Archives: December 2005
Mon Dec 26, 2005
A Lesson From A Contrast
In my office I had an interactive discussion with a published historian who confirmed my recent thinking. There are parallels between Britain at the end of the 19th century and the U.S.A. at the end of the 20th. Britain then had and the U.S. now has a dominant global empire. The world produces goods to sell here at cheap prices. The U.S. borrows other countries' money-capital. We give some intellectual-capital in return, but little else. Did Britain do less in India or China? In some cases the U.S. has used military force, but usually conquest has been achieved through economic coercion. It would not suprise me if you didn't follow all this; it's really the subject for a book. Several have been written. Don't judge the idea without seeing the evidence. More...
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Mon Dec 19, 2005
Follow Up To "Blood Tests"
Voluminous response to the message of the week on blood tests. Many letters took the form of doctors telling me which blood tests they do without offering any justification for doing them. Mike Steelman wrote more fully. He noted that while "cost-effectiveness" applies to groups of people, it's irrelevant to a single patient whose disease is missed by failure to do screening blood tests. More...
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Wed Dec 14, 2005
Blood Tests
Most bariatricians seeing an obese patient for the first time do blood tests and charge the patient for them. I don't see a valid purpose in ASYMPTOMATIC people. Doctors have the idea that if they do tests, any tests, it will protect them from malpractice suits. It's not true. They are just wasting people's money. More...
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