Anastamosis, a third-year medical resident, is in the operating room as part of a surgical team trying to save the life of a man shot in the abdomen. All of a sudden, music starts playing:

... this isn't uncommon - surgeons often bring their own iPod, or the scrub nurse will turn on Pandora - but as the first notes came streaming out from the speakers, my ears perked up. was this U2's "bloody sunday"?

indeed it was. i glanced at the clock. it was just past midnight, making it sunday, and our hands, the surgical field, and the patient were covered in blood. i looked around, wondering which circulating nurse had the ironic sense of humor to play this, but they were all sitting around, faces impassive.

the lyrics struck me as they have in the past, though more physically now, as i had my hands in the abdomen of a guy who had been shot ...

Cardinal O'Malley pulls the plug over abortion issue.

Charley on the MTA explains why it's far too premature to bury a system that, in fact, has dramatically, if not perfectly, expanded health coverage.

Charlie Baker at Harvard Pilgrim writes people have figured out how to game the state's mandatory insurance system: Buy insurance for a few months, run up massive bills, then cancel insurance and pay the relatively low penalties for going without:

... Between April of 2008 and March of 2009, about 40% of the people who purchased individual insurance from Harvard Pilgrim stayed covered by us for less than 5 months. Even more amazing, they incurred, on average, about $2,400 per person in monthly medical expenses - roughly 600% higher than what we would have expected. It wouldn't surprise me if other health plans have the same problem. ...

His proposed answer: Let insurers reinstate the waiting periods and pre-existing exclusions for new subscribers that was eliminated with the health-care reform law. He doesn't say what people who have pre-existing conditions would do, but presumably they'd still go to hospitals, which would then have to eat the cost or pass it along to insurers - just like in the days before mandated insurance.

Unfortunately, John Cass has had to take his son to the MGH emergency room twice. But he reports the facility no longer feels like something out of Dickens:

... Instead of Victorian brick, we visited a newly designed 21st century facility, where triage happened within minutes at an individual nursing station, then registration with a clerk, before waiting in the children's waiting room for half an hour. The whole experience took 2-3 hours, and though could not be contrasted with our earlier visit which really was life threatening, was a whole lot better because of the new facilities and to me better organization. ...

Cleary Squared thinks they're wonderful, after getting into one in Porter Square right away to get his ears cleared out of wax:

... It doesn't make sense for people with minor injuries have to wait for care from their PCP, especially on the weekends, or have to shell out a much higher copay at the ER. The "continuum of care" will still be there; it just took the urgency of the situation and the ambition of the patient to take action.

That is why I made the choice to have my earwax situation taken care of now, rather than waiting two weeks for my PCP to do the same thing and have my ears plug up worse. This is why I had to go to Cambridge to do it, and I'd do it again above Mayor Menino's (and my PCP's) objections. ...

The Boston Public Health Commission is out with its Health of Boston 2009 report.

Via Tinker Ready, who pulls out some interesting factoids.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy says he was offered a chance to buy Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, declined it faster than you could say "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" and wonders what the deal really is with the financially troubled Caritas Christi buying the financially trouble Landmark.

Sharon Machlis finds it pretty ironic that the for-profit owners of MetroWest Medical Center are howling about Newton-Wellesley Hospital wanting to open an orthopedics center on their turf even as they expand their own physical-therapy services in Milford Regional Medical Center's coverage area:

... Certainly, Framingham Union Hospital is an important employer and service for downtown Framingham. But that still doesn't make it right to ask the government to create a non-compete protected service area for an investor-owned, for-profit corporation. ...

Xconomy reports Partners HealthCare, which owns Mass. General and Brigham and Womens, is launching a startup to get into the burgeoning home-testing market.

The spinoff's first product is a system that lets users connect a blood-pressure cuff to a computer, which then uploads the results to a server on which users can track how their blood pressure is doing. The new company says a trial run with hypertensive employees at EMC showed the system helped them better control their numbers.