Sunday, February 14, 2016

Correlation ≠ cause and effect

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I was recently directed to a lovely example of how an observation of correlation can be misinterpreted with regard to cause and effect.* ...
3 comments:
Thursday, February 11, 2016

"A good way for doctors to let patients know they are antiquated and unfriendly"

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A friend here in Melbourne visiting a doctor in the community took this picture from the bulletin board in the doctor's waiting room....
2 comments:
Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Ask, instead, why they would want to leave

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It isn't often that I am surprised in a negative way by something relating to an Ohio pediatric hospital.  Indeed, the hospitals in tha...
5 comments:
Monday, February 08, 2016

In memoriam: The Boston Courant

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In the end, The Boston Courant did not shut down because of the oft-discussed pressures on the print media.  No, it was because of legal...

Cruelty and enlightenment

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I don’t know if the following observations are profound or trite or somewhere in between. They are prompted by a recent visit to the Casc...
2 comments:
Sunday, February 07, 2016

There is no Holy Grail, just small chalices

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Given the stakes to society and the persistent growth in health care delivery costs throughout the developed nations, there is an underst...
2 comments:
Thursday, February 04, 2016

There is no billing code for compassion

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I am borrowing a line from Dr. Amy Ship, the 2009 recipient of the Campassionate Caregiver Award from the Schwartz Center, to remind fo...
Wednesday, February 03, 2016

Plus ça change

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I mean no disrespect to my Australian hosts when I say that I've seen this all before.  The details differ, but the same underlying ...
Sunday, January 31, 2016

Mind the step!

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One of my "thinker in residence" sponsors here in Australia is VMIA, the Victoria state government insurance agency.  I had just ...
2 comments:
Wednesday, January 27, 2016

A canary in the coal mine?

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How should we think about medical malpractice claims against doctors?  Are they indicative of something about those doctors who've be...
2 comments:
Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Fostering a non-negotiable safety mindset

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Apparently, my recent blog post about preventable medical errors at a Victoria community hospital was widely circulated among the local ...
1 comment:
Monday, January 25, 2016

Nominative determinism

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Upon seeing this photo from the town of Koo Wee Rup, Victoria, that I posted on Facebook, our friend Geoffrey Irvin posited that it appe...
29 comments:
Sunday, January 24, 2016

One person's costs is another person's income

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What a relief! According to Jessica Gardner in the Sydney Morning Herald , a recent report suggesting that the growth in utilization of t...
Saturday, January 23, 2016

When is a doctor like a bull ant?

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In my previous post , I addressed the issue of bullying in Australian hospitals.  In an article published three years ago in BMJ Qualit...
2 comments:

Bullying, a multi-legged problem

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Notwithstanding Bill Bryson's characterization of this " sunburned country " as a place in which there are dozens of ways ...
6 comments:
Tuesday, January 19, 2016

No worries? Not so good.

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Every language or region has its colloquial response to "Thank you!"  In Spanish, we say, "De nada."  "It's no...
5 comments:

Negotiating in Geelong

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One of the pleasures in my appointment as "Thinker in Residence" at Deakin University is the chance to hold workshops for loca...
Saturday, January 16, 2016

Facebook: Killing the goose?

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None of us who use Facebook are so naive as to think that it is a free service.  The "cost" of playing is that they use all of th...
4 comments: