There is a lot of press these days about the messy state of health care in the US. One issue less apparent now but a major issue in the future is the shrinking percentage of medical school graduates entering primary care (family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine).… Read the rest
Today is Thanksgiving in the US. It’s my favorite holiday, as all my relatives will gather in my mother’s house and feast for hours. It truly is a nice way to think about the previous 12 months and realize what indeed you are thankful for.… Read the rest
It’s been a very, very interesting few weeks in the US regarding cancer screening. As I mentioned before, there were revisions from the highest-level agency Task Force that mammograms should be done less often for certain groups. I also mentioned how PSA tests are under a lot of scrutiny as well.… Read the rest
By now, everyone in Beijing is either: 1. recovered from having H1N1; 2. tired of hearing about H1N1; or 3. recovered and tired of hearing about it. But one common theme in discussions remains the uncertainty around the vaccine. Well, finally, there is a lot of real data last week that I wanted to share with you: hard numbers on safety that hopefully will raise up future debates with more facts.… Read the rest
The New York Times has an excellent series of articles, called “Forty Years’ War”, reviewing medicine’s efforts to fight cancer over the last forty years. This weekend’s article reviews the important issue of prevention of breast and prostate cancer. For both diseases, there are well documented studies that show a decrease in new cases of those cancers with specific medicines taken over many years.… Read the rest
It’s impossible for me to ignore the health care debate raging in my home country. One constant theme in the U.S. regarding improving health care is the need for better monitoring of what hospitals and doctors actually do, and which treatments actually work.… Read the rest