If you look around, you will see novel innovations in healthcare that are changing the way your care gets delivered. The list of innovations is long, ranging from gadgets to health delivery processes. But who drives such innovations? It shouldn’t surprise you to know that healthcare consumers, that means you, play a big role in medical innovations.
Read more ..... Against Medical Advice (AMA), sometimes also known as DAMA (Discharge Against Medical Advice), is a term used in healthcare institutions when a patient leaves the hospital against the advice of their doctor. There is legal and ethical consensus in medical circles that mentally competent individuals can decline recommended treatment at their own will.Exercising your AMA right may seem reasonable in many circumstances. But there are many factors that you must consider before unnecessarily putting yourself at undue risk.
Read more ..... The current times have been touted by some to be the best times ever in a lot of ways. The world is more interconnected than ever before, and new frontiers in technology are the norm. You will find advances in almost every aspect of human life. Mobile technology means we can do almost anything anywhere, and anytime.Think of how social media, virtual entrepreneurship, education, travel, entertainment and many other aspects of our lives have changed in almost unimaginable ways. The world of medicine has not been left behind.
Read more ..... Cherries are delicious and wild fruits that grow on trees. If you want to pick some cherries, you would normally select the ripest and the healthiest. And you want to expend minimal efforts, by picking the easier ones to reach, and possibly ignoring some juicier ones higher up the cherry tree. Few Nairobians realize that healthcare is to some extent similar to cherry-picking. Walk randomly into selected doctors’ offices, and this may become clearer. You are likely to see lots of smiley faces, not so sickly. More like ripe and juicy cherries. Ever wondered whether this happens by default, or by design?
Read more ..... Most of us have had reason to consult a medic for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s for trivial reasons, and other times it might be for some complex medical issues. The time you spend in any one consultation is variable, but likely very short. Questions are increasingly being asked whether doctors give patients enough consultation time, or are in a rush to see the next person waiting in the queue. A recent review has documented decreasing consultation times over the years. In the early part of this century, consultation times would span anywhere between 30 minutes to even an hour.
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