Your smartphone use predicts your social life, travel, risk of disease - even political views

The Really Smart Phone: Researchers are harvesting a wealth of intimate detail from cellphone data, uncovering the hidden patterns of social lives, travels, risk of disease - even political views.

Read more from WSJ.

Average time patients spend waiting to see a health-care provider is 22 minutes

The average time patients spend waiting to see a health-care provider is 22 minutes. Orthopedists have the longest waits, at 29 minutes; dermatologists the shortest, at 20.

Patient satisfaction dropped significantly with each 5 minutes of waiting time. Even the term "waiting room" has a bad connotation. Many offices prefer "reception area" instead.

"I live my life in seven-minute intervals," says Laurie Green, a obstetrician-gynecologist in San Francisco who delivers 400 to 500 babies a year and says she needs to bring in $70 every 15 minutes just to meet her office overhead.

Measures the health-care industry is trying to minimize waiting time include:

- "Open-access" scheduling
- Minimize office visits
- Advance preparation
- Huddling up: "Mr. Jones is in a 15-minute slot, but we know he's a 45-minute guy"
- Teamwork
- Cutting "cycle time"
- Keep patients informed
- Survey patients

References:

The Doctor Will See You Eventually. WSJ.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Nursing student successfully challenges dissmissal from school because of Facebook photo

A Kansas college is facing a legal challenge over its dismissal of a nursing student who posted online a photograph of a human placenta studied in class - the WSJ video is embedded above.

The lawsuit includes a letter that Ms. Byrnes wrote to the college apologizing for what she called a "lapse in judgment" but asking that she not be dismissed.

The school said the four students are allowed to reapply to continue their nursing studies in August 2011.

Most reader comments on the story follow this pattern: "I fail to see why this posting should result in dismissal from school. The student broke no confidentiality, and the posting was certainly not obscene."

References:
Odd Facebook Post Leads to Student's Ouster, Suit. WSJ.

Physicians as a group are leaner, fitter and live longer than average Americans

From the WSJ:

Physicians as a group are leaner, fitter and live longer than average Americans. Male physicians keep their cholesterol and blood pressure lower.

However, doctors are less likely to have their own primary care physician—and more apt to abuse prescription drugs.

Lifestyle habits

Exercise: Many physicians say they "embed" it into their lives, making it a non-negotiable part of their daily routine, often early in the morning before demands pile on. One doctor says he gets up at 4:45 a.m. virtually every morning to train for marathons he runs. "But by 8:30 at night, I have the IQ of a zucchini," he says.

Smoking: Only 2% to 4% of physicians smoke cigarettes, compared to roughly 24% of the U.S. population.

Stress: For all their good habits, it's no secret that doctors are under enormous pressure.

References:
What Patients Can Learn from the Ways Physicians Take Care of Themselves. WSJ.

Image source: OpenClipart.org, public domain.