What's My Ailment?
A few posts ago, I noted that Michael Bassik at Personal Democracy had suggested that folks should upload a photo or video of a particular medical problem to Flickr.com so that Senator Bill Frist, MD (I can just see that now as the title of a new reality TV series) could diagnose it, just as he did with Terri Schiavo from the Senate floor last week. Well, here's my ailment.

Got any thoughts? Give up?

It's a bunion.

Speaking of Bill, Sarah Posner over at The Gadflyer has some thoughts about the ethics of his Senate floor shenanigans:

Now that Bill Frist has deemed himself sufficiently expert in neurology to conclude that Terri Schiavo could have been misdiagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, let's hold him to the Code of Professional Conduct of the American Medical Association's American Academy of Neurology. Some pertinent provisions of the Code include: (1) "[T]he neurologist has a duty to practice competently and to respect patients' autonomy, confidentiality, and welfare." (2) "The neurologist should respect decisions made by patients with decision-making capacity and by the lawful proxy of patients who lack decision-making capacity. If the neurologist cannot honor the patient's or proxy's decision, the neurologist should seek to arrange transfer of the patient's care to another physician." (3) "The neurologist must practice only within the scope of his/her training, experience, and competence. The neurologist should provide care that represents the prevailing standards of neurologic practice. To this end, neurologists should participate in a regular program of continuing education." (4) "The neurologist must maintain patient privacy and confidentiality. Details of the patient's life or illness must not be publicized." (5) "The neurologist managing the patient in a persistent vegetative state should follow the provisions of lawful advance directives for medical care and, in their absence, the health care decisions of a lawfully authorized proxy." (6) "The neurologist should not unjustifiably criticize a colleague's judgment, training, knowledge, or skills." (7) "The neurologist should not represent himself/herself to the public in an untruthful, misleading, or deceptive manner. A patient's medical condition must not be discussed publicly without the patient's consent." By turning an individual patient's case into a political issue, Frist has disrespected Terri Schiavo's autonomy and confidentiality, and has violated the provision of the Code prohibiting publicizing the patient's life and illness. Moreover, Frist, who is not even trained as a neurologist, and has not engaged in continuing education in neurology, cannot represent the "prevailing standards of neurologic practice." So he's not only publicizing her case in violation of the Code, but also misrepresenting his expertise, thereby publicizing Schiavo's case in a misleading way, in further violation of the Code. [...] But the most troubling part of Frist's conduct is how he has refused, for purely political reasons, and in direct contravention of the Code and court orders, to honor the directives of Michael Schiavo, who has been determined by the courts to be Terri Schiavo's legal proxy. The Code requires a neurologist managing a patient in a persistent vegetative state to follow "the health care decisions of a lawfully authorized proxy," in this case, Michael Schiavo. Frist, in his capacity both as a physician and as the Majority Leader of the Senate, should have been the first person to stand up against Congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. Instead, he led the charge, demonstrating his utter lack of respect for both the laws of the land and of his profession.