In family medicine it has been common to keep a “Problem List” in patients’ paper charts. Usually placed on the left hand side, on top of the Medication List, it has given doctors like me an instant thumbnail sketch before considering the specifics of each patient’s visit for that day.
A typical Problem List would include diagnoses like diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol or rheumatoid arthritis. It would list prior surgeries, like …
Are emergency departments solely responsible for the bulk of unnecessary tests?
Most would like to believe so, but emergency physician Edwin Leap says that’s not the case.
He cites an instance involving a primary care doctor and hospitalist:
Local physician, who does not admit to the hospital, sees patient in the office. Patient has uncontrolled hypertension and is having some chest pain and shortness of breath. Local physician contacts hospitalist. …
by Steven Knope, MD
For the last several years, writers in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association have authored doomsday editorials about the prognosis of primary care medicine. There has been much discussion about the fact that internists and family practitioners cannot keep pace with rising overheads and falling reimbursement under the traditional third-party payment system.
Paraphrasing a recent …
by Charles R. D’Agostino, MD
We’ve all seen the headlines –- “Primary Care Physicians Becoming a Scarce Breed”, “Wait Times for Appointments Increasing”, “Primary Care in Crisis” –- and have heard the pundits pontificating on the deteriorating state of primary care.
But rarely do we hear what’s happening from physicians on the front lines, those actually seeing patients. Consequently, with direct access to the primary care trenches, replete with an overworked …
Bret Michaels continues to be monitored in the intensive care unit after suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage.
According to his road manager, “further testing this week will help locate the source of the bleeding.”
What exactly does that entail?
As I mentioned previously, aneurysms are responsible for the majority of brain bleeds. Finding that source is critical. Angiography, or …
by Crystal Phend
Physicians don’t know much more about complementary and alternative medicine than their patients do, according to a new survey.
Most healthcare professionals who answered an online survey of Drug and Therapeutic Bulletin subscribers said their profession was just as poorly informed about herbal medicines (75.5%) as the general public (86.3%).
And almost half of respondents rated their own knowledge about herbal medicines as “quite” or “very” poor (36.2% and 10.4%, …
Our state of South Carolina is a delight. From wonderful people to beautiful landscapes, from a vibrant Southern culture to excellent food like shrimp and grits, it’s a place I’m thrilled to live. But we do lack a few things. And one of the most striking is adequate mental health care.
The state budget, like so many state budgets, has been trimming anything and everything. And of course, mental health coverage …
Patient satisfaction, as I wrote previously, is being increasingly focused upon.
Doctors are often pressed for time, and appear rushed — which can potentially lead to unhappy patients.
I saw this small study showing that the simple act of sitting down while talking to patients can have a profound effect. Many doctors I know already do this, but now there’s some data to support sitting.
According to the study, performed at …
When her gynecologist told her she had high blood pressure, Marie had a simple solution: switch doctors. After all, she had gone to him for a different problem, and this was the first time he had ever checked her blood pressure.
“He said, ‘Oh my God, you’re like a bomb waiting to explode.’ I said, ‘I didn’t come here for that, I came here for something else,’” she explained.
Two years later, …
by Michael Kirsch, MD
Does anyone out there know why President Obama underwent a virtual ‘colonscopy’ (VC) instead of a conventional colonoscopy earlier this year?
In my gastroenterology practice, we do not offer colon cancer screening to 48-year-old individuals, unless special risk factors are present. Of course, maintaining the president’s health is in the national interest, so I understand why professional screening guidelines might not apply to him. For …
The daily appointment schedule is often a sore spot in everyone’s day:
* Patients aren’t completely satisfied because they can’t get an appointment when they want one.
* Physicians feel they’ve lost control of their day when the flow is not running smoothly and they fall behind and patients complain.
* Nurses and medical assistants are frustrated at the hodgepodge of types of appointments that get scheduled seemingly without any consideration for timing …
I recently went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.
This epic creation by part genius–part disturbed director Tim Burton features the wickedly talented method actor Johnny Depp as the ‘Mad Hatter.’ As I was watching Johnny Depp’s orange hair and freakish eyes, it occurred to me that some of the most popular fiction movies over the last several years have featured some notable legends and their medical …
Most people use non-prescription medications without giving much thought to the potential side effects or problems that may be associated with their use.
Here are 5 popular OTC meds you should avoid, and better alternatives. I bet most of you use one or more of these. Neosporin, Topical Vitamin E, Afrin nasal spray (or other short acting nasal decongestant sprays), daily headache medications, and sedating antihistamines.
1. Neosporin: Neosporin in the most …
by Dr. Whoo, MD
Q. I just found out last week that I’ll be a new mom in November, making me an official mother in medicine! I’ve been reading the blog for a while, because I love hearing what all of you have to say about your lives. Here’s my question: What tips would you give for surviving residency while pregnant, especially 30-hour calls (without caffeine)?
— From a future mom and …
I am often asked how we get the prices for the radiology imaging tests, such as MRI’s and mammograms, or ultrasounds. Most people assume that my day job as a doc gives me some sort of special access to this info. But that’s just not the case. Anyone can find out testing prices.
However, over the last year, those of us working at LesliesList.org have gotten more experienced and better at …
Medicare’s sustainable growth rate, or SGR, has been the bane of doctors for years now.
To encapsulate, this is the reason for Medicare’s annual threat to cut doctors’ fees by 20% or more, only to be staved off at the last minute.
Emergency physician Shadowfax has a nice take on it, explaining why it has devastated primary care:
Primary care has many fixed expenses in addition to those we bear: they pay …
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Peggy Peck, MedPage Today Executive Editor
A red dress jauntily displayed on cans of Diet Coke has become the latest symbol in the ongoing debate about pharmaceutical company support of research or CME.
But whose dress is it? The American Heart Association says it’s “not our red dress,” even as leading pharma critic Steven Nissen, MD, …
During residency, there was always a case of misdiagnosed chest pain to discuss in conference. Incorrectly sending a patient home and missing the diagnosis of cardiac chest pain was an infrequent, but repetitively observed, phenomenon.
So as to tread carefully with words, it is sufficient to say that even now, chest pain triage remains a vexing problem.
Chest pain diagnosis is like appendicitis; there are always small numbers of unusual cases in …
by Iltifat Husain, Yousif Alkadhi, MD, and Satish Misra
If you’re a physician, medical student, or in any other health care related field, trying to find the best free medical apps for the iPhone is a hassle.
Apps such as “Dream Meanings”, “Relax Ocean waves”, and “Stool Scanner Lite” dominate the Top Free Medical Apps list in the App Store. Our top 10 iPhone medical apps list contains no such app, …
Originally published in MedPage Today
An immediate-release form of the antidiabetic agent metformin has a dead fish odor that may cause patients to stop taking the drug, clinicians warned.
Metformin is known to cause adverse gastrointestinal effects such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, flatulence, distention, and abdominal pain. Those side effects “often necessitate discontinuing the drug,” a group of physicians and pharmacists …
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