January 28, 2009 at 10:24 pm (Current Events, Evidence Based Medicine)
Tags: checklist, NEJM, surgery
A group of hospitals in eight cities around the world has shown that the use of a simple surgical checklist during major operations can lower the incidence of deaths and complications by more than one-third. Impressive.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the rate of major complications in the studies operating rooms fell from 11 percent in the baseline period to 7 percent after introduction of the checklist. Wow! That’s quite an impact.
Inpatient deaths following major operations fell more than 40 percent from 1.5 percent to 0.8 percent upon implementation of the checklist. Wow, again. That is certainly an impressive — wait a second. Did I just say 1.5 percent? 1.5? One point five? Percent? I may be a little rusty on my statistics here (or as a rather dim-witted classmate once said to me “I never really got percents) but doesn’t that mean that more than one out of every hundred people undergoing major surgery dies? Holy cow! Lowering that to 0.8 percent still seems, well, pretty crappy.
Sid Schwab, mostly retired general surgeon, wrote on his blog Cutting Through the Crap,
“If I’d had numbers like the pre-study ones in my practice, I’d have been kicked off staff. Summarily, with the post-study ones, I might be on probation. “
And rightfully so. Who are these surgeons and why are they allowed to continue butchering patients? With plenty of fine and skilled technicians out of work and looking for jobs, perhaps a few of these terrible surgeons should be swapped out and replaced with a few average Joes. Who knows…they might reduce their death rate…and stop that annoying drip in the scrub room sink.
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January 26, 2009 at 9:12 pm (Chiropractors & Chiropractic, Spinal Decompression)
Tags: chiropractic, divorce
That’s it. I’ve had it.
I am divorcing you.
We could once co-exist in the same general vicinity as each other. Once we tolerated each others ways. Not anymore.
I am divorcing you.
You idiot one town over who is giving away free gasoline gift cards with an initial exam, we’re through!
I am divorcing you.
You down the street charging $5000 pre-paid for spinal decompression, we are finished.
The big ‘D.’
Hey, former classmate of mine who just plead guilty to bilking half a million bucks in false billings to an insurance company — we’re splitsville.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E-D
I went blog reading the other day and came across two pretty good reads both of which were dotted liberally with stories of unethical chiropractors doing unthinkably moronic things. Know what? I am divorcing myself from the moronic chiropractors who pretend to represent me in this profession. I am not one of you. I feel like an adopted bastard chiropractic step-child.
You are not my siblings. You are not my friends and I refuse to be associated with you any longer.
I am taking my plastic spine model and I’m going home.
I don’t want to play with you any more.
Read the rest of this entry »
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January 23, 2009 at 1:00 pm (Nutrition, Vegan & Vegetarianism)
Tags: china study, Chiropractors & Chiropractic, dairy, facebook, heart disease, leather, plant-based diet, Vegan & Vegetarianism, vegetarian
Vegetarian eggs
I don’t care what you eat. I really don’t. If you’re one of those people who is on the doughnut and bacon double cheeseburger plan to ensure an early path to heart disease, that’s fine with me. It’s a choice you are allowed to make and I honor that. Seriously.
I also couldn’t care less about your freaking shoes. Leather? Plastic? Paper? Whatever. Okay, so I did join a Facebook group called “I don’t care how comfortable they are, you look like a dumbass in Crocs” but it’s really not a big deal to me. It’s not like I started the group — I just thought it was funny. So, I’m certainly not going to get all uppity about killing a cow for footwear. In fact, I got some pretty harsh looks from that pale chick who works in the health food grocery the other day. I kind of went in to shop wearing my black leather jacket and leather shoes. She scowled at me like the cow was still attached and I was dragging it along the aisles behind me. Moooo. Listen up: leather is a fine product and wears a whole lot better than clothing from Wal*Targ that feels like it’s made of cheese.
Oh, so speaking of cheese, have you noticed that milk is not a vegetable? Yeah, I hate to be the one to burst your balloon, but it’s true. I only bring this up since after reading The China Study, my wife and I have eaten only a vegan diet. If you don’t know the difference between vegan and vegetarian, here it is:
A vegan diet is one of only plant based foods with no animal products.
A vegetarian is the same thing except they think milk, eggs and sometimes fish are plants.
I don’t care if someone chooses to be a vegetarian or vegan or pescatarian or Episcopalian. This is not a rant about hypocrisy. It’s a rant about why the hell is there cheese and eggs in vegetarian products? Why can’t I pull a prepared thing out of my friendly grocer’s freezer that is labeled “vegetarian” (like veggie sausage) only to find it is made with milk and eggs? When did cow’s milk and chicken embryos become vegetables? If my kids plant a fish upside down in the dirt am I going to get a minnow tree?
There should be a different labeling system for products that are non-meat but still contain animal products like dairy. Vegetarian is a lousy term for that. How about “Non-Meat”? “Veggie but Cheesy”? “Eggful Veg”? Got a better term? According to my son, the best description is “Made from Things That Poop” and “Not Made From Things That Poop.” Okay, I’m cool with that.
Brett L. Kinsler is a chiropractor in Rochester, NY who keeps his vegan Star Wars lunchbox right next to his leather jacket. Clinic website: www.rochesterchiro.com
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January 16, 2009 at 11:59 pm (Alternative Medicine Products, Current Events, Nutrition, Patient Information, Patient Resources, Uncategorized)
Tags: Chiropractors & Chiropractic, class action, coca-cola, CSPI, enhanced water, Vitamin Water
Back in September I wrote about enhanced water (It’s More Watery Than Water). Looks like the Coca-Cola is now going to have a little trouble with their VitaminWater product. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has decided that Coca-Cola’s line of VitaminWater drinks is not really vitaminy enough nor is it watery enough. Coke is being sued for deceptive and unsubstantiated claims via a class action lawsuit.
The drinks are positioned as a healthy alternative to soda and make claims including that its drinks variously reduce the risk of chronic disease, reduce the risk of eye disease, promote healthy joints, and support optimal immune function. Buzzwords like the “power of triple antioxidants to help keep you healthy and fight free radicals” and “it is definitely au naturel” are included.
Statements like that might make a buyer assume that the product is, I don’t know, filled with powerful antioxidents. And, I don’t know, healthy?
In reality, VitaminWater has a lot of added sugar (about the same as a can of soda) and contains between zero and less than 1 percent juice (depending on the flavor) thus doing more to promote obesity and diabetes than fix health problems.
Saying that a food is “natural” is meaningless when it comes to health. Both Salmonella bacteria and arsenic are natural but you wouldn’t want to drink them.
It gets sillier. The VitaminWater flavor ”XXX Blueberry Pomegranate Acai,” for example, contains no blueberry, no pomegranate, and no acai juice. The other flavors lack their claimed namesake’s cranberry, grapefruit, dragon fruit, peach, mango, kiwi, or strawberry juice .
Okay, even if the nutrients listed are in the product that means nothing about the impact it may have on your health. “Vitamins + Water = all you need.” O rly? Recent studies show that the effects a nutrient may have in isolation do not match the effects when the same nutrient is combined synergistically with the other nutrients present in its original, raw, whole food form.
Bottom line it for me Doc, would ya? Sure, faithful blog reader! Thirsty and looking to avoid soda in favor of a healthier beverage? Great. VitaminWater isn’t it. How about just plain water? Want some antioxidants with it? Have a piece of fruit.
Dr. Brett L. Kinsler is a chiropractor in Rochester, NY and is available most days for a drink but not VitaminWater because it’s silly.
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January 14, 2009 at 11:40 am (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Chiropractors & Chiropractic, Ergonomics, Inventions, Patient Information, Patient Resources, Website Recommendations)
Tags: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Chiropractors & Chiropractic, Ergonomics, keyboards, smartfish
Engadget is reporting on a sighting at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas– an invention by Englewood, NJ chiropractor Jack Atzmon. Dr. Atzmon developed a regular-sized keyboard that contains a small motor and enough computer power to tilt slightly every so often — on three different axes — thus moving the user’s typing position.
His production company, Smartfish, has not conducted any clinical trials to support the theory, but it collaborated with the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan on the keyboard design.
A design such as this has the potential to decrease the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome. Ergonomic keyboards are nothing new, but Atzmon’s appears to be a novel approach.
Atzmon had the idea for his keyboard during a trip to a Best Buy about two years ago. He realized that by having the keyboard itself move slightly every so often, it would shift the angle of a typist’s wrists and keep the carpal tunnel region from staying in the same position all the time.
Smartfish’s Pro:Motion keyboard, with a suggested retail price of $130, moves every 4,000 to 6,000 keystrokes, according to the company.
It remembers the last user’s typing pattern and will reposition itself about eight times a day. It also knows when you pause, and moves only then, so it doesn’t interrupt work flow.
Atzmon says his 20 years of chiropractic training and experience, including treating people with repetitive stress injuries related to typing, helped spark the inventor side of his brain. “Chiropractors are not taught to treat pain; we’re taught to fix it.”
About the same time, he injured his own arm while swimming with his kids, limiting his ability to perform chiropractic adjustments and giving him both the time and the motivation to turn his idea into a real product.
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January 13, 2009 at 3:54 pm (Alternative Medicine, Autism, Patient Information, Patient Resources, Vaccination, Website Recommendations)
Tags: Autism, nasa, new york times, Vaccination
Not really…but I thought you might like to see the Anti-Vaccination quote of the day:
“Many doctors now argue that reporters should treat the antivaccine lobby with the same indifference they do Holocaust deniers, AIDS deniers and those claiming to have proof that NASA faked the Moon landings. “
Read this article on the lack of a link between autism and vaccination in the New York Times, see the link below:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13auti.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
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January 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm (ACA, Chiropractic Legislation, Chiropractors & Chiropractic, Patient Information, Patient Resources, Website Recommendations)
Tags: advocacy, american chiropractic association, chiropractic patients, Chiropractors & Chiropractic, grassroots
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January 6, 2009 at 11:28 pm (Chiropractors & Chiropractic, Evidence Based Medicine, Evidence Informed Chiropractic, Patient Information, Patient Resources, Website Recommendations, West Hartford Group)
Tags: Evidence Based Medicine, Evidence Informed Chiropractic, think tank, websites, West Hartford Group, WHG
The West Hartford Group, Inc., (WHG) is a chiropractic think tank dedicated to the advancement of the chiropractic profession in an ethical, responsible, evidence-based way. The WHG is a pro-active and positive force moving in the direction of cultural, social and professional authority to improve the profession’s standing within the health care system and society.
Some of the members of WHG include such chiropractic notables as Michael Schneider, Richard Vincent, Stephen Perle, Donald R. Murphy, John J. Triano, David Seaman and Lawrence Wyatt.
The West Hartford Group’s website was launched today. Soon, position papers and other information will be added to help promote the non-surgical, patient-centered, spinal specialist model embraced by the think tank. The website is located at: www.WestHartfordGroup.com
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