The CDC just conducted their first official study into the validity of Morgellons disease — a bizarre phenomenon in which patients, including Joni Mitchell, insist that they have small fibers or threads growing under the skin and causing constant discomfort. The study involved a group of Bay Area patients, and the conclusion wasn't what they wanted to hear. Essentially, they're all crazy. more ›

A 36-year-old man collapsed and died right after crossing the finish line of the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon Sunday morning. The man has just been identified as 36-year-old Peter Hass of Orinda. Witnesses say that five race volunteers rushed to perform CPR on Hass following a confused scene, and the Chron reports that it took 20 minutes before paramedics arrived, due in part because the SFFD dispatcher was given three different locations for the incident. more ›

Medical records for around 15,500 Northern California Kaiser patients - 9,000 from the Bay Area - were compromised after an external drive was stolen from a Kaiser employee’s car in December. The theft occurred December 1... more ›

Thrive, indeed. more ›

Congratulations to all the participants at this year's San Francisco Half Marathon & 5K more ›

Now, you could either watch the trailer for Michael Moore's new movie (about HMOs and universal health care) here on your computer (above)... OR, you could go outside and watch it projected onto the side of buildings in downtown SF and Oakland tonight! more ›

There's never a good time to visit the emergency room, but being forced to do so on the same day as Bay to Breakers would definitely be an even bigger bummer. We thought our fianceé Daniel Phifer would be avoiding the whole mess altogether when he ventured over to Berkeley on Sunday morning to engage in some very adult activities. Unfortunately, he returned to San Francisco a few hours later with a shattered wrist (he should've attended the Safety Day in March!) and a visit to the Kaiser emergency room that inconveniently coincided with the winding down of SF's annual drunken marathon—well, one of them, at least. Here's the account told last night through Daniel's itchy, Percocet-induced haze, as he awaits surgery in the morning (they're putting a high-tech plate in his wrist that will get him well on the road to recovery in a couple of weeks): more ›

News of this organization came across our now very sleepy Cares desk last week and we thought it interesting and helpful and stuff but then got stopped dead by one line of their press release: more ›

Not since our days of Baby Alive have we been sporting a crazy-doll obsession like the one we have for Noelle, the "robot birth simulator" that was recently demonstrated at the Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo. more ›

Domestic turmoil -- Sean White, the non-hyphenated husband of SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, called the cops Sunday night, claiming that his wife had hit him on the head with a pint glass. The cops, though, noticed no signs of injury on Mr. White. As of Monday, though, Sean White is retracting the story, and reports have Chief Hayes-White telling the cops that he hit himself and then called 911. The couple is in the middle of a separation. The pit bull panel has met, and has decided it will begin lobbying the state to rescind its ban on breed-specific legislation, so it can institute requirements that all pit bulls in the city be spayed or neutered. Meanwhile, local fines for failing to microchip or get a license will be raised, more dog education classes will be held, "backyard breeding" will be banned, and dog owners will be required to get liability insurance. And finally, Kaiser Permanente has been fined $200,000 for accidentally putting patient information on a public web page. However, the woman who alerted the media to the privacy breach -- by reposting the data on her blog -- still faces civil liability. more ›

A 12-year-old boy in the Bayview's getting grounded for a long time, after stealing the keys to the family van and practicing for that learners' permit three years early. The boy hit three parked cars (and totaled one) before jumping out of the destroyed van and trying to make a break for it, at which point the cops swooped in and returned him to his parents. In another case of someone making a break for it, a seal pup they're calling "New Year" was found wandering on Hyde Street by Fisherman's Wharf -- again. Animal technicians at the Marine Mammal Center had previously found New Year doing some window-shopping on the wharf on Jan. 1 (thus the name) and had returned her to the bay near Pier 39 at that time. Maybe New Year just wants some of that In and Out. And your final person-on-the-loose story, a woman is recovering after losing control of her Lexus and ramming it into the Santa Clara Kaiser Permanente's ER. At least they didn't have to take her very far for treatment, right? The ER was closed for three hours but has since reopened. The woman was driving to the hospital to pick up her husband. more ›