How Autism can be misdiagnosed and go undetected in adults

Experts ponder link between creativity and mood disorders

By Elizabeth Landau CNN


(CNN) -- The works of David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide September 12, 2008, are famous for their obsessively observed detail and emotional nuance.

David Foster Wallace reportedly battled depression for 20 years.

My note: He did not battle depression, but the side-effects of living as an autistic (most probably with Asperger's) in a non-autistic society. The visible depression signs was one of the side-effects that all autistics deal with throughout their lives! It is ignorance that killed this adult with Autism not his depression!!!
Unfortunately, before Autism became as known as it is today, and the mood ups and downs connected with autism became more known, many autistics were misdiagnosed with a range of conditions including bipolar disorder, chronic depression, eating disorders, etc. If the dots were correctly connected, the larger image that would appear would have been Autism. Unfortunately, most who treat people with mood or mental disorders, do not dig that deep. They just see whatever is most prominent in a patient's condition and label him that!

Certain characteristics of his prose -- hypersensitivity and constant rumination, or persistent contemplation -- reflect a pattern of temperament that some psychology researchers say connects mental illness, especially bipolar disorder and depression, with creativity.
There have been more than 20 studies that suggest an increased rate of bipolar and depressive illnesses in highly creative people, says Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and author of the "An Unquiet Mind," a memoir of living with bipolar disorder.

My note: Bipolar and depression are two very obvious tell-tales of an adult undiagnosed autistic!!! It is the ignorance of scientists like this psychiatry professor that killed David Wallace Foster. Autism includes a high ability that is linked with creativity, and the hypersensitivity that artists have. Look at the list of symptoms of bipolar and compare them to those of Autism. See what I mean???

Experts say mental illness does not necessarily cause creativity, nor does creativity necessarily contribute to mental illness, but a certain ruminating personality type may contribute to both mental health issues and art.

"Unquestionably, I think a major link is to the underlying temperaments of both bipolar illness and depression, of reflectiveness and so forth," Jamison said. This theory could help explain why eminent artists throughout the history, from composer Robert Schumann to poet Sylvia Plath to Wallace -- suffered mood disorders.My note: All of these "mood disorders" are nothing more and nothing less than Autistic frustrations that surface as depression, when things do not go as we know they should, and extreme joy and emotional "high" when things go as we know they should.

"It's pretty clear if you read [Wallace's] books that he was a very obsessive, kind of ruminating guy," said Paul Verhaeghen, associate professor of psychology at Georgia Institute of Technology.
"You can see it in his sentences. ... They're breathless and they need to be annotated, and the annotations need to be annotated again."

My note: "Helloooo! He was autistic!!! Take a look at how Autism is connected with speech and the use of speech."

The research of Verhaeghen and colleagues shows when people are in a reflective mode, they may become more creative, depressed, or both. Previous research shows that when people are in a ruminating mode, they are more likely to be depressed, he said.
"If you think about stuff in your life and you start thinking about it again, and again, and again, and you kind of spiral away in this continuous rumination about what's happening to you and to the world -- people who do that are at risk for depression ," he said.

Verhaeghen, who is also a novelist and describes himself as a "somewhat mood disordered person," had a particular interest in the connection between creativity and this ruminating state of mind.
"One of the things I do is think about something over and over and over again, and that's when I start writing," he said.

Sensitivity to one's surroundings is also associated with both creativity and depression, according to some experts.
Creative people in the arts must develop a deep sensitivity to their surroundings -- colors, sounds, and emotions, says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, professor of psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. Such hypersensitivity can lead people to worry about things that other people don't worry about as much, he said, and can lead to depression.

My note: Wrong again you fools! They are autistic, and that is why they are hypersensitive and that is why they express this hypersensitivity into art. You got the whole chain reaction upside down you fools!!!

"The arts are more dangerous [than other professions] because they require sensitivity to a large extent," he said. "If you go too far you can pay a price -- you can be too sensitive to live in this world."
Terence Ketter is professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University.

Ketter and his colleagues compared a healthy control group with bipolar patients, depression patients, and a control group of graduate students in writing and the arts.
They found that people with bipolar disorder scored better -- up to about 50 percent higher -- on creativity tests than the healthy control group. The creative control group had about the same increase in score relative to the healthy control group.
But more research is needed, says Ketter. The study does not explain the connection or show a causal relationship, he said.

Some have pointed out that being engaged in creative pursuits makes a person more open to experience, while others say the pressure of being engaged in the arts causes negative emotion, according to Ketter.
Still, the temperamental characteristics in question are thought to be somewhat inherent.
"It's a little hard to argue that engaging in creative activity could create the temperament, and it may be a little bit more possible that this temperament gives you a creative advantage," he said.

Verhaeghen's theory that rumination contributes to negative emotions generally sounds plausible and in some ways consistent with his own views, said Ketter.
Many hope that this type of research will be helpful in developing better strategies to manage and detect mental illness. These strategies can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.
"Tragically, mood disorders can still present a sudden death in people who have been undiagnosed and untreated, and die from the illness," says Ketter.

My note: YES!!! Undiagnosed and untreated for Autism because that is what they have! They were high functioning so they were never noticed. And as children no one knew what autism was back then. Wake up fools. People are dying!!!

More specifically, Ketter says, just as heart disease sometimes presents itself for the first time as a fatal heart attack, mental illness sometimes presents itself for the first time as a suicide.

An appreciation of David Foster Wallace

AUTISM and SOCIETY - Who is truly ill?

You see if we have two things, and one of them (Society in this case) decided to label the other (Autism) a disorder (a developmental disorder in this case), we need to question how sound is that decission, and what interests are being served by that label!

My personal belief is that what motivates Society and Science that pulls Society's strings is greed more than anything else. Science has become our Society's new religion, since we have now put all our faith towards preventing death (the one thing that holds our ultimate fear) in Science's hands, where previourly these were God's hands.

And like the good ol' "Church", Science is the one that now controls Society. Maybe it is about time we change that "In God we Trust", into "In Science we Trust" as this would far better apply to today's beliefs.

We have allowed Science to take over, simply because we refuse to accept our own weaknesses and vulnerabilities, we refuse to see the inevitable truth that we will all, no matter what, one day die! We wish to avoid this truth, we wish to pay any amount to change this truth, we are willing to make any sacrifice to avert this from happening. We used to pray to God, offer things of value, offer sacrificies such as the lives of others, whether humans or animals, to ensure we would be kept well, and of course... ALIVE!

Yet, this endless game with death came to be a very profitable industry. The promise of eternal youth, of eternal health, of eternal life has become the core of today's Society, where the cosmetics industry, the pharmaceutical industry and whole mecical world have become our new Gods!

To them we sactrifice our income, to them we sacrifice animals (we call them laboratory animals), to them we also sacrifice humans. Ourselves, and our children. Truly, nothing has really changed much since the dark Middle Ages. It has only become more hip, more acceptable, more easily accessed, more integraded into our daily lives. We think about taking medications or not, as little as we think about using toilet paper or not.

We fill our bodies with chemicals that are absorbed either through our digestive system or through our skin, hair, nails, lips, you name it. We never even think what substances are inside our shampoo bottles, are nail polish, our lipstick, our deodorants. Yet, we worry that some mercury inside a vaccine, might cause Autism!

This is how blind we have become to what is happening to us and around us. How we are being "drugged" through small amounts of different chemicals day after day... We then wonder how our Human kind is changing, giving birth to Autistic children.

Mass media has a big saying into this, too. They can also gain profit from this huge money-making industry by reporting new findings, by creating sensationalism out of nothing, by making us accept easier and easier the dark practices that happen around us, by making us immune to them through over reporting, though commercialism, through osmosis. At the end we neither see or hear any more what is happening and how we are being used, abused, misled, drugged, poisoned and yes... killed.

I will not sit here and repeat things others have said better than I ever could. I will just add here the links to articles that explain, support and analyze the fact that Science has turned us all into laboratory animals, abusing our ultimate fear of death and desease, and has allowed medical doctors, psychiatrists, etc. to exploit us like never before.

Ultimately, it is Society that has gone ill, that has become a disorder, a viral infection that is slowly killing our Human kind. It is Society that is creating more illnesses than it can cure, so that we remain eternaly dependant on their practices while it feeds on us.

Read on, there is plenty to take into account the next time you read about Autism and how it is the worst developmental disorder, a true epidemic, a danger to Society and social rules. Think deep what ends serve this Society and the social rules.

Who are behind this "Society" and who make these social rules. Then wonder whether Autism is not yet another scapegoat, another diversion from what truly is the point here: How dependant have we become to the endless dream of a magic pill that cures all illness, including death!

- How Pharma Giants Are Getting Rich By Calling Our Life Problems 'Medical Disorders'

- Mental Illness or Social Sickness?

- ADD/ADHD: Mental Illness or Social Oppression?

I rest my case.

A Time Comes When Silence is Betrayal

On April 4, 1967 -- one year before his death -- Martin Luther King spoke at Riverside ChurchNew York City saying these same words: "A time comes when silence is betrayal".

Now is that time.

It is with sadness and dismay that I write to you this evening. Alex Barton my son, was ostracized by his kindergarten teacher last year for being autistic.

This evening, Mike Lannon and the school board members of Saint Lucie County Schools decided that the civil rights of people with autism, and those who do not fit their idea of perfect do not matter.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/jun/10/st-lucie-county-school-board-allows-portillo-keep-/

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Former Morningside elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said she hopes to return to teaching in local schools this fall, following a unanimous vote Wednesday evening by the school board that lets her keep tenure and contract, a decision that comes more than one year after she lead her kindergarten students to vote classmate Alex Barton out of class.

“I’m overjoyed,” Portillo said after an emotional 90-minute hearing in which more than a dozen teachers and parents urged the school board to relent in the punishment. “I’m happy that I’ll be able to go back to doing what I love to do.”

The hearing was interrupted by applause after each and every speaker supported Portillo. Many who spoke blamed the incident on a lack of adequate policies by the school system to help teachers deal with disruptive students.

Alex was in the process of being diagnosed with a high-functioning form of autism when the incident took place May 21, 2008.

School Board Website:
http://www.stlucie.k12.fl.us/

Sadly,
Melissa Barton
melissabarton@yahoo.com

---------------------
Unfortunately, this is the reality for many children with autism and Asperger's Syndrome. They are systematically being removed from the formal education framework and left on the sidelines of education and society in general.

This reality is the majority when it comes to Greece as a country.

Recently, the Government voted a law that allows School Principles to decide whether or not an autistic/Asperger child will be allowed to receive main-stream education in their school (usually beginning with kindergarten).

This way, autistic children in Greece are forced to enter "special school" education which will never allow them to enter main-stream education ever again. Once in a special school always in a spacial school. Special schools are just a form of "day care" that offer absolutely no form of education to the autistic child but meaningless activities that render its brain useless...

Wasn't it Socrates who warned against the tyranny of the majority?

Now I am beginning to know exactly what he meant. in

"Missing Link" Fossil Found; Proof of Evolutionary Theory?

May 20, 2009 by

47-Million-Year-Old Fossil Suggests Primate Link

"Ida," or Darwinius masillae, is just one of the many missing links that make their way to the divergence of primate evolutionary paths, one of which produced the primate forms of monkeys, apes, and humans, and another which produced animals such as lemurs. In fact, the gap is so large in the known fossil record, scientists are uncertain exactly where the divergence began.

Still, "Ida" has a lemur-like skeleton.

"Ida" also has primate characteristics such as opposable digits, grasping hands, nail-less fingers (as opposed to claws), and relatively short limbs. Since the newly discovered missing link is dated as being from the Eocene era, a time period from which few fossil records have been found, the fossil will be entered into the religion versus science debate.

For scientists, the more important aspect of Darwinius masillae is that it was found in Germany, which might point toward Europe as being more important in the evolutionary spectrum than was heretofore believed. And regardless of where "Ida" stands on the evolutionary path, one thing is unique about the fossil: It is amazingly preserved.

The 47-million-year-old fossil allowed paleontologists to study the fossilized record of fur, soft tissue, and even the remains of the animal's last meal, which consisted of seeds, fruits, and leaves.So is Jorn Hurum's "Ida" really a missing link, another stop on the evolutionary road that has led to the present, or is she just another singularly unique prehistoric creature? "Ida" is both. Her existence will not "prove" or "refute" the argument that every creature was "designed" for a singular purpose, nor will it prove or discount evolutionary theory.

The missing link found at the Messel Pit in Germany suggests itself as a link in the overall concept of evolution and the record of life on the planet, just another piece of the puzzle. Whether one believes that Darwinius masillae was created by an omniscient force or was the end result of ages of natural selection -- or a combination of the two methods of thinking -- becomes the province of subjective accommodation.

******
Source: NationalGeographic.com

GEE! THEY FOUND THE GENES...

... AND NOW THEY KNOW THAT AUTISM IS LINKED WITH RESPONCES TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND LEARNING!

The question of course is, do they know what that means or will they make again the wrong assumptions that support their wrong claims and offer again the wrong solutions? One thing is sure, if all the wrongs offer them riches, I already know what the outcome will be...

Autism Genes That Control Early Learning

New study confirms importance of early behavioral intervention in treating the disorder (how wish we could find a cure for the Science Disorder at hand...)

By Nikhil Swaminathan

A new genetic analysis of large, inbred Middle Eastern families found that genes linked to a heightened risk of autism are crucial to a child's ability to learn.
A group of scientists, led by a team at Children's Hospital Boston, has pinpointed six new genes that may contribute to autism, a disorder characterized by asocial behavior, difficulty communicating and repetitive actions that affects an estimated one in 150 children born in the U.S. each year.

They report in Science that all of the linked genes are involved in forming new and stronger connections, called synapses, between nerve cells in the brain, which is the biological basis of learning and memory formation."We're showing, on the one hand, that autism seems to have a large genetic component," says study co-author Christopher Walsh, chief of genetics at Children's Hospital. "But, the genes that are involved are actually those that are involved in responding to the environment and learning."

The findings, Walsh says, reinforces the importance of early diagnosis of autism and intervention, particularly behavioral therapy and learning in enriched environments through repeated activities. Performing these sorts of tasks may help strengthen cellular connections, compensating for the malfunctioning genes.The researchers studied 88 families in which one or more children had been diagnosed with autism, and the parents of each autistic child were cousins.

Marrying second and third—and even first cousins—is not uncommon in the Middle East, and by studying such families scientists were able to track recessive genetic traits (caused by mutations that only affect individuals with two copies of the flawed genes). Such traits occur far more frequently in inbred families than in others.The team found a total of six mutations affecting genes that had previously not been linked to autism.

The mutations came in the form of deletions, where part or all of both copies of the genes were missing in a child with the disorder. All of the genes are known to be involved in parts of the same process: creating and strengthening synapses.Normally, when nerve cells (neurons) activate in response to an environmental factor (such as processing a new face or a new sound), synapses between two active cells change to provide stronger connections so the cells can pass on information more efficiently.

As the brain develops, new connections are continuously formed among nerve cells, reinforced and, in some instances, broken as the brain starts to mature and divvy up its different functions to specific groups of neurons.

According to the findings, "All of the relevant mutations could disrupt the formation of vital neural connections during a critical period when experience is shaping the brain," says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Md. To wit, most children are diagnosed with autism between the ages of one and three years of age.Walsh says the team believes these deletions—which in most cases found here only remove some, but not all, of the DNA that makes up a gene—may mean that the genes can regain some of their normal function.

In fact, some of these genes may just be switched off. "This presents the possibility that in some kids we could get the gene going again without necessarily having to put it back in the brain," he says.Jim Sutcliffe, a molecular physiologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in a Science editorial notes that the majority of autism research is geared toward prenatal development, even though the brain continues to develop well after a child is born. "Experience and environmental input play an important role in subsequent development," he says.

He calls the notion that learning in early life is disrupted by these autism genes "an intriguing proposal," but says that further research is needed to validate it.

Dan Geschwind, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, says that to test the hypothesis that autism genes affect synaptic strength, it would be important to examine the 20 to 30 other genes that have been implicated in autism and see which ones also play a role in strengthening neuronal connections. "If its a significant proportion," he says, "that would provide support for the hypothesis being put forward."

Walsh notes that many children diagnosed with autism tend to show vast improvement when they are placed in environments that allow them to practice learning repetitively. He says that these activities essentially train the neurons to make up for their lost function."Our work reinforces the importance of early intervention and behavioral therapy," he says. "The more we understand about genetics the more we understand how important the environment is."

Gee! Not much hope here either. The ISS (Idiotic Scientist Syndrome) has strike yet again!!!

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=autism-genes-that-control

How Society Ate all Human Beings. A true story!

I am Autistic.

That is about enough to require from me to look at life in a way that others do not. That includes society and social rules. They are utterly unfair because they are simply based on supporting the ones on the top of the social ladder, while making it as hard as possible for the ones underneath, the social underdogs.

After all, all societies, from the very first at the dawn of the so called civilization, until today, needed "slaves" to endlessly turn the wheels of fortune for the ones who sat comfortably at the top. This is a fact that we are forced every day through the mass media to ignore if not completely forget.

What rules is not Love or compation, not even God anymore, not even we humans. We do not rule. We are all slaves. What rules is money. As simple as that. Whoever has it is at the topo of the social ladder, benefits from all the social rules, and struggles to keep that position of priveledge!

Those who do not have it, struggle to fill in the gap with notions such as love, compassion and God. As John Lennon very wisely said, God is the measure of ones hardships. The more the hardshiops, the more we turn to God for help and mostly it seems what we ask is ... MONEY!!!

Now, you will say that there are many people who have money and also pray to God. Now that I feel is a huge lie. One of those social things that people use to interact in a proper way. If people with money pray is only because they are either afraid they might lose that money, or because they have some health issue they can't seem to solve with money, or they are one of these regious fanatics who make money from "selling" faith and God!!!

Oh dear! Did I step on someone's toes? Well, excuuuuuuse me! Maybe your toes were in the wrong place. So mind where you keep them next time. Maybe they are too long and take someone else's space, or simply stand on the way. After all they are YOUR toes so keep your eyes on the ground looking out for on coming feet!!!

Yes, that is the kind of obnoxious way that Autistics tend to think and get in the way of society's rules and status quo. Now, let's imagine that once society and the human beings were friends. Walked side to side caring for each other. One day society realized that the human being had some flaws, some weaknesses that were easily used, easily exploited to own's favor. That is when society began abusing what was meant to help and protect: the human being. Instead it made a new friend. This new friend was greed!

That is what caused society's old friend, the human being to change tactics. It slowly began to be born ... Autistic! This way the human being was not as vulnerable to society's rules and influence. The Autistic human had a free mind and did not feel the need to follow the herd of society nor to act socially. This made society vert upset. The more Autistic humans were born, the less society could exploit them. "Aha!" Society thought, "I have to find a way to claim back my influnce and control!" But that was not as easy as it sounded. Society had to find some collaborators and make them execute a dark and evil plan.

The plan was simple, "devide and rule" it was called and all society had to do was to turn human beings against each other. Not just strangers against each other, that was very easy and it was done daily through greed and brainwashing. Now society had to strike deeper, in the heart of the human family. Society would not do that alone. It has slaves willing to do the dirty work. They are called professionals who, as a reward for their obedience, they are granted high ranking places in the social pecking order, and are given lots of money and even more power, since we all now that power can drive anyone crazy...

These professionals had to come up with a plan to separate the family. First they thought out the family's ranks of weakness. The child was by far the weakest. Bingo! Their strategy was to separate the child from the parents, that way the family would fall a pile of cards. Easy pickings.

Then they came up with a label. Something very horrible, an illness so awful, a disorder, an abnormality, a stigma!!! They did not have to look far for a name. Autism. It sounded Greek, so it had a sort if historical and cultural aura, it was easily pronounced and it sold like fresh baker rolls!

But how? Tell a parent that his or her child is different than the rest, convince them that it will never make it as the rest, allow them to fall into the trap that what causes this difference is something so horrible that has NO CUR, and ... tadah!!! Parents believe it. They want to have the same kid like their neighbor has, they have the same car like the neighbor, they live in teh same house like their neighbor's, they eat the same junk like the neighbor, so why not have the same child like the neighbor???

This sounded so, bad so unfair! Money. They could "buy" a new child. No, that is not possible, what then? They would buy a cure! Yes, a cure. Find us a cure!!! Here is all our money but please, pretty please, give us our child back... but please... make sure it is exactly the same like the one the neighbors have!!! We do not want one that is different.

That was the day when the parents sold their kids to the professionals who labeleld them abnormal and defective, and took the parent's money to fix them and one day, maybe one return them to the parents...

They just forgot one thing these professionals. They forgot the kids. They forgot that the kids grow up and one day can use a computer and one day find a way to break their silence and speak out and defend themselves and accuse the professioanals and the greedy rotten society for doing what it did. That day came, but no one listened. They were all too scared, too brainwashed, to enslaved to listen or care.

They kept screaming for a cure to the epidemic, they were pilling up all their money and asking for more from the UN and all Governments, to stop this curse! To find a cure, to stop Autism from kidnapping their children and eating them up.

They were screaming and yelling louder than any Autistic adult could speak, so no one listened to them, and that is how society won the dirty game.

The End (of the decent human beings)

ZEITGEITS - PART 2

Stigmatized with Autism for EVER!!!

From Medscape Family Medicine

My comments are at the end of this article!

The Government Push for Electronic Medical Records

Posted Feb. 24, 2009
Author: Nancy R. Terry

The economic stimulus plan currently being considered by Congress allocates $20 billion to health information technology such as electronic medical records (EMRs). Recent postings on Medscape Physician Connect (MPC), a physicians-only discussion board, offer frank opinions about the utility of EMRs in clinical practice -- opinions that are decidedly mixed.

"EMR is the worst thing that has happened to me professionally in over 25 years of practice. My care of patients is impeded and the quality of my care is worse as a direct effect of the introduction of EMR," says a MPC contributor who championed the installation of an EMR system for his physician group.

"I absolutely love our EMR," says a nephrologist. "It has improved the quality of our practice immensely. I spent a lot of time customizing for our practice, but it was worth it. Everything is point and click. To improve care and cost, all patients need a Web-based collection of medical records that include hospitalization, lab reports, x-rays, as well as office notes. That would be the ultimate care."

Physicians who are dissatisfied with EMR systems cite loss of productivity, the negative impact on patient care, and high maintenance requirements. Physicians who have embraced EMRs cite the increased efficiency the systems have brought to their practices. EMRs tend to get high marks from subspecialists and low marks from primary care physicians.

Some of the MPC physicians least satisfied with their EMR systems are those practicing at large healthcare companies or medical centers. "My hospital solicited medical staff support for EMR," says one MPC contributor. "After implementation, administration took over and now EMR is solely for the benefit of medical records as a storage device. To hell with the medical and nursing staffs. RNs are input clerics rather than beside nurses."

"The very few efficiencies were all on the administrative side," says a regional medical director who helped bring an EMR system to a nationwide healthcare company. "A good sales pitch with nice graphics and testimonials sell it, then the clinical staff is left to suffer."

"EMRs need to address work flows and clinical efficiencies and not seek to provide administrative support," says a general practice physician. "Unfortunately, the administrators are the ones with the time and energy. The rest of us are seeing patients."

In smaller practices, issues of EMR maintenance and support infringe upon patient care. "In my clinic," says a family medicine physician, "provider meetings are completely dominated by EMR issues and problems. There is virtually never time left for discussing topics pertinent to improving patient care."

In speaking about their day-to-day experience with EMRs, primary care physicians complain that entering patient information is cumbersome and time consuming, often because of a template-based system that does not reflect the patient encounter.
"The assumption of the EMR is that you already know the diagnosis when the patient arrives." says an MPC contributor. "This may be better for specialty care, but in primary care, patients come in with fatigue, rash, insomnia, diarrhea, and cough. It's difficult to enter all this until after the visit."

An internist who describes herself as "tech savvy" says that her system's scripted entries for patient information are inadequate. "If you free-text, it is much more time consuming. And we are discouraged from free-texting by our administration because it doesn't trigger adequate billing codes. Not only has it reduced my time with patients, it has added an extra 2 to 3 hours of work each night from home."

The Choice of Systems
"My advice to practitioners," says one MPC contributor, "is wait for a decent EMR that produces useful notes that accurately describe a patient encounter in a way that helps a clinician."

Waiting may not be an option for much longer, however. One provision of the government stimulus plan would impose reduced payments on physicians who are not "meaningfully using" information technology. Whatever is meant by the provision's phrasing, one thing is clear: the push is on to go electronic. Physicians must learn how to make information technology work for them. One EMR expert says that it starts with the choice of systems. "Primary care practices should stay away from templates and stick to a new program by Praxis® [Infor-Med Medical Information Systems, Inc., Woodland Hills, California] that uses pattern recognition of similar cases as well as rare cases. It decreases the workload immensely. For specialty practices, I recommend templates, and Visionary™ Dream EHR [Visionary Medical Systems, Inc., Tampa, Florida] is excellent in being very user friendly," says an MPC contributor whose research in medical management focuses on EMR systems.

Another MPC contributor notes that the technologically adventurous can customize an EMR system by using open-source software. In open-source systems, he explains, the source code needed for programming is included in the software, making the program infinitely adaptable. "When you buy most proprietary software, you have to accept the functions that come with it, as designed by the developers. With open-source systems, you can modify the software to your heart's content."

Is a Choice of Systems Really a Choice?
For some physicians, however, EMR systems remain a nonissue, and the heavy government funding of healthcare information technologies is nothing more than a smokescreen obscuring the real issues in primary care.

"The government and the public are not able to deal with the real problems facing medical practice and the real solutions necessary to turn it around (ie, reasonable reimbursement rates, malpractice reform, regulation of the unscrupulous practices of the insurance industry)," says an otolaryngologist. He adds that once healthcare information technology is "fully implemented and solves nothing, we can start to talk about real reform and real answers."

My comments

If you read this article and do not feel you understand the topic "Stigmatized with Autism for EVER!!!" and the connection with the Government Push for Electronic Medical Records, then think that children that are diagnosed as autistic and thus bear the stigma of having the worst disorder of the human kind, will be known to all who have access to their medical records, including those who have access to electronic records whether they are medically trained or not and whether they have an oath of secrecy and protection of privacy towards their patients.

Besides, why is the Government so keen in keeping records of all we do or have, including our Medical records?

To find out this answer, you need to devote an hour or two to watch this documentary. Then you will know why the Government is pushing (if not shoving) to ensure all info is electronically registered.

What seems to be for your protection as patient and as human being might after all look like an endless removal of freedoms and our right for privacy. So be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it!!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4573704334162675487