Knowledge is Healing

Over the past decade, online patient groups have evolved from large communities of people sharing a common disease to even larger communities sharing a common goal: to help spread awareness and support for the treatment and cure of their respective conditions.

The evolution of the Assn. of Cancer Online Resources has become a typical example of this trend.

ACOR was founded in 1995 by Gilles Frydman after his wife, Monica, was diagnosed with the ductal carcinoma in situ type of breast cancer, shortly after recovering from a rare heart disorder.

Not satisfied with the answers his wife's doctor was giving them, Frydman turned to Internet groups for information. The groups he found convinced him that his wife needed a second opinion and also helped him find a new doctor. But, he found that navigating the boards was difficult and cumbersome. The idea of ACOR was to provide one-stop shopping for every type of cancer support group.

Now, due to its amplitude, ACOR has evolved from a patient resource to a source for researchers looking for clinical trial subjects; a directory of specialists, complete with firsthand critiques; and a large collection of cancer information and research. The group is now moving into fundraising.

However, the company is delaying implementation of the rankings system for a few months so physicians can get more familiar with it -- a move United says has nothing to do with the attorney general's threat.

United will roll out its Premium program -- a physician evaluation system based on cost and quality-of-care data -- in the New York area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, at the end of the year, said United spokesman Tyler Mason. The health plan already uses the program in 100 other markets, he said.

A July 13 letter from the attorney general's office said the ranking system would influence patients to use physicians who are cheaper but not necessarily better. The letter told United it would face legal action if it released the rankings as planned at the end of July.

Mason said United will release the rankings at the end of the year, and added that the delay is not because of the letter, but because the plan had already decided to give physicians more time for input and review.

"It's a national trend," Mason said. "All health plans are engaged in this type of activity. The need for consumers to have information as they pick up a larger share of their health care costs is here. So to the degree [the state is] contending [the rankings] could cause confusion, we obviously disagree with that."

When most people awaken, the first thing they grab is a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. You will also find a number of ice tea drinkers, as well as those who love ice coffee beverages, which have become quite popular. With both beverages being highly popular, we often hear the question, “Is tea better than coffee”, which is exactly what we wanted to address here in this article.

Okay, so is tea better than coffee and if so, why? The answer is yes, tea is better than coffee and we will explain why. Both beverages contain caffeine, a substance that helps get the day going but for individuals with a caffeine sensitivity problem, both coffee and tea would likely cause a problem. In addition, both coffee and tea are delicious. These drinks can be consumed as is or enhanced with cream, sugar, and honey, and so on. As you can see, tea and coffee have a lot in common but this is where the similarities begin to fade.

Now, for the question of is tea better than coffee, keep in mind that the type of tea makes a huge difference. Interestingly, different teas offer different benefits. For example, ginseng tea has been studies with results showing this type of tea can improve concentration and memory, boost a person’s reaction time, help fight off viral infections, reduce stress, and even improve circulation.

Then, you have black tea, also loaded with health benefits. For instance, black tea can prevent clogged arteries that lead to heart attack and stroke, this tea inhibits cancer growth, helps reduce inflammation, and is proven to neutralize many germs. Of course, green tea is a favorite, which also helps fight cancer, lowers high blood pressure, reduces bad cholesterol, and kills oral bacteria that causes plaque leading to tooth decay.

Although coffee tastes great, you can see the answer to the question, “Is tea better than coffee” is yes. Keep in mind that because of the caffeine makeup of coffee, most people would agree that coffee is better at providing a quick mental boost than most teas do. However, many teas contain antioxidants that work to protect the cellular structure of the body, leading to a healthier and longer life.

Again, coffee does have some health advantages over tea. In this case, studies show that coffee is a good preventative against liver cancer and that it lowers the chance of gallstones. Although these are certainly great reasons to drink coffee, we still believe that tea outranks coffee. In addition to the abovementioned benefits of tea, others include fighting off osteoporosis, reducing risk of kidney disease, providing relief from menstrual cramping and aching muscles, and calming the nerves.

The next time someone offers you coffee versus tea, we recommend you stop to thing of the age-old question, “Is tea better than coffee” to help you make the right choice. Of course, you can enjoy a good cup of coffee on occasion but perhaps you might be more apt to reach for tea instead.

Julie Health writes about the benefits of drinking green tea at her website.

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Like many other physicians, Dr. Brotman has, for the most part, kept her gaming and doctoring worlds separate. But she started to see how gaming and medicine could meet when she recently played "Trauma Center: Second Opinion" with her 8-year-old son, Ben, and his 9-year-old friend, Matt.

The game requires players to perform surgery, from repairing shattered bones to fixing perforated lungs or failing hearts. The game is produced for the Nintendo Wii gaming system, which has remote devices that require the surgery be done by a player moving his or her hands and arms, rather than using a controller, making the surgery seem more realistic, even when players acquire such unrealistic tools as a magic "healing touch."

"The game is a lot of fun. And I could see how the boys were actually learning some very basic surgical concepts," says Dr. Brotman, who works with her partner, ob-gyn Vybert Greene, MD, in a private practice that serves patients at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.

While there has been plenty of attention and discussion on the negative impact of video games, from their potentially addictive qualities to their effect on the obesity rate, a growing number of gaming advocates within the profession are trying to figure out what good things games have to offer physicians and patients. The effort is growing stronger in part because the latest generation of physicians grew up with video games, and many of their patients are comfortable with them.

The move, announced June 27 on the company's blog (www.googleblog.blogspot.com) has fueled speculation that Google, which has advocated personal health records, is on the verge of developing and marketing its own PHR, among other health ventures. The company has not specified any specific plans for new products, nor a specific role for its advisory committee in developing them.

Still, there have been hints about a Google PHR since the company earlier this year publicly began endorsing the Continuity of Care Record standards for electronic and personal health records. Idaho-based health technology consultant Vince Kuraitis is one of many experts and health bloggers who see Google's health advisory council as the company's first step to a PHR that could dominate its market. He also is one of many who sees Google's health ventures having a dominant impact on the health system itself, given the company's size (No. 241 on the Fortune 500 and rising quickly), Web power (not just search engines, but numerous other Web-based software ventures) and cultural significance ("googling" has become a generic team for Internet searching).

"Google Health ... could be the event of the decade in advancing health care reform -- not just health care information technology ... reform, but health care system reform," Kuraitis wrote on his blog e-caremanagement.com/. "GH promises simultaneously to create AND dominate the market for next generation personal health records. There is nothing else in our solar system or in the entire universe like it."

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