Here is a copy of my 33mail newsletter that was mailed out today. Check it out. If you don’t subscribe already just head over to the right column or hit the 33mail tab up above and sign up. As you can see, I collect some of the most interesting stuff I read. I also summarize blog posts for the week. All in a 3 minute newsletter read!
Here are some of the interesting things I wrote or stumbled on this week. Too much good stuff to overlook so I ran a little long.
33 charts
Reputation rescue
I tried something a little different in The Exam Room. I recorded a 15 minute riff/rant on the case of Dr. Ricardo Quarrie. A doctor accused of lying but who didn’t lie. It’s quick and fast moving. Please listen me know how you like the format. Click through the post which tells a little bit or jump over to iTunes or Sticher. | 33 charts
Health technology takes time to prove its worth
An analysis in Health Affairs showed that EHR adoption initially results in higher patient mortality but in the long run lowers mortality. Here I scramble some thoughts about a health technology outcomes gap: the capacity of a tool is ahead of our ability to know how to make it work for us and our patients. | 33 charts
Labsplaining: The more test you order, the busier you are
Follows a conversation with a young colleague who likes to do lots of tests and then wonders why she spends hours on the phone. Not a straightforward issue but an interesting discussion. On Twitter I called it labsplaining. | 33 charts
Everything else
The mystique and threat of the female physician
Ed Yong summarizes one of the most buzzed stories of the week: Women are more likely to survive a heart attack if treated by a female physician. Vinny Aurora’s closing quote on other elements in the story is spot on “These findings suggest that female physicians are an asset not just for their patients, but for their male colleagues, too.” As a pediatrician who works largely with female associates I could have told you that a long time ago. | The Atlantic
+ The men are running scared, it seems. An investigation has revealed that computers were programmed to subtract points from tests of female medical school applicants in Japan. | Behind the paywall at The Wall Street Journal
Just the fax
CMS’ Seema Verma set a goal for digital health information to replace the current use of fax machines in physician offices to send patient information. | Healthcare IT News
+ And here’s why doctors still use fax machines.
How do you learn to care?
Quick hit interview where Susannah Fox riffs on caregiving across the generations. Made me think that when my parents passed I never really thought how I knew how to care for them. Love this: “What I really appreciate is my parents modeling caregiving for me, my brother, and my sister. When the next episode came along a few years later, when my maternal grandmother needed help, there was a clear model for how we as a family were going to approach it.” Made me think about communication and connection in my life work. All of it I learned from watching select role models. | Atlas of Caregiving
“Pills are good”
For big pharma, the perfect patient is wealthy, permanently ill and a daily pill-popper. Will medicine ever recover? A heavy dive into the pill market from a young new physician voice who I’ll be keeping my eye on. | Aeon
Tighty whitey science
A dive into the reproductive impact of tighty whites. What I love about this piece is the depth delivered in such a short word count. Thankful that I already have kids (after a long battle with infertility). | The New Yorker
Shocking but not surprising
While I should have been mortified I found myself not surprised by this. Investigators quoted in Wired claim that they’ve discovered a chain of vulnerabilities in Medtronic’s infrastructure that an attacker could exploit to control implanted pacemakers remotely. Do not share this with my mother-in-law. | Wired
The adventures of the CDC
This is cool. The CDC has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and 4-H to develop “The Junior Disease Detectives: Operation Outbreak,” a graphic novel intended to educate youth audiences about the work of the organization. | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Great quote
“Technology does only one thing – it tends toward efficiency. It has no aesthetics. It has no ethics. Its code is binary. But everything interesting in life- everything that makes life worth living- happens between the binary. Mercy is not binary. Love is not binary. Music and art are not binary. You and I are not binary.” | T Bone Burnett in his keynote address at 2016 AmericanaFest
Saudis ordered home
800 medical residents and fellows from Saudi Arabia were ordered to leave Canada suddenly next month. The planned recall comes after Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic relations with Canada in response to a tweet from Global Affairs Canada that criticized the Saudis for human rights issues. | CBC News
Digital detritus
+ These two received heart transplants on the same day and then fell in love.
+ Amazon is opening its own primary care clinics. It’s unclear whether this has anything to do with the Berkshire Hathaway/JP Morgan venture.
+ Nice Bloomberg piece on the DIY pancreas set that is changing health care from the ground up.
+ Three big things medical school does not prepare you for.
+ Illustrated anesthesia bags are changing child patient experience at Seattle Children’s Hospital. And from the British Journal of Anesthesia, evidence that ‘Flintstone cars’ in the preop areas of children’s hospitals reduce anxiety.
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