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Waiting for a liver
The need for donor livers outstrips their supply. Each year, about one-third of those with end-stage liver disease who need an organ will receive one. Some die while on the waiting list. The...
View ArticleC-section stats
Almost 1 in 3 American woman had babies delivered by C-section in 2005, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports. The number of C-sections was 38 percent less in 1995. AHRQ also found:...
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Chest pain
I worked for six months or so in the emergency room at Saint Francis Hospital and saw a number of interesting things while I was there. Among them were patients who repeatedly visited the ER...
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Checking on those who give check-ups
If you’re interested in keeping tabs on your doctor, HealthGrades now offers a notification service. The Web site, www.healthgrades.com, is best known for its hospital ratings. But given the...
View ArticleA new way of looking at diabetes
Researchers have seen that weight-loss surgery appears to cure type 2 diabetes, which they have attributed to the huge drop in pounds. After all, being overweight is a risk factor for diabetes, and...
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Should angioplasty fall out of favor?
USA Today had an interesting story yesterday about how the popularity of angioplasty, a commonly performed procedure in which doctors use a balloon to open blocked coronary arteries, may be eroding....
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Did you miss Doctor’s Day?
You can be forgiven for thinking yesterday was anything more than a nice day to watch college hoops. It was, but it also was National Doctor’s Day. The American Medical Association uses the day to...
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Oklahoma ranks last again
After taking a hiatus from The Medicine Bag, I have returned … with a question. Do you think it’s fair and/or accurate to see Oklahoma ranked at or near the bottom of, well, just about every study of...
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Unintended consequences of insuring the uninsured
In the things-to-consider-for-the-sake-of-considering-them category, take a gander at this story from the May 27 edition of The Boston Globe: After healthcare reform was made law in Massachusetts in...
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Domo arigato, Dr. Roboto — Maybe
Hospitals across Oklahoma City have invested in a da Vinci surgical robot, a highly marketed robot that can be used to perform a variety of surgeries. I’ve interviewed several doctors who use the...
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