Miraculous self cure for stroke! (and other internet lore)

In Featured by Edmund KwokLeave a Comment

One of the privileges (or annoyances, depending on who you ask) of being a medical professional is having your family and friends coming to you for anything that is medically related. They no longer trust their own family doctors; they question all the new medical advice they see on television; and they will simply not start any medications or go through any medical procedures without a phone conversation with you to see if …

From Full Code to No Code.

In Featured by Edmund Kwok1 Comment

As the saying goes, there’s only two certainties in life: death and taxes. While it is true everyone will die someday, modern medicine has advanced to the point where we can keep people physiologically alive well beyond the point of any meaningful functional recovery. But just because we can potentially restart patients’ hearts after they die and make them dependent on ventilators and vasopressors, does that mean we should? Descartes’ famous cogito ergo …

This Just in! BIBEMS suppositorium stat! [LOL]

In Commentary, Opinion by Nadim LalaniLeave a Comment

My good friend and colleague Mark Wahba [read his brilliant ideas here]gave a talk at half day … he referred to a patient as a “BIBEM“. … I am thinking ” what’s a BIBEM? [as in Justin Bieber]” – NO!  … turns out that this stands for Brought In By EMS. Later that night I was charting “No ROS; Note S/S Infxn and RTER; Scar teaching √” These are what we call “Acronyms” …

The doctors Strike back.

In Featured by Edmund KwokLeave a Comment

Workers in Canada going on strike seem to occur so often these days that we barely bat our eyes at it anymore. As you casually flip through the morning paper, you read about another Air Canada strike. You shrug your shoulders and grudgingly expect your next flight to be delayed. The post office is walking out? Better send that birthday gift by FedEx. The city garbage/recycling services are protesting? You mentally prepare for …

ER Wait Times – do you know what it is?

In Featured by Edmund KwokLeave a Comment

“Woman dies in emergency waiting room.” – CBC News, Oct 11 2002 “We warned of ER deaths.” – The Vancouver Sun, Apr 27 2006 “Another death in … hospital waiting room.” – Winnipeg Free Press, Sept 26 2008 These are the headlines that the public is constantly bombarded with over the years with regards to ER wait times. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that the emergency waiting room is the …

What is a Physician Worth?

In Featured by Edmund Kwok4 Comments

Imagine you were in control of healthcare spending. How much would you pay a doctor a year? Write that number down. Now let me rephrase that question. Let’s say you were in a terrible motor vehicle accident, and you and a loved one suffered life-threatening injuries. The doctor at the hospital (which is on the ready 24/7 for you), who has spent over 9 years of post-graduate training to ensure you get appropriate …