MAKE IT WHITE
Doctors find their traditional white coats uncomfortable and a germ reservoir, but patients still prefer them to be worn, said a research in Postgraduate Medical Journal (2004; 80:284-6).
The researchers from the Royal Free Hospital, London surveyed 400 patients and 86 doctors from a mix of specialties and levels of seniority. Responses were received from all the doctors and 276 patients.
More than twice as many patients as doctors felt that white coats should be worn. The most common reason given for this preference was that white coats made doctors easy to spot. Only a fraction considered that white coats posed an infection risk.
White coat preference was strongest among patients 70 and older and among those whose doctors already wore them. Patients 30 to 39 years old were least likely to prefer their doctors to wear white. Only 11 patients felt that wearing a white coat interfered with the doctor-patient relationship.
Only one in eight of the doctors surveyed actually wore a white coat. Seven out of ten doctors felt that the coats spread infection while six out of 10 found them too hot and uncomfortable.
These sentiments were found across the grades and specialties of doctors surveyed. Although no doctor over the age of 48 was surveyed, older doctors were more likely to favor the traditional look, as were surgeons and gynecologists. Psychiatrists and pediatricians were the least likely to feel that white coats should be worn.
Half the doctors who felt that white coats should be worn never wore them. Only seven doctors said they wore their coats every day.
The authors point out that several other groups of health-care workers wear white coats, so that these may not be the best form of identification.
But they suggest that the days of the white coat may not be over. In the United States, white coat "robing ceremonies" are common, while in Australia, there seems to be a movement towards rediscovering the white coat as a symbol of "purpose and pride as a profession." BMA Press Service
Tomb it may concern
An American inventor wants to patent a way of sending a message from beyond the grave-a video-screen tombstone. The device is the brainchild of Robert Barrow of Burlingame, California, the New Scientist reported.
The hollow headstone houses a computer with a hard disc or memory chip that allows the deceased to relay a video message via a flat LCD touch screen. "They might relate their life stories, or worse: they could confess to lurid indiscretions," the British weekly said.
The tombstone would draw its electrical supply from the cemetery's lighting system, and to avoid disturbing other visitors, people can listen to the message through wireless headphones.
Electronically enhanced tombstones are not new, however. Other inventions include a gravestone that displays a collection of photographs of the deceased, alongside tributes from that person's friends. AFP
11.67 million Number of Filipino women in the labor force1
7 out of 10 Proportion of Filipino women in the "not in the labor force" category (students, housewives, handicapped, elderly who are not gainfully employed) 1
3 out of 10 Proportion of Filipino women workers in the agriculture sector2
4 out of 10 Proportion of Filipino women workers in the agriculture sector who receive wages2
200 Number of deaths in 100,000 Filipino women who give birth.3
56.4 Percentage of births attended by a skilled professional in the Philippines.3
28 Number of deaths per 100,000 Filipino infants born.3
3 Average number of children born to every Filipino woman of child-bearing age.3
45 centavos Government share for every peso Filipinos spend for health.3
Sources
1. National Statistics Office 2002 estimate, Ibon Facts and Figures, 15 May 2004
2. 1997 Department of Agriculture survey, Ibon Facts and Figures, 15 May 2004
3. The World Health Report 2004
I am much pleased with your latest articles about the updates on hypertension, CVD, MS and diabetes.
The recent article by Dr. Ram on the advantages of the fourth-generation ARB, which is Eprosartan, inspired me a lot.
I wish that you'd continue giving us more developments on the subject. I, too, am suffering from stable hypertension/heart disease. Besides, I used to give free lectures on health to organizations I belong in like the Knights of Rizal and Veterans association, being a Veteran of WW II myself.
Thank you for my regular copies of the MEDICAL OBSERVER.
Carlomagno B. Manuel
Family Medicine
Naga City, Camarines Sur
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