Robert J Lull, MD, Editor, San Francisco Medicine, in their issue on Women’s Health, outlines the challenges in women’s health since the dark ages and the increased polarization even in our modern era. To reduce the need for abortion clinics and meet the reproductive needs of women, he suggests that the high-dose hormone-based morning after […]

San Francisco Medicine devoted an entire issue to “Computers & Medicine.” Robert J. Lull, MD, editor, reviews the various applications of computers in the diagnostic and therapeutic arena, including radiology (CT, MRI, SPECT, and PET scans), radiation oncology, nuclear medicine, cardiac catheterization, etc. But Dr Lull feels that the root of physician resistance to computers […]

Arthur Lurvey, MD, reminds the members of the Orange County Medical Society (OCMS) that the waiver of Medicare deductibles and copayments requirement is unlawful and violates the anti-kick-back statutes. Although it may appear that the waiver of the 20% copayments and deductibles helps Medicare beneficiaries, several studies have shown that if patients are required to […]

Over a span of several years, Roger Bone, MD, a pulmonologist, gave us a running commentary on his fight with Cancer in his “As I lay Dying” articles. Now another world renowned pulmonologist, Thomas Petty, MD, gives us an account of his personal brush with death. I met Professor Petty as a fellow in 1969 […]

The Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) has begun organizing a physicians’ union completely separate from LACMA. Meanwhile, Los Angeles county’s 800 non-resident physicians voted to affiliate with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD). The ability to organized physicians got tougher when, in a New Jersey case, the National Labor Relations Board upheld […]

Sheryl R Skolnick, PhD, managing director at BancBoston Robertson Stephens, who is responsible for analysis and recommendations in the health-care arena, was the final speaker at the UCI Health Care Forecast Conference as reported in the The Bulletin of the OCMA. She concluded that 1998 was a disastrous your for health care. She stated that […]

At the last Editorial Board Meeting we received a report concerning the proposed medical board fee increase. We were told that there is absolutely no question that the Medical Board of California (MBC) needs an increase in fees from physicians. This is because over a 20-year career, a physician beginning practice today in California may […]

Since that some hospital foundation and HMO groups assign physicians to the inpatient service, where they take over the total management of patients with whom they are unfamiliar, Luis E Cebrian, MD, a GP from Chico has a word of caution. Coming from the National Health Service (NHS) in England, where “hospitalists” are called consultants, […]

Robert Jaspan, MD, Riverside County Medical Association Bulletin Editor, discusses alternative medicine. He notes that alternative medicine largely ignores biologic mechanisms and relies on ancient practices which are seen as less toxic, yet more potent. He sees this as a reversion to irrational approaches to medical practice, possibly brought on by the sometimes hurried and […]

San Diego Physician editor, Paul K Raffer, MD, gives the demographics for San Diego. Of the 5700 practicing physicians in the county, 2000 members of the medical society. The majority of nonmembers are staff or group practitioners. Of Kaiser’s 650 doctors, 33 are members; Scripps Clinic has 56 of its 400 staff as members; and […]