Dying: A Book of Comfort
 

 
• Covid-19 (Coronavirus pandemic, 2020)
• You, your body, and your health
• Health care, medicine, and the health care system
• How we die (managing and honoring the end of life)
• Life, home, and estate management
• Justice and injustice
• Telling our life stories
• Wisdom and entertainment

Covid-19 (Coronavirus pandemic, 2020)

• COVID-19: politics and the stock market vs. science and survival (the good, the bad, and the ugly)
• Coronavirus: How to minimize your risks (the practical stuff)
• Recommended reading about pandemics (novels and nonfiction books and articles)
• Lost to the coronavirus pandemic
• On keeping a diary or journal of the pandemic
• Poems for the Pandemic
• 55+ things to do (listen, watch, read, share, do) during the pandemic
• How prepared are you for disaster?

You, your body, and your health

• Top sites for health news and advice
• Medical links for patients, families, and caregivers
• Where journalists get their medical news and information (Writers and Editors site)
• Do you trust your doctor? How can you protect yourself?
• Ratings for hospitals, doctors, surgeons, home health agencies, nursing homes
• You, drug-resistant superbugs, and what's for dinner?
• The flu: what you need to know
• Overcoming flu vaccine hesitancy: The caregiver's resource sheet
• We are what we eat? Read this, get healthy, feel better! (Part 1 of 2). See also Part 2 (with links to more good articles).
• Healthy food that isn't yucky
• Home remedies for relieving sciatica pain
• The truth (and controversy) about chronic (late-stage) Lyme disease
• Resources for finding service dogs, therapy dogs, and other types of assistance dogs

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Health care, medicine, and the health care system

• Why U.S. medical costs are so high -- and where the system needs fixing
• Taking the mystery out of health care prices
• Drugs, Big Pharma, conflicts of interest, and why U.S. patients pay too much for medication
• Ratings for hospitals, doctors, surgeons, home health agencies, nursing homes
• Doctors rebel against a re-certification test that costs $23,600 per doctor
• The anatomy of medical error Human factor scientists call skill-based errors slips and rule-based and knowledge-based errors mistakes. See also an Update on medical errors
• Exposing abuse and neglect in a chain of brain injury rehab centers
• Lead wars and the health of children
• Organizations serious about improving U.S. health care
• Talking points about the Affordable Care Act
• The NIH Clinical Center: A national healthcare treasure
• Nine great TED talks on improving health care

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How we die (managing and honoring the end of life)

• Preventing fraud, elder abuse, and guardianship problems
• Three cases for better management of dying
• Autopsies: when and why and how
• Farewell to T.L Hawkins, part 1 (October 2014)

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Here are links to organizations that may be helpful as you seek better knowledge of health care options, practices, insurance, and policy. Some are watchdog organizations, some provide reliable information and/or support, some provide systematic review of health care research results, some lobby for effective health policy (e.g., protecting the integrity of the medical review process), and a few publish "scorecards" or the equivalent for medical practitioners or procedures.
• Alliance for Health Care Reform provides tools for  Read More 

I've just listened to nine great TED talks and read a few companion articles on improving health care and health care outcomes. Check out these speakers: Atul Gawande, Ben Goldacre, Rebecca Onie, Brian Goldman, Ernest Madu, Peter Saul, Eric Dishman, Thomas Goetz. They are talking about improving health care--in particular about ways in which poor people have access to good health--not about changing our approach to health insurance. Click on the titles to get to the TED talks.

• Atul Gawande: How do we heal medicine? Read More