Get a Mammogram: Do It for Yourself, Do It for Your Family

The tool I read this week is about getting a mammogram. I know I’m the only student that is old enough to worry about mammograms right now, but some day the rest of you will. If you think you’re not at risk, think again. Just getting older puts you at risk.

“Breast cancer is the leading cancer among women of many Asian and Pacific Islander groups in the U.S.” Unfortunately, many women don’t find out they have breast cancer until it’s advanced. So, if you’re wondering why you should even think about getting a mammogram, it’s because the key to surviving breast cancer is catching it early.

Just to reinforce how important mammograms are, I’m including a table of statistics.
A woman's chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer is:
By age 40 ... 1 out of 257
By age 50 ... 1 out of 67
By age 60 ... 1 out of 36
By age 70 ... 1 out of 28
By age 80 ... 1 out of 24
Ever ... 1 out of 8
Source: National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, 1997
While I can say from personal experience getting a mammogram is not exactly fun, I love my family (and life) too much to not get one.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/breasthealth/allpages



Medication Errors: Focus on Legibility

The article I’m writing about this week is about medication errors caused by illegibility.
By definition, a medication error is preventable and these are among the leading causes of preventable errors. There are many reasons for unsafe medication practices, including poor access to information, poor communication, and inadequate knowledge or experience.

The senior management of a multi-hospital healthcare system in the southeastern U.S. became concerned about medication errors and asked for a study. What they found really concerned me. Legibility was a major issue in medication errors. This is a bone of contention with anyone having to read the physician’s handwriting. There is really no reason for this. If they would just slow down and write where it is readable, many errors could be prevented. I believe my life (and, really, every other patient’s life) is worth the time it takes to write legibly.

http://www.psqh.com/janfeb06/mederrors.html