Two recent articles delved into what seems like a pretty simple question: Should patients read their own medical records? Particularly the notes doctors jot down in the course of diagnosis and treatment? It seems like it should be self evident. Your medical records are, after all, about you. That means they contain information that might …
Category Archives: health
Morpheus and Prejudice
It is generally agreed upon in our society that people who wake up early are better people. They are more productive. They contribute more to society. Every time they poop, a unicorn gets its wings. Well, actually, I don’t know about that last one. Oh, wait. I don’t know about any of these things, because …
Psychiatrisation: A Great Way To Silence Troublesome Women
Were you aware that there are tremendous disparities in mental health diagnoses? Well, there are. There’s a long history of using psychiatrisation as a weapon against ‘undesirables,’ as demonstrated in the use of diagnoses of schizophrenia to institutionalise Black men and the use of a broad array of psychiatric diagnoses to pathologise women. Long before …
Increased Health Surveillance Unsurprisingly Has Costs and Benefits
One of the numerous plates that the government is juggling at the moment is plans to increase health surveillance in the United States. I’m viewing this with mixed feelings, because I think that there are some really good things about it, and also some potentially really bad things, and it’s worth exploring them in a …
High Risk Insurance Pools: Haven’t Needed One? You Probably Don’t Know How They Work
One of the many things touted in the health insurance reform bill was the creation or reinforcement of high risk insurance pools. To my eternal amusement, lots of people heralded this as a great thing that would magically resolve the problem of access to health care for people in the United States. First of all, …
Environmental Issues: Drugs in the Water
I recently finished a course of liquid antibiotics and I was about to rinse out the medication container and drop it in the recycling when I realised that doing so would contribute to a serious environmental problem: Medical waste in the water, air, and soil. A number of studies in recent years have identified traces …
On Cure Evangelism
Cure evangelism is a scourge which seems unlikely to vanish any time soon, so we may as well address it and have a little chat about what it is, why it is problematic, and what you, personally, can do about it. This is not just a problem which affects people with disabilities. Fat folks are …
It’s Time To Revise The Ban On Gay and Bisexual Blood Donors
ETA: Not long after this went live, I received word that the HHS committee voted against any revision on the ban. That said, the information here is still relevant to discussions about the ban in general, and it’s my hope that discussion about a revision will come up again soon. Today marks a second day …
Military Pollution Makes Me Sick
She was wearing artfully frayed jeans and a snug sweater, sitting quietly in the back of the room while we watched the presentation. And then, the floor was opened to questions, and they spurted in from here and there; it is rare that you get to interact with the officials who are making decisions and …
HPV Scaremongering on Hulu
So I was peacefully watching Bones the other night on Hulu when this ad came up. At first, I didn’t quite understand/believe what I was seeing. A narrator with a tremulous voice talked over a series of sprightly and swirly animations with ominous music, telling us about her abnormal pap smear, linking from there directly …