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Unemployed doctors call for firing of Finance Minister
Fed-up and desperate unemployed health graduates are calling for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s head, saying he should be fired for his failure to increase...
SAMA writes to President as more jobless doctors protest
A group of 150 or so unemployed KwaZulu-Natal doctors staged a sit-in outside the provincial Health Department’s headquarters in Pietermaritzburg on Monday, warning that...
Time to rename some cancers?
Cancer terminology hasn't changed much over recent decades, but some experts say it's time for that to change, notes MedicalBrief.
In 2012, the US National...
Minister under fire as number of jobless doctors grows
Doctors groups are warning that the rising number of unemployed junior doctors requires urgent action - with the South African Medical Association threatening legal...
Rise in kidney stones among children worries doctors
Medical professionals are noting a concerning escalation in kidney stone cases among children, with some experts implicating a familiar culprit: ultra-processed foods. Other health...
Confronting ageism among healthcare professionals
With people now living longer and the number of older people projected to grow, attitudes about old people need to change, including among healthcare...
Doctors seldom penalised by medical boards for misinformation – US study
Medical boards rarely take disciplinary action against physicians for spreading misinformation despite several concerns raised about doctors spreading false medical claims during the Covid-19...
Time to end compulsory community service for doctors?
Community service placements for young doctors have been beset by poor planning, uncertainty and financial insecurity, leading to a group of experts questioning whether...
Remembering the humanity of physicians
Physicians need to set up a system of care to support well-being, reduce burnout and help fellow physicians deal with the pressures, and create...
Watching and waiting vs antibiotic treatment for paediatric patients
A team of physicians describe a baby’s symptoms from a recent case, and proffer two treatment scenarios, the options and the supporting evidence for...
Call for access to new antibiotics in SA as AMR rises
There is a desperate need for improved access to new antibiotics to treat infections caused by drug-resistant organisms, to be able to limit side...
Common medical practices that older patients should question
Some treatments and procedures become routine despite lacking strong evidence to show that they’re beneficial – and recent studies have called a few of...
Needle-free medication benefits outweigh risks, says allergy expert
The FDA recently approved the first needle-free epinephrine product (neffy), an alternative to injectable epinephrine (EpiPen) for anaphylaxis and other allergic reactions, but caution will...
Trust in US doctors plunged in pandemic – and still low, finds survey
A recent survey of more than 400 000 American adults found that during the pandemic, trust in physicians and hospitals decreased sharply, and higher...
Clinicians urged to routinely ask teens if they use muscle-building supplements
Primary care, family medicine and mental health clinicians should ask every adolescent and young adult they care for if they take muscle-building supplements such...
Should doctors treat family and friends?
The question of whether doctors should be allowed to treat – and operate on – close friends and relatives is a controversial one, and...
Hospitals no place for sleep or rest
Most people know that being in hospital is not synonymous with a good night’s sleep – yet while the primary reason might be that...
Medicine work culture flagged in Australian class action suit
Thousands of junior doctors are set to share back-pay of almost a quarter of a billion dollars, subject to court approval, in what has...
California nurses protest ‘untested’ AI tools
Union nurses in the US are rallying against the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools which they described as “untested” and “unregulated” during a...
Women doctors’ patients ‘less likely to die’ – US study
Patients treated by women doctors have less chance of dying or being readmitted to hospital, possibly because male and female physicians practise medicine differently,...
Medical practice not designed for ‘lefties’
The challenges of being left-handed in clinical environments designed for right-handed people are many, and a change in mindset on the “right” hand and...
US doctors slow to offer newly-approved Alzheimer’s drug
Sceptical American doctors are resisting prescribing the first drug that has been proved to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s – nine months after the...
Impact of second victim syndrome on surgeons
Nearly 50% of healthcare providers face second victim syndrome (SVS) – the trauma after a medical complication or error – at least once, and...
SAMA gets tough after Cape Western branch ‘revolt’
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has suspended all 13 members of its Cape Western branch council for three years for ‘open revolt’ and...
US doctors paid billions by Big Pharma and manufacturers
The American pharmaceutical and medical device industry paid physicians $12.1bn over nearly a decade, with orthopaedic surgeons being the highest earners, followed by neurologists,...
Funding dries up for successful telehealth diabetes project
A groundbreaking diabetes telemedicine programme in the Western Cape has effected a return on investment (ROI) of 284% to 784% per year – but...
Should telehealth cost less than in-person visits?
Conflict recently divided a US Congress hearing – where it was agreed that using telemedicine, home visits, remote monitoring, and other strategies allowing patients...
Redefining medical 'professionalism' in a gender and racially diverse world
Defining professionalism for the medical workforce of today often fails to take into account the racial, ethnic, gender diverse professionals who make up the...
The health benefits of seeing the same GP
Researchers have confirmed the benefits of seeing the same GP over time, finding that these include improving patient health, extending intervals between visits, and...
Medics struggled to break death news during Covid – SA study
Breaking bad news is now an integral part of most healthcare professional training, but it’s important to teach how to do it using different...
Checking BP in doctor’s rooms not always ideal
Experts suggest that measuring BP can be done more accurately in a patient’s home rather than in the doctor’s rooms.
Measuring BP accurately can be...
Doctors without jobs as health purse tightens
With the number of unemployed recently qualified doctors standing at almost 700, Health Minister Joe Phaahla this week said provinces are unable to afford...
Eating disorders not uncommon among MDs
More doctors have unhealthy eating habits than thought, with the stress of the job – and more recently, Covid-19 – among the factors likely...
How and when to de-prescribe meds
For many patients, prescriptions never change – except to become more numerous – but as some experts have pointed out, doctors are all taught...
Doctors dump scales as focus shifts from patients' weight
For years, weight has been used as a measure of health in doctors’ offices, a higher body mass index being correlated with heart disease,...
A dose of humility for doctors, nurses leads to better healthcare
Better healthcare for patients begins with humility – a term not often associated with medicine, writes Barret Michalec in The Conversation.
Michalec writes:
I witnessed displays...
Skipping hand hygiene before donning gloves is faster, just as safe – US trial
A cluster, randomised trial involving 13 US hospital units and including some 3 800 healthcare providers, found that a direct-gloving strategy led to improved...
How Covid helped thousands address their needle phobia
Of all of the challenges facing mass Covid-19 vaccination, fear of needles is one of the least acknowledged by public-health campaigns – estimations are...
GPs allege ‘corporate bullying’ after Medicross contract switch
Medicross has denied accusations of “corporate bullying”, after about 50 private GPs – who ended their practice administration contracts with Medicross to join a...
HPCSA persists in enforcing regulations declared ‘unlawful’
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) continues to punish doctors with hefty fines for contravening regulations which were found to be unlawful...