HEALTH DISPARITIES BLOG

May 26, 2009

links for 2009-05-26

• Referral System Turns Patients Into Commodities
  Logic says that a referral should depend only on a patient’s needs and the reputation and skill of the physician to which the patient is referred. But medicine is a business too, so that isn’t how it always works in practice.
• Wrong Way in the War on Cancer
  Maybe the answer isn't more money but rather better data collection.
• A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life
  Studies show that behaviors from virtual worlds can translate to the real world. Our survey suggests that users are engaged in a range of health-related activities in Second Life which are potentially impacting real-life behaviors. Further research evaluating the impact of health-related activities on Second Life is warranted.
• Growing Retail Clinic Trend Makes Few Inroads In Poor, Underserved Areas
  "There has been a rapid rise in the number of retail clinics across the United States, but this growth is not evenly distributed across communities," says Craig E. Pollack, MD, MHS, an internist and Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Penn. "Poorer neighborhoods are less likely to have access to these clinics."