RedScrubs Weekly Wrap-up: 1-16-2009
One thing I am happy for this week is that we are past the election banter and the arguing over who should be President. Now we can focus on how our new President will deal with the healthcare crises that we are in and the current pressing issues within that arena.
Also refreshing - for now - the blogs are back to talking about patients and healthcare needs and problems, which is a refreshing change of pace for all of us. I think Dr. Wilson wrote an excellent blog on biosurveillance this week, pushing us to look at the seriousness of another potential pandemic and encouraging us to realize that we need to follow and monitor the progress of the transmission patterns of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) – H5N1 virus. We need to think of things we can do for infection control, like better hand washing techniques to start with and not overprescribing antibiotics or antivirals. The public health community should endeavor to define common points of reference and to solve the ambiguity that has contributed to the concept of disaster sociology. It may behoove the public health system to synthesize a disaster sociology-informed process of analysis and take the lead in challenging the notion of static conceptualization of biological events as merely “outbreaks” and “epidemics”.
The blog by Kevin, MD deserves some accolades as well. Who would think that a doctor or nurse should not apologize for mistakes made in care? Have we become such a litigious society that we can’t even admit our mistakes for fear that we will lose our malpractice insurance? What is the nature of malpractice insurance? Is it now to only insure the PERFECT doctor who makes NO mistakes and who is suppose to really buy this crap? Way to go, Kevin!
And, the blog by Sandy Szwarc on press releases and evidence based medicine drove home a pertinent message. Optimally, before reporting a story one should check the source out and look at study methodology and the limitations of the study as well as the population studied. Then you will have a comprehensive story to report on. The problem here is two-fold, I believe. Reporters frequently do not have access to the full article and must rely on the information given. In addition, they are not trained in medical statistics to evaluate whether a study is worth publishing and if so, what were the REAL conclusions after evaluation of the entire study. Press releases are typically released 6 weeks before the journal article comes out, according to Ms. Szwarc, giving medical researchers no time to critique the information before it is released to the public. Medical misinformation is the risk we take with this type of reporting.
Now for the awards. . .
Dr. Incognito
The Best Blog of the Week Goes to Scrubby Award Winner:
Our pick for this week’s BEST blog is. . .
Biological Events, Crises and Disasters by James Wilson, MD
