#web md was like 'well it could be this rare cancer no one gets or gout or plantar fascitis'
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
vodkacheesefries · 1 year ago
Text
If I've had weird pain in my big toe for like....a couple months now at this point, like...I'm trying to figure out if I should go to a doctor or continue to ignore it based solely on the assumption it will heal on its own and nothing is seriously wrong
I don't know what I did to it, it legitimately was like I went to bed, woke up, and couldn't put all my weight on it. (For the record I can stand on it now, like it's fine and I don't feel it until I curl my toe. So it has definitely gotten better at least by a little bit)
It feels like I jammed it on something I tried to kick, but since kicking things is not part of my day-to-day, I'd like to think I'd remember if that was indeed the case.
Anyway. No one tells you when you're an adult you're the one who has to decide when you go to the doctor so fuck if I know what to do
1 note · View note
dietsauthority · 4 years ago
Text
Mandatory Vaccinations: Unconstitutional or Indispensable?
Tumblr media
Whether or otherwise Governor Rick Perry's debatable decision to immunize versus the HPV infection is actually in the very best interest of Texas kids, it is definitely going to supply several lively discussions on exactly what makes up moral obligation when it involves disease prevention. Where State violates a household choice is only part of the discussion.
Vaccines have actually long been a contentious factor for many worried about the security and also effectiveness of these chemical alcoholic drinks. They've been connected to a variety of adverse effects and also health and wellness troubles, and inquiries border the shown capacity of long-term resistance. They've likewise saved millions of lives and basically gotten rid of conditions like polio.
What Are Vaccines, Anyway?
Made to boost the body's immune system, vaccinations are made up of antigenic product. They generally include tiny trace amounts of the illness itself so that the body could construct the proper antibodies for future resistance. They likewise lug a number of various other ingredients.
According to Rense.com those active ingredients consist of toxic and/or debatable resources such as: Genetically changed yeast, light weight aluminum hydroxide, light weight aluminum phosphate, thimerosal, polysorbate 80, polyribosylribitol phosphate, ammonium sulfate, formalin, sucrose, phenol, coal tar, calf skins, gelatin, sheep blood cells, ape kidney cells as well as chick embryos. Aborted human fetal cells has been reportedly made use of to expand viral cultures, such as in the common Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine.
Debate included the discovery of vaccinations as well as the Inoculation Acts of the 19th century where rejection to be immunized could cause jail time. Challengers pointed out obligatory booster shot as unconstitutional, causing public protest and resistance movements led by well-respected neighborhood leaders as well as service owners.
Fast-forward to the 21st century and also Americans are recommended to receive 14 vaccinations administered in 49 separate doses prior to the age of six. They include: Influenza (throughout pregnancy), hepatitis An and B, diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, HIB, PCV, rotavirus, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella.
While a few of these conditions could provide a genuine threat (also though situations of measles and polio are incredibly uncommon in the United States), mumps, as an example (also extremely rare in the U.S.), is a self-limiting illness, which implies it usually runs its training course and leaves the host without triggering death or severe long-lasting health issues. And some experts recommend immune toughness is built with exposure to health problems that the body learns how to eradicate unassisted.
Profits
There's no denying that vaccinations equal revenues for multinational pharmaceutical business, as well as challengers of vaccinations like the National Vaccination Details Facility cite injections as one of the fastest expanding earnings sectors of the pharmaceutical industry, placed to hit $36 billion yearly by 2013. Inning accordance with the NVIC website, compared to the 1980s, children are currently being given 3 times as numerous inoculations and also the prices have actually increased dramatically. 'The base cost for a youngster to obtain every federal government suggested vaccine in an exclusive pediatrician's workplace has actually increased from $80 per youngster in 1986to a massive $2200 per child in 2011.'
Eight major pharmaceutical firms dominate the injection market: Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, CSL Biotherapies and also Emergent BioSolutions. According to the NVIC, these companies have also inoculated themselves-- garnering resistance from any vaccine-related lawsuits by obtaining the United States High court to point out injections as 'unavoidably unsafe':' [I] n 1986, Pharma blackmailed Congress right into providing them partial obligation protection from vaccine injury lawsuitsby recommending they would need to abandon the United States childhood years vaccination market without an obligation guard.'
The Centers for Disease Control's web site sustains vaccination claiming that 'Unless we could 'stop the leakage' (get rid of the condition), it is vital to maintain inoculating. Even if there are just a few instances of illness today, if we eliminate the defense provided by vaccination, a growing number of people will certainly be infected and also will certainly spread disease to others. Soon we will certainly undo the progress we have made over the years.'
Risks
When scientists declared they located a web link between the rising prices of autism as well as vaccines, it was not simply the extreme Libertarians and hippies declining to inoculate their children. When brand-new research came out that negated the link, it not just developed a lot more inquiries concerning the causes of autism, but it additionally as soon as again marginalized the anti-immunization community, even though significant side effects and risks from injections have long been acknowledged by the clinical community.
In the 1980s, pediatrician Robert Mendelsohn, MD thought there was a strong connection in between booster shot and autoimmune condition, mentioning that "There is growing suspicion that booster shot against relatively harmless childhood years diseases might be liable for the dramatic boost in autoimmune diseases because mass shots were introduced. These are scared conditions such as cancer cells, leukemia, rheumatoid joint inflammation, several sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's condition, lupus erythematosus, and the Guillain-Barre syndrome."
And what concerning the sexually sent HPV (human papillomavirus) virus that Governor Perry has been immunizing Texas children against? The CDC states, 'A lot of sexually energetic individuals will certainly get HPV at some time in their lives.' While there are as several as 40 kinds of the HPV infection, most cause no signs and are self-limiting. Just a couple of the pressures cause cervical as well as other cancers. A reasonably new vaccine, present research shows the defense provided by the HPV shot only has 6 years of follow-up and long-term effects are unknown. The adverse effects recognized by the CDC consist of small problems such as fainting, pain and swelling at injection place, frustration, nausea or vomiting and also high temperature. More significant dangers include embolism in the legs, lungs as well as heart, the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré Disorder, and also death.
As the apparently a lot more important health hazards of modernity consist of food borne ailments and antibiotic-resistant bacteria ( without well-known vaccines), costly and potentially dangerous booster shots against minimal dangers are surely going to remain to be a dispute for several years to come. Inning accordance with the NVIC, 'After 50 years of heavy prescription medicine and injection usage, Americans are awakening to the fact that they are not healthier, yet are sicker compared to in the past.'
0 notes
taylorwhelan-finalproject · 5 years ago
Text
The Truth About Self-Diagnosing on the Internet
Let me guess: This morning you woke up with half a headache and some gas, did a little Googling, and now you're convinced you have a brain tumor. Trust me when I say I understand: You and your paranoid WebMD searches are not uncommon. "I would estimate that in a typical full day of seeing patients, about a third have searched the internet looking for answers by the time they see me," says board-certified internist Dana Corriel, MD, who refers to this phenomenon as "Google University."
It makes sense why people turn to the internet at the first sign of physical discomfort. It's the same reason we love ordering our beauty products on Amazon instead of buying them in-store, or getting lunch delivered via Seamless instead of making it ourselves: Convenience. "Think of the steps involved in getting a proper diagnosis," says Corriel. "You spend time trying to make an appointment, accommodate your schedule for it, spend the time on travel, and this before any of the aggravating factors involved in dealing with the office visit itself." Even doctors get it: "It's sometimes just easier for a person to Google their symptom."
Physicians also understand that when you don't feel well, it's hard to hold off until you can see a professional to confirm that you're not, well, dying. "For most of the patients that I see in the ER, they are fine; they are not having a big heart attack or stroke and can go home without worry," says board-certified family physician and ER doctor Larry Burchett, MD. "The #1 thing I provide is reassurance. I suspect that this is what most people are looking for when they go online—they want to make sure they are okay."
Empathizing is all well and good, but on a professional level, what do doctors really think about internet self-diagnosis? Is it helpful? Or is it just a cause of anxiety?
Keep scrolling to find out the truth about self-diagnosing on the internet, according to physicians.
The Pros of Self-Diagnosis
As it turns out, looking up your symptoms online doesn't have to end in catastrophe. "There are definitely pros to internet searching," says Corriel. "It can provide a quick answer to a rather simple question when used correctly. I've seen many patients come in with a correct 'hunch' based on a search."
Consider this recent interview, where Jimmy Kimmel spoke of correctly diagnosing pain in his midsection as appendicitis, thanks to a Google search. (It's worth noting that he subsequently admitted that was the first time his doctor ever witnessed an accurate self-diagnosis.) In college, I once used the internet to correctly pinpoint a urinary tract infection. So it can be helpful. However, physicians agree that more often than not, the internet can provide you neither with an accurate diagnosis nor the reassurance you're seeking.
The Cons of Self-Diagnosis
As you can imagine, the disadvantages of consulting Google, as opposed to a live person with a decade of medical training, are manifold. They start with the fact that it can be difficult to verify where a website sourced its information. "You don't need credentials to add your two cents on to the web," says Corriel. "You don't even really need to be telling the truth. Anyone can write anything about any topic and get away with it."
This phenomenon is especially rampant on social media sites, like Facebook. "I've seen bad advice being given on innocent posts posing a question," Corriel tells me. "I see young moms posting questions about their children's ailments and getting completely wrong answers from random people."
Of course, there are times that a cough can be one of the first signs of lung cancer, but is lung cancer the most common cause of a cough? Absolutely not.
Even when the information listed online is accurate, it's rarely specific enough to be helpful. "Each person has a different family history, has experienced different risk factors, and has his own social history, all of which contribute to the decision-making process a physician goes through," says Corriel. In addition, it's quite common for medical websites to list all the myriad diseases a symptom could mean, placing "common cold" next to "cancer," and this often leads to panic. "Of course there are times that a cough can be one of the first signs of lung cancer, but is lung cancer the most common cause of a cough? Absolutely not," Corriel says.
Beyond creating anxiety, misinformation from the internet can cause patients and doctors to spend extraordinary amounts of time and money on unneeded testing. "I had an elderly gentleman who read up on his symptoms online and, after spending a long time explaining to him what benign ailment he actually had, he continued to insist, again and again, that this was not true because the internet said so," Corriel recalls. "In this world of growing insurance denials and difficulties getting tests covered, the doctor bears the brunt of ordering the unnecessary testing that results from these searches."
In less common cases, the internet can lead you to believe your ailment is less serious than it actually is. "If you had a website that said, 'Don’t worry about chest pain, it’s probably nothing,' that might be correct, but if a good number of people took that advice, eventually someone would die of a heart attack, clot in their lungs, or tear in their aorta—the serious life-threatening causes of chest pain," says Burchett. So the argument for seeing a real-life doctor works both ways.
The Bottom Line
Doctors agree: Google University absolutely contributes to hysteria. But Corriel admits that ultimately, its students are well-intentioned. "Think about it logically," she says. "It is our natural human instinct to worry about the worst possible outcomes. We prepare for the worst in order to ensure survival. When you read about your symptoms online, your mind naturally gravitates towards the worst possible scenario because you want to make sure you catch it early and survive." Logic and lack of education take a backseat to your will to live. As a result, Corriel says, "I get 20 and 30-year-olds coming in with complaints of a headache, asking for an MRI to rule out a tumor in the brain."
When you read about your symptoms online, your mind naturally gravitates towards the worst possible scenario because you want to make sure you catch it early and survive.
If you wake up with symptoms, can't get to a doctor right away, but want answers fast, there are smarter ways to go about seeking them. "I suggest you call up your internist," Corriel says. "A primary care doctor is always available for a quick visit or question on the phone. They cover general internal medicine and can answer most questions about the body."
Don't have a regular doctor? In this case, "head to an urgent center near you, where a medically trained professional can ease your worry," says Corriel. Even if this seems like an overreaction, the most important thing is "to get a correct answer from someone who has been properly trained and can give appropriate advice based on your specific case."
0 notes
kristinsimmons · 5 years ago
Text
Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts
Tumblr media
Stephanie Kuku
Tumblr media
Hugh Harvey
By STEPHANIE KUKU, MD and HUGH HARVEY, MBBS
The ability to predict in healthcare is the utopia promised by every artificial intelligence for healthcare built, funded and tested in the last decade. Yet very few doctors, technologists, or investors would have imagined they would live to witness a pandemic of the scale we are currently experiencing. We are still getting our heads round the lives lost, the lives of the frontline workers at risk, the disruption and self-isolation, the less fortunate who will suffer the most, the companies in survival mode, and a battered global economy. It is a good time to reflect on what the future of health will look like after we recover. We need to get better at acting on the predictions that truly matter. In a booming health-tech market saturated with promises of predictions and diagnostic insights, it’s a shame we didn’t listen to the scientists who predicted this violent wave of viral disruption. 
The future of healthcare investing needs to change
With the first case of the virus last December, everything changed, and there is so much more change to come, in healthcare, technology and in the way we all work.  Like with policy and public health, the majority of players on the healthcare stage remain so far removed from the frontline. The perceived ‘market’ rarely truly represents the real one, and true intelligence is lacking the collective intelligence that should prioritise the needs of the healthcare systems and the populations they serve. Our values, motives and how we create the pitch-perfect melting pot of skills, expertise, and mindset needs readjustment. Somewhere between evidence- based decision making and patience; clinical impact aligned with economic impact should be the goal. More focus is needed on validation and less on valuations that are largely built on assumptions and unproven hypotheses. Given the amount of investment that has drowned the healthtech/biotech domains in the last decade, we must praise the advancements that have been made. We must also examine the failures, the wasted resources, and whether technology really is moving healthcare forward at a pace that matches the investment.
The forces that determine what startups and spin-outs are funded and what innovations make it to the lab or hospitals regardless of their eventual clinical impact is an intricate, complex web of sometimes distorted priorities. Amidst competing incentives of donors, investors, developers, scientists, clinicians and governments, the harsh reality is that only a handful of R&D and companies that receive funding will both create something of impact in healthcare and a healthy return on investment. The pandemic has in effect created its own mini-Gartner hype cycle, and investors would do well to pay attention to the rise and fall of promised technology during these uncertain times.
Domain expertise, hedging bets or FOMO-driven?
There are numerous healthcare analogies to the hype and investor fan-girling that resulted in the rise and subsequent crash of Wework, not to forget the billions wasted on Theranos. For whilst Elizabeth Holmes might have been held accountable, in these very extraordinary, uncertain times, it is painful now to think of what good that money could have been put to. Vaccines, immunotherapy drugs, diagnostics for early detection of cancer and autoimmune disease, mental health therapeutics, clinical decision support for the brave and exhausted healthcare workforce. The list goes on. 
Healthtech investors and venture capitalists at large have a distinct skill set and usually have previously had some experience in the healthcare sector. It is likely that some make better bets with experience. Others make predictions by analysing the markets and trends. Surprisingly few rely on experts for deeper insights. 
More diligence is due
Just like with any effective cancer team, a true Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) skill set should be required for due diligence, steering validation and scalability of proposed products in healthcare. True due diligence requires a team effort. The silos of expertise needed to make decisions on what companies to fund, scale and support need to be converged. Deep due diligence should involve a team of experts who can:
assess a management team and their ability ‘to manage’ in the healthcare sector, as well as detect any complex divides in mindset between the scientific, product, regulatory and business leads 
guide operating executives to honestly and reliably evaluate the robustness of the underlying technology or product 
understand  the clinical research required and clinical impact within the intended setting and/or workflow
comprehensively assess the regulatory pathways and requirements needed for a specific novel technology 
evaluate the ‘marketplace’ with depth, collaborating with relevant clinicians, scientists, and health care economists  
evaluate the true and hidden costs of ‘customer’ acquisition in healthcare
In healthcare, one cannot rely on fast iteration and user churn to help find product-market fit. It needs to be found first, before going to the market to shop for ‘customers’. Tech companies frequently appear to not understand the difference in behaviours between patients and customers.  
Evaluating the competitive landscape is also important. Founders will usually underestimate this to raise funds, and in doing so underestimate the time from development to implementation and procurement, as well as the resources needed to get there. If ‘competition shows the market’ then telemedicine truly is here to stay post-pandemic.  
Hope for the future of digital health
Whilst COVID has revealed staggering flaws in our healthcare systems, it has also shown the potential for massive improvements in access to care and resources to support this. It has confirmed to the skeptics out there that technology in healthcare does have the ability to improve workflow, communication and free up doctors and nurses for essential patient-facing care. We have to be prepared for the next healthcare crisis. In the future, our healthcare systems will be stronger and more valued. Technological innovation will accelerate equitable healthcare access and quality, instead of sitting eagerly on the sidelines waiting for acceptance. We must reassess our healthcare priorities as we no longer have a choice.
It is impossible not to expect that in some existential way all our priorities will have to change. What won’t is the need for deep expertise and experience. In fact, we need it now, more than ever.
Dr Harvey is a board-certified radiologist and clinical academic, trained in the NHS and Europe’s leading cancer research institute, the ICR, where he was twice awarded Science Writer of the Year. 
Dr Stephanie Kuku is a health technology advisor who has worked in the NHS/HCA as a surgical oncologist specialising in women’s cancers and is an advisor and consultant in Clinical AI at the WHO.
This article originally appeared on the Hardian Health blog here.
The post Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts appeared first on The Health Care Blog.
Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/
0 notes
lauramalchowblog · 5 years ago
Text
Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts
Tumblr media
Stephanie Kuku
Tumblr media
Hugh Harvey
By STEPHANIE KUKU, MD and HUGH HARVEY, MBBS
The ability to predict in healthcare is the utopia promised by every artificial intelligence for healthcare built, funded and tested in the last decade. Yet very few doctors, technologists, or investors would have imagined they would live to witness a pandemic of the scale we are currently experiencing. We are still getting our heads round the lives lost, the lives of the frontline workers at risk, the disruption and self-isolation, the less fortunate who will suffer the most, the companies in survival mode, and a battered global economy. It is a good time to reflect on what the future of health will look like after we recover. We need to get better at acting on the predictions that truly matter. In a booming health-tech market saturated with promises of predictions and diagnostic insights, it’s a shame we didn’t listen to the scientists who predicted this violent wave of viral disruption. 
The future of healthcare investing needs to change
With the first case of the virus last December, everything changed, and there is so much more change to come, in healthcare, technology and in the way we all work.  Like with policy and public health, the majority of players on the healthcare stage remain so far removed from the frontline. The perceived ‘market’ rarely truly represents the real one, and true intelligence is lacking the collective intelligence that should prioritise the needs of the healthcare systems and the populations they serve. Our values, motives and how we create the pitch-perfect melting pot of skills, expertise, and mindset needs readjustment. Somewhere between evidence- based decision making and patience; clinical impact aligned with economic impact should be the goal. More focus is needed on validation and less on valuations that are largely built on assumptions and unproven hypotheses. Given the amount of investment that has drowned the healthtech/biotech domains in the last decade, we must praise the advancements that have been made. We must also examine the failures, the wasted resources, and whether technology really is moving healthcare forward at a pace that matches the investment.
The forces that determine what startups and spin-outs are funded and what innovations make it to the lab or hospitals regardless of their eventual clinical impact is an intricate, complex web of sometimes distorted priorities. Amidst competing incentives of donors, investors, developers, scientists, clinicians and governments, the harsh reality is that only a handful of R&D and companies that receive funding will both create something of impact in healthcare and a healthy return on investment. The pandemic has in effect created its own mini-Gartner hype cycle, and investors would do well to pay attention to the rise and fall of promised technology during these uncertain times.
Domain expertise, hedging bets or FOMO-driven?
There are numerous healthcare analogies to the hype and investor fan-girling that resulted in the rise and subsequent crash of Wework, not to forget the billions wasted on Theranos. For whilst Elizabeth Holmes might have been held accountable, in these very extraordinary, uncertain times, it is painful now to think of what good that money could have been put to. Vaccines, immunotherapy drugs, diagnostics for early detection of cancer and autoimmune disease, mental health therapeutics, clinical decision support for the brave and exhausted healthcare workforce. The list goes on. 
Healthtech investors and venture capitalists at large have a distinct skill set and usually have previously had some experience in the healthcare sector. It is likely that some make better bets with experience. Others make predictions by analysing the markets and trends. Surprisingly few rely on experts for deeper insights. 
More diligence is due
Just like with any effective cancer team, a true Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) skill set should be required for due diligence, steering validation and scalability of proposed products in healthcare. True due diligence requires a team effort. The silos of expertise needed to make decisions on what companies to fund, scale and support need to be converged. Deep due diligence should involve a team of experts who can:
assess a management team and their ability ‘to manage’ in the healthcare sector, as well as detect any complex divides in mindset between the scientific, product, regulatory and business leads 
guide operating executives to honestly and reliably evaluate the robustness of the underlying technology or product 
understand  the clinical research required and clinical impact within the intended setting and/or workflow
comprehensively assess the regulatory pathways and requirements needed for a specific novel technology 
evaluate the ‘marketplace’ with depth, collaborating with relevant clinicians, scientists, and health care economists  
evaluate the true and hidden costs of ‘customer’ acquisition in healthcare
In healthcare, one cannot rely on fast iteration and user churn to help find product-market fit. It needs to be found first, before going to the market to shop for ‘customers’. Tech companies frequently appear to not understand the difference in behaviours between patients and customers.  
Evaluating the competitive landscape is also important. Founders will usually underestimate this to raise funds, and in doing so underestimate the time from development to implementation and procurement, as well as the resources needed to get there. If ‘competition shows the market’ then telemedicine truly is here to stay post-pandemic.  
Hope for the future of digital health
Whilst COVID has revealed staggering flaws in our healthcare systems, it has also shown the potential for massive improvements in access to care and resources to support this. It has confirmed to the skeptics out there that technology in healthcare does have the ability to improve workflow, communication and free up doctors and nurses for essential patient-facing care. We have to be prepared for the next healthcare crisis. In the future, our healthcare systems will be stronger and more valued. Technological innovation will accelerate equitable healthcare access and quality, instead of sitting eagerly on the sidelines waiting for acceptance. We must reassess our healthcare priorities as we no longer have a choice.
It is impossible not to expect that in some existential way all our priorities will have to change. What won’t is the need for deep expertise and experience. In fact, we need it now, more than ever.
Dr Harvey is a board-certified radiologist and clinical academic, trained in the NHS and Europe’s leading cancer research institute, the ICR, where he was twice awarded Science Writer of the Year. 
Dr Stephanie Kuku is a health technology advisor who has worked in the NHS/HCA as a surgical oncologist specialising in women’s cancers and is an advisor and consultant in Clinical AI at the WHO.
This article originally appeared on the Hardian Health blog here.
The post Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts appeared first on The Health Care Blog.
Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com
0 notes
2whatcom-blog · 6 years ago
Text
Sure, Extra Individuals Are Getting Plastic Surgical procedure. Right here’s Why
Tumblr media
Dimension acceptance, physique positivity, and fats activism are actually a part of the cultural lexicon, but based on knowledge from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), practically 1 / 4 million extra beauty procedures have been carried out in 2018 than in 2017. And this is not a brand new pattern. The variety of folks getting beauty procedures has risen steadily over the previous 5 years. How are you going to #loveyourself but nonetheless pursue a beauty remedy to easy, shrink, or tuck a side of your look? In response to consultants, it is easier-- bodily, financially, and emotionally -- than you could assume.
What the info exhibits
In response to the ASPS, 1.eight million beauty surgical procedures have been finished final yr. The highest 5: Physique-sculpting procedures similar to buttock augmentations, which enhance the contour, dimension, or form of your butt, and thigh lifts, which cut back extra pores and skin and fats of your higher legs, additionally noticed a rise. 15.9 million minimally-invasive procedures have been additionally carried out in 2018. Of them, the preferred procedures have been: It is a numerous listing, however most of those seemingly share one factor in frequent. "Most patients seek procedures to feel like the best version of themselves," stated Dr. Lara Devgan, MPH, FACS, chief medical officer at RealSelf, a web site the place folks find out about beauty therapies, share experiences, and join with suppliers. "There's a magical paradox I'm helping people achieve: looking the same but better."
Why beauty procedures are on the upswing
Docs who carry out beauty procedures level to quite a few the reason why folks preach "Don't let anyone judge your appearance!" on-line but nonetheless shell out cash to alter their very own. Dr. Dennis Schimpf, FACS, writer of "Finding Beauty: Think, See and Feel Beautiful" and founding father of Sweetgrass Plastic Surgical procedure in Charleston, South Carolina, thinks cell telephones, selfies, and social media platforms have tremendously pushed the will for cosmetic surgery. "If you think back even 10 years ago, let alone 25, rarely would you see yourself in pictures," stated Schimpf. "Maybe a birthday or wedding, usually some type of special event. Now, with mobile devices and platforms, we're literally seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures of ourselves documenting things we don't like about our appearance, as well as the aging process." In different phrases, we're all below fixed scrutiny -- by ourselves. When Alan Matarasso, MD, FACS, first constructed his non-public follow in New York Metropolis over 25 years in the past, "I literally put in a back door because people didn't want to walk in the front." Matarasso can also be president of ASPS and a medical professor of surgical procedure at Hofstra College. "Now, with the rise of social media, people are in the recovery room, posting about what they went through and sending pictures to friends that show the bandage on their nose," he stated. "People are much more comfortable owning their self-care rituals -- including those that involve needles and knives," agreed Devgan. Since 2015, the entire variety of opinions on RealSelf has greater than doubled. Group customers usually put up earlier than and after pictures and share candid particulars in regards to the remedy they selected to have. "I also have patients come into my office and request to be on my Instagram feed, which is something we never would have seen 5 years ago," Devgan stated. She credit millennials for proudly owning self-improvement. They "feel that they don't have to apologize for their decisions, whatever they may be, and this attitude is making Gen Xers and baby boomers feel that they don't have to either," Devgan stated. In some unspecified time in the future within the not-so-distant previous, beauty cosmetic surgery was just for the uber-wealthy. In the present day, Schimpf's commonest affected person is normally "a working professional, often double-income family or a stay-at-home mom who now, after having children, would like to regain the physical appearance she once had," he stated. In different phrases, not the stereotypical housewife in Beverly Hills who "had her face done." Beauty procedures, each surgical and nonsurgical, "have also become more affordable," stated Schimpf. Loads of financing choices exist, from medical bank cards and private loans to fee plans supplied by physician's places of work. Medical health insurance usually solely covers beauty procedures resulting from a medical motive -- similar to breast reconstruction after a mastectomy. Technical procedures used throughout beauty procedures proceed to grow to be safer and extra dependable, stated Matarasso. So are the devices and merchandise medical doctors now have at their disposal. Nonsurgical therapies are an particularly quickly evolving enviornment. "Lasers didn't exist 10 years ago," famous Matarasso. And Botox was once the one line-smoothing neurotoxin in the marketplace. Now, three others exist, and a fourth choice, Jeuveau, was lately accredited by the Meals and Drug Administration and is poised to roll out this spring. So perhaps getting your lips plumped will not have advantages past rising your vanity. However "in certain circumstances, some cosmetic treatments can benefit your health," stated Matarasso. Botox, as an example, has been proven to assist with situations similar to power migraines, extreme sweating, Bell's palsy, and maybe even . Girls who select a breast discount usually get reduction from disc or again issues. And cosmetic surgery permits individuals who've gone by weight reduction surgical procedure to shed further pores and skin that may trigger extreme rashes and infections. "While we may not be curing cancer," Matarasso stated, "the impact and psychological benefit can be profound." In response to a 2019 survey by RealSelf/Harris Ballot, the highest cited motivations amongst those that've had or are occupied with a beauty remedy are "to improve self-esteem/confidence" and "to look as good as I feel." That is constant throughout each surgical and nonsurgical procedures -- and people causes have not modified since RealSelf launched a decade in the past. "Despite all of the changes in the technical aspects of aesthetic surgery, human desires and motivations remain the same," stated Devgan. "We all want to present our best selves to the world -- the ways we do that depend on who we are."
Recommendation for the cosmetically inclined
For those who're occupied with pursuing a beauty remedy for your self, make certain to: "And be honest," suggested Schimpf. "It has to be for you and the goal has to be to make you feel better about yourself. Having a procedure to impress someone else or make someone else happy will never make you happy." Sure, you possibly can go to a random dentist and have Botox finished with a Groupon, however why not rigorously analysis medical doctors first? Search care from a talented board-certified plastic surgeon who will prioritize your care. "You want to go to someone who can say 'This is best for you,' not 'This is best for me,'" stated Matarasso. "Plastic surgeons are trained as much as heart surgeons." In addition to beauty procedures, many additionally carry out advanced procedures like breast most cancers reconstruction and pediatric start defects. Do not assume any surgeon is aware of what you imply by "better skin" or "smaller breasts." "By understanding what you're seeing and hoping to improve, the surgeon can hopefully match a procedure that's safe, as well as one that meets your desired goals," Schimpf stated. Docs "aspire to an improvement over baseline, not a shortfall from perfection," stated Devgan. "Plastic surgery is medicine, not magic." And in case you #loveyourself, you ought to be completely tremendous with that. Read the full article
0 notes
simplig-folio-v1 · 8 years ago
Link
Let me guess: This morning you woke up with half a headache and some gas, did a little googling, and now you're convinced you have a brain tumour. Trust me when I say I understand: You and your paranoid WebMD searches are not uncommon. "I would estimate that in a typical full day of seeing patients, about a third have searched the internet looking for answers by the time they see me," says primary care physician Dana Corriel, MD, who refers to this phenomenon as "Google University."
It makes sense why people turn to the internet at the first sign of physical discomfort. It's the same reason we love ordering our beauty products on Amazon instead of buying them in-store, or getting lunch delivered via Seamless instead of making it ourselves: convenience. "Think of the steps involved in getting a proper diagnosis," says Corriel. "You spend time trying to make an appointment, accommodate your schedule for it, spend the time on travel, and this before any of the aggravating factors involved in dealing with the office visit itself." Even doctors get it. "It's sometimes just easier for a person to google their symptom," Corriel admitted.
Physicians also understand that when you don't feel well, it's hard to hold off until you can see a professional to confirm that you're not, well, dying. "For most of the patients that I see in the ER, they are fine; they are not having a big heart attack or stroke and can go home without worry," says board-certified family physician and ER doctor Larry Burchett, MD. "The number one thing I provide is reassurance. I suspect that this is what most people are looking for when they go online—they want to make sure they are okay."
Empathising is all well and good, but on a professional level, what do doctors really think about internet self-diagnosis? Is it helpful? Or is it just a cause of anxiety? Keep scrolling to find out the truth about self-diagnosing on the internet, according to physicians.
THE PROS OF SELF-DIAGNOSIS
As it turns out, looking up your symptoms online doesn't have to end in catastrophe. "There are definitely pros to internet searching," says Corriel. "It can provide a quick answer to a rather simple question when used correctly. I've seen many patients come in with a correct 'hunch' based on a search."
Consider this recent interview where Jimmy Kimmel spoke of correctly diagnosing a pain in his midsection as appendicitis, thanks to a Google search. (It's worth noting that he subsequently admitted that was the first time his doctor ever witnessed an accurate self-diagnosis.) In college, I once used the internet to correctly pinpoint a urinary tract infection. So it can be helpful. However, physicians agree that more often than not, the internet can provide you neither with an accurate diagnosis nor the reassurance you're seeking.
THE CONS OF SELF-DIAGNOSIS
As you can imagine, the disadvantages of consulting Google, as opposed to a live person with a decade of medical training, are manifold. They start with the fact that it can be difficult to verify where a website sourced its information. "You don't need credentials to add your two cents on to the web," says Corriel. "You don't even really need to be telling the truth. Anyone can write anything about any topic and get away with it."
This phenomenon is especially rampant on social media sites, like Facebook. "I've seen bad advice being given on innocent posts posing a question," Corriel tells me. "I see young moms posting questions about their children's ailments and getting completely wrong answers from random people."
Of course there are times that a cough can be one of the first signs of lung cancer, but is lung cancer the most common cause of a cough? Absolutely not.
Even when the information listed online is accurate, it's rarely specific enough to be helpful. "Each person has a different family history, has experienced different risk factors, and has his own social history, all of which contribute to the decision-making process a physician goes through," says Corriel. In addition, it's quite common for medical websites to list all the myriad diseases a symptom could mean, placing "common cold" next to "cancer," and this often leads to panic. "Of course there are times that a cough can be one of the first signs of lung cancer, but is lung cancer the most common cause of a cough? Absolutely not," Corriel says.
Beyond creating anxiety, misinformation from the internet can cause patients and doctors to spend extraordinary amounts of time and money on unneeded testing. "I had an elderly gentleman who read up on his symptom online and, after spending a long time explaining to him what benign ailment he actually had, he continued to insist, again and again, that this was not true because the internet said so," Correl recalls. "In this world of growing insurance denials and difficulties getting tests covered, the doctor bears the brunt of ordering the unnecessary testing that results from these searches."
In less common cases, the internet can lead you to believe your ailment is less serious than it actually is. "If you had a website that said, 'Don’t worry about chest pain, it’s probably nothing,' that might be correct, but if a good number of people took that advice, eventually someone would die of a heart attack, clot in their lungs, or tear in their aorta—the serious life-threatening causes of chest pain," says Burchett. So the argument for seeing a real-life doctor works both ways.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Doctors agree: Google University absolutely contributes to hysteria. But Corriel admits that ultimately, its students are well-intentioned. "Think about it logically," she says. "It is our natural human instinct to worry about worst possible outcomes. We prepare for the worst in order to ensure survival. When you read about your symptom online, your mind naturally gravitates towards the worst possible scenario because you want to make sure you catch it early and survive." Logic and lack of education take a backseat to your will to live. As a result, Corriel says, "I get 20- and 30-year-olds coming in with complaints of a headache, asking for an MRI to rule out atumourr in the brain."
When you read about your symptom online, your mind naturally gravitates towards the worst possible scenario because you want to make sure you catch it early and survive.
If you wake up with symptoms, can't get to a doctor right away, but want answers fast, there are smarter ways to go about seeking them. "I suggest you call up you internist," Corriel says. "A primary care doctor is always available for quick questions on the phone. They cover general internal medicine and can answer most questions about the body." Plus, unlike an official doctor visit, spending five minutes on the phone is free.
Don't have a regular doctor? In this case, "head to an urgent center near you, where a medically trained professional can ease your worry," says Corriel. Even if this seems like an overreaction, the most important thing is "to get a correct answer from someone who has been properly trained and can give appropriate advice based on your specific case."
Here's an idea: Instead of self-diagnosing on the internet, indulge your inner hypochondriac by binging on your favorite medical shows!
1 / 3
SHOP
House, M.D.: The Complete Collection (£49)
Did you know that House is based on a real doctor? It's a badass woman named Lisa Sanders. After you've had enough Hugh Laurie, read her book, Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis (£13).
2 / 3
SHOP
Nurse Jackie: Season 1 (£7)
This Showtime series is grossly underrated in my opinion. Who doesn't love a straight-talking nurse with a pixie cut and a Vicodin problem?
3 / 3
SHOP
Grey's Anatomy: Season 1 (£7)
When was the last time you re-watch Grey's season 1? This weekend—it's happening.
Next up, read about the real reason you're addicted to cracking your knuckles.
2 notes · View notes
thinking2050bytricia-blog · 7 years ago
Text
Interview with Surgeon Notes
These are my raw notes with Beatriz Leong, a resident surgeon.
Beatriz Leong (33)
General Surgery Resident at USC Alina 18 months Dailin 12 years
What do you think about the concept of an Artificial Womb?
“ I don’t think it’s going to take off” Pregnancy is a very unique process It’s made that you build this bond with the child. -> There’s going to be bonding issues with that.” I don’t recommend it.
It’s not going to be accessible, it’s too expensive. Not going to be a future. Perhaps for a high-risk pregnancy.
I can imagine that people would still use it. Like in concierge medicine. Family doctors are expensive. They’ll do everything for the patient. The ethics are more blurred. Not accessible to everyone.
What do you think about universal healthcare?
The way things are going, I doubt it. Heathcare-> a lot of countries believe its a human right make it univerally available but in this country, capitalism makes it difficult. Implementing universal healthcare private insurance companies individidualism-> people want unique & special -> one of the things that will continue people are living longer and developing new diseases Like what?
“Everything will be patient centered” The pharmacies will be closer. Everything should communicate together, hard changing in many levels training, uncomfortable-> Electronic health records, having to work, electronic is harder?
Electronic documentation takes more time. Electronic healthcare some systems fo well. Most don’t implement changes Noew computers can access indefinitely, so there’s more litigation. Patients feel convenience at fingertips, physicians in the future will have more of this.
50 years more accountable for everything * patient its a simpler process, family physian, patients want more specialists. That makes the cycle worse
New Diseases -> Advanced types of cancers -> Incidental things, clinically involved -> Go to the ER, want CT Scan ->PAtients request imaging -> Find abnormalities small tumors for example
**People are now more worried about small things in their bodies that would not **Problem: too much scanning and exposure to radiation (how would we fix that?)
Do you think that robots will be able to diagnose and doctors will not have to do it? Web MD. For quick diagnosis “I don’t think there is a percentage of error. I don’t think a machine or robot will be able to diagnose with absolute certainty and take that judgement.”
** Doctors will still be needed to help discuss the options with the patient, as it is an emotional encounter.
What is the emotional connection? Is it much better if a doctor gives the message? The doctor can read them and empathize with them. What would you do if this was your mother?
I do think medicine will become more accessible, diagnosis, treatment options Patients will live longer “Certain element of comfort to have someone go through it with you”
What happens in a really good connection? Most of meds truly want to help people its really difficult to have the discussion with people
**The goal of a doctor is to help people (Intrinsic purpose) innate drive People would see someone that they are comfortable with, and will drive far to go to them. Seeing a doctor has value over typing symptoms.
What kinds of diseases will exist in an aging population? Atherosclerotic disease (From fats) Lifestyle diseases Dementia Parkinsons Toxins Air quality
Defibrillators connect to your phone and surgeon etc, we can talk and communicate easily.
What changes in healthcare for the elderly? Education does not equal training physicians for the future large deficit of physicians in the beginning more sub speciality services not enough experiences Ends up affecting the poor and uneducated Personal health care heart failure services pacemaker
Longevity healthcare Age is a pretty strong factor, hearts are older ** its important for patients to be dedicated to their health and be self-driven needs to start early *habits are difficult to break
Nanotechnology what do you know about it?
I worked on nanodelivery mechanisms. We are a long way from it We have magnetic beads with specific surface peptides. Certainly will happen
Pregnancy
Big Pharma “Med start ups are bough out by a bigger company.” Startups will be bought by doctores small companies dont have resources to run randomized clinical trials Clinical trials Realistically only the NIH Gov running slower development, not develop as quickly because only patients stand to gain for it. People dont have trials Big pharma is capitalism things being overprices, we developed technology to be advanced ** its what motivates people to create more solutions, like with investors. If it is government run it is too slow.
What do you think of my vision of a UBI? Its quite a big socialist idea This country attacks communist socialist I don’t foresee it State level may work, people will pay more taxes, will provide them with basic People will pay more taxes, I already have to pay 30% of my income because of my tax bracket Provide them with basic salary do strongly believe we don’t take care of our elders and sustain our jobs.
What do you think about the universal income People inherently compete, get more money, vicious cycles Certain percentage of population top 1% will get it Its not sustainable
What do you think about the universal income? A person at UPS and me will make the same amount of money in 40 years
Whats a better solution? What is more feasible? Making jobs and education that are invaluable to society more afforable know plenty of jobs that never go away.  There are so many people that can become amazing Doctors, teachers, surgeons, debt is impossible Cuts out so many people. We still have a huge teaching deficit Make jobs like this (teaching jobs) more attractive more money less debt Recruit more at high schools.
How to get there Theres no guidance, nobody cares you have to do it yourself. degree and cannot use it. Education is not efficient. **People feel the pressure to 4 years of university There should be more vocational schools You should not have to rack up so much debt and then go to vocational school.
What do you think about designer babies? No professional exposure to designer babies Genetically modified child, selecting beauty characteristics, the number of times things go wrong is inevitable, long term health pregnancy is rare enough Health and convenience and safety. Highly unethical
amniocentesis **People will be able to tell what disease their baby will have many children are aborted in the first trimester. There are so many problems that can go wrong in the pregnancy. Healthy pregnancy is so rare that starting to modify a fetus is highly unethical.
Epigenetics *Nearby coding material DNA helix contracted, when its all together You don’t know how this will affect everything What if it does not work? Possible with everyone Physicians will say no Concierge medicine-> Money eventually will allow it
New sports * Be smart -> Genetically modified children will face bullying and be profiled with discrimination, It will put a target on the child *Its like being adopted People will discriminate against them **GMC will struggle with identity problems Women will have fetuses with birth defects. Incompatible with life. Women will be able to choose to abort a child.
What do you think about Artificial Wombs and Abortion?
I don’t know if it’s medically possible to separate the placenta fetus from a womb. The blood floor stops, Who is going to raise those kids? Taxpayers money. Homes I don’t know that not aborting the child will allow a child to have a better life because we cannot assume a child will be wanted and cared for. and I don’t know which one is better.
It’s worse hearing about an abused child.
It is the utilitarian approach? I don’t think that would work.
Aging populations should be comfortable and beauty. It’s not the way it is. More fragiles, feasible to be other. *****People want to feel young and free Everyone will complain things will start to not feel right
Mother Foetal Attachment: As an outsider, and as a Mother Medically largely emotional event to give birth. There is hormonal imbalance Need hormonal injections to simulate it. Massive rush of endorphines Mutilate the body. You’re okay with pain to bring life. emotions trigger memories unlike anything you experience man and women. Love makes you silling, and goofy Going through the pregnanncy Emotions trigger memories, unlike anything you experience. Man and women sense of doom.
Concept artificial womb situation 1.  some upsides: **A. Women in a male dominated field will be able to work while pregnant B. Certain Value to not having to miss work
2. Medically cannot conceptualise how this would work **3. Problem: Cannot leave child alone at home 4. Could have a pod center. fetus is a parasite, womens hormones will be irregular **5. its like how a penguin brings their eggs around****
How will society react to it? 1. people will be nice, curious and interested 2. People will want babies, everyone loves them 3. Its like having a surrogate 4. everyone has a right to have a baby
Aging 1. should be beautiful 2. everyone aging is fragile, wrinkles, shrinks, feasible to be mobile longer.
In Urban homes * people have less kids, 2 doctors no kids. * population is aging because less epople have kids, elderly will work longer, people are developed and not have kids
More older people will have to work or less people? **Keep skilled people in the workforce. Hope this means more jobs for younger people. 15 year difference, level of expecation for work. great depression -> Glad to have any job not the case anymore **raising people entitled to convenience will find that they are not as hardworking and just WANT to be rich and free.
9 months -> Breast feeding, drink milk and toddler different taste
Babies drink regular milk? Every 3-4 hours she would have a bottle. She would eat a little bit then have a bottle.
What was it like to take care of her as a newborn?
Not too bad, it was like a whirlwind. It’s a huge difference in responsibility. Everything you do revolves around the newborn. They don’t sleep well, they don’t eat well, they poo all the time.
Figure out how to get them to eat
How do you get them to eat? I breast fed both of them. They had to learn how to latch on. It’s hard to get them to lat on and release, and they can give you sores. They need to breast feed and get milk (design product to help babies latch onto their mother’s breast)
She was getting jaundice and belerubin. She was getting dehydrated and yellow. She had to get a hospital thing, she had to feed her and pump to get enough milk.
Once she latches on, it’s not a problem. You just have to limit how long they feed. It’s soothing and it makes them fall asleep.  People would supplement them with a pacifier and they would fall asleep like that. Once you get them on a good eating schedule you need to get them on a good sleeping schedule. Hopefully they take an hour nap and then you gotta clean them. With her, we would put her down not in our room and give her three hours to sleep and relax. She was never fussy and would fall asleep. When she was a couple months, she started to sleep 6 hours at 2 months, then 8 hours then all throughout the night. She could start sleeping at 3 months.
The dad’s cant do a lot, they can’t nurse, they can’t nurse them at night. Her husband would be awake during the day a lot and then at night she would be up. Eventually she started sleeping through the night.
The key is to sleep when they sleep. I can sleep anywhere. A lot of people can’t sleep anywhere. A lot of new moms struggle with being able to sleep right. You need to feed them so that they don’t get dehydrated.
It takes them 45 minutes to drink 2 oz,
15 mins changing them
30 mins get them to sleep
30 mins and do it all over again.
You got to figure out your routine. I would give her a bath, change her, wrap her, swaddle, put her in the crib and she fell asleep. She was so happy it worked.  It was totally by accident but she was able to get the baby to go to sleep in the crib. ** you can teach baby sleeping habits.
Dailin was different. She would only sleep if you rocked her to bed, and she would sleep on her husband’s chest.
You seem to deal with that unending cycle pretty well huh? The baby is so good.
What about when you were pregnant with her? What was the first trimester like?
We had a hard time to get pregnant.
The first one was easy but it was hard to have more babies.
She started medical school, and she could not have a baby at that time, so she went on birth control.
The next moment, she was able to have a child.
She wanted to have it with good timing, so that with work it would all go well together.  
1st trimester “I was always nauseated. I was always throwing up.” In the OR she would go out, throw up then come back. “I was always tired” She only wants to sleep all the time. She just wants to go back to sleep. For like the longest time, I stopped six months before getting pregnant. I wanted to be healthy, I wasn’t drinking coffee or medications. Being a surgery resident and not drinking coffee its’s difficult.
* *its hard you cannot take medication when pregnant.
By the time that you’re nine months you are so big and 30 pounds overweight, most people gain a lot more
2nd trimester is a nice medium period You can’t lay on your back. IV & back pressure sore and heavy. Bodies hormones get used to hormone levels. Not so big that your physically limited
3rd trimester is anxiety provoking. Winding down? There’s all these anticipatory emotions. When you are over that midway point there’s all this counting down. Holy shit am I ready. It’s been 12 years since we did this what are we going to do. It is definitely exciting.
I was not dialating. When the babies get 41 weeks, they grow a pound a week
The placenta starts to peel away on its own, there’s a lot of risk to the baby,
Baby has blankets she carrys around. Baby has her own language, basic more all done say thank you. Eat and drink, eating a lot, picky dimsum, eat everything.
Car seats: They hate it. Some kids like it, some kids hate car seats and not being free 1. removeable car seats are easier 2. Toddler seat has to stay in the car. Struggles, difficult ot get out. Likes going in the cave and playing *3. Fancy carseats don’t work, they need to be baby proof because babies will pop in it, throw up, throw chocolate, everything. 4. one arm is in and the other is out 5. she likes going in the car to play with buttons but she doesnt like sitting in the carseat
Stroller: She will not get into a stroller.  a good stroller would be a jogging stroller.
What was it like to not be able to conceive? I try to stay fairly positive & See the good. Not let it affect my work Supportive
What’s it like to have kids as a surgeon and working? Residents usually don’t have kids because they are too busy. before that nobody had kids, most of the nurses didnt have kids. ** The hardest thing was not being able to be home when having a bad day, **Not being able to relax, hard to be away from them * miss out and gone a lot. a lot of guilt is associated with that. WOuldnt be happy without being a surgeon and having kids Nobody teaches you to be a parent. -> Definitely a lot of pressure and judgement **Children need a mom figure in their lives.  both parents work and still work
Premies twins premature, babies not ideal babies survive as early What do they need 1. Breathing tubes that are tiny (half size of pen) 2. IV Access. cannullas in the heart and the big vein. Draw the blood out of the vein and into the heart.
3. In the umbillical artery (Hebrin to prevent it 4. Put a catherer in their blood to take care of them 5. Their skin is not mature enough as a barrier 6. Warmer -> Incubators 7. Babies don’t go home until they are a stational age. 8.dialysis the blood. 9. Babies are fed formula or try to get the mothers to pump their milk 10. PFO - open corrin Require many surgeries esophagus to fix that feeding tube (Suckle on a niple for 3 weeks.
There are so many problems that can go wrong with birth defects. I don’t know how this machine would work. I have no idea how I would have had a normal pregnancy
“you don’t think of all the negative aspects.”
What is that? Freezing eggs Ovulate, 2 or a handful of eggs menopause chanves of reg is less ->U have all the eggs in your system ->Chances of having eggs are less Invitro doesnt always work
New industry**** * Service to have frozen eggs, service to harvest eggs, service for storing eggs, service for getting the eggs back. Very expensive *People desire to have children. ** Strong desire.
I dont get desensitized. patients affect her quite a bit
0 notes
picardonhealth · 8 years ago
Text
Canadian Rhena Bliss was missing in plain sight, for 36 years
ANDRÉ PICARD,  THE GLOBE AND MAIL
THURSDAY, DEC. 29, 2016 
HABITANT, N.S. - Sometime in the spring of 1975, Rhena Bliss, a 29-year-old mother of two, was discharged from the Provincial Mental Hospital in Ponoka, Alta.
She took all her worldly possessions, packed neatly into an antique ribbed travel trunk, deposited it in an apartment she had rented in Edmonton, and disappeared.
Rhena was not seen again by her family members until 2011.
What happened during those 36 years is still largely a mystery. In the predigital age, people left a lot fewer footprints behind, and – penniless and suffering from severe, untreated schizophrenia – she likely lived on the margins of society.
But that Rhena survived for so long and emerged relatively unscathed, offers a glimmer of hope to the countless families who have lost loved ones to the streets, to the indifference of the social-welfare and justice systems, and to the even more frightening alternatives.
At the same time, the fact that Rhena was living in plain sight, clearly ill, and no one went looking for her family, points to some big holes in how missing-person cases are handled.
Before delving into what happened when Rhena was lost, however, it’s worth marvelling at how she was found.
Beverley Bliss, her younger sister, calls it the “fortunate convergence of persistence, technology, political will and faithful friends.”
Sometimes, for simplicity sake, she simply calls it a miracle.
Bev and her sister were always close, and the disappearance affected her profoundly.
“When a person goes missing, it’s not a dramatic, traumatic event; it’s a slow gnawing absence that’s always there. It’s like being haunted,” she says.
The ghost of sister lost visited often. Bev was long plagued by insomnia and, on many a sleepless night, she would surf the web, looking for clues to Rhena’s fate.
“I would read the death notices, google her name, her married name, variations on her name, all kinds of stuff,” Bev says.
Then one night, in 2010, after years of surfing futility, Rhena’s name popped up on the Alberta Missing Persons website. After numerous human remains were discovered near Edmonton, the RCMP created Project KARE, and, over time, posted some cold cases. (In the wake of the Robert Pickton mass murders and the growing attention to missing and murdered indigenous women, that pilot project morphed into a permanent National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains.
Bev contacted the RCMP, provided a photo of her sister and thanked them for their diligence.
What she didn’t know at the time was that Rhena was living in Ottawa, in a shelter for homeless women, and she had been since 1995.
One of the social workers at that facility, Cornerstone Housing For Women, also had the habit of surfing the Web, looking for information about residents, many of whom, like Rhena, suffered from mental illness and didn’t really know if they had family.
She too stumbled across the RCMP Missing Persons website and, when she saw the photo, recognized Rhena immediately.
Police took some time to do their due diligence, trying to confirm that the woman in the shelter really was Rhena Bliss, and, in October, 2011, called Bev.
“We think we found your sister,” was the matter-of-fact message Bev received from Edmonton Police.
“There was no crying or anything. It was a quiet emotional shock,” she says.
Meanwhile, at Cornerstone, staff members were unsure how Rhena would take the news, so they asked: “Would you like to meet your sister?”
“Oh, Beverley?” she replied. It was the first time she had mentioned having a sister.
The family refers to the 1975-95 period, before Rhena turned up at a shelter, as the lost years. The decade before her disappearance was also difficult. Rhena was only 18 when she married and, after the birth of her children, she fell ill, becoming increasingly erratic, paranoid and delusional, to the point where she ended up being committed to the psychiatric institution in Ponoka.
There were, of course, all kinds of theories about where she disappeared to, the most common of which was that she was probably dead.
Bev, who is a well-known filmmaker, says she was always haunted by a scene in The Godfather, where a sex worker is murdered, and the killer says: “Don’t worry about her, she’s nothing. No one’s looking for her.” That line always reminded Bev of just how vulnerable women are when they’re homeless or alone.
Because of her illness, Rhena could not really explain why she left or where she was; one of the symptoms of schizophrenia is confabulation – the production of fabricated and distorted memories, so it was not always clear when her recollections were real or imagined.
There is no doubt, however, that she spent significant time in Rockville, Md.; Rhena had a Medicaid card, a social-security number, a bus pass and a bank account. She also appears to have spent some time in New York, Boston, California and even Hawaii. The family assumes that, at some point, she was deported back to Canada, and ended up living on the streets of Ottawa.
When she ended up at Cornerstone, Rhena had no Canadian I.D. To be eligible for social assistance, she needed a birth certificate, and that required some paperwork and an appearance before a justice of the peace.
What Bev doesn’t understand is why such a request – particularly by a person with amnesia – doesn’t trigger some sleuthing, such as looking for the person’s family.
“Our biggest question was: ‘Why didn’t they find us in 1995?’ If they looked her up in missing persons, maybe we would have had 15 more years together,” Bev says. (She notes, however, that, until recently, missing-persons files were not centrally collected.)
The family was also foiled by privacy laws. Designed principally to protect women fleeing abusive partners, these laws make it virtually impossible to get any information on people in the shelter system. This is a huge barrier for families searching for loved ones.
And there are a lot of missing persons – 20,871 adults and 41,342 children in Canada in 2014, the most recent year for which detailed data are available.
About 85 per cent of those reported missing are found within a week, almost always alive. But in a small minority of cases – which is still a large absolute number – the mystery is never solved.
A case like this one – where a family is reunited after 36 years – is virtually unheard of.
Bev says the hardest part of a missing-person case is not knowing the fate of your loved one. “I really came to understand the importance of a funeral, of the need to say goodbye.”
Many families do, at some point, move from hoping to mourning. But Rhena’s mom steadfastly refused to have a funeral. She even kept the same phone number for four decades, in case her daughter called.
When Rhena reunited with Bev, and then other family members, in late 2011, it was bittersweet.
On the one hand, it felt like someone returning from the dead – a resurrection.
On the other hand, there was no Hollywoodesque catching up on old times. “I had to recognize that the illness had taken its toll, that the person I once knew wasn’t coming back,” Bev says.
It was difficult for Rhena’s grown children too, who had never really known their mom.
The family worried most of all how Rhena’s own mom would take the news. “Honestly, we were afraid the shock would kill her,” Bev says.
It didn’t. But their lives were forever changed, as the burden of not knowing evaporated.
Even Rhena, in a moment of clarity, recognized that something special had occurred.
At the end of their first meeting, when her sister was about to leave, she asked: “Are you coming back?”
When Bev said, “Yes, of course,” Rhena replied: “It’s not just me any more, it’s us?”
On Oct. 16, a little shy of her 71st birthday, Rhena Bliss died. She had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
In the final months of her life, she moved from Cornerstone, the only stable housing she had known as an adult, to a long-term care facility, Garden Terrace Residence.
The family finally got its chance to say goodbye to Rhena, a lovely Baha’i funeral.
Yet many pieces of the puzzle that was her life remain missing, probably forever.
“I wouldn’t say there was closure – because I hate that word,” Bev says. “What we felt was gratitude that we were able to spend some time with Rhena again.
“It’s a feeling I wish every family of a missing person could feel.”
0 notes
kristinsimmons · 5 years ago
Text
Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts
Tumblr media
Stephanie Kuku
Tumblr media
Hugh Harvey
By STEPHANIE KUKU, MD and HUGH HARVEY, MBBS
The ability to predict in healthcare is the utopia promised by every artificial intelligence for healthcare built, funded and tested in the last decade. Yet very few doctors, technologists, or investors would have imagined they would live to witness a pandemic of the scale we are currently experiencing. We are still getting our heads round the lives lost, the lives of the frontline workers at risk, the disruption and self-isolation, the less fortunate who will suffer the most, the companies in survival mode, and a battered global economy. It is a good time to reflect on what the future of health will look like after we recover. We need to get better at acting on the predictions that truly matter. In a booming health-tech market saturated with promises of predictions and diagnostic insights, it’s a shame we didn’t listen to the scientists who predicted this violent wave of viral disruption. 
The future of healthcare investing needs to change
With the first case of the virus last December, everything changed, and there is so much more change to come, in healthcare, technology and in the way we all work.  Like with policy and public health, the majority of players on the healthcare stage remain so far removed from the frontline. The perceived ‘market’ rarely truly represents the real one, and true intelligence is lacking the collective intelligence that should prioritise the needs of the healthcare systems and the populations they serve. Our values, motives and how we create the pitch-perfect melting pot of skills, expertise, and mindset needs readjustment. Somewhere between evidence- based decision making and patience; clinical impact aligned with economic impact should be the goal. More focus is needed on validation and less on valuations that are largely built on assumptions and unproven hypotheses. Given the amount of investment that has drowned the healthtech/biotech domains in the last decade, we must praise the advancements that have been made. We must also examine the failures, the wasted resources, and whether technology really is moving healthcare forward at a pace that matches the investment.
The forces that determine what startups and spin-outs are funded and what innovations make it to the lab or hospitals regardless of their eventual clinical impact is an intricate, complex web of sometimes distorted priorities. Amidst competing incentives of donors, investors, developers, scientists, clinicians and governments, the harsh reality is that only a handful of R&D and companies that receive funding will both create something of impact in healthcare and a healthy return on investment. The pandemic has in effect created its own mini-Gartner hype cycle, and investors would do well to pay attention to the rise and fall of promised technology during these uncertain times.
Domain expertise, hedging bets or FOMO-driven?
There are numerous healthcare analogies to the hype and investor fan-girling that resulted in the rise and subsequent crash of Wework, not to forget the billions wasted on Theranos. For whilst Elizabeth Holmes might have been held accountable, in these very extraordinary, uncertain times, it is painful now to think of what good that money could have been put to. Vaccines, immunotherapy drugs, diagnostics for early detection of cancer and autoimmune disease, mental health therapeutics, clinical decision support for the brave and exhausted healthcare workforce. The list goes on. 
Healthtech investors and venture capitalists at large have a distinct skill set and usually have previously had some experience in the healthcare sector. It is likely that some make better bets with experience. Others make predictions by analysing the markets and trends. Surprisingly few rely on experts for deeper insights. 
More diligence is due
Just like with any effective cancer team, a true Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) skill set should be required for due diligence, steering validation and scalability of proposed products in healthcare. True due diligence requires a team effort. The silos of expertise needed to make decisions on what companies to fund, scale and support need to be converged. Deep due diligence should involve a team of experts who can:
assess a management team and their ability ‘to manage’ in the healthcare sector, as well as detect any complex divides in mindset between the scientific, product, regulatory and business leads 
guide operating executives to honestly and reliably evaluate the robustness of the underlying technology or product 
understand  the clinical research required and clinical impact within the intended setting and/or workflow
comprehensively assess the regulatory pathways and requirements needed for a specific novel technology 
evaluate the ‘marketplace’ with depth, collaborating with relevant clinicians, scientists, and health care economists  
evaluate the true and hidden costs of ‘customer’ acquisition in healthcare
In healthcare, one cannot rely on fast iteration and user churn to help find product-market fit. It needs to be found first, before going to the market to shop for ‘customers’. Tech companies frequently appear to not understand the difference in behaviours between patients and customers.  
Evaluating the competitive landscape is also important. Founders will usually underestimate this to raise funds, and in doing so underestimate the time from development to implementation and procurement, as well as the resources needed to get there. If ‘competition shows the market’ then telemedicine truly is here to stay post-pandemic.  
Hope for the future of digital health
Whilst COVID has revealed staggering flaws in our healthcare systems, it has also shown the potential for massive improvements in access to care and resources to support this. It has confirmed to the skeptics out there that technology in healthcare does have the ability to improve workflow, communication and free up doctors and nurses for essential patient-facing care. We have to be prepared for the next healthcare crisis. In the future, our healthcare systems will be stronger and more valued. Technological innovation will accelerate equitable healthcare access and quality, instead of sitting eagerly on the sidelines waiting for acceptance. We must reassess our healthcare priorities as we no longer have a choice.
It is impossible not to expect that in some existential way all our priorities will have to change. What won’t is the need for deep expertise and experience. In fact, we need it now, more than ever.
Dr Harvey is a board-certified radiologist and clinical academic, trained in the NHS and Europe’s leading cancer research institute, the ICR, where he was twice awarded Science Writer of the Year. 
Dr Stephanie Kuku is a health technology advisor who has worked in the NHS/HCA as a surgical oncologist specialising in women’s cancers and is an advisor and consultant in Clinical AI at the WHO.
This article originally appeared on the Hardian Health blog here.
The post Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts appeared first on The Health Care Blog.
Predicting the Future by Listening to the Experts published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/
0 notes