Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Personal Finance Tip: Don’t Get Sick, Injured, or Hurt in America

June 10, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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"The United States spends more money on health care than any other country in the world." That is not up for debate. "The United States provides the best health care in the world." That is very much up for debate. So, if the U.S. clearly spends the most money on health care, but does not clearly provide the world's best health care ... what the hell, U.S.A? This is why we have The New York Times. Today, Elisabeth Rosenthal published the first of a multi-part investigation into this country's crazy-high health care spending. There are charts and maps and infographics—along with some great ... Read More

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The Problem With Psychiatry, the ‘DSM,’ and the Way We Study Mental Illness

June 3, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Imagine for a moment that the American Psychiatric Association was about to compile a new edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But instead of 2013, imagine, just for fun, that the year is 1880. Transported to the world of the late 19th century, the psychiatric body would have virtually no choice but to include hysteria in the pages of its new volume. Women by the tens of thousands, after all, displayed the distinctive signs: convulsive fits, facial tics, spinal irritation, sensitivity to touch, and leg paralysis. Not a doctor in the Western world at the time ... Read More

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When Hospital Regulations Go Too Far

May 28, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Most surgeons-in-training dislike new rules that limit how many hours they can work, according to a new study that also found the majority said they skirt the restrictions. Researchers surveyed 1,013 surgical residents—who train for years alongside more senior surgeons—and found that about two of every three said they disapproved of the 2011 regulations, which aimed to improve patient care as well as the residents' education and quality of life. "I don't think anybody wants to work 120 hours a week, but I don't think we really want medicine to necessarily have bankers' hours," said ... Read More

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Why Would a Medical Doctor Embrace an Unproven Treatment?

May 8, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Face down on a massage table, a 30-something corporate attorney grips a tiny vial of clear liquid and breathes deeply, again and again. My wife, Kathryn, an internal medicine specialist whose practice focuses on the arcane arts of alternative healing, presses her thumbs on each side of the woman’s neck and moves slowly down her spine. The woman suffers from chronic fatigue, nasal congestion, and a severely runny nose, which conventional medical treatments have failed to cure. So she’s come to see Kathryn. A few weeks later, after a handful of similar treatments, the woman calls to ... Read More

More like this: Health, May-June 2013
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How Much Do Financial Interests Sway Researchers?

May 2, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Funding from drug companies and other potential conflicts of interest did not influence the conclusions reached by researchers testing new cancer treatments over the past few years, according to a new analysis. But Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, who has looked into that issue at the Harvard School of Public Health, pointed out that other studies have shown the opposite. "One study put against the mass of data suggesting the funding of the study does relate to the outcomes I don't think changes anything necessarily," Kesselheim, who wasn't involved in the new research, told Reuters Health. The new ... Read More

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Why Is Iran Running Out of Medicine?

April 12, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Earlier this week, an earthquake in southern Iran knocked down at least 800 houses, killed dozens, and injured 900. Lax building codes meant the cement structures crumbled fast, trapping people inside. Some of the victims were taken to hospitals in nearby Bushehr, also home to the country’s lone nuclear reactor. That’s where the problems really start—nukes and injury. Earthquakes tend to break bones, and bad breaks require surgery. Starting last fall, however, Iran appears to have run out of basic surgical supplies, owing to sanctions designed to limit the country’s nuclear program. ... Read More

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Pretty Much the Scariest Way to Give Kids Their Medicine

January 3, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
Illustration of a bunny syringe from Robert L. Smeton's 1963 patent application

Going to the doctor can be a pretty scary experience—especially for kids. So back in 1963, inventor Robert L. Smeton had an idea: why don't we encase hypodermic syringes with cuddly animals so that children will be less afraid of getting their shots? Smeton filed for a patent in 1963 and U.S. patent number 3,299,891 was approved four years later. The latter half of the 20th century saw quite a few people trying to make a visit to the doctor a less frightening experience for youngsters. In 1989 Vickie D. Hull applied for a patent on a toy that could deliver liquid medicine to children. ... Read More

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Performance Pay Comes to the Hospital

December 3, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is into it. So are education secretary Arne Duncan and Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio. Policy wonks champion it, charter school teachers embrace it, and professional athletes cash in on it. In our data-driven age, “performance pay” is the Next Big Thing. The logic is seductive: collect numbers, cut them up six different ways, and let a computer decide who’s worth how much. No favoritism, no bias, no human mess. The winners rise to the top, the losers don’t, and the whole system improves as a result of the competition. Now, thanks to the Affordable Care ... Read More

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Why Patients Leave Hospitals With a Bad Taste In Their Mouths

October 16, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: PRYZMAT/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Disrespect, Lucian Leape believes, is the elephant in the hospital. According to the adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, disrespect is the reason why so many patients leave the E.R. feeling belittled or ignored. It's why medical workers feel so "demoralized." And it's why—despite attempts at change in the last decade—we still see medical errors that cause needless suffering and even cost lives. Thirteen years ago, the Institute of Medicine released a groundbreaking report titled "To Err is Human" that called for a new paradigm in the medical ... Read More

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Ginkgo Biloba Not a Wonder Drug, After All

September 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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Ask anyone knows who’s ever taken echinacea for a cold, had their chakras balanced by a Reiki healer, put their herbalist on speed dial, or watched the Man burn on the Playa: ginkgo biloba is as good as brain food. Proponents in the United States and Europe, where ginkgo is massively popular, have long argued that the herb improves circulation, combats dementia, and protects cells with its antioxidants. Even the Mayo Clinic’s online reference cites “promising early evidence” of ginkgo’s efficacy against everything from altitude sickness and PMS to macular degeneration. The ... Read More

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