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.
As medical scientists and engineers in the health care arena pursue advances in drugs and technologies, is now the time to think more critically about these new technologies and how to address future implications for say, the ramifications of genetic screening and designer babies?
