A Medicare reform free for all (Best of MedCitizens)

Every week, MedCity News highlights the best of its MedCitizens: syndication partners and MedCity News readers who discuss life science current events on MedCityNews.com.

Now here’s the best of what YOU had to say:

New Medicare healthcare reform: Everyone for themselves. “There is a dangerous but beguiling econometric logic behind the idea that turning Medicare over to the insurance industry will lower health care costs. It’s an idea that could catch on if the general public became convinced that there is nothing we can do acting together as a society to lower the cost of care. Only the market can do it, the Republicans claim. Force seniors (or the poor or anyone, for that matter) to have more skin in the game, and they’ll use their clout as consumers to separate the wheat from chaff in modern medicine. Expensive, wasteful tests, procedures, and drugs will wither for lack of customers.”

Some of the best Android, iPhone medical apps for students. Every year in April, we survey the HMS medical students about their use of mobile devices. On our Mobile Resources page, we offer downloads of many popular applications. Most include native iPad support. What are the most popular in 2011?

Relaxation Tips for Nurses. A nurse’s job can’t be completed without precision and accuracy. Nurses must possess top-notch organizational, time management, and communication skills. This is not a job that can be done partially. Nurses must come to work feeling like giving 100 percent and not being an idler. This profession can put an enormous amount of pressure on our nurses. The weight may be a leading factor in preventing the longing to pick up extra shifts or residing in the profession for a long time- hence the importance of relaxation and stress reduction. Without this, nurses become what is described as “burnt out.”

Israeli medical device firm EarlySense makes Massachusetts its HQ. “EarlySense Ltd. announced its intentions to open its U.S. headquarters in Massachusetts. The move is a “direct result” of Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick’s March trip to Israel, where he met with EarlySense officials, according to a Mass. Life Sciences Center official.”