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Big surprise.  In a recent survey doctors skipped over their most lucrative -- but unsuccessful -- procedures when asked to suggest which of them should be eliminated. According to Kaiser Health News, " When America’s joint surgeons were challenged to come up with a list of unnecessary procedures in their field, their selections shared one thing: none significantly impacted their incomes." The  American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons discouraged  patients with joint pain from taking two types of dietary supplements, wearing custom shoe inserts or overusing wrist splints after carpal tunnel surgery, Jordon Rau reports. "The surgeons also condemned an infrequently performed procedure where doctors wash a pained knee joint with saline," he writes. "They could have chosen many surgical procedures that are commonly done, where evidence has shown over the years that they don't work or where they're being done with no evidence," Dr. James Rickert, ...

When I entered the ER as a patient in December, I wasn't seen for probably close to two hours.  As an uninsured patient at the time, I figured that was why. But now USA Today reports that uninsured trauma patients may get better care. A published Wednesday found that uninsured patients with severe injuries – "the kind commonly associated with car crashes, serious falls and gunshots – were significantly more likely than insured patients to be transferred out of hospitals not specializing in trauma care." Now, I wasn't a trauma patient. I only had a broken wrist.  But I thought that was pretty interesting. I like to watch all these medical shows -- "Untold Stories of the ER," with its dramatized cases (where everyone always gets well) and on the Oprah channel, the reality show, "New York Med" that shows you everything, the blood and guts and it's all real, not scripted.  Every once in a while a hospital on one of these shows doesn't ...

So there's Google Glasses and ones you can wear at night that are really sunglasses but that cut out the glare. But how about glasses that allow doctors to see cancer cells? "Viewed through the glasses, cancer cells appear to glow blue under a special light, thanks to a fluorescent marker injected in the tumor that attaches only to cancerous and not to healthy cells. Also, the lighter the shade of blue, the more concentrated the cancer cells are," Medical News Today reports. Surgeons currently have to remove not just cancerous tissue but the tissue surrounding a tumor, as well.   Samples of the tissue are then sent to the lab to be examined under a microscope, and if cancer cells are found, the patient often has to have a second operation to remove more tissue, which is then also sent to the lab. According to one doctor, about 20-25% of breast cancer patients who undergo lumpectomy need to come back for a second operation. British researchers described in 2012 ...

It's of little comfort to the man whose doctor removed the wrong kidney, but a  new study has found that surgeons agonize over complications, and the mistakes they make. According to Sam Wong at Imperial College in London, "Many surgeons are seriously affected on an emotional level when complications occur in the operating suite." Wong said that researchers at his institution interviewed 27 surgeons and found that down to a one, all were very concerned when complications occurred on their watch. The operating room is one of the highest risk areas for serious complications, with potentially profound consequences for patients and healthcare professionals, Wong notes. "But there has been little research into how surgeons respond to serious complications or how best to support staff following such events," he writes. We're all, or most of us, used to the brusque doctor who rushes into the examining room, looks you over (sometimes without even touching y...

Recently I learned that I did not have breast cancer – after going through radiation and a bilateral mastectomy, as if I did.  What I had was stage 0 cancer, or ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).  Which, I just found out, means abnormal cells in the milk duct that have not spread.  Not cancer. So for eight years I have been telling people I am a breast cancer survivor – erroneously, as it turns out.  I’m a victim – survivor? – of the scary conscientiousness – or the over-prescribing of treatment  – that women are being subjected to. Call it fear of malpractice (what if it turns into cancer?), or what we’re now learning, that DCIS becomes invasive cancer 25 to 50% of the time, if not treated, but more and more women are undergoing drastic medical treatment even before they have the illness.  Am I sorry?  No way.  At the time I was diagnosed, I had a three-year-old.  When it was found again in my breast, he was five.  I wanted to live....

A fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal today reported that a survey taken in 2009 found that 28% of patients admitted to lying to their doctors about how many drinks a week they had, cigarettes they smoked in a day and how often they exercised. But the medical profession puts it at more than almost triple that -- at 77%. Writer Sumathi Reddy said that it's often because people don't want to disappoint their doctors.  So doctors often add on to what we tell them.  Four drinks a week?  Make that eight, docs say, and base their treatment on that number. What if you're like me, and don't lie (at least, about this stuff)?  Are we then being under- or overtreated?  Reddy didn't say.  But "doctors say omitting important information or lying can lead to the wrong treatment, medicine or even diagnosis," according to the article. Parents, on the other hand, sometimes lie when they don't want to be judged.  Reddy gives the example of a mother te...

Hope you're not planning on having surgery any time soon.  A new report finds that over 4,000 "never happens" errors occur every year, from removing the wrong limb, to leaving sponges and surgical instruments inside patients. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/December/20/doctor-issues.aspx