Medical Practice
AI cannot replicate the 'gut feelings' of human doctors - MIT study
Many technology companies are working on artificial intelligence systems that can analyse medical data to help diagnose or treat health problems. Such systems raise the question of whether this kind of technology can perform as well as a human...
UCT leader should apologise for aggravating student trauma
August 1st, 2018 University of Cape Town Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng owes students an apology for aggravating the 'trauma' students experienced at the suicide of Professor Bongani Mayosi , writes Mohammed Abdullah. "Like many former students –...
Health Science dean's suicide spotlights SA workplace stress
August 1st, 2018 The suicide of Professor Bongani Mayosi – a cardiologist‚ researcher‚ and dean of health sciences at the University of Cape Town – has been attributed some to the pressure he had to endure from abusive protesting students. It again...
Mayosi's death a reminder that actions have consequences
August 1st, 2018 Following the suicide of Professor Bonging Mayosi, South Africans cannot deny the oppositional tide unleashed against anyone who dared to speak critically about the student protests of 2015-17, writes Siseko Kumalo. Addressing the media on...Physicians at small practices have considerably lower levels of burnout
Physicians who work in small, independent primary care practices – also known as SIPs – report dramatically lower levels of burnout than the US national average (13.5% versus 54.4%), according to a study led by researchers at NYU School of...End-of-life: The disconnect between patients' wishes and physicians's beliefs
Health care leaders have for years been calling for patients to have a greater say in their care, but, dishearteningly, doctors’ beliefs outweigh patient values at the end of life, a Harvard study into cancer patients found. Stat News writes...
Fury over HPCSA actions on foreign doctors
July 4th, 2018 The forced return to France of the first doctor to prescribe antiretrovirals in SA, has sparked an impassioned call from Treatment Action Campaign for the powers of the Health Professions Council of SA to register foreign-trained doctors be curbed....
Patients who see same doctor over time have lower death rates
July 4th, 2018 A ground-breaking study has concluded that patients who see the same doctor over time have lower death rates. The study, a collaboration between St Leonard’s Practice in Exeter, the University of Exeter Medical School and the University of...
Software 'performs better than humans' in Royal College's GP exam
July 4th, 2018 Its commercial artificial intelligence diagnostics software performs better than humans in the Royal College of General Practitioner’s exam that must be passed to become a qualified GP doctor in the UK an AI company claims. Babylon Healthcare...
Women struggling to have proper conversations with male doctors
July 4th, 2018 Women struggle to get their needs met by doctors because the profession is “overwhelmingly male”, a health minister in the UK has suggested. Jackie Doyle-Price, the minister for mental health, is quoted in The Guardian as saying that in her...
The importance to patients of what doctors wear — largest study
June 13th, 2018 Physicians may want to dig a little deeper into their closets or grab their white coats on the way out of the operating room, if they want patients to view them favourably, according to the largest-ever US study of patient preferences for doctors'...
SA's silence over high stress and burnout among medical professionals
June 13th, 2018 South Africa may be slowly changing the way it speaks about suicide but mental health issues among medical professionals rarely make the headlines. Two new studies show high levels of stress and burnout. For health workers, life and death...
Pharmaceutical perks have significant impact on prescribing rates
May 23rd, 2018 A US study shows the significant impact that even a meal or two paid for by a pharmaceutical company can have on opioid prescribing rates, despite a national decline of in these rates. Researchers from Boston Medical Centre's Grayken Centre for...Older surgeons have lower patient mortality rates
Researchers from University of California – Los Angeles, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the VA Healthcare System Boston, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital found surgeries performed...Patients happiest with doctors in less busy practices
Doctors who see fewer patients may get better online reviews than physicians who have higher-volume practices, a study of US urologists suggests, reports Reuters Health. Researchers examined data on 665 urologists with Medicare patients in...