Physician Burnout Jumps Dramatically In Just a Few Years

In a commentary in The American Journal of Medicine, Drs. Andrew G. Alexander and Kenneth A. Ballou reported 3 factors for physician burnout:

1. The traditional doctor-patient relationship has been dwarfed by the relationship between health insurance providers and patients, with companies standing in the way of fast and appropriate treatments ordered by physicians.
3. Doctors are feeling more cynical as a whole, because patients don’t expect continuity of care anymore and routinely change doctors.
3. General lack of enthusiasm for their work.

Only 40% of physicians reported that they have a healthy work-life balance in 2014.

Work-life balance is defined as:

1. Satisfaction from work.
2. Ability to have a happy life away from work.

More than 90% of graduating residents now choose to be employees rather then to open a private practice. If they choose private practice, they may have to wait 6 months to be enrolled in the insurers panels.

5 transformational medical practice events could have contributed to the spike in physician burnout, according to the authors:

1. Hospital purchases of medical groups
2. Rising drug prices
3. The Affordable Care Act
4. 'Pay for performance’ in which providers are offered financial incentives to improve quality and efficiency
5. Mandated electronic health records (EHR)

After a review, the authors put the majority of the blame on EHR. Do you agree or disagree?

References:

https://www.studyfinds.org/doctors-overworked-robots-physician-burnout-jumps-dramatically/
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(18)30286-9/fulltext

Air-popped popcorn is a healthy snack

When air-popped and eaten plain, popcorn is a healthy whole grain food. It is low in calories (30 calories per cup) and high in fiber (1 gram per cup).

A 3-cup serving of air-popped popcorn has only 9 calories, 1 gram of fat and close to 4 grams of fiber.

However, the minute you start cooking popcorn in oil or butter and adding salt and flavors, this can quickly turn it into an unhealthy snack.

The movie theater popcorn, which is popped in coconut oil with salt and "buttery topping" added has little to do with its clean-living relative, the air-popped, unflavored popcorn. A medium bucket of popcorn holds 20 cups and contains 1,200 calories, 980 milligrams of sodium and 60 grams of saturated fat, or about 3 days worth.

Most types of microwave popcorn contain fat and salt. Bagged, pre-popped popcorn has the same.

The best way to reap the potential health benefits is to make your own popcorn. A hot air popper works well but the air-popped popcorn can sometimes taste chewy because it absorbs humidity from the air.

References:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/11674935/Is-your-healthy-popcorn-really-good-for-you.html
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/popcorn-healthy
https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/health/is-popcorn-healthy-drayer/index.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/popcorn-may-actually-be-good-for-you-if-you-dont-slather-it-in-butter/255596/
https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/should-popcorn-served-make-healthy-snack-6192.html
https://www.today.com/health/popcorn-healthy-veggies-depends-how-you-pop-it-t73016
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/9-best-tips-help-make-healthier-popcorn/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/how-to-make-popcorn-a-healthy-snack/2019/04/04/a8b0bd00-4c11-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html

Jack Ma lauding overtime work culture: "996"

To survive at Alibaba, you need to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, billionaire Jack Ma demanded. He endorsed the industry’s notorious 996 work culture -- that is, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week.

“By following the ’996’ work schedule, you are risking yourself getting into the ICU [Intensive Care Unit]” according to a description posted on the “996.ICU” project page.

Read more here:

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/jack-ma-draws-controversy-by-lauding-overtime-work-culture-1.1243536
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tech-labour/opting-out-some-of-chinas-996-tech-tribe-quit-seek-less-stress-idUSKCN1SM0HX

NYT: Attempted population mind control using a party app in China

All over China, people are furiously tapping on their smartphones to improve their score on an app - Study the Great Nation - a new app devoted to promoting President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party — a kind of high-tech equivalent of Mao’s Little Red Book. Many spend several hours daily on the app, checking news about Mr. Xi and brushing up on socialist theories.

Schools are shaming students with low app scores. Private companies, hoping to curry favor with party officials, are ranking employees based on their use of the app.

Many employers now require workers to submit daily screenshots documenting how many points they have earned.

The state-run news media teems with glowing reviews of the app, including stories about diligent hospital workers and kindergarten teachers who open Study the Great Nation as soon as they awaken, even before they drink water or go to the bathroom.

Read more here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-study-the-great-nation-app.html

Senolytic drugs target senescent cells (known as "zombie cells"), hoping to delay aging

Clinical geriatrician Dr James Kirkland, Director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic, said: “Most people don’t want to live to 130 and feel like they’re 130 but they wouldn’t mind living to 90 or 100 and feel like they’re 60. And now that can actually be achieved in animals.

You tend to find older individuals who are completely healthy and are playing 18 rounds of golf a day, or they’ve got three, five or 10 different conditions. There aren’t too many people in between.

If you get one age-related disease, you’ve got a huge chance of having several."

Read more here:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/wonder-drugs-target-apos-zombie-190000268.html

Mapping the Social Space of the Face

See how it works in the BBC video below: How to Make Your Face More Likable: "cough out a laugh".



The video was based on the work of the Bulgarian American psychology professor Alexander Todorov: https://psych.princeton.edu/person/alexander-todorov

https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2010/03/sci-brief

See a few computer simulated models here:

http://tlab.princeton.edu/demonstrations/

Google AI-powered doodle is a tribute to Bach that lets users create their own harmonized melodies

Google developed an AI model that was trained on 306 of Bach's harmonizations. This allows users to compose their own two-measure melody in the style of Bach.

See for yourself here: https://g.co/doodle/7pftun

References:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6834369/First-artificial-intelligence-Google-Doodle-features-Bach.html