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Why I’m not hiding social media from residency interviews

Social Media in Medicine

April 2, 2012

As Match Day for the Class of 2012 quickly fades into the background and residency applications for my class begin to appear on the horizon, I find my classmates starting to disappear from Facebook and other socially-oriented websites.

“Are you taking your blog down for application and interview season?” someone innocently asked, “I mean, some program directors just may not appreciate the social media involvement as much as you do.”

The question, …

The cutthroat pre-med culture needs to change

Roheet Kakaday

Medical Education

April 2, 2012

I eyed my chat screen with a good amount of suspicion. A friend of a friend who I had rarely spoken to had initiated a chat conversation with me with the opening line “How are medical school apps going?” The cursor blinked in anticipation.

I began to think about possible ulterior motives that she, another pre-medical student, could have had. Perhaps she just wanted to use me as a comparison for …

Disruptive changes are coming to the delivery system

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Health Policy

April 2, 2012

More chronic illnesses, more diseases of old age, consumers demanding more quality and safety, physicians no longer in typical private practice, and high deductible health care polices are each about to cause major changes in the practice of medicine and how it is delivered to patients. Will this come about smoothly or, more likely, with some serious hand wringing?

Health care delivery will change substantially in the coming years. This is …

The problem of regulatory oversight and ICD implantation

John Mandrola, MD and Wes Fisher, MD

Physician

April 2, 2012

Slightly over a year ago, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation of a large number of institutions regarding concerns that implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) procedures were performed for reasons outside of the criteria set forth in Medicare’s National Coverage Decision (NCD). This investigation occurred just after Al-Khatib and others published a report January 4, 2011 in JAMA that suggested as many as 22.5% of implantable defibrillators implanted …

Christopher Hitchens and the universal experience of dying

Christian Sinclair, MD

Physician

April 1, 2012

Christopher Hitchens, noted author and philosopher, died December 15, 2011 leaving behind many essays, books, and other writings as well as contributing to several lectures, ethics/religion debates, and TV talk shows. His acerbic style often ruffled feathers as he attacked religious dogmatism.

As one of the most famous outspoken atheists of this era, his thoughts on being diagnosed with an incurable disease would be a powerful insight into how atheists might approach …

Will physicians ever support the Affordable Care Act?

Colin Son, MD

Health Policy

April 1, 2012

A recent survey by Deloitte of physicians opinions on health care reform has drawn some very differing conclusions from partisan commentators.

The 501 physicians answered a number of questions, the most notable of which included a dichotomous question on whether the Affordable Care Act was “A good start” or “A step in the wrong direction.” The question was split 44% to 44%. All respect for Mr. Pollack and Dr. Murthy writing …

The basic health needs of most Medicare patients left behind by design

Robert Bowman, MD

Health Policy

April 1, 2012

Medicare needs to cut costs. It has chosen methods to cut costs that will damage the basic health care services needed by most Medicare patients. And instead of calling this cost cutting, it uses terms such as “shared savings.” Even worse, the “shared savings” will result in even less health spending in United States locations that already have lowest health spending. Innovative designs are not the problem. The problem is …

How to discuss online health information with your physician

Natasha Burgert, MD

Physician

April 1, 2012

Two articles recently caught my eye while I was spending some time on Twitter. First, an op-ed piece was published on Time.com discussing how patients and doctors perceive the use of the online health information. The article was closely followed by the results of a recent PEW research study which stated that 80% of Americans used the internet to “prepare for or recover from” their doctor visit.

The results of …

MKSAP: 36-year-old woman with a history of migraine

mksap

Conditions and Diseases

April 1, 2012

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 36-year-old woman is evaluated in the office for a history of migraine, with and without aura, since age 16 years. She has an average of three attacks each month and consistently experiences an attack 2 days prior to menstruation; this headache is more difficult to …

Keep statistics simple for primary care doctors

Steven Reznick, MD

Physician

March 31, 2012

An article and editorial have appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine demonstrating that primary care physicians do not understand simple statistical data presented to them regarding screening tests for cancer. The consequences, as outlined in an editorial written by a former chairperson of the much maligned Institute of Medicine, is that primary care doctors are over-using cancer screening tests because they do not understand the statistical ramifications and conclusions …

Doing the wife’s tummy tuck

John Di Saia, MD

Physician

March 31, 2012

One fine fall morning last year my wife turned to me and said: “I want a tummy tuck. There are no rules against you doing that for me are there?”

We had talked about tummy tuck surgery for her several times over the years. She had had a gastric bypass a decade before we had met and was a pretty good candidate. No cigarettes. Well she did have a few surgical …

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Doing the wife’s tummy tuck

When patients are my greatest teachers

Carlene Oleksyn

Patient

March 31, 2012

I had a patient once. Her name was Alice (not her real name). Alice was in her mid-thirties, diabetic, had chronic pain, high blood pressure and was an alcoholic. She lived on Kuper Island which was just a short ferry ride from the small pharmacy I managed in Chemainus, British Columbia. Alice would come in every month or so to see me for her medication, go over her blood sugar results, take her blood pressure. …

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When patients are my greatest teachers

Doubting the cost savings of health information technology

Jennifer Shine Dyer, MD, MPH

Health Technology

March 31, 2012

A recent Health Affairs article casts doubt on the cost-saving prospects of health information technology despite the significant investments made by hospitals, physicians, and the federal government to promote electronic records.

Reduced ordering of imaging and other diagnostic studies by physicians is often cited as a likely mechanism for estimated cost savings due to health information technology. Possible mechanisms include reduction in redundant (duplicated) tests secondary to better access to …

Why full code should not be the default status for patients

Anonymous

Physician

March 30, 2012

Full code is the universal default status for patients who haven’t chosen otherwise, but I suspect most physicians believe this policy is wrong. We know in our hearts we’re doing harm when we perform CPR on poor souls at the natural end of their lives, whose bodies can do nothing more than suffer.

Appropriately timed end-of-life discussions are the supposed answer, but for doctors, they are emotionally draining, interpersonally complex, and …

Small opportunities to use mobile technology in medicine

Karim Jessa, MD

Health Technology

March 30, 2012

As citizens of the 21st century, we seem to have adapted personal technology for every conceivable use — Siri, the iPhone’s newest darling, can literally remind us to call a proctologist. But as physicians, we may be missing some of the best opportunities to derive “meaningful use” from technology.

I am an emergency physician, and a few nights ago I worked a shift in the ER. It was a typical, …

Should family physicians leave the RUC?

Brian Klepper, PhD

Health Policy

March 30, 2012

Last June the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) sent a letter to the AMA’s Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) demanding specific changes to the ways that the RUC conducts its business. Primary care has been severely compromised by the RUC’s recommendations, and there was an implicit threat that the nation’s largest medical society would withdraw if the demands were ignored.

I co-authored a Kaiser Health News article in …

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Should family physicians leave the RUC?

Doctors need to find meaning in their work

Sudeep S. Sodhi, MD

Physician

March 30, 2012

“It is getting worse everyday.” “Medicare fix at the last moment.” “Too much paperwork not enough time with patients.” “ACO’s and bundling.” The headlines scream at us everyday.

If we have one word that underlies the medical community it is fear.

The looming uncertainties of reimbursement, insurance changes, electronic medical records and new regulations form the main topic of doctor worry talk. The country’s health system remains in perpetual flux and catching …

Reducing industry support of CME has unspoken consequences

Derek Warnick

Medical Education

March 29, 2012

I have worked in continuing medical education for 12 years and the argument over industry support of CME has grown tired and wearisome. Truth be told, I’m sick of it. I have always been a staunch defender of industry support of CME – and still am, for the most part – but listening to the same old arguments on both sides of the issue has become akin to the Elmo …

Physicians should rise up against mandated transvaginal ultrasounds

Anonymous

Physician

March 29, 2012

Where is the physician outrage?

Right. Here.

I’m speaking, of course, about the required-transvaginal-ultrasound thing that seems to be the flavor-of-the-month in politics.

I do not care what your personal politics are. I think we can all agree that my right to swing my fist ends where your face begins.

I do not feel that it is reactionary or even inaccurate to describe an unwanted, non-indicated transvaginal ultrasound as “rape.” If I insert any …

What does broccoli have to do with health reform?

Tianzan Zhou

Health Policy

March 29, 2012

Up until now, I hadn’t considered to write an article on healthcare reform simply because of the divisiveness and the complexity of the issue. But after listening to the Supreme Court session and the arguments made on both sides, I can’t help but comment on one popular argument that continuously resurfaces. Yes, it’s the infamous “broccoli argument.”

In short, the argument states that if government were given the power to force individuals to …