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By PARTNERS IN HEALTH We are deeply grateful for the multitude of people who have contacted us wanting to provide medical assistance. At this time, while we wish we could use all of the support so generously offered, we are…  Read More →

External fixators — like the rig pictured at right — can work wonders for fractures. But in post-earthquake Haiti, a fixator can also be a liability. A few days ago, a patient showed up at a field hospital near the Port-au-Prince airport with an advanced infection around the pin sites in a fixator in his leg. The leg had to be amputated... 

The USNS Comfort, a converted supertanker that is now a Navy hospital ship, opened its 12 operating rooms and 1,000 beds to Haiti earthquake victims even before it dropped anchor off Port-au-Prince. Patients started landing Tuesday night via helicopter, including some that had been temporarily cared for on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson... 

Everyone knows that Haitians are in desperate need of aid. Most people don’t know how they might help. Here is some useful information: First, Paul Farmer’s organization, Health Partners , can be trusted. Farmer has spent more than two decades working in Haiti and has done extraordinary work. As Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Tracy Kidder,... 

Nurses for Medicare expressed its disappointment at the Quebec government’s decision to implement user fees for medical visits. In addition to a new health tax that does not vary according to income, the recent Quebec budget calls for patients to pay a $25 fee for each visit. [Original News Article] Related NewsFriends of Medicare suspects Alberta... 

Senate weighs bill proposing to shield emergency-room personnel from malpractice suits A GOP-sponsored bill would make all emergency room medical providers — even at private hospitals — ‘agents of the state’ thus giving them sovereign immunity in medical malpractice lawsuits. BY JOHN FRANK Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE... 

Medical evacuation flights from Haiti to the U.S. started up again after HHS officials said hospitals can receive federal payments equal to 110% of Medicare rates for providing care to Haitians. A flight last night took 17 patients to Palm Beach, according to the Miami Herald . (That’s one of the arrivals in the photo.) The medical evacuations... 

Even as we set out to reform U.S. health care, we continue to train medical students as if they were going to work in the old, broken system. Today, everything about medical education needs to be re-thought, from how we select students for admission to med schools to what we teach them about how to provide safe, patient-centered care. A shocking... 

Fifty seven percent of all health care providers (and probably just as many patients) believe that if you leave the hospital or the emergency department against medical advice, insurance companies will not pay for the visit. Half of doctors surveyed have told or would tell patients that insurance would not pay the bill if they left AMA. via Will... 

One reason thoughtful people worry about government-run health care involves the propensity of the state to abuse its access to medical information. The recent parliamentary election in the UK provides a textbook case: Labour used personal data to send cancer patients alarmist post suggesting their lives could be at risk if a Conservative government... 

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