Ahem. :-)Comments on: --

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:24:46 +0000

when is information too much information in the hands of the patient?:
http://gershater.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/electronic-access-to-lab-results-an-mri-reading-information-overload/

By: Barry Sudduth

Barry Sudduth — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:08:46 +0000

Your visiting the doctor to have your cholesterol checked has reminded me of another aggravation of mine. Why shouldn’t people be able to check their cholesterol themselves. Currently, i-Stat handheld blood gas analyzers cost a few thousand dollars. If they could be sold as consumer electronic devices and/or leased by individuals, the price would come down so that the masses could individually manage their cholesterol as much/as little as desired.

I wonder how many people have died of a heart attack while waiting 3-6 months on their next checkup to see if the diet/medication changes are having the intended impact on their lipid profile.

My question to all who would read this is do you know if there are any coordinated efforts to allow more sophisticated medical diagnostic equipment to be sold to the masses?

By: ePatientDave

ePatientDave — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:58:22 +0000

Cracking myself up here… new on e-patients.net: "Ahem. :-)" http://is.gd/5qrpW

By: e-Patient Dave

e-Patient Dave — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:03:54 +0000

Challenged who, the robot? :–)

I know it wasn’t an all-robot letter because (a) I’ve seen him use the system and (b) it has typos in it and (c) as I said, there’s content that came directly from our live interaction.

Re having patients come in to discuss these things –

a) Dr. Danny Sands and I have an unusual relationship in that we now work together on after-hours things. And as he says when we tell our story live, he’s long known me well enough to judge when we do and don’t need to meet. There is no error of judgment here on that point.

b) This letter contained no counseling that we hadn’t already discussed at length during the annual meeting, except that the letter had the lab details.

c) Thinking back, a month earlier I had tried to whine myself out of the face-to-face appointment, and he’d said no: “We haven’t seen you in ages.” (Ten months, actually, but the point is, he insisted.)

By: Anne Marie Cunningham

Anne Marie Cunningham — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:55:54 +0000

Oops! We don’t have robot letters like this… and I suspect all of the letter was robot, not just the last paragraph. We ask patients to come and see us. But we should be better at getting good information to them, I am sure.
What did he say when you challenged him?