by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
You know the term “hedging your bets”? Basically, it’s defined by Oxford as “doing something to protect yourself against future problems.” It turns out that when doctors are not 100 per cent sure of the medical diagnosis they are about to share with a patient, researchers who study “diagnostic uncertainty” suggest that these docs tend to start hedging.
Continue reading ““Hedging” during diagnostic uncertainty”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
I’ve been thinking about the time earlier this year when I (briefly) listed my condo for sale – before changing my mind about leaving this tiny perfect apartment. Basically, inviting prospective buyers into your home boils down to asking strangers to judge you.
In a way, that little real estate experience reminded me of what many patients living with a chronic yet invisible illness like heart disease share with my readers: feeling judged by others.
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
If a doctor speaks up when something goes terribly wrong at work, it’s called an incident report, but when a patient speaks up when something’s gone wrong, it’s a complaint. Words do matter, and listening to what patients are telling their doctors is important. The incident report is an example of what healthcare professionals will accept as admissable evidence based on their learned experience, while the patient complaint is too often seen as merely anecdotal, based only on lived experience – so it’s considered to be inadmissable evidence. Continue reading “Patient “stories” vs. medical “reports”: The Patient Experience Library”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
I’m wondering how many more cardiac studies published in medical journals we’ll need before medical professionals start believing what decades of published research have already concluded. Here’s just one example: British researchers have described those past conclusions as: “an undeniable gender-based inequality in cardiovascular health to the detriment of women.”(1)
At this point, I can’t help myself. Whenever I come across yet another heart study that comes to that identical conclusion, I have to quote my irreverent and brilliant heart sister Laura Haywood Cory, who at age 40 survived a heart attack caused by Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD). No matter the specific focus, Laura interprets those “ain’t it awful?” cardiac research conclusions like this: “Sucks to be female – better luck next life!” Continue reading “Research on cardiac care disparities between men and women: a waste of time?”
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