By John Bellatti M.D. Home Rumors of my retirement are much exaggerated. I am an orthopedic surgeon in my 20th year of practice here in Kona. I read the Jan. 17 article in a Big Island newspaper on the M.D. shortage with great interest, including “don’t fracture a bone in Kona because there’s not an […]

The Associated Press The top U.S. surgeon in Iraq was among the 12 soldiers killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Baghdad, the Pentagon confirmed this week. Col. Brian D. Allgood, whose father and two uncles served in Vietnam, had spent more than 20 years in the military. “Brian was a wonderful human being,” […]

By Bruce Japsen Tribune staff reporter http://www.chicagotribune.com An outcry over ads nudging consumers to ask their doctors for purple pills, depression remedies or other brand-name prescription drugs hasn’t stopped an escalation of direct-to-consumer marketing in health care. In fact, as spending on such ads continues to climb, a new television commercial has introduced an entirely […]

David McCann prepares physicians to respond when tragedy strikes By Rebecca Pollard Pierik http://www.umassmag.com

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com Prostate cancer (CaP) screening guidelines are clear about when to initiate screening but only state that it should be discontinued when a man’s life expectancy decreases to less than 10 years. Using these criteria and the fact that a man in his mid-to upper 70s in the United States has a 10-year life expectancy, […]

http://doctorrw.blogspot.com Last year the American College of Physicians (ACP) warned of the collapse of primary care. This year they have proposed a series of reforms to help solve the problem, which they say will improve reimbursement and quality. I have more than a few concerns about the proposals. They’re supposed to shift compensation incentives from […]

http://www.newsobserver.com North Carolina, heal thyself. That’s a depressingly fitting admonition in many rural (and some urbanized) parts of the state, where physicians are in short supply. Thanks to the N.C. Institute of Medicine, the legislature has a decent road map for improving the situation. A number of state agencies and health nonprofits have made the […]

By BOB OKON Staff writer http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com Illinois doctors have hired Theodore Olson, former solicitor general of the United States, to aid them in a legal showdown over the future of tort reform. As solicitor general for President Bush from 2001 to 2004, Olson supervised government litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Illinois State Medical […]

By Josh Fischman http://www.usnews.com Elsie Bishop didn’t expect to die in New Mexico. The 74-year-old left her Arkansas home in the summer of 2004 on a driving vacation with a friend and reached Santa Fe in early September. After dinner one night, she complained of extreme nausea, and an ambulance took her to a local […]