This is Mike Merrill, MD's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following Mike Merrill, MD's activity
Join Now!
Already a member? Sign In
Mike Merrill, MD
I'm a doctor (internal medicine).
Interests: Crossfit Tae Kwon Do Philosophy Economics
Recent Activity
I was right about deaths due to refusing Medicaid expansion, pretty much
In 2013, I quickly estimated that in Texas, not adopting the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare would mean 3,200 deaths per year. A more recent estimate puts that number at 750 deaths per year. So I was off by a factor of 4. Continue reading
Posted Nov 15, 2019 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
A letter to my grandchildren about climate change
I know climate change is terrifying to the youngest generations. Their eyes are not blinded by decades of experience and the expectation that old patterns will repeat. So the raw reality of a rapidly changing world, and the risk of the end of civilization, are evident and emotionally overwhelming. I'm... Continue reading
Posted Nov 14, 2019 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Why are hospital prices so confusing?
A new law requires hospitals to post their prices online. The prices vary quite a bit. Why is this? The main reason, I think, is that in a hospital it is difficult to do cost accounting. "Cost accounting" is figuring out what it costs to do something inside an organization.... Continue reading
Posted Feb 8, 2019 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Metrics are based on humanness
In healthcare, we understand that metrics have limits. So when we measure diabetes control, we know we're not seeing all of healthcare quality. It's only part of the picture. And we know that each number has a story behind it. For example, diabetes control in a disadvantaged population means something... Continue reading
Posted Jan 30, 2019 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
3
"Social determinants of health" are macroeconomic, not micro
There's a lot of work on "social determinants of health" that involves helping individual patients get the things they need: secure housing, food security, transportation. But the real message of the literature on social determinants is that factors larger than the individual - factors on a society level - affect... Continue reading
Posted Jan 16, 2019 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Three cuban professors define socialism (short videos), and other notes from a visit to Havana
Image
My wife Melanie and I enjoy learning things while traveling. For example we had some great private tours from Ph.D.'s through Context Travel in Rome last year. I can't express how much the non-stop lecturing and question-answering added to our visit. This year, on a lark, we booked a cruise... Continue reading
Posted Jan 6, 2019 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
1
This is $1 million of the drug Eyelea
Image
Eyelea is used to treat macular degeneration, a disease of the eye. This is about 500 vials of it, so about $2,000 a dose. There is a generic available, Avastin, that costs about $80 a dose. This is a stack that a Buffalo ophthalmologist made using the empty vials he... Continue reading
Posted Dec 17, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
1
The PSA test sounds so innocent.
It's possible to hurt a patient with a lab test. It's an innocent enough thing to order, but the downstream effects may not be useful at all. The test is done, it leads to an inconclusive result, further testing is done, maybe a referral, and eventually a treatment occurs that... Continue reading
Posted Dec 14, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
1
Is coronary angiography overused in Western New York?
Coronary angiography is the "gold-standard" test for coronary disease. It's considered the final word on whether or not you have it. It involves threading a catheter to the arteries that supply the heart. A liquid that x-rays don't penetrate is injected into the blood, and so with an x-ray (really... Continue reading
Posted Nov 16, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Screening tests may not make sense from the individual's perspective
Image
There's a big difference between how doctors traditionally think about screening and how patients should think about it. Let's say I'm a doctor, and I'm considering all my patients as a group. I have 1,000 men that I'm trying to save from prostate cancer. That's about this many guys: Source:... Continue reading
Posted Nov 9, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Yeah, I'm diabetic and my sugar gets low sometimes. No big deal, right?
Actually it can be a pretty big deal, especially if you are older and you've had diabetes for a while. Hypoglycemia causes anxiety, tremors and sweating. In more severe cases, you can get confused, lose consciousness, have a seizure, or even die. Think about driving and having all that sneak... Continue reading
Posted Nov 2, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Better medical tests: "normal" becomes "disease"
Image
Human beings are smart, and we keep inventing new things. In medicine, that means more and better tests to analyze us in increasingly sophisticated ways. This trend will continue, so we need to get used to it, and be smart about it. Sometimes when tests get better, they are able... Continue reading
Posted Oct 26, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Over time, disease definitions are expanded. Is that good?
A great many things are labelled diseases nowadays. "Caffeine withdrawal" is a formal diagnosis, for example. But there are also examples of existing diagnoses getting expanded, such that more people are classified as unwell. Pre-diabetes and "mild cognitive impairment" (basically pre-dementia) would be examples. This all creates higher risk of... Continue reading
Posted Oct 19, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
1
Is it OK to say to your doctor, "I don't know what you're talking about"?
Many patients think they will get better care from doctors if they are nice. Some think it's better to be aggressive. Many just want to get away as soon as possible. Of the ones who try to be nice, there's a risk that they will not get what they need.... Continue reading
Posted Oct 12, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Overdiagnosis is an error in prognosis
In overdiagnosis, a clinician identifies an abnormality that would never have hurt the patient, and treats it as an actionable pathology. You can never know who is overdiagnosed in real time; it only becomes apparent after the fact, while examining populations. In a way, the term "overdiagnosis" is misleading. It... Continue reading
Posted Oct 5, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
1
Lab tests before surgery: not always useful
Partly out of habit, physicians frequently order lab tests before surgery, to make sure everything is OK. But this is not always useful. The purpose of pre-operative testing is to figure out what risks there are, and to minimize those risks. If you are going through a low risk surgery,... Continue reading
Posted Sep 14, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
How do you explain overdiagnosis?
You can't know if an individual has been overdiagnosed. You only see it at the aggregate level. The decision point is the choice to seek a diagnosis. After that point, overdiagnosis can occur. By definition, overdiagnosis will not improve prognosis - it's not going to make you live longer or... Continue reading
Posted Sep 5, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
In overdiagnosis, harm looks like benefit
Image
It's hard to explain the concept of overdiagnosis to the public. Think of overdiagnosis as "pseudo-disease," in which something innocuous is labelled as a disease, and leads the patient down a pathway of unnecessary testing and treatment. An example would be finding and treating a prostate cancer in a 75-year-old... Continue reading
Posted Aug 27, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Why do doctors order unnecessary imaging of the back?
Imaging for low back pain (LBP) is only recommended in certain situations. The Choosing Wisely campaign suggests avoiding imaging during the first six weeks in the absence of red flags, like weight loss, a history of cancer, recent trauma, osteoporosis or age greater than 50. And imaging for LBP is... Continue reading
Posted Aug 24, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Avoid testicular self-exams
Image
I still see some physician offices recommending testicular self-examination for males, adolescent and older. This isn't the right thing to do. According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, if you have no symptoms, there is no evidence doing self-examination prolongs life or reduces suffering (the two main goals of... Continue reading
Posted Aug 24, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Mammograms if you're 90?
Image
Most people want to live a long time, and many people want to be good patients. So they do their screening tests, like mammograms and colonoscopies. Unfortunately, sometimes these tests are done for too long. At an advanced age, these tests are unlikely to be beneficial. For example, the American... Continue reading
Posted Aug 17, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Fewer fingersticks for type 2 diabetics
Image
Pricking your finger for blood is one of the worst things about having diabetes. It hurts, it's messy, and you have to maintain and carry around a glucometer. it's tremendously important for type 1 diabetes, in which the body does not make enough insulin. The therapy for type 1 is... Continue reading
Posted Aug 10, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Choosing Wisely: with back pain, don't rush to an MRI
Someone out there may completely understand back pain, but I haven't met them, and it's not me. But there are things we do know. And one of them is that in most cases, an MRI is not useful. The low back is a weak spot in human anatomy because we... Continue reading
Posted Aug 3, 2018 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Can't hear well? You're probably isolated and unhappy
Image
When my grandmother got hearing aids at age 75, I suddenly realized she was a very intelligent woman. She started making timely, incisive comments in the middle of fast conversations. She started paying attention to things more. And she became funnier. She apparently had had hearing loss for many years.... Continue reading
Posted Sep 27, 2016 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
At the end of life, how do you tell if it's time?
The last years of life can be filled with a repeating cycle of serious illness, and recoveries that seem to restore us to a reasonable state. We can find ourselves moving from one episode of congestive heart failure, or COPD exacerbation, to another, and returning to our homes, back to... Continue reading
Posted Sep 5, 2016 at Dr. Mike Merrill
Comment
0
Subscribe to Mike Merrill, MD’s Recent Activity
The Typepad Team
View all »
sanfrandan
View all »
0 Favorites
Blogs and Sites
Around The Web