The Orthopedic Posterous

As a profession, we are paying attention to the details of medical errors — to ambiguous chart abbreviations, to vaccination practices and hand-washing and many other important, or at least quantifiable, matters.

But as we bustle from one well-documented chart to the next, no one is counting whether we are still paying attention to the human beings. No one is counting whether we admit that the best source of information, the best protection from medical error, the best opportunity to make a difference — that all of these things have been here all along

I fear that this trend will only further the distance between the physician and the patient. Is this what we have to look forward to as government intervention increases and the credentialing organizations such as the JCAHO focus further on mindless minutia.

Physicians need to maintain focus and remember that the patients have the problem , they have the answers.... and we need to listen to them, focus on them and prompt them with the right questions.

Technology has influenced the procedures and tests we can offer you... but adoption of technologies to improve the interaction between a patient and physician has lagged horribly. This video gives a great sneak peak at what the future could look like.

Verizon to double its cancellation fees

With a whole new line of smart phones coming onto the market, Verizon Wireless said that starting November 15 it is doubling to $350 the penalty fees for subscribers who leave their contracts early.

Need to have confidence in your offerings. This will turn off a ton of folks from trying new platforms/devices such as the Droid.

Six Exercises To Ski Stronger

Ski season is fast approaching. And unfortunately for many patients that will mean a possible ACL reconstruction or tibia fracture repair.

The stronger you are, the better prepared you are, the lower the risk of injury.

Prepare, be strong, be smart, and ski within your abilities--- and I hope you have a wonderful season full of deep powder. If u have any questions regarding an injury... just let me know.

www.howardluksmd.com

Nobody wants to spend a lot of time and energy -- and taxpayer money -- and end up where they started. But that's what could happen with one of the principal elements of health reform, the "exchange" or "gateway."

Legislators are designing this new insurance marketplace to protect consumers from many of the pitfalls and inequities in the current system. But even as they focus on the details of how the marketplace will work, senators have indicated that they would allow insurers to continue operating outside it, much as the health-insurance lobby has sought.

This is an great example of the kind of DC shenanigans that cause so much animosity, doubt, and skepticism amongst consumers that the current reform package will have its intended (or implied) impact.

Americans are deeply concerned about the relentless rise in health care costs and health insurance premiums. They need to know if reform will help solve the problem. The answer is that no one has an easy fix for rising medical costs. The fundamental fix — reshaping how care is delivered and how doctors are paid in a wasteful, dysfunctional system — is likely to be achieved only through trial and error and incremental gains.

Nice editorial on #hcreform from the NY Times. This is a take-off on the "...you have to start somewhere theory".

It will be an enormous effort to truly reform this extremely dysfunctional system... the current bill does little to address the fundamental needs or issues of cost, and quality... but perhaps it is a *good* place to start???

While data on physician-patient e-mail patterns are limited, patients appear eager to e-mail their doctors. Physicians are more reluctant. According to Cyber Dialogue, one of the leading researchers of Internet business trends, 48% of people surveyed in 1999 wanted to communicate with their physicians by e-mail. Perhaps more telling, one-third of those surveyed felt strongly enough about e-mail to consider changing physicians to be able to use it.

1999 folks!! 50% of patients wanted the ability to email their physician and considered changing physicians who would engage them. 1999 !!!

It's 10 years later and not much has changed...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter  makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Whether you agree with the current HC reform bill or not, don't you find this a little disturbing?

Hooray! We finally have the Motorola Droid in our hands. Though it's much too early to offer a full critique, we can report that Verizon's first Google Android device is a looker. The display is gorgeous, Android 2.0 looks spiffy, and the handset appears to be lightning fast. Though we'll refrain from using the dreaded "iPhone killer" expression, comparisons between the two devices are obvious, particularly in light of Verizon's snarky ad campaign.

I've been a blackberry fan forever... although the trackball issues with their latest phone on VZW is horribly annoying. I love the iPhone and carry one next to my blackberry (what you don't have two phones?) for the incredible apps which certainly streamline my daily activities.

Hopefully the developers community will step up and build for the Droid what they have built for the iPhone with regards to health care apps...