The story about Dr. John Beall, who was disciplined for having sex with patients, has gotten a lot of attention and a lot of questions.  So here’s some more context.
A few dozen times a year, a Minnesota doctor is called on the carpet for breaching the professional code of conduct. Beall’s medical license was indefinitely suspended; one of the most severe penalties that can be imposed by the state Board of Medical Practice. 
In the years that I’ve covered these cases, I’ve been struck by how rarely Minnesota doctors are disciplined for outright medical incompetence. More often than not, when they get in trouble with the licensing board, it’s because of drug or alcohol abuse, prescribing narcotics irresponsibly, or some sort of sexual misconduct with patients.
The numbers are small. The Medical Board, which licenses more than 17,000 doctors in Minnesota, gets about 700 complaints a year about their behavior.

In 2006, 26 involved accusations of sexual misconduct, and of those, only nine resulted in some sort of disciplinary action (which can range from reprimand to barring them from practice.)  
In 2006, the most recent year for which the board has data, a total of 11 Minnesota doctors got the most severe penalties - revoking or suspending their licenses.
Public Citizen’s Health Research Group has repeatedly accused Minnesota of laxness because of its low rate of disciplinary actions, which is roughly half the national average. But the Minnesota licensing board officials say they stress alternatives, such as programs designed to help troubled doctors kick their addictions.
To take a look at your own doctor’s record, check the Board’s web site. You can also check out a summary of the complaints on its biannual report.

When I got married my husband brought dinner into the household. Inititally, my daughter, then 11, was skeptical. Before he arrived dinner was a haphazard affair that she and I rarely ate together. I usually rushed home from work, fed her, and then ate myself after she was in bed.  

But he wasn’t having any of that.  Three or four nights a week, whenever we could manage it, he made dinner and the three of us sat down to eat it.  That’s when we talked.   

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have published several studies on how regular family meals can have a powerful affect on the healthy behavior of teenagers. Kids who sit down to dinner — or brunch or any other family meal — at least five times a week are less likely to engage in all kinds of dangerous things. Today, they report that for girls, the benefits of sharing meals with their families has staying power. Those who ate least five times a week with their families as adolescents had half the odds of drinking, smoking or using marijuana as older teenagers. 

They don’t know why it doesn’t seem to have the same affect on boys. They speculate that girls are more likely to pick up on the nuanced messages they get from adults.  I don’t know either, because I just had the one girl.  Over time she came to look forward to those dinners — the food more than the conversation. She called them “real dinners.” When she had a bad day, or was hungry, or was overwhelmed with homework, she would say, “are we having a real dinner tonight?”

Like most adolescents and teenagers, she would try to resist engaging with us. But my husband was having any of that either. He could always find a way to get her going, and before she realized it, she was hooked into a conversation. 

Now, when she comes home, dinner is a big deal. A tradition. He asks her ahead of time what she wants, and they discuss the menu in detail.  When we sit down we talk, sometimes for a long time. And it’s not at all hard to engage her anymore.

What are your family dinner traditions?

Sexual desire in men is fairly straightforward. Women are more complicated. A lot of pharmaceutical effort has gone into making sure that men can remain sexually active for as long as they like. (Think Viagra). But there is nothing on the market for women who want to increase their sexuality. Not that pharma isn’t trying, but women — are more complicated.

This week a new study measuring the amount low sexual desire in 2,000 women between the ages of 30 and 70 was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. What’s interesting about this study is not how many women report that they have low sexual desire — 36.2 percent. What’s new is that the researchers measured how distressed women were by their disinterest in sex. That combination of low sexual desire and distress is called hypoactive sexual desire disorder. In other words, low sexual desire is not a problem unless it bothers you.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Procter & Gamble. P&G is in the process of developing a testosterone patch for women that would increase their libido, or sexual desire. Just as in men, testosterone is the hormone that drives sexual desire in women, and it fades with menopause.

“We know libido diminishes with age and within relationships,” said Dr. June LaValleur, an expert on women’s sexuality at the University of Minnesota. She’s also doing research on P&G’s testosterone patch, but was not involved in this study. (Sexual desire also fades in men, she said, “but nobody talks about that.”)

Dr. June LaValleur

Using a proprietary questionaire developed by P&G, the researchers measured how women of different ages were emotionally affected by their disinterest in sex.

Read the rest of this entry »

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has come up with what it hopes is one of those win win plans as part of its “do” exercise campaign. You’ve seen the signs and the ads that say you should just do. Exercise, that is.

This time they’ve cut a deal of sorts with 20 area bike shops. You keep track of your biking miles, and the bike shops will give you 10 percent off of their merchandise. (Not all merchandise. Not bikes, for instance. Not sale items.) You can  find information on their web site here. It’s kind of a frequent flyer program for bicyclists.

You join at any of the participating bike shops, get a safety inspection and an odometer, and the bike shop keeps track of your mileage. If you bike 50 miles, you get a “do” water bottle. Bike 100 miles, you get 10 percent off store merchandise. Bike 200 miles get 10 percent off store merchandise, plus a pair of “do” socks and a “do” water bottle. And so on.

Jill Chamberlain, Blue Cross project manager for community initiatives, said that the idea came about as a compliment to the discounts health plan members get on their gym memberships. Some employers pay part of the membership fees for people who join fitness clubs. But bikers and runners who don’t pay to exercise are left out of that deal.

This is also a way for bike shops to encourage customer loyalty and get repeat business. They pay for the 10 percent discount, Blue Cross provides the “do” merchandise.

There are some interesting questions here, starting with whether an advertising campaign can actually get people to change their habits and get moving. In this deal, Blue Cross is providing a web site and free “do” stuff. The bike shops are spending the money in the form of discounts to bicyclists.

One avid bicyclist I know scoffed at the reward plan as nothing but a way for bike shops to generate foot traffic. It doesn’t go nearly far enough, he said. Why not, say, give people who ride 1,000 miles in a year — or a summer — $500 off a new bike? Now there’s an incentive, he said.

Chamberlain says this is the first time bike shops have tried anything like this. If it works, maybe it it will grow.

Would you do this? Is there enough in this for you to go to the trouble of getting an odometer, signing up at a bike shop and keeping track? Or is this just something that people who already bike a lot will use?

Never mind straight talk. How about any talk at all?

Sen. John McCain was asked the big question earlier this week — no, not the war with Iraq or the economy. Viagra and birth control.

His campaign advisor Carly Fiorina started it on Monday when she was talking with reporters about consumer driven health care. She pointed out that some health plans cover Viagra, but not birth control. Women might like a choice in that, she said.

Good point. (Item: McCain twice voted against legislation that would require health plans to cover birth control. )

Then on Wednesday Los Angeles Times reporter Maeve Reston asked McCain about it on his campaign bus.

Here is the video clip from that exchange.

Seems like simple question, doesn’t it? If health plans cover Viagra, should they cover birth control, too? I can’t wait to hear what he does think — if he ever gets around to answering the question.What do you think?