Telemedicine in Iowa - use for first trimester abortions is under attack

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Sunday August 18, 2013 · 4:01 PM PDT

2013/08/18 · 16:01

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland pioneered using telemedicine to perform first trimester abortions for women in rural areas in 2008. It has been a godsend for rural women and others who couldn't afford to get to a clinic to be able to have a safe abortion. In 2010, the Iowa Board of Medicine ruled that it was a safe procedure, and allowed the practice to continue. In addition, attempts to prohibit the practice via the legislature has failed twice, once in 2011, and again this year.

For other uses of telemedicine:

While states are curbing the use of telemedicine for abortion, demand for other forms of telemedicine—whether it’s for surgery, radiology, dentistry, or more—is exploding. Telemedicine systems are both convenient and cost-effective, and the federal government is one of their strongest proponents; for example, the Affordable Care Act encourages hospitals to lower readmission rates by providing virtual consultations for Medicare patients who make frequent trips to see doctors. “Telemedicine is used by about 10 million to 12 million Americans every year,” says Jon Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association, a resource and advocacy organization. “That’s probably triple what it was five years ago.”

And as for Iowa's use of it for abortion? -

Although one might expect that women would prefer a face-to-face encounter with an abortion provider, a study of Iowa’s telemedicine system shows that many women are happier with telemedicine. An evaluation conducted by Ibis Reproductive Health, a nonprofit research organization that prioritizes access to safe abortion, found that women who received a telemedicine abortion were significantly more likely to say they were satisfied with their experience than women who had an in-person procedure.

But in the meantime, we elected the horrendous Terry Branstad as governor, and he has slowly and stealthily replaced all ten members of the Board of Medicine with anti-abortion zealots, who are re-evaluating the safety of the practice and have voted 8-2 in the first step to make the practice illegal. I have just found out about a public meeting to discuss their actions on Wednesday, August 28 in Des Moines.

This is the information that I have been able to find:

A public hearing on the ban is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28 at the Wallace State Office Building in Des Moines. The hearing will give anyone who’s interested a chance to speak on the issue before a decision is made. Branstad noted the upcoming public hearing specifically when asked to comment on the issue, noting that Iowans will have ample time to argue on either side.

Also,

The public hearing is part of the rulemaking process that must be completed before the ban can be formally adopted. In addition to in-person testimony, interested people and groups may submit written comments to the Iowa Board of Medicine through August 28.

Since I most likely won't be able to travel to Des Moines for the meeting, I intend to write and submit my comments before the 28th. I urge anyone else who wants to keep this innovative program going to do the same.

KosAbility: I hate gallstones!

glendaw271 for KosAbility

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Wednesday September 26, 2012 · 2:00 PM PDT

2012/09/26 · 14:00

I remember July 19 of this year well. I had been feeling fine for a while, enjoying a relatively good lull between all the complications of diabetes and the after effects of my exposure to statins.

But that evening, I got sick. I thought it was just stomach flu, so I just did what I usually do, stopped eating anything and drank only water. I missed work the next day, continued to feel bad over the weekend, and decided that I still needed another day off from work the next Monday. By Tuesday, I figured that even though I wasn't at 100%, I needed to get back to work. After all, I no longer had a fever. And I certainly felt better than I had for the last few days.

But it turns out that I wasn't really getting any better, and I probably didn't have stomach flu - follow me below the Itzl for my story.

KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and/or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.

glendaw271

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday August 09, 2012 · 5:54 AM PDT

2012/08/09 · 05:54

On July 20, 2012, the Republican Secretary of State, Matt Schultz, instituted new 'emergency' rules that effect who may be able to vote in November.

Thanks to the ACLU and AP reporter Ryan J. Foley, this information is now coming to light. The ACLU has filed a lawsuit to block this action, and I'm hoping that it succeeds, but all voters need to check their status while this is going on. This can be done at the Iowa SOS site.

For details of what Mr. Schultz did, follow me over the Itzl.

glendaw271

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Sunday March 18, 2012 · 9:05 AM PDT

2012/03/18 · 09:05

Ah, the joys of working in a state that that has the 'right to work' or, in Florida's case, 'at will'.

From the Sun-Sentinel:

This Friday, 14 workers wearing orange shirts were called into a conference room, where an executive said he understood there was a protest involving orange, the employees were wearing orange, and they all were fired.
The executive said anyone wearing orange for an innocent reason should speak up. One employee immediately denied involvement with a protest and explained the happy-hour color.

The executives conferred outside the room, returned and upheld the decision: all fired, said Lou Erik Ambert, 31, of Coconut Creek, a litigation para-legal who said he was terminated.

"There is no office policy against wearing orange shirts. We had no warning. We got no severance, no package, no nothing," said Ambert. "I feel so violated."

glendaw271

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 17, 2012 · 4:08 AM PDT

2012/03/17 · 04:08

But here is my story. Somehow, it doesn't quite fit what I'm sure your definition of a slut is.

21 years ago I went through an experience that I would never wish on anyone. I'll never forget the events of March 1 and 2, 1991 for as long as I live.

My husband and I found out in late November of 1990 that I was pregnant for a second time. Our first child, a son, was two and a half, a good age for having a brother or sister, we thought. A few weeks after finding out about the pregnancy, the doctor decided that since our son was born six weeks early, I should have an ultrasound to determine the fetal age. During that ultrasound it was discovered that there wasn't just one baby, but two. I was going to have twins.

The news took us by surprise, but we were happy that at Christmas we could tell our families there would be twins coming in July. For the next two months things seemed to be going well.

But then things started to go wrong.

Follow me below the squiggle if you so desire. I may get a little explicit about things, but when the government starts wanting to get up into my vagina, I can't help but get explicit.

glendaw271

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday December 14, 2011 · 11:25 AM PST

2011/12/14 · 11:25

Yesterday, in the midst of taking care of two family members who'd come down with the flu, I found one of those lovely messages in my e-mail from donotreply@dailykos.com.

I acknowledged it in a diary up at the time by SomethingTheDogSaid, with the intention of posting a diary as soon as I could.

Alas, when you are fetching things and taking people to the doctor, you tend to be exposed to whatever it is that is bugging them, and so shortly after posting that comment, I found myself suffering from the same flu bug that they had been fighting. By now, they are both feeling much better, and I'm beginning to feel a little bit better myself.

That means it's time for this diary that thanks my anonymous benefactor.

glendaw271 for KosAbility

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Saturday September 24, 2011 · 2:45 PM PDT

2011/09/24 · 14:45

Four years ago today (Sept. 24, 2007), my friend and former co-worker, Tammy Futterman, stood by and watched her oldest child, 19 year old Rachel, die. It was a shock to the family and friends, as only a week before (well even just five days before) Rachel had been a happy, healthy college sophomore at USF.

Rachel Futterman was an athletic, vivacious, friendly 19-year-old back in 2007. She was starting her sophomore year at the University of South Florida. She had started feeling like she had the flu on Friday, and was quite sick by Friday night. On Satuday, her friends were so concerned that they took her to the emergency room. At that point, she started having seizures, and there was very little that could be done except to contact her family, who now lived in Texas, to come and say goodbye.

I heard about this tragedy directly from her mother via Facebook, and the story spread among those of us who had known and worked with Rachel's parents, especially those of us who had been friends with Tammy Futterman. Now Tammy is speaking out and is trying to save other parents from going through the pain that she lives with every day.

glendaw271

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 11, 2011 · 7:19 PM PDT

2011/09/11 · 19:19

I don't have much to say on this, except that I had already cancelled my subscription when I found out the details of what happened during the purge.

It isn't much, and I don't write much here, but I'll stay out and see what is happening in a week.

TTFN.

Another attempt to scare people about Obama

glendaw271

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 26, 2011 · 7:38 AM PDT

2011/07/26 · 07:38

My blood is absolutely boiling this morning, as I have had to calm people down and show them that they are being scared into a fear of what "Obama" is trying to do. They were in the aisles complaining that Obama wants to tax all bank transactions with a 1% tax.

There is an old e-mail making the rounds again this morning, evidently in an attempt to change people's minds about what they heard from the President last night and build mistrust after his speech and his attack on the Republicans in the House who are making it difficult to reach a debt ceiling agreement.

At first, I did a simple Google of HR4646, and found out that the bill is dead, as it was introduced during the last session of Congress.

glendaw271 for KosAbility

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday July 24, 2011 · 2:00 PM PDT

2011/07/24 · 14:00

A month ago, my family took its first real vacation since I was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago. I’m lucky that I survived the vacation.

It wasn’t that I was unprepared. I’d done some reading and followed the advice presented there. I had my medications, and they were sorted and in containers that allowed me to take just what I needed with me for the day, regardless of any change of plans. At least for the first few days, I made sure that I had snacks available for when meals were delayed, or if the blood sugar started to go low.

What I hadn’t counted on, and what I didn’t see in any of my reading ahead of time, was how the four foundations of blood sugar readings would all interact in a really bad way, and cause me to go into diabetic shock in the middle of Disney World. I was lucky, because the blood sugar readings were low enough that I could have passed out and gone into a diabetic coma.

KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and/or ask general questions about disabilities share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.

glendaw271 for KosAbility

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 27, 2011 · 2:00 PM PDT

2011/04/27 · 14:00

Last week, in this diary, I described my son's journey over the last four years with Ulcerative Colitis. As I was putting the finishing touches on that diary, I found more information on one of the drugs that he is currently taking.

Also, among the comments, it was requested that I provide more information on how Mom and Dad worked to handle the information. Finally, I did want to provide a bit more information on the disease itself, and the related Inflammatory Bowel Disease(IBD).

KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and/or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.

glendaw271 for KosAbility

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 20, 2011 · 2:00 PM PDT

2011/04/20 · 14:00

Eighth grade - it's supposed to be when that young teen enjoys being the oldest in the middle school. Lots of events with friends, eating pizza, beginning to stretch the wings. That's what it was supposed to be for the Younger W three years ago, but only one week into eighth grade, events occurred that changed his life, and turned his eighth grade year into a year from hell.

We certainly didn't expect on that Labor Day weekend that the next few months would be so bad. And having it be our child who was suffering, and it being during his early teens, not only did we have to deal with the physical problems, but also the psychological and social problems that rose from him having a condition that needs continuing care.

KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and/or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.

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