Atul Gawande: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

In 2009, the author wrote this in the New Yorker: McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much higher labor and living costs—spends more per person on health care. In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns. See that New Yorker piece here. In the video below, the author's giving a talk that involves the topics and subjects of his book, at large, at Google's corporate campus (part of the company's "Authors @Google" series). The second video is of an interview of the author by Charlie Rose.

The Health Show #1184 from The Health Show

At the beginning of the 20th century, the worldwide medical community was searching for the secret to controlling a disease that, at the time, was a death sentence: diabetes. On this week’s Health Show, we’ll talk to an author of a new, fascinating book on that search that centers around the daughter of a man who was, at the time, one of the most well known and powerful men in America. Then we’ll hear about a recent conference on the future of nursing in the US...and our friend Sandy D returns with a holiday un-fairy tale.

Download the podcast here. This book is about Elizabeth Hughes, one of the first diabetics to be treated with insulin, and a daughter of a very powerful man.

"Don't Confuse Depression and Grief, Author Advises" from Psychiatric News by Aaron Levin

Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., who has endured mental illness and her husband's death, realizes that depression is destructive and alienating, but that grief acts to preserve the self and draw people together. “It has been said that grief is a kind of madness,” Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., told listeners at APA's Institute on Psychiatric Services in Boston in October. “I disagree.” Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.: “Madness prepared me for grief. It gave me an unsentimental gauge by which to test my sanity within my grief and a respect for the true terror that is at the core of madness.” She spoke in hope of adding to the discussion over proposed elimination of the grief exclusion from the DSM-5's criteria for major depressive disorder. That possible change has been characterized by some as medicalizing normal human experience. “There is a kind of sanity to grief,” continued Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and honorary professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “It provides a path—albeit a broken one—by which those who grieve can find their way. Grief is not a disease; it is a necessity.”

Read that full article, here, at Psychiatric News. These are also good books on the topic of depression, by Kay Redfield Jamison: Nothing Was the Same, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Exuberance: The Passion for Life, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

Thomas Goetz - The Decision Tree from IT Conversations - Tech Nation Podcast

Dr. Moira Gunn and David Ewing Duncan talk personalized medicine with Wired magazine Executive Editor, Thomas Goetz.

Download the podcast here. See also: The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care, Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All (Publicaffairs Reports), Who Killed Health Care?: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem - and the Consumer-Driven Cure

667 Dealing with Depression Podcast from The People's Pharmacy® Radio Program

Depression is debilitating and surprisingly common. Scientists have found that 5 percent of the people in a large survey reported symptoms of depression during the previous year. Nearly 13 percent of Americans experience depression at some point during their lives. The big question is how to treat depression? It’s hard to get a good picture of the effectiveness of antidepressants from the published medical literature, because many studies that show little or no benefit don’t get published. Dr. Erick Turner explains how unpublished studies may skew medical opinion. Dr. David Mischoulon discusses the pros and cons of antidepressant medication and many alternative treatments for this devastating mental disorder. Guests: David Mischoulon, MD, PhD, is the Director of Research, Depression Clinical and Research Program, at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. He is also an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He is currently working on the second edition of his book, Natural Remedies for Psychiatric Disorders: Considering the Alternatives. (Photo is of Dr. Mischoulon.) Erick Turner, M.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology. He is the Medical Director of the Portland VA Medical Center Mood Disorders Program, where he acts as site principal investigator (PI) on several multicenter clinical drug trials. His article, "Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy," was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Jan. 17, 2008.

Download the podcast here.