Remote Medical Care for International #Travel? Can I have a physician on call?

I was interviewed for an article on Dr. Andrew Weil's drweil.com:

“Yes, it is possible to arrange remote medical consultation while you're traveling abroad. I discussed your question with Paul Abramson MD., an integrative medical doctor and travel medicine specialist in San Francisco who is a graduate Senior Fellow of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. He told me that a variety of services are available via Read More

Doctors in Flight

Why I book flights with Dr. in front of my name – NYT interview featuring Paul Abramson MD

Exerpt from “When Doctors are Called to the Rescue in Midflight” in the New York Times, May 24, 2011, by Katie Hafner:

Since the earliest days of commercial aviation, airlines have coped with medical emergencies in flight by calling on physicians who happen to be passengers. And as more people travel by air, the number of emergencies has risen accordingly. […]

But physicians who get a firsthand look at the kits say the contents vary.

“With some planes, it’s a hospital in a box, and they have everything you could ever want,” said Dr. Paul Abramson, a primary care physician in San Francisco. “But often they look like they’ve been picked over.”Read More

How to stay healthy when traveling abroad; via @drweil #travel #health

I was interviewed for an article on Dr. Andrew Weil's drweil.com:

I am planning a trip to sub-Saharan Africa next year. I understand I will need to get some vaccines. How do I find out which ones? Do I really have to have the shots? What other health risks should I be concerned about? And what medications apart from my prescriptions do you suggest I take with me?

International travel, especially to developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, can offer great experiences, but can also present a variety of health risks. You might prepare by consulting a physician who specializes in travel medicine, a field that focuses on the prevention and management of health issues for international travelers

I discussed your questions with Paul Abramson, M.D., an integrative medical doctor and travel medicine specialist in San Francisco Read More

Anatomy of a hospital ‘bounce-back’ #preventreadmissions

Published at Fierce Healthcare on March 5, 2010

As a physician who works as a hospitalist and a primary-care doctor, I understand the complexity of discharging a patient from the hospital, and all the moving pieces that must come together to successfully transition a patient back to the outpatient setting. If even one link in the chain fails, a patient often ends up back in the emergency department and/or readmitted to the hospital as, in hospital-speak, a “bounce-back.”

These readmissions are like a canary in a coal mine, Read More

MRI Brain

Reconnecting #healthcare through health information exchange #HIE

Published at Hospital Impact on September 15, 2010

The clinical scenario is familiar to many doctors.

An elderly man arrives at California Pacific Medical Center's emergency department in San Francisco at 11 p.m. on a Saturday by ambulance, unconscious and severely ill. A neighbor had called 911 after he failed to answer the phone or door. No friends or relatives are available, and the man has never visited this emergency department before.

The treating doctors must Read More

The case of the $517 chest x-ray #healthcare #prices

Part 1 in a Series.  So the story goes like this.  A patient of mine needed a chest x-ray.  He doesn't have health insurance, so rather than just give him a requisition and send him to the local hospital, I decided to do a little calling around on his behalf to find out what the damage would be…

Vendor #1: A well-known local hospital

I called up the radiology department and asked them how much a PA and Lateral Chest X-ray would cost.  “I don't know – we don't have that information” I was told by the clerk.  The radiologist gave me the same answer.  They both said I should just send the patient over and he would find out the cost when he received the bill.

That seemed a little dumb.  Since when do we go into stores and buy things without knowing the price?

So Read More