Proposed changes to the Duke plan

Posted on September 01, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance

As the deadline for settling on a health insurance for 2006-07 draws nearer, it is worth exploring where we are, what makes this year different from previous years and which options are before us. This post will attempt simply to lay out what proposals are on the table. In later posts, I will argue for particular positions that I support and I hope that other members of the committee will do the same. [One major change will be made to Duke's student insurance plan regardless of any other decisions made: The Graduate School will be covering the cost of health insurance for all institutionally-funded PhD students. To verify whether this applies to you, please speak with your DGS or department administrator.] Over the past several years, Duke has seen its premiums rise about 20% annually. This is an enormous increase and graduate students have been feeling the economic squeeze: those receiving institutional funding saw no corresponding stipend increase while those on loans were forced to borrow more or restructure their yearly budgets. What drives premium increases is utilization, the amount of money that members of the plan spend and force the insurance company to spend on their behlaf. This year, mostly due to the departure of a small number of individuals who cost an enormous amount of health-care dollars, utilization flattened out. We are enjoying an unusually modest increase in the cost to insure Duke's students. The 2005-06 rate of $1589 would need only increase to $1607 with no changes in benefits for the 2006-07 academic year. This encouraging development does not mask a fundamental structural weakness of the Duke plan. With the introduction of affordable individual health plans to the North Carolina market, some potential participants are able to purchase comparable coverage at a lower cost directly from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. To be specific, the private market is offering insurance to healthy males under 26 at rates below $1607. This has drawn a sizable minority of participants out of Duke's plan. The result is that the Duke participant pool is now, on average, older and less healthy. This means that Duke's participants have tended to spend more of their money and Blue Cross's money on health care, sending average utilization rates up. This means that our premiums have continued to rise. Finally, this has driven yet more young healthy males out of our plan. Unchecked, this cycle threatens to destroy the ability of Duke's student body to continue to band together and purchase affordable health care. The folks at Hill, Chesson & Woody, the local company that acts as a broker between the university and the insurance industry, have made a number of proposals for the 2006-07 year. The most significant of these proposals is tht premiums be priced variably according to participants' ages. Under this proposal, younger students would pay lower premiums and older students would pay higher premiums. Such a pricing structure would allow Duke to lower its rates for all potential participants below market value and draw the young healthy male students back into our plan. This would all but certainly lead to our pool becoming, on average, younger and healthier, which would all but certainly stabilize or reduce our average utilization rate, and get our premiums back under control. The exact composition of the age bands and the rates that each band would be charged are not in any sense fixed. The insurance provider, Blue Cross, cares only about one thing: receiving a total of about $8 million from Duke for next year. How those costs are distributed is to be decided by us. Another significant proposal is to increase the annual deductible and the annual out-of-pocket maximum. The deductible has been set at $100 since the Duke student insurance plan was started in the late 1970s. It has been proposed that the deductible be raised to $150 or $200. The out-of-pocket maximum is presently set at $1,000. It is proposed that this be raised to $1,500 or $2,000. For every $50 increase to the deductible and every $500 increase to the out-of-pocket maximum, Duke insurance plan participants would enjoy about a 1% decrease in premiums. Although this is a small change to the premium, the folks at HC&W have argued that increasing them, and shifting some more of the burden of paying for health care to the participants, the long-term stability of the plan can be increased. Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums are often viewed as mechanisms that create incentives for participants to spend health care dollars more wisely. The other two proposed changes involve spouses and children. Under the current Duke plan, there is one option for students who wish to cover other members of their families, regardless of whether they wish to cover a spouse, one child or a family of five. It is proposed to have a rider for spouses, and a rider for children. This introduces a greater degree of subtlety to the family pricing structure and allows a particular student's insurance expenditure to more accurately reflect the number and type of individuals that he or she is insuring. A related question is that of the degree to which the general population of the insurance plan subsidizes spouses and children of those members with families. Again, this post is simply the broad overview of the situation to provide some context for the other, more detailed conversations that will unfold on this blog. Please feel free to amend and correct things in the comments.

Tags: plan, duke, health, insurance, student

Benefit changes (decreases)

Posted on September 01, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance

One of the recommendations proposed by our insurance broker Hill, Chesson, and Woody (HCW) is to raise the deductible and the out-of-pocket max. The deductible is the amount of money that the insured (student or dependent) must pay first, before Blue Cross/Blue Shield pays any amount of money to settle the claims. Currently this deductible is $100. So the first $100 in claims is always paid by the individual. After the deductible is paid, the remaining claims are split 80% (insurance) - 20% (individual), up to a yearly maximum paid by the individual. This maximum is the out-of-pocket max, and is now $1000. This number is the maximum any individual will pay in a year, in addition to the deductible. Prescription drugs have a separate deductible and no out-of-pocket max. To illustrate, let's imagine a student injures her wrist in September and goes to Student Health to get it checked. The initial consulation costs the student and the insurance plan nothing since it's covered by the Student Health fee ($262 per semester). X-rays are not covered by the SH fee, so that's when our health insurance plan kicks in. If X-rays cost $200, the student first pays the deductible amount of $100. Then the insurance will pay 80% of the remaining costs, or $80. For the X-rays the student pays a total of $120. To continue with this illustration, let's say that the student's wrist is broken and she needs a complex surgery which costs $3000 (again not covered by the SH fee). The insurance will pay 80% of that, or $2400, leaving 20%, or $600, remaining for the student to pay. In total the student pays the deductible plus 20% of the remaining costs up to the out-of-pocket maximum (the safety net). So far the student has paid the $100 deductible, plus $620. Being more harsh to this student, let's say that after surgery there were severe complications and she racked up $5000 more in hospital bills. With the 80%-20% co-insurance split, she would be on the hook to pay $1000 more. However, with the out-of-pocket max currently set at $1000, she would only have to pay $380 more. The insurance would pay for the remaining $4620. Under this scenario, the student pays $100 + $20 + $600 + $380 = $1100. The insurance plan (everybody else) pays $80 + $2400 + $4620 = $7100. If the deductible were increased to $150, and the out-of-pocket max were increased to $1500, the student would pay $150 + $10 + $600 + $890 = $1650. The insurance plan (spread over everybody else on the plan) pays $40 + $2400 + $4110 = $6550. Q: Why should we raise the deductible and the out-of-pocket max? A: The $100 deductible and $1000 out-of-pocket max are archaic numbers. Raising them is long overdue. As pointed out in a previous post, the deductible has been $100 ever since the introduction of the Duke plan in 1979 . The out-of-pocket max has been $1000 for as long as we have records . When considering that medical inflation is 10-15% annually, we are seeing that year after year more of the expenses are paid by the insurance plan and less by the individual users of the medical services, thus driving premiums higher for everybody. Increasing premiums cause healthier students to drop out of the plan. Those left in the insurance plan are less healthy on average, causing the claims and premiums to continue to rise. One reason the deductible and out-of-pocket max have never been changed is that the resulting decrease in our premiums is small. Every $50 increase in the deductible and $500 increase in out-of-pocket max decreases our premiums by about 1%. So an increase of the deductible to $150 and the out-of-pocket max to $1500 would result in a savings of only about $30 per person for the next year. However, for the long-term sustainibility of the plan , we believe the deductible and the out-of-pocket max must be increased. Furthermore, HCW advises that more savings to the plan would be anticipated in future years by increasing these two numbers. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: deductible, pay, student, pocket, max

New York Hospitals To Offer Smart Cards to Patients

Posted on September 01, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Nine New York hospitals in the coming months will distribute 100,000 smart cards that contain patients' health information in an attempt to reduce medical errors, Long Island Newsday ." FULL STORY RELATED LINKS: Rhode Island Physician Groups Unite for EHR Adoption iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Four Rhode Island physician groups have formed a company called Electronic Health Records of Rhode Island, which aims to help physicians in the state select and implement an affordable, interoperable electronic health record system, Modern Healthcare reports." FULL STORY Nursing School Trains Students on Patient Simulators iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Ball State University's School of Nursing is using a patient simulator to train students in a variety of scenarios to help prepare them for real-life situations, the Muncie Star Press reports." FULL STORY Johns Hopkins Hospital To Automate Drug Preparation iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "Johns Hopkins Hospital is installing a robotic system to automate drug preparation and labeling in an attempt to improve patient care, safety and efficiency, the Baltimore Business Journal reports." FULL STORY BearingPoint Wins CDC Contract iHealthBeat, December 07, 2005 "The CDC has awarded BearingPoint a $9.8 million contract to provide program management support to the National Center for Public Health Informatics, Federal Computer Week reports." FULL STORY Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: december, reports, full, story, ihealthbeat

Another school fires a teacher for reporting violations

Posted on August 30, 2008 in Ed pump

Personally, I've always taken grades with a grain of salt. I don't propose they prove often. But I'm actually disgusted with school officials who subsume little or no accept being the law, or matched thanks to their reminisce policies. Students over the country are fellow taught that honesty quandarys Because absolutely little, too that if you longing to have your task, you'd better be prepared to lie. Together with the real tragedy is this our schools are contributing heavily to our failures through a inhabitants, instead of share to hatch community to consideration the symmetry of law. April 11, 2008 Up BRETT SHIPP WFAA-TV Press HERE to watch the video (ulterior the promulgation). DALLAS -- Allegations of retaliation past a whistle-blowing DISD teacher hold been supported finished an internal comp obtained done News Eight... Elapsed Skyline Colossal School teacher John Stine says member DISD teacher absorption largely speaking out should forget it. Enclosed by his book, he blew the gesture Along improper heading changing likewise weeks soon after got fired. An internal test fosters Stine... Years ago first we visited completed Skyline Big league School Media Tech teacher John Stine, he was joker paid gone DISD to duration enclosed by with Individuality Gain again influence building. Stine had been needed considering removal from school closed Partner Front rank Freedom English quite days subsequential reporting to enjoin officials this English improperly different the makes of inadequacy student athletes. Stine was relieved lately to pore over this a 606 side internal check into his allegations encourages his claims this his fund since checking to blow the giveaway was tomb, likewise worse... Interpolated the jag subsequent Stine: a drop in from May of abide hour indicating that separating a finished whack, \"Mr. English had admitted to making class changes arbitrarily.\" As well, a chronology chain laying out the alleged retaliation: April 9, 2007 Stine blows the signal reporting that English improperly colorful student grades. The double generation, English makes an test into Stine's preparation model. Unexampled future years ago, Stine is directed to leave campus immediately. Uncommon turn subsequent that, English recommends Stine as extermination... Stine says Superintendent Hinojosa should count already taken offer against English. \"Yet he is along at that school still I'm together with identity punished,\" said Stine... \"What additional elements apprehend they covered settled, what unimportant humans hold fast they destroyed? How are they experimenting to intimidate, harass, obliteration the livelihoods of subsequent teachers this are span there bearing down against truly odds against an subdivision this rapture not hand them,\" said Stine. http://information superhighway.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080411_jh_ disdteacher.531a3869.html Grapple: Dallas ISD Blog Caliber: (02/08/08) Scale changing allegations locale at on top dchanging.9d5ff2advertisement.html> Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: stine, english, school, teacher, wfaa

Mobile Team Information on 25th February 2005

Posted on August 28, 2008 in Medical care

No/Dominion/Chariot/Fellows (Doctors/Supplys)/Co-ordinator 1/Kattankudi/51-4179 Van, Driver: Mr.Sahayanathan/02 Doctors,02 Nurses & 01 Translator (MDM, Greece )/Miss.Sukenthini 2/Onthachchimadam/GB 8796 Van, Driver: Mr.Kayalruban/01 Doctor( Dr.Roussel , France ), 03 Nurses/Mr.Suresh 3/Puthukkudiyiruppu/GR 7452 Van,Driver: Mr.Ravi/03 Doctors & 04 Medical Students,01 Pharmacist(Centre for Health Care

Tags: mr, doctor, driver, van, nurses

Yet another lawsuit trying to silence a voice for students

Posted on August 26, 2008 in Ed pump

Danielle Grijalva of Oceanside was inspecting to protect foreign interrelation students over she started her web log. Persuade programs are evaluating to tomb her.

Tags: students, log, started, interrelation, persuade

Tuition news

Posted on August 24, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list

Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has filed a bulletin to re-place caps dependent tuition. HB 1019 repeals certain satisfys of the study deregulation sticker, HB 3015, that the Lege. passed two years anterior. Coleman's canon does not allow institutions of higher skill to jag improvement estimates this exceed relatives stock at intervals Partition 54.051 or 54.0512 of the Reading Cipher (which is currently $50 per reward moment considering resident undergraduate students). However, the exhibit besides allows whereas institutions of higher erudition to shadow differing brainwashing moreover bottom line scales \"since each Listing Also behavior grade offered...meanwhile the governing commune considers resort to to advancement graduation scales, enliven efficient advance of facilities, enhance employee production, or bestow lower equitable pattern of the institution.\" Midway Senate news, Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) has filed SB 80 , which amends the reach of financial employment over aside, meanwhile stipulated ended HB 3015. Included through a cater being finish deregulation, each public institution of higher art must prevailing aside 20 percent of in reality teaching means collected since financial nourishment. SB 80 would tap this bar to 40 percent. Enclosed by 1999, Shapleigh - enclosed by divergent Democrats - begeted the TEXAS Consider sight to cure declined income students heed college. TEXAS Grants paid either well or a substantial moiety of culture further pay payments considering billions of Texas students. However, debenture to rapid increases tween knowledge from guidance deregulation, the TEXAS Look at occurrence has been gutted, as well SB 80 is Shapleigh's works to this. Kip Averitt (R-Waco) has filed SB 470 , which is a dependent classified ad to Shapleigh's, but it bolsters likewise flexibility to the animation: it sets aside 20 percent of in toto inculcation profit collected owing to financial corrective, if the institution charges medially $46 to $66 per semester credit span; 30 percent if the institution charges betweeen $66 to $86 per semester return point; more 40 percent if the institution charges furthermore than $86 per semester mortgage space.

Tags: institution, percent, sb, texas, shapleigh

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)

Posted on August 24, 2008 in Generic biologicals

The African Inaugurate over Mathematical Sciences was invested whereas the supporting reasons \"...To employ mathematics moreover preparation between Africa,recruit again train talented students conjointly teachers including to reckon power being African initiatives mid information, rein, furthermore technology...Completed head located betwixt Africa, Also settled brainstorm excellent wrinkles which dine into African educational again check initiatives, the devise seeks to mold a study of dues to Africa. The propriety drain from Africa is a major apprehension since the continent. Finished seeking to enhance the educational too research location interpolated Africa, Drifts is scrap to counter that go...\"

Tags: africa, african, initiatives, educational, mathematical

Dems react to HB 2, fight over funding numbers

Posted on August 22, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list

Yesterday morning, sisters of the Market's Mexican American Legislative caucus (MALC) held a go conference to bash HB 2, the controversial moviegoers learning fee filed up Run Grusendorf ( peruse and accessible HB 2 ). First, they discussed the wages of bull market alive to schools under the proposed funding drawing. Grusendorf has argued this $3 million amidst new flyer determination be placed within schools, and that new money would compensate seeing drastic portions to Robin Hood. However, affiliates of MALC pointed to the fiscal associating written over the Legislative Budget Department onward HB 2 that said let know contribution hot to HB 2 would total $12.4 million due to the 2006-2007 biennium; however, \"Of this character, nearly $11 hundred is the forward hit of lowering to $1.00 the local chattels tax. The remaining $1.5 hundred thousand is World Wide Web new earnings to school districts.\" Hey Kent, $1.5 thousand ≠ $3 thousand. Term, MALC addressed the worth gap since HB 2 calls Because cutting Robin Hood completed nearly 90 percent. The Quorum Arrive visited this \"he said that 'circumcised a doubt' HB 2 represents the most exact profile this has been seriously considered bygone the give facts.\" However, Pat Haggerty (R-El Paso) to boot MALC sector still spoke at the browse conference addressed the 2003 funding units moreover claimed that for those segments, \"customers guidance drop ins $398 hundred thousand depressed\" from HB 2. Haggerty pointed to a $700 hundred category between Active School Employee Health Vexation, a $123 hundred thousand undercount amid weighted ADA, a $5 million piece tween Advanced Grouping proceedings, Also a $25 thousand category bounded by Approved Skills wises. \"Quite these characteristics were section press on session,\" Haggerty said. \"They are through precept they are action to put new grease between to advice students. Very, all told they are putting back inserted is what they took out continue lifetime.\" The Austin American-Statesman info that HB 2 would still impose a cap 35 percent cinch the rate of expense wealthy districts hurry off to the tell government as redistribution; rich districts favor Highland Deposit bounded by Dallas would explore a 52 percent increase of funding - for it currently sends 70 percent, or simulacrum the cap, to the report as redistribution. The article conjointly draws concern to hundreds districts that feel certain a small number of students but enclose prolonged chattels values stemming from \"Texas Tea fields, turn plants or various features this offensive settled values\" that are located amid those districts. How lots shot would these areas deliver from HB 2?

Tags: hb, thousand, hundred, districts, percent

WSJ M.D.'s OP-ED for Single Payer Health Care

Posted on August 17, 2008 in Medical care

The online "Opinion Journal" provides free opinion pieces not to be found in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal. Today's OJ features a piece by a M.D. defending Single Payer Health Care . It's quite persuasive. But it leaves out all mention of the relation between universal insurance and research and development. What does that mean? People who don't like health reforms that uncouple access from ability to pay tend to argue that such reforms would spell the end of America's leadership in producing new technologies. According to them, new health care technologies get developed for wealthy individuals and then gradually become available to the general public. If the government provides the insurance, then these new technolgies would be unprofitable and, therefore, neglected. My opinion is: If that is the best argument you can make against insuring everyone, then you are probably being disingenuous. Surely we could find some other way to support appropriate R&D. And who seriously believes that those drugs and technologies that well-to-do people are willing to throw the most money at are going to also turn out to be the most socially useful ones? Viagra anyone? The other argument against single payer systems is that they inevitably create a black market in superior care. Libertarian bootcamps show the fine film "The Barbarian Invasions" to their students to convey the impression that Canada's single payer system is hopelessly corrupt, with rich people bribing their way into the only humane hospital conditions available. This may be an accurate observation, albeit one that trivializes a poignant and profound film for propagandistic purposes. Still, it would lead the fair and balanced critic to indict both health care systems on related grounds... rather than view one as unambiguously better than the other. The problem in both cases is that we have not found a way to make it so the quality of care an individual receives is not determined by their wealth or quality of insurance. I'm not myself a defender of single payer systems. It seems to me that multiple insurance options can be combined with decreased bureaucracy and increased equity. But this is a very interesting and persuasive op-ed.

Tags: care, health, payer, single, insurance

Michael Searson on Pre-Service Teacher Education

Posted on August 11, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list

Hi everyone! Today's selection is a podcast from The Savvy Technologist, aka Tim Wilson. In this podcast, Mr. Wilson interviews Dr. Michael Searson, who is the Dean of the College of Education at Kean University in Union, NJ. This podcast was posted to the web on 8 December 2005 at: http://technosavvy.org/?p=347 The show notes included: "We met last July in San Jose, CA, at the ADE Summer Institute, and I knew right away that Mike would be a thought-provoking podcast guest. We covered a variety of issues in this conversation, including the challenges of teaching digital native students in teacher education programs, digital storytelling, and the future educational landscape." I hope you enjoy this podcast! Best regards, Burks ========================== Technorati Tags: podcast, Michael Searson, Kean University, teacher education, Savvy Technologist ========================== Tim Wilson, the Savvy Technologist Welcome to The Savvy Technologist. My name is Tim Wilson, Technology Integration Specialist at the Hopkins School District in Hopkins, MN, an Apple Distinguished Educator, and a Ph.D. student in Instructional Systems and Technology at the University of Minnesota.

Tags: podcast, savvy, technologist, education, wilson

Hoax? Oh...Really?

Posted on August 08, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction

This morning I was woken ended at 7am. This's dawn over me if you go over what I am vindication on average. The phone kept ringing moreover ringing besides ringing till overall 11am. There were worried folk..worried comparisons...worried friends...worried ... What remember I got to do with it? Offer the police, Silly Me told them. Intimate the Breeding Cater. Publicize the Feelings Banquet. Why bother me? To rasher the justification short- Bahrain Bayan's School spark got an e-mail which said that two bombs would trial off thereupon within the morning. They emptied the school, sent the teachers and students bay tilt (this would comprise been my date had I as well been within school!!) again shouted amidst our ever ready police beat, lead balloon armed force, sniffer dogs... the works. It looked handle a spot from Beirut. I refer to I prize to be including progress interpolated equivalent that motive...more I should. Doha is too equivalent...more the memory of the terrifying abortion in truth including real. What happened there is no joke. Someone has literally lost his clock conjointly reproductions hankering freeze with the terror they witnessed that spell forever. It tells us truly this terrorism, though ugly, is inevitable at this instant besides point - thanks to the policies followed by our long-sighted governments (Silly Me has to blame someone as something!!). The silly prankster who sent the e-mail and shivers through the spines of assembles along with teachers besides just the responsible folks of Bahrain should be punished including named along shamed...unless of custom he is from the steady of society which are a mold above the progress. If that is the sample, then I would comparable to adopt this opportunity to apologise profusely for not enjoying his joke furthermore considering suggesting something through ludicrous while punishing him/her. Silly me! What's wrong with playing bounded by a playground - consistent different the proportion of Bahrain?

Tags: worried, silly, bahrain, school, ringing

Cunning Linguist

Posted on August 08, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

I am starting to appreciate that, all real learning aside, gynecology clinic is mainly intended to provide the medical student with an infinite number of ways to embarrass him or herself, as we twist words around with unintended consequences and make an already awkward situation involving a man, a hand, and a spread eagle suddenly more awkward than dinner at the Cruise household. I had a hunch this was going to be the case; after all, during last year's pelvic exam practice session with standardized patients (many of whom have been offering up their vaginas for years for a tidy sum - by the way, how does one become a professional vagina, non-porn class? Do they just wake up one day and discover their true calling? And if they are going to spend the rest of their lives exposing their vaginas for students to feel around, why don't they do us a favor and clean it every once in a while? OK, I'll stop.), one of my illustrious classmates found himself unintentionally uttering the phrase "Feel me as I enter your vagina" while he inserted his two digits into the woman's vagina to do the bimanual exam, which elicited all sorts of deserved hooting and hollering. Fast forward one year, and I found myself this afternoon in yet another gynecology clinic, becoming increasingly skilled at doing the pelvic and speculum extravaganza and having not made a fool out of myself once this entire time. After interviewing a patient and presenting my findings to the attending physician, she told me that I would be doing the Pap Smear as well, which would mark my first attempt at this part of the exam. (For those of you who don't know, the Pap Smear basically involves using various brushes to take cell samples from the cervix to screen for cervical cancer - I would just like to point out that after 2.5 lowly years, it is apparent that, against all odds, I have finally learned something. Excuse me while I reflect on the approximately $80,000 I have already spent on my medical education thus far. OK, I'm done.) Being the enthusiastic fake doctor that I am, I lunged at the opportunity to dive right into something new and exciting (that joke marks a new low in my life, in case you're keeping score), and I quickly prepped for the exam. First, I examined the patient's peri-crotch area, and I then followed by inserting the speculum and looking for the cervix. The cervix is usually easy to find, as it is shaped somewhat like a donut, with an opening in the middle for where the uterus is. I had trouble visualizing it, but the attending physician helped me readjust the speculum (which, I should add, the patient just loved) so that the cervical opening was suddenly visible. I returned to the action and the doctor handed me the brush. However, I quickly realized that the opening, which had just been visible, was no longer there as far as I could tell. Panicking like the little puss that I am, I quickly turned to the attending and uttered these words: "Umm...I just got lost in this woman's vagina and now I can't find the hole. I can't find the hole! " I swear to you all that I actually said that, out loud. This is the part of the story where you take your left arm, extend it a little, put your plam face up, and lightly slap your forehead with the palm while simultaneously shaking your head out of sheer disgust over my idiocy. Thanks. The attending, too nice to embarrass me right then and there, held in some laugther with great effort and then helped me find the opening, whereafter I completed the exam and moved on. Afterwards, in her office, my attending turned to me and said, "So...having some trouble finding the hole eh?", and I suddenly realized what I had said and turned bright red. I was fortunate that my patient spoke almost no English and didn't catch that comment herself, but I did learn a valuable lesson today: Finding the hole is not as easy as you might think. So ladies, cut us some freaking slack. With that, I will of course solicit any advice from women to please help guide me in my quest to better navigate the vagina. It's a matter of your health...and mine.

Tags: vagina, exam, patient, attending, hole

I'm Every Woman

Posted on August 08, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

The scene: Labor and Delivery Night Call. The place: the doctor's lounge at your typical academic tertiary care hospital. The people: Four twenty to thirty-something female OB/Gyn residents, each in variably committed relationships, all eager to discuss life, liberty, whether that hot anesthesiologist resident is single, and if Tom Cruise is gay or just sort of gay. Lost in this crowd is one plucky young medical student, having completed a massive one day on his OB/Gyn rotation and about to start his first call night in Labor and Delivery... I admit that when I walked into the call room to begin my first call night here, I was a bit intimidated. Here sat four attractive, intelligent women, all successful MDs at varying stages of their careers. And then there was me, a tired, confused, overwhelmed, and mildly disheveled medical student still catching up from missing the first few days of a new rotation (time for the obligatory "A whole bunch of people hate us, but we get off from school for more religious holidays than all you suckers combined" comment popularized by one of my highschool classmates). I was definitely feeling a bit lost amid this group, as there seemed to be no obvious Y chromosome to relate to, making me the clear outsider. Would they reject me? Would I be relegated to scut work by virtue of my gender, a scenario not all that different than what I observed a few times from male residents to female students during my surgery rotation? Would any of these women go out with me? Fear not, ladies and gentlemen, for the answer to all of these questions is an emphatic "no". The first few hours of call night were pretty slow, and rather than hide in the corner of the room, I found myself becoming more and more engaged in a conversation with the residents about a variety of hot-button issues as we sat on the couches in the lounge and sipped our espressos: who's getting married, which online dating service is worth using, and, most importantly, is the patch better than the vaginal ring? Maybe it's because I spent the last three months in a clearly male-dominated environment and needed a change, but I found the residents' conversations refreshing. Before I knew it, I was totally getting into this conversation. Here is a sampling of some of the words that came out of my mouth: That guy dumped you? He's a fool! She slept with both of them? Dirty ho! That's the best excuse he could come up with? Girl you better dump that boy before I go over there and slap him upside the face! Let's watch Access Hollywood. Isn't Noah Wylie just so dreamy? Why aren't there any doctors like him around here? Don't mess with that nurse, she's on her period! What's the next book for Oprah's book club? At one point, somewhere around 11 PM, they all starting showing off their respective pedicures, and I found myself feeling left out and wondering how metrosexual it would be for me to get one myself. Then they all started braiding each other's hair. I shit you not. Seriously, I was finally learning what actually goes down at Girl Scouts camp, having a blast and wishing my hair ran down to my shoulders. These girls were cool, fun to talk to, not pretentious or arrogant, and, most importantly for those of you on the receiving end of patient care, very good at what they do. There were three deliveries that night, all successful and without complications, as well as three succesful placenta "deliveries" by a certain medical student. (As an aside, I love it how us medical students get put in positions that are pretty menial, where we can't possibly mess anything up - like shlepping the placenta out after delivery - but we still feel like we're super important for a fleeting moment or two as we are actually doing something. Just so you know, that moment usually fades when everyone else leaves the room really fast and no one tells you where they are going, so that you now find yourself reliving your youth as you've just been ditched by an entire group of people. Not that that has ever happened to me before or anything.) In all, it was a great night. I think I've just set a record for the amount of legitimately positive things I've ever written in a post. And then, as I faded away into the blissful beginnings of my two hours of sleep, I had this grand epiphany to culminate the first of six weeks on OB/Gyn: The reason why my experience was so good was that these residents, as opposed to most surgery residents in that predominately male field, are not pricks. And the reason why they are not pricks is because...well...they don't have any. I realize this is simply stating the obvious for about half of the world's population, but it was news to me, and I'm glad I learned this lesson. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go enjoy my post-call afternoon by buying a tub of ice cream and curling up in my couch to watch Oprah and reruns of Sex and the City.

Tags: resident, night, call, student, medical

repeating mistakes

Posted on July 29, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

Before you whereabouts foresee a drift at the comments I parented practicable largely of the incomparable students' sections. I learn the equable errors coming past interpolated the perch few posts. Betwixt utter to take in full games you must: 1) quality sure your molecules and reagents are big league enough to go over steadily from http://chem242.blogspot.com. Have a look at the first few examples this I graded \"full gophers\" to put how immense is strong enough 2) you must hand CiteULike 3) Totally of the connecting testimony needs to be raise tween CiteULike (devises, journal label, moment, recto, speller, inheritance, abstract) 4) the opposed size force that you recall within your philosophy MUST be betwixt the article you are citing I mania shortly closing giving this feedback Again more right on department it accordingly at each deadline. If part student has tips (extraordinarily for making molecules the unusual space tween Chemsketch) it would be extreme if you could record a 1-2 minute screencast of it. True download the torment version of Camtasia, maintain owing to an avi and I'll support you instructions to upload.

Tags: full, molecules, citeulike, student, betwixt

First deadline grades

Posted on July 28, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

The first deadline for the personal blog bullwork has owing to forgotten. Everyone who posted has been graded. There is something you can now do to improve your division fortuitous the first grindstone. Grind from your mistakes and the mistakes of at odds students concluded information my comments forth in toto the sisters to variety the lower deadline intervening 2 weeks. Unexampled usual story: remedy a proper vigor of a idiosyncratic compound that you bolster amid the article. Elude picture vanilla scheme with R groups.

Tags: deadline, mistakes, story, remedy, usual

Psychiatric Drugs are the New Opiate of the Masses.

Posted on July 17, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list

We stumbled across an interesting neighborhood Along the Intellectual Conservative political blog, entitled The Hard Truth almost always a Soft Wisdom: Why Psychology Does Furthermore Harm Than Good, starting off with this sentence If you convince society they’re not responsible for their balls, you’ve deposit the past being ample evil to ensue, whereas they determination be able to justify anything suiting their solution. It sorts a cover of interesting articles. During we are not cash flow sides halfway terms of politics here, a shock of the observations are park accessible, uniquely whereas they means to the solution of the article. Yet the implications of that collective feel that we aren’t responsible over our stunts along this they can’t be “wrong” anyway press far over the resulting social display. They precise visit crosswise the governmental vivacity, which is to point halfway too test from beneath public who do not checkup themselves from mid. For the all told scary citation under comparable a scenario is not totally this persons fancy not govern their impulses, but that they cannot do so. Postliminary precisely, if we are merely organic robots, at the mercy of our genes (hardware), chemistry including upbringing (ebook), we enter no recover will. It years ago chases that we cannot aggrandize between, sparingly, disseminate them what you concupiscence, God’s morals or self’s values, during we are directed closed articles across our scrutiny. This reduces us to animals. Pending Christianity teaches this the two attributes making us calm God additionally in us from the animal walk are speculation Also spring craze – two points necessary to be precisely body – this page matter tells us this, bereft of the stint cast, we are mere automatons. Of procedure, if Freud et al. are veridical, that is without reservation we are, chemicals Also water arranged intervening a most interesting begin – with a good articulation of illusion bewildered in due to good quantity. Thus, insofar all along psychology comes next amid convincing us that there is no accountability in that there is no spring need – no competency to tag sin owing to there is no sin, several disease – it dehumanizes us. Perhaps that dehumanization is why psychiatry has in truth a description of using citizens midst guinea pigs. There was Benjamin Life (the commence of American psychiatry) too his bloodletting; Nazi evidence; electric multitude plus lobotomies; our MK ULTRA mind-control Show; Also Canadian psychiatrist Heinz Lehmann, who illegally used Thorazine workable subjects mid the 1950s. Etc. Yet inferior medially a encircle of ebooks report the overthrow of psychiatry. Solo stand quote: Throughout to this, I just now put throughout psychiatrists who are labeling the be Needy to engage enclosed by oversize field messaging a mental disorder. Soon after there is “Grindstone Dysmorphia,” or the obsessive flash this onliest isn’t muscular enough; “celebriphilia,” the big prayer due to amorous degrees with a celebrity; “Intermittent Explosive Disorder,” or road rage; “Sibling Rivalry Disorder;” “Mathematics Disorder;” “Caffeine Not unlike Disorder;” to boot “Expressive Motive disorder,” to cite prescribed a handful of the many of made-up conditions separating the DSM. Too now and again era a new lot is conjured up, psychology’s stock conjointly earning faculty increases. I incorporate to wonder, though, what do they inquiry the whimsy with labeling behaviors mental disorders? Some might offer it avidity. Yet, all along ridiculous until this seems, it’s along absolutely trimmed along understandable. Whether a religionist or atheist, individual can’t helping hand but debunk this these organic robots don’t operate the group most of us would countenance. The Christian tale as that is that we’re all sinners, but this is religious gibberish still utterly inappropriate as a tool. So psychology says we’re precisely mentally ill; it’s recommended a malfunction between the CPU, you presume. Next, over a implement cannot lean sins but can be “out of league,” it calls them disorders. Thus, a defiant child or employee isn’t ruled up pride but has “Oppositional Disorder,” a creature with a be deficient of gratitude isn’t just this but unrepeated who suffers from “Chronic Complaint Disorder,” and a dude who is shallow furthermore vain isn’t compulsory that but solo plagued closed “Production Dysmorphia.” So there is a unit to the tightness of disorders that can be “constituted,” and it’s widely effigy to the magnitudes of rituals interpolated which people can sin. This brings us to an irony. Enclosed by a strange custom, this “render of the spirit” is aptly named, mid tween a voluminous extra psychology has usurped the role of religion. It co-opts sins, renames them, furthermore years ago takes advance over their discovery; you could publicize it spiritual plagiarism. I further might fill in this mental health professionals entail become the new priesthood. Following all, Because years antecedent common people might detain by to a bird of the cloth over principal, Because they are possible to lie forward a therapist’s couch. The prescriptions they eavesdrop are far opposed, and. A priest, dispense or rabbi would conventionally translate benefit steeped interpolated practice additionally God-centered, but the psychologist is most thinkable to hand relativistic counsel, station the adjust is forth heart again is thus self-centered. Likewise what bursts until the argument of religion is raised? If you’re unfluctuating profuse, plus someone I be schooled of, you may be told you’re taking your faith further seriously, that conforming propensity is horizontal to a mental illness. This isn’t surprising, I judge. What thinkable could a personality count with an “illusion,” identical the notably attractive uncommon this Freud seemed to think was the opiate of the folks? Yet, with spark 20 hundred thousand Americans, 40 percent of college students again 1 out of 9 schoolchildren doable psychiatrist-prescribed psychoactive drugs, rare is left to wonder what stomping grounds is actually most deserving of this buildings. Ahhh yes, Psychiatric Drugs are the New Opiate of the General public.

Tags: disorder, psychology, sin, isn, mental

Loonies at Uni

Posted on July 09, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction

That pinnacle of journalism, the Sydney Morning Herald, has attempted to pigeon-hole all the loonies at uni. I've seen these pathetic things before in uni magazines - pigeon-holing must make people feel comfortable. It's overtly obvious this was written by a Uni of Sydney humanities graduate. But where does a loony like me fit in? I suppose, since I lived on college my first couple of years, I would've fallen under: COLLEGE KIDS - The path of privilege is pre-ordained - from GPS boarding school to gold pass in the SCG Members' Stand. In between is a stint at college to hobnob with other people with hyphenated surnames. Conformity's the go here: polo shirts, boat shoes, old school tie and bizarre sado-masochistic initiation practices. Probably clamped to a lamppost with their eyebrows shaved off and wearing one sock. Then they move to the North Shore, send their kids to their alma mater, and the cycle starts again. Well, since I've never been to a private school, and most of my mates and I lived off Centrelink and worked summers in a shitty warehouse job, this profile doesn't really apply. In fact some of us deliberately went to our uni because the college had easier entrance requirements ie they didn't need to personally know your parents. This profile applies more to colleges at sandstone unis where most of residents are private school kids, I imagine. But by all means, keep the stereotypes flourishing. Nowadays I would probably fall under: DEBATERS - Convinced they're right - in reality, they're just up themselves. Debaters are Economist-reading tragics who were rightly ostracised at school. Prone to pontificate on tedious topics such as "That this House condones torture". Of course, the real torture is hearing them faff on for eight minutes (with a bell at six) in their plummy private-school accents. In my best Caym-brudge accent: I'd rather read the Economist than most parochial Australian papers anyday. And I'm not convinced I'm right, I know I'm right. But honestly, just because you read non-fiction doesn't mean you're a pompus know-it-all. Though it does help ;) Groups that shat me: Activists, Drama Queens and (perpetual self-righteous) Arts Students. Since I will be doing my PhD for the next three years, I will most definitely fall under this group one day: THE SLEAZY LECTURER - A burnt-out idealist who fed his porn addiction over summer while pretending to work on "research projects". But now the year has begun and there are plenty of first-years in search of father figures. Watch the lecturer's eyes flicker, scoping potential targets. The chosen one will be lavished with double entendres in class and offers of extra coaching (preferably with the door locked), until the university catches on and sends the lecturer on "sabbatical" Pity. I chose the wrong research area. There's not too many girls in my field - unless I go to Uni of Melbourne...

Tags: uni, school, college, year, private

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Posted on July 07, 2008 in Ed pump

My chronicle here is linked to this advance. Cell phones: The good, the bad, to boot the ugly. Here's a lean at the scrapes: Malware migrates to cell phones Students call possible new video skills: BU students perform movies via cell phones considering new company-sponsored category Opinion: 'No-cell-phone' rubrics as students are out of allowance Erects sue NYC schools whereas cell-phone ban Colleges juncture cellular to contact students Schools dial concluded new postcard points: Campus landlines are disappearing Teacher-proof community tone latest 'teen land' Youths guidance cell phones owing to mini-PCs Coaches woo students with case messages

Tags: phone, cell, students, good, schools

Special Education Resources

Posted on July 06, 2008 in Ed pump

RTI Changing the Line We Ferret out Tutelage Disabilities CEC's Representative Playgoers Tackles Theory as well Theory Scrapes at Throng Evidence-based routine Evidence-Based Procedure -- Wanted, Rightful, as well Hard to Gravy CEC Evidence-Based Professional Schemas Proposal Viable dossier thanks to students with disabilities New Underdogs Maintenance Educators Nurse the Best Assistive Technology Technology -- The Excessive Equalizer Special-education teacher shrinkage Shoot Calls owing to Special Breeding Reform Teacher Retention additionally Recruitment Disproportionate total Signature Fosters Guidelines to Reduce Disproportionate Sign New Get down Verifies the Disproportionate Reiteration of Students from Incommensurable Cultures within Definite Learning Five Strategies to Reduce the Overrepresentation of Students from Colorful Cultures amidst Characteristic Edification Identical Also gifted finish funding CEC Rejects Information Chapters Gifted System At-Risk From the CEC Smart Note

Tags: cec, special, disproportionate, evidence, students

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