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How overly aggressive cancer awareness can backfire

Conditions and Diseases

February 12, 2010

The American Cancer Society has designated this weekend “Suits and Sneakers Awareness Weekend,” as part of the annual Coaches vs. Cancer program that will feature well-dressed basketball coaches wearing “sneakers instead of dress shoes with their usual game attire during weekend games to demonstrate their support for the Society and the fight against cancer.” The idea is to encourage people to exercise and eat a healthy diet to reduce their …

Thoughts from a doctor attending a patient funeral

Dr. Charles

Patient

February 12, 2010

On the way to the funeral you wonder how you’ll be received by the grieving. Although you are confident that your care for the deceased was sincere, professional, and adept, you still question if others will so assume. There is silence in the car. This is a trip you make alone.

You manage a bitter smile as you recall stories the patient shared in unguarded moments, behind the door of a …

Neuroscience explains why changing addictive behavior is so difficult

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

February 12, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer

By the end of January, many New Year’s resolutions have been tossed out with the leftover holiday cookies. That’s because change is hard — and neuroscientists are learning why.

Advances in neuroimaging have enabled researchers to peer inside the brains of addicts and patients with addictive behaviors. They can see in …

AMA: Why patients should care about fixing the Medicare physician payment cut

Kevin

Health Policy

February 11, 2010

The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American Medical Association.

by J. James Rohack, MD

Prominently displayed at the top of the AMA’s Web site this week is a “countdown clock” to this year’s 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut, which will hurt physicians ability to care for all Medicare and …

Doctors are responsible for a minority of medical mistakes in radiation therapy

Amy Tuteur, MD

Physician

February 11, 2010

The New York Times recently featured a disturbing expose of serious medical errors associated with the newest forms of high tech radiation treatment, entitled, Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm. The piece is an example of excellent medical journalism, compelling stories of two individuals who sustained truly horrifying injuries as the result of treatment errors framed a detailed investigation of similar errors that have occurred in New …

Doctors have an ethical obligation to treat complications from a transplant operation performed abroad

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

February 11, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer

Patients who travel to foreign countries for organ transplants may return with more problems than they left with — and physicians here have a moral responsibility to treat them, researchers asserted in a transplant journal.

“Medical tourism” has been on the rise as demand for organs outpaces supply and U.S. …

When doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with a patient

Alex Lickerman, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 10, 2010

Part one of a series.

The first patient I ever saw as a first year resident came in with a litany of complaints, not one of which I remember today except for one—he had headaches. The reason I remember he had headaches isn’t because I spent so much time discussing them but rather the opposite: at the time I knew next to nothing about headaches and somehow managed to end the …

How will the earthquake affect the future of the Haitian American community?

Erin Marcus, MD

Physician

February 10, 2010

Marleine Bastien is the founder and executive director of Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami–Haitian Women of Miami–www.fanm.org, which advocates for the rights of Haitian women. She is also a congressional candidate for U.S. House District 17, representing Little Haiti and other neighborhoods in Miami. Erin N. Marcus spoke with Bastien on Jan. 22 about the Haiti earthquake.

What has FANM been doing since the earthquake?

As soon as we heard about it, …

Similarities between H1N1 flu pandemic conspiracies and the Y2K bug

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

February 10, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Mike Himowitz

When I read Michael Smith’s account of European politicians taking WHO to the woodshed for allegedly conspiring with vaccine makers to overinflate the danger from H1N1 pandemic flu, I was reminded of a similar — and equally silly — argument that occurred exactly a decade ago.

In the early days of 2000, you …

Not enough patients receive vaccines and what doctors can do about it

Shantanu Nundy, MD

Medications

February 9, 2010

Imagine a world where consumers all knew about the latest developments in preventive health.

Earlier this month the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) released the 2010 immunization schedules. Revised annually, the immunization schedules are what doctors in the U.S. use to decide who should be immunized against what diseases. Far from esoteric, the schedules pertain to every single person living in the United States. If the H1N1 pandemic and subsequent …

Increasing copays will increase costs for health insurance companies in the long run

Kevin

Health Policy

February 9, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer

Raising seniors’ copayments for ambulatory care to offset increasing healthcare costs may backfire on insurers, researchers asserted.

Seniors enrolled in Medicare plans that increased copayments had significantly fewer outpatient visits but spent more time in the hospital than patients in plans that left copayments untouched, according to Amal Trivedi, MD, …

The power of a doctor’s choice of words in explaining CPR

Alex Smith, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 8, 2010

Words have power. Language has power.

The words we use may comfort or shock, allay or provoke, sooth or batter. Words often imply layers of meaning that are not explicitly articulated, yet rest beneath the surface:

“I worry that time is short for you” (You are dying) (I care about you)

“I wish we could have done more” (Nothing would have changed her death) (I am on your side)

“I hope with you that …

An anesthesiologist accused of making up trial data pleads guilty to federal charges

Kevin

Medications

February 8, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor

A Massachusetts anesthesiologist accused of fabricating data in studies of pain drugs will plead guilty to federal criminal charges under an agreement with prosecutors.

Scott Reuben, MD, a well-known pain researcher at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass., was charged with one count of healthcare fraud.

Early last year, the hospital …

How hypertension increases the risk of dementia

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

February 7, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor

Another study has found that hypertension may contribute to increased risk of dementia, this time with evidence of actual brain abnormalities.

Data from an offshoot of the Women’s Health Initiative found that participants’ baseline blood pressure was strongly correlated with volume of lesions in their brains’ white matter, according to Lewis …

What is the biggest risk for soldiers fighting overseas?

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

February 6, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor

More than 85% of American military medical evacuations from the Middle East were not the direct result of enemy action, but the result of non-battle injuries and disease, researchers said.

Of some 34,000 military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan who shipped out for medical reasons from 2004 to 2007, only …

When doctors are at greatest risk of making a mistake

Dr. Martin Young

Physician

February 5, 2010

Early in my training as a glider pilot my instructor showed me an excellent but simple analogy for ensuring my safe performance as a pilot. I have always remembered this lesson, which he called the ‘accident slope’, and have tried to apply it to my method of practicing medicine, as well as the other ‘dangerous’ activities for which I have an affinity.

“Accidents and mistakes are seldom the result of one …

The specialty of underwater medicine, and an interview with a dive physician

Kevin

Conditions and Diseases

February 5, 2010

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Kristina Fiore

Physicians tend to prefer intellectual hobbies — chess, reading, writing. Dr. Alfred Bove is no exception. His hobby often requires application of his expertise in physiology. You know him as the president of the American College of Cardiology. But you may not know that his heart belongs to the sea.

Bove’s interest in scuba diving …

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