John Wiens DC

Health Care Realities

By John Wiens DC|August 11, 2009|Health Care|

The following commentary by economist Paul Krugman appeared in the The New York Times
Published: July 30, 2009

At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”

It’s a funny story — but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It’s not just that many Americans don’t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don’t understand the way American health care works right now. They don’t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn’t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.

And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all. (more…)

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Avatars

By John Wiens DC|July 16, 2009|Avatars|

Would you like to have a nice personal icon that follows you around wherever you make comments in a WordPress blog?

Go to Globally Recognized Avatars at http://en.gravatar.com/

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Expanded Armed Forces Access to Chiropractic

By John Wiens DC|July 14, 2009|News|

Source: American Chiropractic Association

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a directive that orders the Pentagon to make chiropractic care a standard benefit for all active duty military personnel. The legislation is contained in HR 2647, a bill authorizing defense programs in fiscal year 2010, and is based in part on recommendations from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC).

The bill—passed by the full House on June 25—also contains language allowing for chiropractic demonstration projects at overseas military locations and clarifies that chiropractic care at U.S. military facilities is to be performed only by a doctor of chiropractic. (more…)

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Surface deception – surface EMG

By John Wiens DC|July 10, 2009|Research|

by Dr. Stephen M. Perle
from his blog Perles of Wisdom

Although the article that stimulated this blog was published in February, I was only alerted to it by an automated Google news search, whose results that were emailed to me this week. The article is about the use of surface EMG to diagnose chiropractic subluxations. I won’t go into the validity of the concept of the subluxation as I have co-authored a paper on that already, and the literature that supports or refutes our paper has not changed in any substantive way that I know of. (more…)

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Chiropractic evidence under attack in BCA/Singh case

By John Wiens DC|June 29, 2009|Ethics|

Previously I wrote about the British Chiropractic Association suing science writer Simon Singh for libel. This has been widely criticized as a tactical mistake due both to the expense and to the negative publicity which has thus far ensued. The BCA has recently produced a list of evidence justifying the chiropractic treatment of children with asthma and colic which evidence-based blogs have proceeded to, for want of a better term, eviscerate. One of the criticisms was for the BCA not including a study which showed manipulation to be no better than placebo for infantile colic.
(more…)

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Hidden Malpractice Dangers in EMRs

By John Wiens DC|June 26, 2009|Documentation|

Source Medscape
Steven I. Kern, Esq.

An estimated 85,000 medical lawsuits are filed annually, which include those against hospitals and individual physicians. One of the highly-touted benefits of electronic medical records (EMRs) is the potential to help prevent malpractice incidents and medical errors. By providing better documentation, automatically checking for medication errors and drug interactions, providing failsafe systems to track test results and follow-up with patients, EMRs can dramatically reduce the risk of malpractice.

While the benefits of EMRs are far greater than the cons, no road is without stumbling blocks. A physician who is not careful when using the EMR could increase his malpractice liability.

Some of the possible malpractice risks are shown below. (more…)

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About John Wiens DC

Health Care Realities

Avatars

Expanded Armed Forces Access to Chiropractic

Surface deception – surface EMG

Chiropractic evidence under attack in BCA/Singh case

Hidden Malpractice Dangers in EMRs