The news that the television doctor and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta is being considered for the post of U.S. surgeon general has prompted a mixed reaction on health and science blogs and other sites. Here’s a sampling:
KevinMD.com: The doctor blogger calls it a “bold pick” but asks whether “this a case of style over substance.”
THDblog: The Technology, Health and Development blog says, “Public health needs a rock star.”
Terra Sigillata: Science blogger Abel notes that “literally millions of Americans already trust him for health care information,” adding that “Gupta has also been on-site for several of the most challenging medical emergencies the U.S. has faced in recent years, most significantly the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.” But fellow blogger Jake at Pure Pedantry says Dr. Gupta has waffled on issues like vaccines and autism under the guise of journalistic fairness — something he can’t do as surgeon general.
Center for Science in the Public Interest: Director Michael Jacobson says: “It has been a long time since we’ve had a surgeon general who had a major national impact, such as Dr. C. Everett Koop, who took on the tobacco industry. Certainly no one could accuse any surgeon general in the last eight years of tackling tough health problems.”
GetBetterHealth.com: Dr. Val says, “I don’t think he has the gravitas or appropriate experience for the role of Surgeon General of the United States.” She cites an unidentified source close to the nomination proceedings who says, “It will be difficult for Gupta to be taken seriously by peers at the Pentagon and State Department.”
Gawker.com: The gossip site points out that Dr. Gupta was voted one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2003. “Obviously Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, is the big loser here,” says Gawker.
According to Dr. Gupta’s bio provided by CNN, he regularly performs surgery at Emory University Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital, where he serves as associate chief of neurosurgery. Before joining CNN, Gupta was a fellow in neurosurgery at the University of Tennessee’s Semmes-Murphy clinic, and before that, the University of Michigan Medical Center. In 1997, he was chosen as a White House Fellow — one of only 15 fellows appointed.
Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Doctors’ Favorite Medical Web Sites
Health writers often suggest Web sites and strategies for finding the best doctor. But what do doctors think about all this advice?
In today’s “Doctor and Patient” column, Dr. Pauline W. Chen talks to other doctors about the best way to find a doctor you trust, and the best places to research health information.
Many of the doctors I spoke to or exchanged e-mail with made commonsense suggestions that were not unexpected. They urged patients to find out which doctors their closest friends really like, to ask a prospective doctor questions like how much experience he or she has with a specific condition or operation, and to make sure that as a patient you feel part of a shared decision-making process and comfortable saying how you feel, or that you don’t understand or that you respectfully disagree.
But many of the physicians also shared links to valuable Web sites, several of which I was unfamiliar with. All the sites are free to the public and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. When I looked at these sites while writing this column, I became really excited as a patient about the amount of information available.
For a complete lists of the various Web sites suggested by doctors, click here to read Dr. Chen’s full column, “In Search of a Good Doctor.” And then join the discussion below.
In today’s “Doctor and Patient” column, Dr. Pauline W. Chen talks to other doctors about the best way to find a doctor you trust, and the best places to research health information.
Many of the doctors I spoke to or exchanged e-mail with made commonsense suggestions that were not unexpected. They urged patients to find out which doctors their closest friends really like, to ask a prospective doctor questions like how much experience he or she has with a specific condition or operation, and to make sure that as a patient you feel part of a shared decision-making process and comfortable saying how you feel, or that you don’t understand or that you respectfully disagree.
But many of the physicians also shared links to valuable Web sites, several of which I was unfamiliar with. All the sites are free to the public and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. When I looked at these sites while writing this column, I became really excited as a patient about the amount of information available.
For a complete lists of the various Web sites suggested by doctors, click here to read Dr. Chen’s full column, “In Search of a Good Doctor.” And then join the discussion below.
Declining Car Risk for Older Drivers
Drivers over 70 are keeping their licenses longer and driving more than earlier generations, a trend that has led to dire predictions about car accident risks for aging baby boomers.
But new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety should ease those fears. It shows that fatal car accidents involving older drivers have actually declined markedly in the past decade.
“It’s not what people had expected to see,” said Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for research at the insurance institute. “There were some studies, including our own research, that had predicted older driver crashes would become a bigger and bigger problem.”
Compared with middle-aged drivers (age 35 to 54), drivers 75 or older have far higher death rates per mile traveled. (So do drivers under 20.) Death rates jump markedly after age 80. But that does not necessarily mean that older people are worse drivers or that they are far more likely to crash.
Car fatalities involving young people are almost entirely explained by the fact that they have more accidents than experienced drivers. But while crash rates are slightly higher for older people, most of their increased risk for a fatal car accident is explained by the fact that they tend to be more frail. Older drivers are more likely to suffer a severe injury, particularly to the chest, or other medical complications.
But fatalities per capita among older people have decreased 35 percent since 1975 and are now at their lowest level. And while fatal crashes are declining over all, the rates for older driving deaths are falling the fastest. Between 1997 and 2006, the annual decline in fatal crash rates was 0.18 fewer fatal crashes per 100,000 middle-aged licensed drivers. By comparison, the annual decline for drivers age 70 to 74 was 0.55 fatal crashes per 100,000 licensed drivers, and for those over 80 it was 1.33.
Older drivers are also less likely to cause drunken driving accidents. In 2007, just 6 percent of drivers 70 and older who died in crashes had blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit. The figure for fatally injured drivers age 16 to 59 was 41 percent.
The insurance institute is conducting further research to determine why the risks appear to be going down for older drivers. It may be that today’s older drivers are simply in better physical and mental shape than their counterparts a decade ago, so they are not only less likely to make a driving mistake, but also less frail and better able to survive injuries.
It may also be that driving patterns among older adults have changed, leading to more highway driving, which is safer than driving on local roads. Older drivers may be more likely than in the past to wear a seat belt or to drive a safer car.
Research suggests education campaigns have increased awareness about older driving risks.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins recently reported results of the Salisbury Eye Evaluation and Driving Study (Seeds for short), which looked at vision, cognition and health changes among 1,200 licensed drivers age 67 to 87. The study, published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, found that after a year 1.5 percent of the drivers had given up driving on their own, and 3.4 percent more had voluntarily restricted their driving because of declining vision.
“We’re intent on doing research to try to figure out why we’re seeing this,” Dr. McCartt said. “It’s certainly a possibility that older drivers compared to 10 or 20 years ago are in better condition in various ways.”
But new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety should ease those fears. It shows that fatal car accidents involving older drivers have actually declined markedly in the past decade.
“It’s not what people had expected to see,” said Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for research at the insurance institute. “There were some studies, including our own research, that had predicted older driver crashes would become a bigger and bigger problem.”
Compared with middle-aged drivers (age 35 to 54), drivers 75 or older have far higher death rates per mile traveled. (So do drivers under 20.) Death rates jump markedly after age 80. But that does not necessarily mean that older people are worse drivers or that they are far more likely to crash.
Car fatalities involving young people are almost entirely explained by the fact that they have more accidents than experienced drivers. But while crash rates are slightly higher for older people, most of their increased risk for a fatal car accident is explained by the fact that they tend to be more frail. Older drivers are more likely to suffer a severe injury, particularly to the chest, or other medical complications.
But fatalities per capita among older people have decreased 35 percent since 1975 and are now at their lowest level. And while fatal crashes are declining over all, the rates for older driving deaths are falling the fastest. Between 1997 and 2006, the annual decline in fatal crash rates was 0.18 fewer fatal crashes per 100,000 middle-aged licensed drivers. By comparison, the annual decline for drivers age 70 to 74 was 0.55 fatal crashes per 100,000 licensed drivers, and for those over 80 it was 1.33.
Older drivers are also less likely to cause drunken driving accidents. In 2007, just 6 percent of drivers 70 and older who died in crashes had blood-alcohol levels above the legal limit. The figure for fatally injured drivers age 16 to 59 was 41 percent.
The insurance institute is conducting further research to determine why the risks appear to be going down for older drivers. It may be that today’s older drivers are simply in better physical and mental shape than their counterparts a decade ago, so they are not only less likely to make a driving mistake, but also less frail and better able to survive injuries.
It may also be that driving patterns among older adults have changed, leading to more highway driving, which is safer than driving on local roads. Older drivers may be more likely than in the past to wear a seat belt or to drive a safer car.
Research suggests education campaigns have increased awareness about older driving risks.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins recently reported results of the Salisbury Eye Evaluation and Driving Study (Seeds for short), which looked at vision, cognition and health changes among 1,200 licensed drivers age 67 to 87. The study, published in the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, found that after a year 1.5 percent of the drivers had given up driving on their own, and 3.4 percent more had voluntarily restricted their driving because of declining vision.
“We’re intent on doing research to try to figure out why we’re seeing this,” Dr. McCartt said. “It’s certainly a possibility that older drivers compared to 10 or 20 years ago are in better condition in various ways.”
A Pediatrician’s View of Rude Children
Do good manners make a difference to a child’s health? Writing in Tuesday’s Science Times, pediatrician Dr. Perri Klass believes they do.
The conversations that every pediatrician has, over and over, about “limit setting” and “consistently praising good behavior” are conversations about manners. And when you are in the exam room with a child who seems to have none, you begin to wonder what is going on at home and at school, and questions of family dysfunction or neurodevelopmental problems begin to cross your mind.
Dr. Barbara Howard, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an expert on behavior and development, told me that a child’s manners were a perfectly appropriate topic to raise at a pediatric visit.
“It has a huge impact on people’s lives — why wouldn’t you bring it up?” she said. “Do they look you in the eye? If you stick your hand out do they shake it? How do they interact with the parents; do they interrupt, do they ask for things, do they open Mommy’s purse and take things out?”
Dr. Howard suggested that the whole “manners” concept might seem a little out of date — until you recast it as “social skills,” a very hot term these days. Social skills are necessary for school success, she pointed out; they affect how you do on the playground, in the classroom, in the workplace.
To read more about what a child’s manners mean to the pediatrician, read the full article, “Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic.” And then join the discussion below.
What do you think? Should a pediatrician comment on a child’s manners?
The conversations that every pediatrician has, over and over, about “limit setting” and “consistently praising good behavior” are conversations about manners. And when you are in the exam room with a child who seems to have none, you begin to wonder what is going on at home and at school, and questions of family dysfunction or neurodevelopmental problems begin to cross your mind.
Dr. Barbara Howard, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an expert on behavior and development, told me that a child’s manners were a perfectly appropriate topic to raise at a pediatric visit.
“It has a huge impact on people’s lives — why wouldn’t you bring it up?” she said. “Do they look you in the eye? If you stick your hand out do they shake it? How do they interact with the parents; do they interrupt, do they ask for things, do they open Mommy’s purse and take things out?”
Dr. Howard suggested that the whole “manners” concept might seem a little out of date — until you recast it as “social skills,” a very hot term these days. Social skills are necessary for school success, she pointed out; they affect how you do on the playground, in the classroom, in the workplace.
To read more about what a child’s manners mean to the pediatrician, read the full article, “Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic.” And then join the discussion below.
What do you think? Should a pediatrician comment on a child’s manners?
Will Drivers Ever Give Up Cellphones?
Recently while driving from New York to Pennsylvania, I suddenly realized I had taken the wrong exit for the New Jersey Turnpike.
For me it was a startling mistake that had me going north instead of south, and added at least a half hour to my commute. It had happened while I was talking to a friend on the phone. Even though I had been using a headset and had both hands on the wheel, I still made an important driving error.
Beyond my driving mistake, there are plenty of data to show that cell phone conversations and driving don’t mix. My Well column in Tuesday’s Science Times explores the science of cell phones and driving, and helps explain why even hands-free cellphone use takes a toll on your driving ability. Now the National Safety Council has called for a total ban on cellphone use while driving.
Read the full story, “A Problem of the Brain, Not the Hands: Group Urges Phone Ban for Drivers,” and then join the discussion below. Are you willing to give up your hands-free cell phone calls during your driving time?
For me it was a startling mistake that had me going north instead of south, and added at least a half hour to my commute. It had happened while I was talking to a friend on the phone. Even though I had been using a headset and had both hands on the wheel, I still made an important driving error.
Beyond my driving mistake, there are plenty of data to show that cell phone conversations and driving don’t mix. My Well column in Tuesday’s Science Times explores the science of cell phones and driving, and helps explain why even hands-free cellphone use takes a toll on your driving ability. Now the National Safety Council has called for a total ban on cellphone use while driving.
Read the full story, “A Problem of the Brain, Not the Hands: Group Urges Phone Ban for Drivers,” and then join the discussion below. Are you willing to give up your hands-free cell phone calls during your driving time?
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