Fast food outlets could provide statin drugs free of charge so that customers can neutralize the heart disease dangers of fatty food, researchers at Imperial College London suggest in a new study published this week.
Statins reduce the amount of unhealthy “LDL” cholesterol in the blood. A wealth of trial data has proven them to be highly effective at lowering a person’s heart attack risk.
In a paper published in the Sunday 15 August issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, Dr. Darrel Francis and colleagues calculate …

A new report from the American Medical Association (AMA) paints a bleak picture of physicians’ experiences with medical liability claims and bolsters the case for national and state level reform. A key finding from the report is that, among physicians surveyed by the AMA, there was an average of 95 medical liability claims filed for every 100 physicians, almost one per physician.
The report has data not available anywhere else, including information on medical liability claims’ impact by age, gender and practice arrangement for physicians. Highlights in the report include:

Nearly 61 …

It’s official.  Physicians love the iPhone.  In fact, most smartphone-using-docs use the iPhone as their main mobile communication device.  So says a study published by The Spyglass Consulting Group, a healthcare and technology market research firm.
The study focused on how physicians across the United States are rapidly adopting mobile communications at point of care to improve communications and collaboration, streamline productivity, and enhance patient care and safety.  The purpose of the study was to identify the needs and requirements for mobile communications at point of care through discussions about: Existing workflow inefficiencies in communicating with …

CSC today announced the CSC Meaningful Use Community, the first open and interactive online community for healthcare providers seeking to achieve meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR). The community will provide an open forum for healthcare professionals to learn, connect and share guidance with others who have successfully implemented meaningful use of EHRs. Members also have access to CSC experts and other industry leaders for advice and information about the federal government’s criteria and insights on how to implement meaningful use of EHRs in a timely manner.
Click here to see …

In an increasingly electronic and accessible medical world, physicians and patients have more and more channels of communication available to them.  But when it comes to their own records — particularly doctors’ notes — very few patients take the opportunity to read them even though they have the legal right to do so.
Researchers believe that sharing physicians’ notes with patients “could improve understanding of their health, foster productive communication, stimulate …

The government released new rules on Tuesday that further define “meaningful use” of electronic medical records for physicians and hospitals.  Earlier this year, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) authorized incentive payments to physicians for the use of EHRs including $44,000 through Medicare and $63,750 through Medicaid.  But achieving meaningful use was confusing to stakeholders.  Until now.
The original proposal was criticized as too restrictive as physicians were required to meet every one of 25 objectives in order to receive their incentive payment.  Under …

Medical publisher Elsevier and video game developer Legacy Interactive have just announced the release of Top Doc, an iPhone app that features medical content and quizzes designed to let medical students, residents and junior faculty practice and improve their visual diagnosis skills.
“Top Doc was built upon a foundation of providing challenging, real-world questions illustrated by high quality medical images,” said Amber Tully, M.D., Assistant Professor of Family Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and the product’s co-author. “With this platform, users are able to experience and react to …

As physicians, you are well aware of the problems associated with medical school debt.  Here are some numbers to ponder: Eighty-seven percent of medical students graduating in 2008 carried debt, with the median debt of students at public schools being $145,000 and $180,000 at private schools. Twenty-five percent of students had a debt of $200,000 or greater.
From 2001–2006, debt of students attending a public school had increased at the rate of 6.9% per year and 5.9% per year at private school. From 2004–2007, the interest rate …

By Christopher Weaver
Kaiser Health News
When Bill Rose broke his leg in a motorcycle accident, he knew he’d end up paying for surgery himself– he was temporarily uninsured. So he asked the hospital for an estimate and negotiated a 30 percent discount, bringing the price down to $8,260 in exchange for paying up front.
But a month after the operation, the hospital told Rose, an insurance salesman from Defiance, Ohio, that the price had soared: He owed $10,000 more. One reason for the bigger bill was his surgeon’s decision to use a …

A report released Thursday by the state Department of Health shows that Pennsylvania has reduced the number of healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs, reported by hospitals.  From 2008 to 2009, there was a 12.5 percent decrease in HAIs, which are defined as infections that patients acquired while in a healthcare setting and were not present when they were admitted for care.
“Curbing – and ultimately eliminating – healthcare-associated infections is an urgent priority for two reasons: doing so prevents unnecessary illnesses and deaths, and it also helps to help eliminate the avoidable costs of treating these infections,” said …