Update: A twitterer tells me this was just considered by the AMA and defeated – I’m looking for details. Because if they tried this once, they’ll try it again. Further update: Found it. Details are appended. ~~~ The American Medical… Read More ›
medicine
A quick question
There’s a lot of finger-pointing in the anti-vaccine movement about how any doctors or scientists who accept the scientific consensus that vaccines are the single most effective life-prolonging medical innovation in human history are just greedy, greedy Big Pharma shills… Read More ›
What “Elective Surgery” really means
And yes, Virginia, this does apply to abortion surgery as well. I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of people arguing that women having therapeutic late-term abortions don’t really have good medical reasons because the surgeries are classified as elective… Read More ›
On late-term abortions and sex ed/contraception
Something that’s been bugging me in the increased abortion talk after George Tiller’s assassination is the derail into talking about sex ed and contraceptive availability. Sex ed and contraceptive availability and looking after babies are extremely important things. They’re vital…. Read More ›
You know what I hate?
Because our public health measures that are in place to contain infectious outbreaks before they go pandemic appear to be working well in the case of swine flu (just as they did in the last media panic about bird flu… Read More ›
Sometimes one WTF? is not nearly enough
This is a very depressing example of a journalist being entirely taken in by an anti-vaccination crank, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, spruiking his snake-oil at the U.S. Autism & Asperger Association’s regional conference on Saturday in Cherry Hill, Jersey.
PSA: The CDC on swine flu and breastfeeding
A lot of people think that breastfeeding is a tenuous, fragile, and even dangerous thing. Oh, they might concede that breastfeeding is a fine thing to do if it’s easy, and the mother is perfectly healthy, and the baby is… Read More ›
Emergency Department “Did Not Waits” – what’s the real story?
This appeared in yesterday’s West: “Urgent ED cases walk out before treatment”
More than three patients needing urgent attention leave the busy emergency departments of Perth’s major hospitals every day without being treated, new figures show. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information laws show that last year, 7215 patients across all levels of urgency attended the emergency departments at Royal Perth, Sir Charles Gairdner, Fremantle and Princess Margaret hospitals but left without being seen by a doctor.
They included 48 category 2 or “emergency” patients, typically including suspected heart attacks, and 1184 category 3 or “urgent” cases, which can include head injuries and major bleeding or fractures. Twenty of these patients were children.
This article looks at some important questions, but it fails to illuminate us on what the answers might be – and the information presented is a little misleading.
Severely injured asylum seekers and the right to privacy
As Aussies probably know, folks on a boat were rescued by the Navy up off Ashmore Reef this week, after their boat caught fire. The origin of the fire is a matter of some dispute. The Liberal (conservative) Premier of… Read More ›
First the good news
A Netherlands study showing that midwife-assisted homebirths are at least as safe for low-risk mothers as midwife-led hospital deliveries and Did you know that defence lawyers in NSW and other Australian states can subpoena counsellor records of rape victims on behalf of the alleged rapist? Without the victim’s knowledge?
Hoyden About Town 