| KevinMD.com

Considering the preciousness of life and preservation of health

Physician

January 12, 2012

Last night was clear with full moonshine and the owls were busy hunting on our farm, calling back and forth to each other, comparing notes on where to find prey.

Thankfully they were not calling my name. At least I don’t think so, nevertheless their hoots haunted me.

A coastal tribal legend has it that if you hear an owl call your name, your death is imminent. I’ve had no recent brushes …

A guide for entrepreneurs to get a doctor’s attention

Rebecca Coelius

Health Technology

January 12, 2012

I’ve had the luck to attend medical school in the city of San Francisco during what will be looked back on as the start of transformational change in our health care system. My growing interest in technology and new business models as the disruptive forces behind this change, as well as marriage to a technology entrepreneur, has me frequently rubbing elbows with movers and shakers in the digital health space. …

Granting rights to a fetus at the cost of the mother

Mark Ard

Patient

January 12, 2012

While I, as a physician, would not perform an abortion unless there was an extreme, medical rational, abortion is a choice. It is a woman’s determination of how best to live and manage her life. Also, while the issue of viability is an important medical topic, and while I believe that any life, from the moment of conception, is of supreme value, some women do not. If they are the …

Physician, don’t heal thyself

Myles Riner, MD

Physician

January 12, 2012

A couple of months ago, I was dragging a large suitcase that got hung up on a curb, giving my arm and shoulder a good yank. Over the next few days, my shoulder began to ache a bit. Applying the very reasonable ‘tincture of time’ principle, I rested it a bit, hoping that with time the symptoms would resolve. Two months later, I was getting an MRI and anticipating surgery …

Read more…

Physician, don’t heal thyself

A concierge or boutique label is discredits retainer medicine

Matthew Mintz, MD

Health Policy

January 11, 2012

Health care is in crisis. Reimbursements from insurance companies continue to dwindle, while the expenses of running an office continue to rise. Looming cuts in Medicare are only weeks away, and many physicians may stop taking Medicare. If these cuts go into affect, it is possible that primary care physicians could lose up to 50% of their salary. Just recently CNN reported that some doctors are going bankrupt.

How …

Is it ethical to prescribe a placebo for a patient?

Jim deMaine, MD

Medications

January 11, 2012

Betty was complaining at an escalating rate. She’d been in her nursing home for four years and wasn’t happy. She kept coming up with new symptoms like aching, fatigue, nervous stomach, tingling, dizziness, etc. Her daughter Nancy was getting daily calls from Betty and the staff at the nursing home. Multiple trips to the doctor for diagnostic tests had ensued: blood counts, liver functions, x-rays, thyroid function, plus many others. …

Motivate physicians through technology

Juan J. Reyes, MD, MBA

Physician

January 11, 2012

In the modern medical environment of unpaid insurance claims, malpractice lawsuits and rushed patient encounters, many doctors feel unmotivated and unhappy.

Could the use of improved healthcare technology make doctors feel motivated and fulfilled again?

The hierarchy of needs

Motivating others is always difficult task. But according to Dan Heath, author of Made to Stick, all employers need to do to effectively motivate employees is get out of the basement – Maslow’s basement …

Read more…

Motivate physicians through technology

How can we train more geriatricians?

Joanne Conroy, MD

Physician

January 11, 2012

In 2003, authors Warshaw and Bragg published a paper that reported on three decades of progress in creating a workforce to care for our aging population.

They noted that, as of academic year 2001-2002, 120 geriatric medicine fellowships were training 338 fellows. U.S. medical schools had 869 full-time equivalent (FTE) geriatrics faculty members teaching in IM residency programs and FP residency programs. From 1988-2002, more than ten thousand Certificates of …

Read more…

How can we train more geriatricians?

Which celebrity diet will you recommend to patients?

Michele R. Berman, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 10, 2012

Based on a survey conducted by the largest cosmetic surgery provider in the U.K., 76% of British women feel “depressed” about their appearance in January, related to an average weight gain of 11 pounds during December. Inquiries about cosmetic procedures peak on the third Monday in January, dubbed “Fat Day” in the U.K.

Most people will, of course, try various diet and exercise programs before resorting to cosmetic or Read more…

Which celebrity diet will you recommend to patients?

Educate patients when it comes to cancer screening tests

Eugene Spiritus, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 10, 2012

Mammograms, pap smears and P.S.A. levels, what’s a patient to think?

Each of these procedures has been widely accepted as a means of detecting cancer early and thereby improve ones chances of survival. The tests themselves are simple to perform and have become an accepted standard of care. Patients are now being told that the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) an independent panel of non-Federal experts in prevention and …

Do you really know how to choose a good doctor?

Gregory A. Buford, MD

Physician

January 10, 2012

So you need a new doctor. You go online and the list is seemingly endless. You browse your insurance provider’s list and the information all looks the same. With so many options, how can you really choose the best doctor for you?

Although this topic has been written about before, many people still find it difficult to determine a good fit. And when they do, this fit often comes simply by …

Birth control and cancer: What you should know

Helen Rhodes, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 10, 2012

Does your birth control pill put you at risk for cancer? Or, does it actually protect you from the disease? Recent headlines might have you wondering.

Here’s what we do know: oral contraceptives — better known as the pill — may impact a woman’s chances of developing breast and gynecologic cancers. In some cases, that means a bigger chance of cancer. In others, it means protection against cancer.

The reason? Most oral …

Using a mobile app to help chronic pain

Roger Luckmann, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 9, 2012

The sore back. The stiff knee. The aching hand. More than 50 million Americans suffer from these and many other forms of noncancerous chronic pain. Treatments recommended for chronic pain include physical therapy, exercise, cognitive behavioral therapy, meditation, medication, a wide range of alternative therapies and other measures. Often it is not easy to tell how effective a treatment is because most patients do not carefully monitor changes in their …

Read more…

Using a mobile app to help chronic pain

Addressing the needs of the disadvantaged in our health system

Emily Lu

Health Policy

January 9, 2012

“The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are at the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.”

We all know that health care in America is too expensive and yet ineffective, falling consistently at the bottom of the rankings of industrialized nations when it comes …

Saying a very special goodbye

James C. Salwitz, MD

Physician

January 9, 2012

Estelle’s lipstick was apple-red and generous. She did not limit its application to lips, but wore it in the general area of her mouth. Together with pink rouge, color stood out brightly on her pale face. She wore a threadbare dinner dress, years faded. Estelle had dressed carefully for the visit and I showed respect.

I met Estelle in the winter of her life. 92 years old, she lived by herself …

Read more…

Saying a very special goodbye

Myths about concierge medicine

John T. Kihm, MD

Physician

January 9, 2012

Myths abound concerning concierge medicine (CM). Unfortunately these myths prevent good doctors from converting their practices to CM. Let’s look at those myths—maybe you need to work on yourself and your own beliefs. If you practice quality medicine your patients will value you and your work and will pay a fee to join your CM practice. CM is a value story. If you provide solid value, you needn’t believe these …

Read more…

Myths about concierge medicine

Mistaken identity at the family physician office

Peter Elias, MD

Physician

January 8, 2012

Shortly after 3:00 I was listening to Chloe’s precise clinical description: her daughter, Mysti, had been fine and “in her usual state of rambunctious health” despite a runny nose and a low grade temperature of 99.8 to 100.6 that mom had not felt warranted treatment because she was eating and drinking and playing normally, and sleeping despite a very mild cough when she lay down.

That morning she had noticed a …

How patients can remember their doctor’s name

Anthony Breu, MD

Physician

January 8, 2012

“Do you remember my name?”

Like a broken record, I repeat this question again and again as I make rounds in the hospital. My patients’ universal answer, given with furled eyebrows and an apologetic look is “uh, no, I don’t remember”.

My response: “Don’t worry. It’s Dr. Tony Breu, but call me Tony.” Theirs’ (again with furled brow, but also a smile): “Oh, okay.”

In a busy teaching hospital, it is not uncommon …

Why I miss practicing medicine

David Lee Scher, MD

Physician

January 8, 2012

I recently left medical practice in order to pursue a career in mobile health technologies, for which I have had a passion for many years. I had wanted to become a physician since I was very young. The intellectual challenge and curiosities of the natural science and the human body stirred my intellect like nothing else.

What I will surely miss most are the priceless personal interactions I experienced on a …

Read more…

Why I miss practicing medicine