Interesting things going on out there, aren't they? Town meeting riots, "death panels," trillion-dollar budgets, "evil businesses." As a clinician, a business owner, and a health care consumer (I broke my foot skydiving a few weeks ago), I've got to tell you: I am OK with the system as it is . . . almost.
The outbreak of a novel H1N1 virus in the spring was a colossal pandemic preparedness drill for a future virus or for a stronger resurgence of the strain this fall.
Technological advances in medicine have the capability of helping health care providers to prolong life for patients faced with a terminal illness or injury.
Most physicians reported in a national survey that they would discuss end-of-life options with a terminally ill patient only when there were no more treatments to offer that patient not when the patient was still feeling well, according to a study published online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, in January.
