Over the last decade, hospitals across the U.S. have been working hard to raise satisfaction scores, improve patient safety, lower the number of readmissions and, of course, limit their medical malpractice exposure. While these are rather lofty goals, many have actually been able to achieve them thanks to the deployment of a new patient care […]
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a student in elementary school or graduate school, summer is considered sacrosanct, a time to take a much-needed break from the daily grind and explore nonacademic pursuits. Indeed, most students still have over a month before they have to head back to the classroom. Interestingly enough, there is at least […]
Last time, we started delving into a fascinating — yet highly alarming — study undertaken by a group of researchers from the University of Illinois, Rush University Medical Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which uncovered an alarming number of complications and technical difficulties associated with robotic surgery. In today’s post, we’ll continue our […]
In last week’s posts discussing hernias and some of the potential dangers associated with laparoscopic surgery, one of the primary treatments for hernias, we briefly touched on the topic of robotic surgery. Specifically, we mentioned how use of this advanced equipment for the treatment of hernias was still relatively limited due to a variety of […]
In our previous post, we discussed how millions of Americans develop a serious medical condition known as a hernia every year. To recap, the condition — characterized by a prominent and painful bulge in the abdomen — is caused by the deterioration of the muscle in the abdominal wall, which creates a space through which […]
While we would like to think otherwise, the reality is most of us have been in complete denial about our health at one point or another. For instance, maybe you downplayed your cold symptoms to your manager in order to finish a big project or intentionally ignored your stomach pains in order to make it […]
It’s a question most people have grappled with at one point or another during the course of their professional career: Am I too sick to go to work today? The unfortunate reality is even though the answer to this question was probably a resounding yes, many people nevertheless made the choice to drag themselves into […]
Last time, we discussed how past studies have found the work-hour restrictions for medical residents, introduced by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education back in 2011 as a means of reducing potential fatigue-related medical errors, had little impact on outcomes among general surgical patients. We also touched on how a recently published study by […]
While long hours have traditionally been viewed as one of the rites of passage for physicians-in-training, experts long wondered whether this was necessary or even dangerous, perhaps contributing to a greater number of fatigue-related medical mistakes. Interestingly enough, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the body responsible for setting the various standards governing […]
Last time, we started discussing how consumers face something of an uphill battle when it comes to attempting to learn as much information as possible about physicians, particularly information that may cast them in an unfavorable light, or call their abilities or judgment into question. Specifically, we discussed how not only are databases run by […]
