Blog Rounds II

Look what the Google Reader brought home, a series of articles on everything from pharmaceutical advertising to valentine's day and facebook... let's get started:

TBTAM gives pharma advertising a piece of her mind in an old post worth bringing back for those healthcare reform fanatics out there. Yes, we need to have more infromed patients and make healthcare decisions as a team. No, we do not need big pharma giving patients strategies to convince their doc to get the latest and greatest test from their company. Anyone know if the current bills in congress or any proposals for that matter, do anything about direct to consumer advertising?

Regardless of the commercials, Distractable posits that if PCP's didn't have to deal with medicare and medicaid, they would be able to have good businesses that would attract new grads and make house calls again. If any future public option looks like those programs (mountains of paperwork and restrictive reimbursements) then we're in trouble...and though it's not the direct topic posted, CC wonders how she'll choose a residency program in a rural area if she's not already married. I commented that this plays into that family medicine/rural physician shortage in unexpected ways and even relates back to medical school admissions policies favoring unmarried 22yo's that don't want to work in areas where they have no chance of meeting people.

Complicating healthcare reform further is the fact that a lot of our healthcare bills are from self-inflected wounds such as obesity. While difficult, this is an issue that will likely be solved through a cultural shift rather than left to Washington (though we'll need help) and Jamie Oliver has some ideas...

Speaking of ideas, TechCrunch wonders what the world would be like if those facebook programmers turned their talents onto social causes...a few medical ideas are mentioned, anyone out there know of other apps like those?

OK coffee is finished and I REALLY need to get to school before my sunscreen wears off... enjoy!