I must have missed the declaration of war on pubic hair.
It must have happened sometime in the last decade because the amount of time, energy, money and emotion both genders spend on abolishing every hair from their genitals is astronomical. The genital hair removal industry, including medical professionals who advertise their specialty services to those seeking the “clean and bare” look, …
The war on pubic hair must end
I was quoted recently in the New York Times’ Well blog, in a Danielle Ofri piece on Facebook and doctors.
There’s no question that Facebook has been a minefield of sorts for the medical professions, with infractions ranging from unprofessional conduct by medical students to patient privacy violations by attending physicians.
One solution would be for doctors to simply avoid …
How doctors can use Facebook responsibly
When I advise students about how to choose a specialty, I suggest that they seek out advice from physicians who are at least 10 years out of residency and leading the type of life they hope to have in the future.
It is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to anticipate in your late 20s or early 30s what practicing a certain specialty will be like when you are 40, 50, or 60.
Find …
The exhaustion of emergency physicians, and its toll on patients and family
by Graham Walker, MD
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Babel Fish was a fish you stuck in your ear that allowed you to understand any language spoken to you. We’re not far off.
Google recently released a new version of their (free!) Google Translate app for Android phones, featuring conversation mode, which allows you to have a back and forth …
Using Google Translate in medicine
Patient privacy and social media use in health care often go together when reported in mainstream media.
When physician blogs were a relatively new phenomenon several years ago, the majority of the media coverage focused on edge cases, where doctors inadvertently revealed patient information.
Only a minority of the headlines focused on the positive aspects, such as how …
Doctor reprimanded after patient privacy breached on Facebook, my take
When applying to medical school, the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) asks aspiring physicians if they would like to be considered “disadvantaged” applicants or not.
Many premedical students find themselves troubled by this question and wonder, what does it mean to be disadvantaged? How does being a disadvantaged applicant affect my medical school application? According to the information American Association of …
Does being a disadvantaged applicant affect my medical school application?
In my forays into the history of medicine I came across these six little words by Hippocrates.
They seem strangely modern, almost like something you might find on a Hallmark-card for today’s medical school graduates. I don’t know how old the translation is and I couldn’t understand the original text if I tried – but these simple words really touched me when I …
Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease
by Benjamin P. Geisler, MD, MPH
Everybody is talking about Accountable Care Organizations or ACOs these days.
The reason being that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or CMS has released the rules for shared savings between ACOs and CMS.
The complete proposed rule is 429 pages long and they’re seeking comments on it now until early June.
What is an ACO?
ACOs will take care of …
How an ACO will affect physicians and Medicare patients
Federal law generally prohibits physicians from referring their own patients to a diagnostic facility in which they have an ownership issue – a practice called “self-referral” – unless the facility is located in their own practice.
This exemption exists to allow patients with access to a laboratory test, x-ray, or other imaging test at the same time and place as when patients are seeing their physician for an office visit. Less …
Physicians referring patients to a diagnostic facility they own
Recently, I received a call from the son of some old friends. This 30-year-old man has been an elementary schoolteacher for the past few years and recently decided that he would like to go to medical school and eventually become a surgeon. He wanted to know what I thought of the idea.
Suppressing the urge to tell him not to even consider …
Think about medical school tuition debt before becoming a doctor
Having a healthy level of respect for opioids is critical for any physician. For those of us who prescribe or recommend this class of medicines on a daily basis, this statement rings all the more true.Recent events and research reinforce this reality.
“Oxycontin, Other Opioid Painkillers Tied to Higher Health Risks” was the title of a recent BusinessWeek article …
How the reformulation of Oxycontin has affected patients
I am infinitely blessed by The Girl Effect. As I look back through the generations of my family, I see it rolling toward me, through me like a wave.
I am sure it started even before my grandmother stole her parents’ car with intent to drive by herself from Austin to Chicago to see the World’s Fair in 1924; I just don’t have much history to work with prior to that. …
A confident, independent, empowered woman is a force to be reckoned with
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 28-year-old woman has a 3-month history of easy bruising and bleeding gums. She feels otherwise well. Medical and family histories are unremarkable, and she takes no medications.
On physical examination, temperature is normal, blood pressure is 110/70 mm Hg, pulse rate is 64/min, and respiration rate …
MKSAP: 28 year old woman with easy bruising and bleeding gums
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