All posts tagged: healthcare

‘Children’s Healthcare Must Always Be Evidence-Led’

‘Children’s Healthcare Must Always Be Evidence-Led’

Published by skeptic

From the Richard Dawkins Foundation Newsletter. Subscribe here. Hello! 2024 has been an eventful and uneven year, one marked by important steps forward and more than a few difficult setbacks. Progress, much like history, does not move in a straight line. No matter what the path, however, the intended destination remains (as Richard Dawkins himself says in a special message at the end of this email) “a society where science and reason are not just acknowledged but celebrated.” We’ve discussed the Cass Review on multiple occasions throughout this year and its emphasis on prioritizng scientifically sound treatment for minors experiencing gender incongruence and/or gender dysphoria. That landmark report prompted the UK government to temporarily stop prescribing puberty blockers for patients under age eighteen. Based on an independent scientific review, the UK government has extended that ban indefinitely, with Britain’s Health Secretary emphasizing “Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led.” That’s a message that someone desperately needs to share with the incoming Trump administration; a new report from Reuters says Donald Trump and his nominee to run Health …

Luigi Mangione Conspiracy Theories Are Going Strong

Luigi Mangione Conspiracy Theories Are Going Strong

Published by skeptic

In one particularly testy exchange on a conspiracy theories subreddit, two hair stylists clashed over Mangione’s eyebrows. “I was a hairstylist for 20 years back in the day, no one’s eyebrows grow that fast in three days,” one user wrote. “It was on the state board test. Hair on your head grows a quarter of an inch a month. Hair on your brows grows slower.” “I’m also a hair stylist and I work with models,” another user responded. “Different lighting and different facial expressions cause different shadows in photos. This man is trying to start a revolution. Don’t make a conspiracy out of someone who is for the people.” This is just one of the conspiracy theories swirling around about Mangione, though. Another popular theory relates to the number 286 and its multiple links to the alleged shooter. In his profile on X, Mangione features the Pokémon Breloom, which is the 286th Pokémon. Mangione also had posted exactly 286 times on X when he was arrested. 286 is also the code health insurance companies use …

The Health-Care System Isn’t Hopeless

The Health-Care System Isn’t Hopeless

Published by José

Earlier this month, the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare was assassinated during morning rush hour on a busy block in Midtown Manhattan; the alleged killer’s confession went viral, in particular the line “the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.” The murder led to a mass airing of grievances with American insurers and, among those who felt that the industry had it coming, a haunting moment of collective glee. What it did not lead to is any focus on policies that could make health insurance and the broader health-care system work better. Both the horrid act of violence and the flippant reaction to it struck me as tragic, because there are, in fact, many ways to make things better. The system is broken. But its problems are not intractable. Nor are America’s politicians incapable of making commonsense, even bipartisan, improvements. The problems are severe, to be clear. Americans spend more on health care than the citizens of any other country, and get less …

Seoul turns to foreign doctors as medical strike drags on

Seoul turns to foreign doctors as medical strike drags on

Published by Sam

SEOUL: South Korea will allow foreign doctors to work in its hospitals after a rigorous vetting process, the prime minister said on Friday (May 10), as a months-long strike by junior medics shows no sign of resolution. Thousands stopped working on Feb 20 to protest government plans to train more doctors, causing chaos in hospitals. The government, which has already offered some concessions in a bid to end the standoff, said this week that doctors with foreign medical licenses would be allowed to practice in the country, in a bid to ease service disruptions. After the move was announced, the head of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), Lim Hyun-taek, shared a screenshot of a news report on newly graduated Somali doctors with the comment: “Coming Soon.” The post, which was later removed, prompted widespread online criticism and was highly inappropriate as well as “clearly racist”, Kim Jae-heon, the secretary-general of a non-governmental organisation advocating free medical care, told AFP. The post “exploited Islamophobia and stereotyping against developing countries”, he said. Source link

Hospital’s radiology department and critical care unit ‘crumbling’ | UK | News

Hospital’s radiology department and critical care unit ‘crumbling’ | UK | News

Published by skeptic

Stepping Hill Hospital is ‘literally crumbling’ says the local MP (Image: Getty Images) A UK hospital is in dire straits as its outpatients, radiology department and critical care unit are ‘quite literally crumbling’, the local MP has claimed. Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, has been hit by two ceiling collapses in recent weeks due to leaks in the heating system. These incidents occurred within the radiology department and the critical care unit, where the most seriously ill patients are treated. The situation became so severe that patients had to be evacuated and scans were cancelled after both ceilings gave way within a day in March, reports the Manchester Evening News. READ MORE: Fears new Covid strain could be ‘harder to stop’ as cases surge around the world Patients were forced to be evacuated out of the Stockport hospital and scans were cancelled after the two ceilings collapsed within a day of one another in March (Image: MEN) Stockport’s MP, Navendu Mishra, brought the issue to the attention of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during …

MOH revokes licence of suspended Marine Parade GP who inappropriately prescribed sedatives

MOH revokes licence of suspended Marine Parade GP who inappropriately prescribed sedatives

Published by skeptic

SINGAPORE: A general practitioner who improperly prescribed long-term sedative medication to his patients had his licence to provide outpatient medical services revoked on Wednesday (May 8), said the Ministry of Health (MOH). This was the first such revocation by MOH under the Healthcare Services Act 2020.  Dr Maninder Singh Shahi was in January suspended for three years by the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) after it was found that he inappropriately prescribed sedatives to seven patients for more than a decade, causing them to become dependent on the drugs. He also did not refer most of his patients to a psychiatrist or specialist for further management in a timely manner, and failed to maintain sufficient details in patients’ medical records. The SMC found Dr Maninder guilty of 14 charges of professional misconduct. Due to his suspension by the SMC, MOH said on Wednesday it assessed that Dr Maninder is “no longer a suitable person to be holding a licence to provide outpatient medical services”. A veteran family doctor with 35 years of experience, Dr Maninder practised …

Amae Health is building an in-person approach to mental healthcare in an increasingly digital space

Amae Health is building an in-person approach to mental healthcare in an increasingly digital space

Published by skeptic

When Sonia García and Stas Sokolin decided to launch Amae Health to solve the broken care system for people with severe mental illness, they were already intimately familiar with the industry’s issues. “I started thinking about this problem a very long time ago,” said Sokolin, Amae’s CEO. “I grew up with a sister who had bipolar disorder for many, many years, and as a family we always struggled to find her care. It seemed like everything was so piecemeal, and it broke our family apart.” Garcia had her own experiences with the mental healthcare system, too. She lost her father to suicide when she was 16 years old, and then she and her family spent years as caregivers for her brother with schizoaffective and bipolar disorder. Sokolin and García were introduced by mutual friends at Stanford because they were both passionate about this area. The pair knew the system could be better. They launched Amae Health in 2022 to be a new approach to helping patients with severe mental illness. Amae brings resources — including …

The State of Mental Healthcare in North Carolina

The State of Mental Healthcare in North Carolina

Published by skeptic

Source: Mohammed Hassan / Pixabay I recently presented a talk at a conference for North Carolina behavioral healthcare professionals about how North Carolina, like many states, is in the midst of a crisis in its mental healthcare system. The state ranks last in the nation for access to quality behavioral health care, with about two out of five North Carolinians living in an area with no access to mental health professionals. The number of mental health emergency room visits has been rising in recent years, straining a system already relying heavily on emergency services before the pandemic. But, I was also able to discuss how, in December, North Carolina’s expanded access to Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act was tied to a $30 billion spending plan with substantial investments in mental health services. According to North Carolina Senator Jim Burgin, “[O]ne of the attractions to Medicaid expansion for all of us was this once in a generation or maybe even once in a lifetime opportunity to say, ‘Mental health is a big deal.’” A few …

‘Ozempic babies’ show woeful state of U.S. women’s healthcare

‘Ozempic babies’ show woeful state of U.S. women’s healthcare

Published by skeptic

The historic failure of medical research to acknowledge that women’s bodies differ from men’s has a new catchphrase: Ozempic babies. According to recent reports, all of them anecdotal and many of them on TikTok, off-label use of diabetes drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro for cosmetic weight loss has, in some cases, apparently resulted in unexpected pregnancy. For women dealing with infertility issues, this can be cause for celebration; for those who are actively trying to avoid pregnancy by taking birth control pills, the exact opposite. Doctors meanwhile are scrambling to figure it out. Pregnancy in previously infertile women taking semaglutides including Ozempic may, some surmise, simply be a result of weight loss itself — obesity can lead to hormone imbalances that make pregnancy difficult to achieve or sustain. Mounjaro and Zepbound, on the other hand, are tirzepatide, which may interfere with how medications are absorbed, rendering birth control pills less effective. “May” being the operative word; no one appears to know for sure. Everyone recommends that women who want to become pregnant should stop …