Judges found that some insurers’ psychiatrists engaged in “selective readings” of medical evidence and “shut their eyes” to opposing opinions.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis we summarize the available evidence on how frequently general practitioners/family physicians (GPs) use pure placebos (e.g., placebo pills) and non-specific therapies (sometimes referred to as impure ...

The Hospital Safety Grade scores hospitals on how safe they keep their patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

Original Editor - Jill Nicole Hickey and Kimberly Humphries

Many U.S. hospitals are conserving critical intravenous fluids to cope with a supply shortage caused by Hurricane Helene. They're changing protocols for administering drugs and hydration through IVs.

Epidural steroid injections (ESIs) are a commonly utilized treatment for lumbosacral radicular pain caused by intervertebral disc herniation or stenosis. Although effective in certain patient populations, ESIs have been associated with serious complications, ...

Obse patients have greater intra-operative blood loss, more complications and longer duration of surgery but pain and functional outcome are similar to non-obse patients. Based on these results, ob*sity is not a contraindication to lumbar spinal fusion.

A common attempted “justification” for the healthcare inequalities that fat people face is the idea that fat people shouldn’t get the resources they need if they happen to need more resources than the average thin person. When added to a general focus on profit (especially in the US healthcare system) this leads to staff-to-patient ratios that make it impossible to correctly care for fat patients (for example, having adequate staff to safely turn patients to prevent bed sores or help them ambulate to improve post-surgery outcomes.) It can also mean not having the supplies that these patients need in order to have the best outcomes. Some examples are InterDry to prevent/treat skin fold infections or Hoyer lifts so that they can use a commode and avoid bedpans and chuck changes (both of which are made more difficult and dangerous for the patient and more likely to create negative outcomes when staff-to-patient ratios don’t allow for adequate care, even if the practitioners aren’t coming from a place of weight bias.)

All of this, in turn, can create practitioner bias when they blame higher-weight patients rather than the healthcare system that is leaving both patients and practitioners without what they need.   

When healthcare facilities are allowed to decide that they don’t want to spend the money to give higher-weight people the care they need, or they are not adequately funded to do so, then higher-weight patients suffer. Here again the negative impacts of this are often simply blamed on “obsity.” For example, research on post-operative complication rates will often suggest that “obsity” causes higher complication rates without exploring the ways that these size-based healthcare inequalities may actually be at the root of any elevated rate of complications.

"But it’s not likely to replace a clinician’s expertise anytime soon, he says. For example, ChatGPT fabricates information sometimes when it can't find the answer." --so do doctors?

Using an ethical lens, this review evaluates two methods of working within patient care and public health: the weight-normative approach (emphasis on weight and weight loss when defining health and well-being) and the weight-inclusive approach (emphasis on viewing health and well-being as multifaceted while directing efforts toward improving health access and reducing weight stigma). Data reveal that the weight-normative approach is not effective for most people because of high rates of weight regain and cycling from weight loss interventions, which are linked to adverse health and well-being. Its predominant focus on weight may also foster stigma in health care and society, and data show that weight stigma is also linked to adverse health and well-being. In contrast, data support a weight-inclusive approach, which is included in models such as Health at Every Size for improving physical (e.g., blood pressure), behavioral (e.g., binge eating), and psychological (e.g., depression) indices, as well as acceptability of public health messages. Therefore, the weight-inclusive approach upholds nonmaleficience and beneficience, whereas the weight-normative approach does not. We offer a theoretical framework that organizes the research included in this review and discuss how it can guide research efforts and help health professionals intervene with their patients and community.

Weight stigma is likely to drive weight gain and poor health and thus should be eradicated. This effort can begin by training compassionate and knowledgeable healthcare providers who will deliver better care and ultimately lessen the negative effects of weight stigma.