WELCOME TO THE MEDICAL TUESDAY NETWORK

 Physicians, Business, Professional and Information Technology Communities

 Networking to Restore Accountability in HealthCare & Medical Practice

  Tuesday, January 25, 2005

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MedicalTuesday refers to the meetings that were traditionally held on Tuesday evenings where physicians met with their colleagues and the interested business and professional communities to discuss the medical and health care issues of the day. As major changes occurred in health care delivery during the past several decades, the need for physicians to meet with the business and professional communities became even more important. However, proponents of third-party or single-payer health care felt these meetings were counter productive and they essentially disappeared. Rationing, a common component of government medicine throughout the world, was introduced into the United States with Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), under the illusion that this was free enterprise. Instead, the consumers (patients) lost all control of their personal and private health-care decision making, the reverse of what was needed to control health care costs and improve quality of care.

We welcome you to the reestablishment of these MedicalTuesday interchanges now occurring on the world wide web and currently reaching into twenty-one countries in six continents and your own desktop. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you or you have not been on our email list, please go to www.MedicalTuesday.net and subscribe to continue to receive these free messages on alternate MedicalTuesdays. At this site you can also subscribe to the companion quarterly newsletter, HealthPlanUSA, designed to make HealthCare more affordable for all Americans. Please forward this message to your friends. If you were referred in error or do not wish to receive these messages, we have made it easier for you to unsubscribe simply by clicking the Remove Link below.

In This Issue:

1.     The Politics of the Self-Esteem Myth

2.      Surgery No Better Than Rehab for Low Back Pain

3.      Dermatologists' Practice Eliminates Paper to Boost Productivity, Cut Errors

4.      This Week’s Review of Medicare or Socialized Medicine

5.      Medical Gluttony: One Freebie That Doesn't Cost More - Unnecessary Lab Tests

6.      Medical Myths: Myth 7-Every Employer Must Pay for Employees’ Health Insurance

7.      Overheard in the Medical Staff Lounge - Are Polls Confusing or Dishonest?

8.      The MedicalTuesday Recommendations for Restoring Accountability in Medical Practice, HealthCare and Government                                                    

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1.      The Politics of the Self-Esteem Myth

Roy F. Baumeister and his colleagues, reporting in this month’s Scientific American, discuss boosting people's sense of self-worth which has become a national preoccupation. Americans see a favorable opinion of oneself as the central psychological source from which all manner of positive outcomes spring. The corollary, that low self-esteem lies at the root of individual and thus societal problems and dysfunctions, has sustained an ambitious social agenda for decades. Indeed, campaigns to raise people's sense of self-worth abound.

Consider what transpired in California in the late 1980s. Prodded by State Assemblyman John Vasconcellos, Governor George Deukmejian set up a task force on self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Vasconcellos argued that raising self-esteem in young people would reduce crime, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, school underachievement and pollution. At one point, he even expressed the hope that these efforts would one day help balance the state budget, a prospect predicated on the observation that people with high self-regard earn more than others and thus pay more in taxes. Along with its other activities, the task force assembled a team of scholars to survey the relevant literature. The results appeared in a 1989 volume entitled The Social Importance of Self-Esteem, which stated that "many, if not most, of the major problems plaguing society have roots in the low self-esteem of many of the people who make up society." In reality, the authors state, the report contained little to support that assertion.

The California task force disbanded in 1995, but a nonprofit organization called the National Association for Self-Esteem (NASE) has picked up its mantle, aiming (according to its mission statement) to "promote awareness of and provide vision, leadership and advocacy for improving the human condition through the enhancement of self-esteem." Vasconcellos, now a California state senator, is on the advisory board.

But one can draw on many more studies now than was the case 15 years ago, enough to assess the value of self-esteem in several spheres. Regrettably, the authors maintain, those who have been pursuing self-esteem-boosting programs, including the leaders of NASE, have not shown a desire to examine the new work.

I recall when Vasconcellos tried to pass a mandate that courses on "Self Esteem" be taught in our schools to create a better society. This article reports some findings that even suggest that artificially boosting self-esteem may lower subsequent academic performance. This is another example where a government mandate (fortunately this one was never passed nor implemented) usually creates the opposite result. It also points out that failed efforts by politicians have great difficulty in simply dying. Unfortunately, even without scientific support or awareness of scientific data that negates their findings, politicians will spend their lives, even obtain tax-free funding, to give a dead horse another life. God help us all if they should ever gain control of health care. That really would be like dying.

The review of the author’s survey of the scientific literature and the entire article can be found at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000CB565-F330-11BE-AD0683414B7F0000&pageNumber=1&catID=2.

When so many laws (mandates) are passed that no one can observe all of them, then you have a nation of lawbreakers. You can then get conviction after conviction for total servitude. - Ayn Rand

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2.     Surgery No Better Than Rehab for Low Back Pain

Patrice Wendling reports on the annual meeting of the North American Spine Society in this month's Internal Medicine News. Dr. James Wilson-Macdonald said at the meeting "There is no clear evidence that spinal surgery is more effective than an adequate rehabilitation program for chronic low back pain." In his multicenter trial of 349 patients, aged 18-55 years, with at least a year's history of chronic back pain, 176 were randomized to spinal surgery and 173 were assigned to participate in a 3-week rehabilitation program based on cognitive behavioral principles. Two years after randomization, both groups reported clinically significant reductions in disability.

“For patients where spinal fusion is indicated, rehabilitation may offer a cheaper, noninvasive alternative,” added Dr. Wilson-Macdonald of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford , England . When surgeons took issue with him on certain spinal conditions, he replied, “For your typical spondylolisthesis patient, I think no one in this room would doubt that surgery is the right approach.”

There were 19 complications in 139 surgeries, and 11 patients had revision surgeries. No complications occurred in the rehabilitation group. Specific fusion surgery techniques did not appear to alter the outcome, Dr. Wilson-Macdonald said.

To read the entire report go to http://www2.einternalmedicinenews.com/scripts/om.dll/serve?action=searchDB&searchDBfor=art&artType=full&id=aqm05038108.

The concept that surgery recommended on one day may no longer be indicated later on is difficult for some health care planners to grasp. It is also difficult to incorporate into medical guidelines. In socialized medicine countries, once a recommendation for an operation is made, it is carried on the waiting list for years. When the name comes up, sometimes years later, the patient reports for surgery even if the need no longer is present. For instance, what happens to the patients that were told that they needed a heart transplant or they would die? Because of the limited supply of beating hearts available, many did not receive transplants. However, follow up studies have shown that a significant percent of these patients got well enough that they could function normally and no longer needed a transplant. When the state or insurance carriers rather than doctors and their patients are in charge, it can be a very expensive proposition, decreasing the quality of care and increasing patient morbidity.

Normal Body Restorative Functions Are Difficult to Predict.

It's Best to Leave the Daily Evaluation with the Doctor–Patient Team.

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3.      Dermatologists' Practice Eliminates Paper to Boost Productivity, Cut Errors

Riva Richmond reports in the Wall Street Journal that Sherwin Parikh might serve as a model for a new medical maxim: Physician, heal thy office.

The 33-year-old New York doctor heads an entirely digital four-doctor, dermatology practice in a loft space in the trendy Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca. Since it opened its doors nearly four years ago, the paperless practice has treated 18,000 patients. Everything from medical records to scheduling, billing, insurance-claim processing and patient follow-up are managed via a wireless computer network. There is no clutter or file cabinets; all data are stored neatly on secure, off-site servers. Doctors answer patient questions that arrive by e-mail, regularly pasting reports of symptoms or drug side effects electronically into digital records.

Dr. Parikh is on the cutting edge of a group of physicians and dentists in private practice who believe that digital technology can boost office productivity, while reducing expenses, headaches and mistakes. "One of the pitfalls of practicing medicine is the bureaucracy of the actual business of it," Dr. Parikh says. The high-tech system "frees me up to deal with the patient as an actual person, rather than a manila folder."

Richard Damm, 37, Dr. Parikh's business partner, says doctors at the Tribeca Skin Center see 38 to 45 patients a day without the help of a full-time nursing staff, compared with 30 to 35 at similar dermatology practices. Payroll is slim, with only six administrative employees and a part-time nurse, as well as the office manager, Mr. Damm. "We do not have any data-entry people, filers or billing people," he says. "That's all been taken over by technology."

The center's automated system also reduces simple errors that cause insurance companies to reject claims in part by reducing the number of times data are transposed from one record to another. Mr. Damm says typically only 3% to 5% of the center's claims are outstanding. But these results, he says, rely on absolute fealty to a paperless system. Although a prescription or a requested receipt may still need a piece of paper, Mr. Damm has mercilessly removed nearly all other paper -- and pens -- from the office. He's even considering taking back the small rainbow-colored spiral notepads he had given office workers to use in a pinch.

The practice's system begins before a patient's first appointment, when the person submits a medical history using the center's Web site or the PC in the office's glass-walled, wood-floored waiting room. During visits, doctors record diagnoses and treatment plans, add notes, write prescriptions and mark insurance codes using wireless tablet PCs. Typed prescriptions wait for departing patients at the front desk, and billing happens automatically. Software converts faxed biopsy reports into e-mails that are routed to the right doctor.

Many doctors' offices have brought in electronic scheduling and claim-filing systems, but most still lack the real emblem of a wired health-care outfit: electronic medical records (EMR). Only about 5% of small doctors' offices have adopted EMRs, with another 5% planning to make the move, according to the Health Information Management and Systems Society, an industry group. That compares with the 56% of hospitals and large institutions and 40% of large clinics that have or plan to implement them.

But larger organizations' adoption of EMRs to reduce health-care costs and medical errors is likely to drive the industry, including small doctors' offices, toward use of digital records. To read the entire article, go to http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110237426083592516,00.html.

Caution: It is critically important to note that the electronic medical record utilized by a doctor or group of doctors in private practice protect patients’ privacy. A five percent increase in utilization in small offices and 40 percent in large clinics in one year is actually rather rapid and probably as fast as practices can assimilate new technology. Remember it has only been a few years since 95 percent of physicians acquired internet access. The current government proposals to implement EMR will be cumbersome, will not improve efficiency since medical office staffs are not yet attuned to them, as the above example suggests, and primarily gives the government access to patients' confidential medical files. Although this is denied by government spokesmen, it was also denied in the HIPAA discussions, and then passed by assuring patient confidentiality. In reality, it has given insurance carriers, including Medicare and Medicaid, access to confidential medical information without patient knowledge or disclosure.

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4.      This Week’s Review of Medicare or Socialized Medicine

Social security has been on a slow downward spiral towards insolvency for about 70 years, with its 100th anniversary a possible bankruptcy sale. Most of my patients don't believe that. Medicare has been on the hyperbolic slope towards bankruptcy for 40 years. None of my patients seem to believe this. They expect that the kind and benevolent government will take care of them and raise the taxes as necessary. One even suggested that as far as he was concerned they could raise taxes to 100 percent–because the rich can well afford that.

Financial Times reported last week that Vodafone restated their financial status using a new accounting method. By treating the goodwill value of its acquisition in the new method, they went from a £1.9 bn ($3.6 bn) loss, the largest in UK corporate history, to a £4.5 bn profit. The investors, however, were not impressed and its stock declined 0.4 percent.

No wonder many don't believe in statistics or statistical projections. They think Social Security and Medicare are really running a surplus. They just haven’t adopted the new accounting methods.

Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.

Ronald Reagan

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5.      Medical Gluttony: One Freebie That Doesn't Cost More - Unnecessary Lab Tests

Americans are getting used to acquiring a lot of freebies or a chance to win a prize; i.e. getting  15,000 frequent flyer miles for changing your long distance phone carrier; getting a free VISA with no interest for 6 months. However, the fine print indicates that if you're late in any payments, not only on this credit card but any other credit card, your interest rate goes to 25.9 percent in addition to a $39 late fee which may drive the interest rate for the month to over 90 percent (instead of the zero percent expected).

But their health insurance policy carries no such restriction, risks, or penalty. Every day we have requests from patients who have had a series of normal chemistry and lipid panels demanding an unnecessary yearly repeat panel. Why? Because IT'S FREE. Patients who have elevated lipids but decline treatment and refuse to alter their diets to low fat demand an unnecessary yearly lipid panel "just to see if it's still abnormal." Of course it will remain abnormal without dietary or medical attention or treatment. Why do they want it? Because IT'S FREE. Not really, their employer prepaid it and they are now running out of money.

Physicians and insurance carriers should not have to control patient gluttony. It should be left to the patient and the doctor working in the free Medical MarketPlace environment. With a reasonable copayment of, say 30 percent, the patient will listen to the doctor's advice and follow it without being an adversary. The insurance carrier (or HMO) should be left out of the picture, and simply pay for the lab if it's a policy benefit. The practice of medicine would again become a pleasant experience for both the doctor and the patient without the unnecessary intrusion of the insurance (or HMO) carrier.

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6.      Medical Myths: Myth 7 - Every Employer Must Pay for Employees’ Health Insurance

Madeleine Pelner Cosman, PhD, JD, Esq, in her upcoming book, Who Owns Your Body, gives Nine Myths of American Medicine. Today we review Myth 7. For the previous six, see http://www.healthplanusa.net/MC-WhoOwnsYourBodyIntro.htm.

This chapter explores the history of employer-sponsored health insurance resulting in each employee’s lower wages and restricted medical choice.

No employer in the USA pays for medical insurance. Every employee’s health insurance is a tax-advantaged salary-substitute. The employer gets the advantage under the Internal Revenue Code Section 106 exclusion.

World War II wage and price controls made it necessary for employers to offer more salary without offering more money. Medical insurance was the hidden way to sneak valuable benefits to employees without violating the wage control law. Half a century later, every employee still actually pays 100% of his or her medical insurance policy by salary-substitute.

Today employees threaten to strike because their employer, for example, General Electric or Verizon, requires them to pay a larger percentage of health care "insurance" costs. The workers do not understand that no matter what percentage they think they pay, it is always 100%.

Employees who volitionally pay for medical care with their own money might or might not select HMOs. Few employees freely would buy "employer-provided medical insurance" and pay 100% of the cost in lost wages and 100% of the cost in lost choice. Employees who volitionally elect HMOs with their own money merit admiration for their tolerance of risk or for their own certitude of their good health. Apparently only 16 % of people with freedom to elect or reject HMOs select HMOs, low cost being the dominant reason. That is valid freedom of choice.

For those forced into HMOs because their employer offers nothing else, if the HMO refuses necessary care the employee can sue both the HMO and his employer via the deeply flawed Patients’ Bill of Rights. The employer who selects an HMO that denies medicine or surgery to an injured or sick employee also takes on an unwitting moral liability for he has used the employee’s own money to prevent care of the employee’s own body.

One method for restoring order and body ownership is to change the tax code to allow employees a tax advantage as opposed to employers. Employers who will have no tax incentive to continue in the medical care business will be glad to see their employees deal with medical professionals directly. Workers need a tax incentive to buy their own care, such as simple tax deduction for all medical expenses, as opposed to the Tax Code’s current requirement that only medical expenses over 7.5 percent of adjusted annual gross income qualify for deduction. Working people with a tax incentive to buy medical care the way they buy all other assets and services will then stop demanding that employers, who are amateurs in medicine, provide medical care.

Government tax exclusion for employers costs America about 140 billion dollars annually. That amount could provide $1000 per individual American in tax advantage for individually bought, personally owned, and autonomously selected medical care.

TRUTH 7: Employee Health Insurance Began as a Salary-Substitute during World War II

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7.      Overheard in the Medical Staff Lounge - Are Polls Confusing or Dishonest?

An ABC News-Washington Post Poll was reported in an article (Associated Press - Will Lester)  titled "Support builds for health care, prescription drug changes." "By almost a 2-1 margin in this poll, Americans said they preferred a universal system which would provide coverage to everyone under a government program, as opposed to the current employer-based system."

"That support drops significantly, however, if universal coverage would mean a limited choice of doctors or longer waits for non-emergency treatment"

"When people were asked the questions slightly differently in a poll a year ago, they were less enthusiastic. Asked is they wanted a taxpayer-funded, health care system run by the government, fewer than half said yes."

Polls are very confusing to the public. Most engage in statistical subterfuge. Dr John Goodman of the NCPA points out that when people use third-party health care, they are spending only 15 percent of their own money and 85 percent of other people's money. This not only explains massive overutilization by patients with third-party payment of benefits, but also unrealistic approval for such systems that always have rationing, waiting lists, and restrictions in health care providers, which if honestly portrayed in the poll, would cause the vast majority to vote against it. Hence, we will continue to have an uphill battle for saving health care for the benefit of our patients who may have difficulty understanding the political implications and privacy risks.

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8.      MedicalTuesday Supports These Efforts of the Medical and Professional Community in Restoring Accountability in Medical Practice, HeathCare and Government

·        PATMOS EmergiClinic (http://www.emergiclinic.com.)- where Robert Berry, MD, an emergency physician and internist, provides prompt care for many of the injuries and illnesses treated in Emergency Rooms at a fraction of the usual emergency room fees. at   To read Dr Berry 's testimony in Congress, and other informative articles, click on the sidebar. Read Dr Berry ’s response to Physician’s Support of Single-Payer Health Care or Socialism at http://www.delmeyer.net/hmc2004.htm#by%20Robert%20Berry.

·        Dr Vern Cherewatenko is achieving success in restoring private-based medical practice which has grown internationally through the SimpleCare model network, http://www.simplecare.com.  Any patient or provider may become a member of SimpleCare. A number of brochures are available on line about a practice that is becoming increasingly popular. There have been a number of news network and press reports. For the AP article: on April 27, 2004 , go to http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040404/D81O7R7O0.html.

·        Dr David MacDonald started Liberty Health Group, http://www.LibertyHealthGroup.com, to assist physicians in controlling their own medical benefit costs for their staff and patients. He is now helping corporations design their health plans to control costs. There is extensive data available for your study. Dr Dave is available to speak to your group on a consultative basis.

·        John and Alieta Eck, MDs, for their first-century solution to twenty-first century needs. With 46 million people in this country uninsured, we need an innovative solution apart from the place of employment, and apart from the government. Please visit them at http://www.zhcenter.org/ and check out their history, mission statement, newsletter, and a host of other information. For their article “Are you really insured?” go to http://www.healthplanusa.net/AE-AreYouReallyInsured.htm.

·        Madeleine Pelner Cosman, JD, PhD, Esq, has made important efforts in restoring accountability in health care. Please visit http://www.healthplanusa.net/MPCosman.htm to view some of her articles that highlight the government’s efforts in criminalizing medicine, and the introduction to her new book, Who Owns Your Body. For other OpEd articles that are important to the practice of medicine and health care in general, click on her name at http://www.healthcarecom.net/OpEd.htm.

·        David J Gibson, MD, Consulting Partner of Illumination Medical, Inc. has made important contributions to the free Medical MarketPlace in speeches and writings. His series of articles in Sacramento Medicine can be found at http://www.ssvms.org/. Dr Gibson edited the March/April historical issue. To read his "Lessons from the Past," go to http://www.ssvms.org/articles/0403gibson.asp. For additional articles such as Health Care Inflation at http://www.healthplanusa.net/DGHealthCareInflation.htm.

·        Dr Richard B Willner, President, Center Peer Review Justice Inc, reports his latest success story and the secret of helping doctors keep their medical license. On a daily basis, doctors are reviewed, are suspended, lose their medical licenses and go to jail on trumped-up charges. These "extra"-legal services are necessary services that your lawyer does not offer. Stay posted with a wealth of information at http://www.peerreview.org/. The Center for Peer Review Justice has been very successful for those MDs who have been DataBanked and cannot find a new job. This is Dr Willner's livelihood and a fee-based service may apply.

·        Semmelweis Society International, Verner S. Waite MD, FACS, Founder; Henry Butler MD, FACS, President; Ralph Bard MD, JD, Vice President; W. Hinnant MD, JD, Secretary-Treasurer; is named after Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, MD (1818-1865), an obstetrician who has been hailed as the savior of mothers. He found maternal mortality of 25-30 percent in the obstetrical clinic in Vienna . He noted that the first division of the clinic run by medical students had a death rate 2-3 times as high as the second division run by midwives. He observed that medical students came from the dissecting room to the maternity ward. He ordered the students to wash their hands in a solution of chlorinated lime before each examination. The maternal mortality dropped, and by 1848 no women died in childbirth in his division. He lost his appointment the following year and was unable to obtain a teaching appointment. Although ahead of his PEERS, he was not accepted by them. When Dr Verner Waite received similar treatment from a hospital, he organized the Semmelweis Society with his own funds using Dr Semmelweis as a model: All we ask is that peer review be done with “clean hands.” To read the article he wrote at my request for Sacramento Medicine when I was editor in 1994, see  http://www.delmeyer.net/HMCMisc.htm#by%20Verner%20Waite%20and%20Robert%20Walker. To see Attorney Sharon Kime’s response, as well as the California Medical Board response, see http://www.delmeyer.net/HMCPeerRev.htm Scroll down to read some very interesting letters to the editor from the Medical Board of California, from a member of the MBC, and from Deane Hillsman, MD. To see the updated website and some horror stories of PEER REVIEW against physicians and how organized medicine still treats this problem, please go to http://www.semmelweissociety.net/.

·        Dennis Gabos, MD, President of the Society for the Education of Physicians and Patients (SEPP), http://www.sepp.net/, for making efforts in Protecting, Preserving, and Promoting the Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities of Patients and Health Care Professionals, with a special page for our colleagues in nursing. Several free newsletters are available. Be part of protecting and preserving what is right with American HeathCare–physicians, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, all health professionals and all concerned individuals are urged to join.

·        Robert J Cihak, MD, former president of the AAPS, and Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D, write an informative Medicine Men column. Please log on to review the last five weeks topics at http://www.newsmax.com/pundits/Medicine_Men.shtml. This week’s column is "Two-Faced Medicare Enforcement." Federal government prosecutors are sending doctors to prison for making mistakes in filing Medicare paperwork. At the same time, Medicare customer service representatives are apparently not even reprimanded for a 96 percent error rate in answering questions about how to handle physician billings. Read the entire column at http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/1/19/140320.shtml.

·        The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (http://www.aapsonline.org/), The Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943, representing physicians in their struggles against bureaucratic medicine, loss of medical privacy, and intrusion by the government into the personal and confidential relationship between patients and their physicians. Be sure to scroll down on the left to departments and click on "What's New?" and also for the “News of the Day.” The “AAPS News,” written by Jane Orient, MD, and archived on this site, provides valuable information on a monthly basis. You can sign up for regular alerts and news releases about patients' rights, privacy and government action that could have a tremendous on impact on you, your family, your practice and your patients. Scroll further to the official organ, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, with Larry Huntoon, MD, PhD, a neurologist in New York , as the Editor-in-Chief. There are a number of important articles that can be accessed from the Table of Contents page of the current issue. If you’re a father, boyfriend or babysitter, you should read “The Shaken Baby Syndrome,” by Ronald Uscinski, M.D, in the Fall 2004 Issue. You may have nightmares before your friendly government comes after you for a crime you did not commit.

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Stay Tuned to the MedicalTuesday.Network and Have Your Friends Do the Same

The MedicalTuesday site has now been automated. Each individual on our mailing list and those that have been forwarded to us are now able to invite, register, or de-enroll as desired. You may want to copy this message to your Template file so that they are available to be forwarded or reformatted as new when the occasion arises. Then, save the message to a folder in your Inbox labeled MedicalTuesday. If you have difficulty de-enrolling, please send an email to Admin@MedicalTuesday.net with your “Remove” and “Email address” in the subject line.

Read the latest medical news of the day at http://www.healthplanusa.net/MedicalNews.htm which will also lead you to the headlines for the past month.

If you would like to participate in this informational campaign on behalf of your patients or the HeathCare community, please send your resume to Personnel@MedicalTuesday.net.

If you would like to participate in the development of the affordable HealthPlan for All Americans, please send your resume to Personnel@HealthPlanUSA.net.

Del Meyer

Del Meyer, MD, CEO & Founder

DelMeyer@MedicalTuesday.net

http://www.medicaltuesday.net/

6620 Coyle Avenue, Ste 122 , Carmichael , CA 95608

Words of Wisdom

P. J. O'Rourke: If you think that health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.

Winston Churchill: We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Edward Langley, Artist 1928-1995: What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.

Medical Aphorisms

Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, 1908: Health is not a condition of matter, but of the Mind.

Health is better than wealth.

You can learn good eating habits from the bad eating habits of others.

The doctor who makes no mistakes does not usually make anyone well.

Review some recent postings below.

Voices of Medicine: To read a review of the first issue of Sacramento Medicine in 1950 go to http://www.ssvms.org/articles/0403vom.asp remembering that the first 132 years are no longer available. To read the current series of my column, the "Voices of Medicine," go to http://healthcarecom.net/vom2004.htm. You may also access my former "Hippocrates and His Kin" and as well as my "Book Review" columns from the same site. The direct link is http://healthcarecom.net/hhkintro.htm.

Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World shows that national single-payer health care systems in countries such as Great Britain , Canada , Australia and New Zealand have not delivered on the promise of a right to health care. See a brief review at http://www.healthcarecom.net/JGLivesAtRisk.htm.

Charles B Clark, MD: A Piece of the Pie: What are we going to tell those bright-eyed little boys and girls who are going to be the doctors of tomorrow? When there isn’t anything left for them, are we going to tell them we didn’t fight because the changes were inevitable anyway? What are we going to say when they ask us why we laid down and died when things got a little tough? Are we going to feel good about ourselves when we tell them it’s all right because we got a piece of the pie? Read Dr Clark at http://www.healthcarecom.net/CBCPieceofPie.htm. Read his most recent posting, Feeding the Monster, at http://www.healthcarecom.net/CBCFeedingMonster.htm.                             

Madeleine Pelner Cosman, JD, PhD, Esq: The chapter summaries of her latest book, Who Owns Your Body, to be published early next spring are now available at http://www.healthplanusa.net/MC-WhoOwnsYourBodyIntro.htm.  

Ada P Kahn, PhD: Foreword to "Encyclopedia of Work-Related Injuries, Illnesses and Health Issues. Dr Kahn came to Sacramento in February and I joined her on a Channel 31 interview about her book. I was privileged to write the foreword which we’ve posted at http://www.delmeyer.net/MedInfo2004.htm To purchase the book, go to http://www.factsonfile.com/ and type in KAHN under search.

Henry Chang, MD: WEIGHT LOST FOREVER - The Five Second Guide to Permanent Weight Loss suggest daily weights to stem the weight loss before it becomes a problem and, if it does,  how to take it off and keep it off. Congratulations to Dr Chang for winning the Sacramento Publishers and Authors 2004 award for “Best Health Book of the Year.” Read our review at http://www.healthcarecom.net/bkrev_WeightLostForever.htm.

Tammy Bruce: The Death of Right and Wrong (Understanding the difference between the right and the left on our culture and values.) http://www.townhall.com/bookclub/bruce.html. Reviewed by Courtney Rosenbladt

An Alzheimer's Story: To read a touching story by a nurse about her Alzheimer's patient, go to http://www.delmeyer.net/MedInfo2003.htm.

An Entrepreneur's Story: AriadneCapital (http://www.AriadneCapital.com) provided the initial funding for MedicalTuesday and the Global Trademarking. Julie Meyer, the CEO, has a clear vision in her mind of the world that she wants to live in, and it's considerably different from how it looks now. If you're an entrepreneurial woman, or if you lost hope or are having difficulty envisioning success, (if you'll forgive a little nepotism), the following article may be of interest to you. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1237363,00.html

On This Date in History - January 25

On this date in 1890, Nellie Bly completed her trip around the world in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes. Although her name was Elizabeth Cochrane, she wrote for The New York World as Nellie Bly.

On this date in 1915, Alexander Graham Bell completed the transcontinental telephone call in the U.S. inaugurating a new era in speedy communication.

On this date in 1959, American Airlines flew the first schedule transcontinental Boeing 707 jet flight.

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