactoid.blogspot.com

Pet insurance: permission to spend? | xpostfactoid

http://xpostfactoid.blogspot.com/2015/08/pet-insurance-permission-to-spend.html

Better late than never. Monday, August 10, 2015. Pet insurance: permission to spend? Sarah Kliff has a good article. About pet insurance that poses the right two questions at the outset - courtesy of Jennifer Fitzgerald, co-founder of an excellent online insurance market called PolicyGenius. The first question is the easier one: How much can I afford to spend on my pet? If I got a really expensive bill, maybe something upward of $5,000, would I be able to pay it off myself? As Kliff points out, you want ...