For those of you who have been following this blog for some time, you know how frustrated I am about the lack of understanding and support in the medical community for us diabetics who are physically active. No offense, but I am not talking about people who regularly walk to stay fit. Nothing wrong with […]
With all the bluster over government shut downs, the battle over ACA took a back seat for a while according to Kaiser Health News. The shrillness of the debate overlooks the the truly terrible performance of the ACA website and the actual implementation of health insurance on the state exchanges.
I don’t know about you but I often check out yelp!, Google Local and other on-line reviewers when I am looking for new tires, a restaurant in an area I don’t know well, or a new plumber. Lately, though, with so many companies trying to game the system it calls into question how trustworthy these […]
There has been a lot of talk recently about whether robotic surgery is being oversold as a money maker for hospitals and as a panacea for patients. Having just had a robotic procedure done, my sense is that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In my case, I think the robotic approach was definitely […]
Here is a super cool tool for assessing the risks of various surgeries. It is being used by both surgeons and patients. I used it for my recent surgery and both my surgeon and I agree it was quite accurate. A recent peer reviewed study confirms its efficacy. Check it out!
I have been there: frustrated and confused over how to get insurance with a pre-existing condition. In my case the condition is Type I diabetes. As the current pool of non-insured adults reviews its options under the Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare, they are still confused and therefore hesitant to get in line […]
Okay, so the NFL is not going to help. In a just published Kaiser Family Foundation poll, over two-thirds of the uninsured feel that having health insurance is very important to them personally. So why aren't they covered right now? Two reasons: fear of the cost and lack of information on what exactly it is offered […]
For decades, the diabetic community has been tantalized by medical technology promising a cure for Type I diabetes. While recent research with rats shows provise for an easier transplant of the islets of Langerhans inside the pancreas to restart insulin production bythe body, an actual cure is still far away. In the meantime, J&J's Animas […]
For those of you who really follow healthcare reform in a substantive way, the recently released Oregon Medicaid Study is a milestone. It's the first study of its kind that looks at a randomized group of Medicaid recipients vs. non-recipients. What they found out, not surprisingly, is that the data is complex and not easy […]
Dr. Eric Topol has written an extraordinarily interesting book called The Creative Destruction of Medicine. As part of breaking down and remaking the profession, he uses cell phone technology to do medical imaging, and to allow patients to monitor their own blood sugar levels, vital signs, etc. What I find striking about this approach is […]