Archive: January 2011

We’re less than a week away from the Super Bowl now, and many people are firming up their plans for viewing parties. This article that I stole from the good people at MADD has some good tips for your own Super Bowl party — how to have fun and stay safe. At the MADD site […]

Perhaps Groundhog Day is a good time for a post about a “tort reform” myth that just keeps repeating itself  — that limiting the amount of money seriously injured patients can recover will result in lower medical bills for the rest of us. The AP reported that President Obama “ridiculed lingering opposition” to his healthcare […]

Did you like to blow soap bubbles when you were a kid? Try to make bigger ones than your friends? You never imagined bubbles like this:

ABC World News reported, “An important health warning tonight from the FDA about a possible link between breast implants and a rare form of cancer.” ABC (Stark) added, “The government says they may be linked to a rare form of lymphoma. … There are 60 cases worldwide, in as many 10-million women with implants.” The […]

The Hill reports in its “Healthwatch” blog, “President Obama’s State of the Union speech” was “already causing consternation among trial lawyers, half an hour before he even” delivered it. “According to his remarks as prepared for delivery, Obama” planned to “throw a bone to Republicans by vowing to take up medical malpractice reform,” which “usually […]

A disturbing study about the care of dementia patients has been summarized in the New York Times. The bottom line is that many people with dementia are hospitalized unnecessarily. Here are excerpts from the article: Perhaps no group of nursing home residents is more vulnerable than those with advanced dementia: unable to speak for themselves, […]

The AP reports, “The Food and Drug Administration is laying out plans to update the 35-year-old system used to approve most medical devices.” Notably, the “agency announced a series of changes it plans to make this year, including streamlining the review process for some low-risk devices,” although “regulators said they will delay a decision on […]

I wrote last week about the bill to reduce automobile liability insurance limits in Wisconsin, and I said that was bizarre in these days of rapidly escalating medical costs. An article in the Green Bay Press Gazette has a little more information about the proposal. Here are excerpts: Door County lawmakers are among the sponsors […]

Trainyard is a fantastic puzzle-solving game for iPhone, iTouch, and iPad users. In a nutshell, you move colored trains from their origination point to their destination by laying out railroad tracks. It begins simply, but soon becomes enormously complex. I got the free version and found it so enjoyable I took the very rare step, […]

AAA Texas has a good article on their site about choosing a vehicle for an elderly person to drive. The research for the article was done by AAA in conjunction with the University of Florida’s National Older Driver Research and Training Center (NODRTC). This is assuming of course that the person is capable of driving […]