Second Opinion

Super-Human Doctors

It is in our best interest if doctors take medicine to give them super-human abilities?

A Patch Work That Works

In our mess of a healthcare system, there are some shining examples of a community pulling together for a person...

Sexual Health of Seniors

Perhaps no topic is more actively avoided in discussions between doctors and older people than sexual health...

Depression at the End of Life

Is depression a natural and necessary stage we pass through at the end of life or is it a medical condition that needs treatment?

Letting Go at the End of Life

Why is that we have such a tough time letting go when a person has a terminal illness?

Pressures to Breast Feed

Why are American rates of breast feeding so low?

Is denial always harmful?

We all engage in denial to some extent, but can denial cause medical problems?

How Does the Bill Get That Big?

Reading a hospital bill is like trying to understand a foreign language but look carefully because more likely than not there will be errors...

More on Rationing Healthcare

Several letters suggested there were other ways to ration healthcare and many suggested rationing was, well, anti-American.

Rationing Healthcare

Is it possible that in the US we ration healthcare?

End-of-Life Discussions are NOT Just for Cancer Patients

While doctors can do a lot better with regard to talking to people with cancer about end-of-life issues, they are still in the dark ages when it comes to talking to people with other disease who have a poor prognosis...

Why Do New Medicines Work Better Than Older Ones?

There are several explanations for why new medicine appear to work better than older medicines...

Whose Side Is the FDA on?

There are several pain relievers that contain propoxyphene, a substance that is dangerous and ineffective. Why are these still on the market?

Fluorescent Bulbs

While fluorescent bulbs use a fraction of the energy required for traditional light bulbs, they pose a potential danger if broken and an even greater danger if improperly discarded...

AIDS in Rural India, Part III

The impact of village health workers can be enormous but there are still some barriers to what they can accomplish...

AIDS in Rural India, Part II

While AIDS medicines would life-saving, the need in rural India are for far more than just medicines...

AIDS in Rural India

After generations of fighting malaria and dysentery rural India is not trying to contend with AIDS...

Pre-operative Testing: For Whose Benefit?

We all want our surgery to go as smoothly as possible, but at what point is it not in our best interest to have lots of preoperative tests ordered?

Screening for Dementia

  While dementia is a common illness, and one that causes great concern, there are currently no tests to detect the disease early and this may be a good thing...

Humor to educate about drug advertising

Weight Loss and Drugs

No matter how much we wish it were different, there is still no easy  road to weight loss...

Banning Direct-to-Consumer Advertising in Canada

Why is it that Canada prohibits drug companies from advertising products directly to the public?

The Effect of Race on Healthcare

Two men with the same disease. Will their treatment differ?

Traditional Medicine

Patient's Right to Be Informed about Trainees

When we go to a teaching hospital we assume the care may be better. But we often aren't given a choice about who should be involved in caring for us...

Anti-Depressant Medications May Be Less Effective Than We Think

A large, high-quality study suggests that newer antidepressants may be far less effective than we have been told by their manufacturers...

Why Is Some Alternative Medicine Still Alterative?

Despite significant research showing the benefits of some complementary and alternative treatments such as acupuncture, they are still considered outside the mainstream...

Disability Parking

When People Don't Follow the Doctor's Advice

Doctors have a hard time when people don't follow their advice.  But behavior change isn't easy for anyone -- not even doctors.

Substance Abuse and Detection

Despite substance abuse being a major medical and public problem, only twelve out of 125 medical schools surveyed, offer a required course in substance abuse detection and treatment...