If you need help paying for medications and have no health insurance, check out  http://www.needymeds.org

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=+hair+loss

wolframalpha.com  is a neat website that pulls together information on a particular topic.  Let’s say you are researching hair loss - if you click the link above you can find what treatments exist, what population suffers from this disorder etc.

It’s great for research.

When the DME claims your child’s growth is “normal” in a pediatric TBI case, download the true definition by logging onto:

http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/clinical_charts.htm

Here is a calculator you can use for head circumference:

http://www.infantchart.com/infantheadage.php

By: Dorothy Clay Sims, Esq.
It is not uncommon for your doctor to interrupt you after only 30  seconds.  Why? Because of (Mis)managed care.  He or she must see so many patients that there is simply no time to listen.  How does the doctor correctly diagnose you if he or she doesn’t listen?  Therein lies the problem.

Understand and assume that your doctor will not have time to listen to your complaints and concerns.  If this information is typewritten in a digestable format, however, you drastically increase the chances that the doctor will have the relevant information to make a decision.

I decided to test my theory last week.  I had an appointment with a doctor out of town and was emailed multple pages of history etc to fill out, all of which I suspected he would not read.  I filled it out, and included “exposure to toxic levels of lead resulting in lead poisoning” and “exposure in a nuclear power plant to radiation sufficient to set off alarms, resulting in confiscation of my clothing, a painful scrubdown and yearly monitoring statements.”   I then typed a l page document with information as follows:
Age Family history  (then typed the causes of my parents’ death, my siblings’ health) Current diagnoses: Current complaint: Current medications: Location of complaint: Onset of complaint: What makes complaint worse: Treatments tried:

Did  the doctor say a word about my handwritten accounts of lead poisoning or nuclear power plant experience even though both were relevant to my complaints? Nope. He did, however, read my one page typed synopsis and got right to the point, made an accurate diagnosis and provided appropriate treatment.

In the past, when seeing a cardiologist, instead of providing him with pages and pages  of lab studies I created my own medical timeline which he truly appreciated and, as he said, gave him a historical perspective to reach an accurate diagnosis and give not only the correct medication, but the dose.  For example, he looked at my chart involving choloesteral I’d created and about my lifestyle just before the 5/l/07 blood work  to result in such a drop in levels.  He then noticed a pattern of slow increase in numbers and advised the problems I would encounter if this continued.  If he were to simply be flipping through lab studies that were not in chronological order he would miss the pattern.

Example:   Patient:   Jane Doe

Date                       Triglycerides      HDL                      LDL                         Total

3/2/02                    130 mg/dL              67 mg/dL              72 mg/dL               180 mg/dL   4/2/04                     167 mg/dL              43 mg/dL             190mg/dL               240 mg/dL   5/1/07                     120 mg/dL              60 mg/dL             66  mg/dL               155 mg/dL

I’ve learned this in reading medical records.  In all cases I try and have a chronological timeline because it shows trends which give me information to predict my client’s future medical history so why not do it for my own?   I ran this past my husband, a medical doctor.  He advised me that presenting information in such a fashion could literally mean the difference between life or death.

A good website to understand you or your client’s blood work is   http://www.amarillomed.com/howto   and a good website to understand cholesterol/triglicerides is   http://www.emedicinehealth.com/cholesterol_tests/page6_em.htm

When preparing for your doctor’s visit, also list all your medications and the dosage and run them all through www.epocrates.com    This website can tell you if the combination of your medications may prove dangerous or synergestic or actually worsen your condition.

If you are a lawyer, prepare timelines for your client’s doctors.   If you are a patient, be your own patient advocate.  Don’t present hundreds of pages of medical records and assume your doctor will read them.  Unfortunately, he or she may very well not have the time.  Instead, break the information down in digestable typewritten chronological format.  It helps.

Fake PhD’s, by some estimates are sold as many as legitimate PhD’s.^[1]

Watch out for a DME if he or she claims to have graduated from St Regis University which is a phony university with Liberian connections.^[2] .

Interestingly enough, a Physics Professor ousted the “University” when a forensic psychologist purchased her degree as an untrained individual doing therapeutic interventions.

Prof George Gollin posted his research on his faculty website and decided to get a “degree” from St. Regis and intentionally answered “79 out of a 100 questions incorrectly.” “Not to worry,” said adviser Pat” in a [chipper] e-mail from St Regis. His test score translated into an improbable 2.7 grade point average qualifying him for an Associate of Arts Degree”.^[3]

How do you find out if the doctor actually graduated from a legitimate medical school? It’s not easy. The American Psychological Association actually certifies certain universities as APA approved and that’s certainly one way to determine if the doctor’s degree is legitimate but failure to graduate from an APA approved university does not mean that the university is illegitimate.

Another university “St. Luke’s School of Medicine” is also believed to sell bogus medical degrees.^[4]

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^[1] Summa Cum Fraud -  How a Physics Professor brought down an empire built on bogus diplomas, fake universities and padded resumes, WIRED Magazine, January 2010 at page 69 authored by David Wolman

^[2] Id.

^[3] Id. at 72

^[4] Id. at 74