KevinMD.com

The problem of inadequate discussions of end of life wishes

Physician

September 13, 2011

The Annals of Internal Medicine occasionally reviews the articles and studies of note in a particular field of internal medicine for those of us who don’t read all of the specialty journals. Recently, there was an update in pulmonary and critical care medicine, the internal medicine specialty that is most intimately involved with caring for the very ill and those people who are at the ends of their lives. …

Children who curse, and the power of words

Yolanda Wong, MD

Patient

September 13, 2011

Today was a rough day at work. My schedule of 10 patients for the afternoon rapidly ballooned into 17. People were sick and miserable. Those who were healthy were frustrated by the long wait. I heard myself apologizing over and over to each family.

The day was mostly a chaotic blur. Babies crying, phones ringing, parents reprimanding children on the brink of a meltdown. I don’t remember much of it, except …

Essential tips for medical journalists

Gary Schwitzer

Potpourri

September 13, 2011

We’re five years old. We’ve been doing the same thing the same way for five years and have analyzed over 1,488 stories using our ten standardized criteria on HealthNewsReview.org.

We’ve recently returned from the annual Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) conference in Philadelphia, where we led a two-hour workshop, and where we received a tremendous amount of gratifying feedback on our work and many terrific suggestions about …

Read more…

Essential tips for medical journalists

Physicians need to be more proactive asking about code status

S. Irfan Ali, MD

Physician

September 13, 2011

When I saw my first patient die, I was in shock. You will never forget your first one, that always stays with you.

My first patient died during medical school, a young guy around 40. He died of complications from endocarditis. He was fine in the afternoon, talking about his family and what he does, but when I came back in the morning he was gone. I was shocked beyond …

Can cost accounting save health care?

Barry C. Dorn, MD and Eric J. McNulty

Health Policy

September 12, 2011

In the September 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School professors Robert Kaplan and Michael Porter argue that a better understanding of the actual cost of care patient-by-patient can have a dramatic impact in the effort to control health care costs. They maintain that actual costs are poorly understood, that there is a mistaken belief that many costs are too complex to allocate accurately, and that …

Read more…

Can cost accounting save health care?

Biology and biography: The Two-B Factor of depression

Deborah Serani, PsyD

Conditions and Diseases

September 12, 2011

An excerpt from Living with Depression: Why Biology and Biography Matter along the Path to Hope and Healing (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group).

To be human is to experience an array of different emotions. We can feel upbeat and hopeful, cool and unconcerned or frustrated and fearful in a given day—even in a given moment. The heart of human experience beats with moments of joy and flashes of sorrow, and with …

Explaining human motivation towards unhealthy behavior

Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD

Patient

September 12, 2011

We have all seen people exhibit flagrantly unhealthy behavior. Some of us–though we’d never admit it–derive a certain, smug satisfaction by observing them. At least I don’t do that!

Somewhere in the course of our daily lives though, most of us do exhibit behavior that suggests at least some disregard for our health. We don’t change our diet, though we know we should. We don’t floss, take medications as prescribed, or …

Requiring a prescription for OTC products is a waste of physician time

Edward Pullen, MD

Physician

September 12, 2011

Most OTC products, excepting some medical equipment like crutches and diabetic supplies, now cannot be purchased with flexible spending account dollars without a physician prescription.

One of my partners asked last week how I am dealing with this issue. He has had several patients ask for a long list of prescriptions for OTC products so that they can use their FSP to pay for these things with pre-tax dollars. This puts …

My iPad and my hip fracture

Paul Hsieh, MD

Health Technology

September 12, 2011

Dear Apple:

I’ve been a happy iPad2 owner since March 2011, but I never fully appreciated its value until I recently broke my hip in a bad fall and required subsequent hospitalization.

I am a physician, so I had already been using my iPad for my work, reading PDFs of medical articles, communicating with my colleagues via e-mail, etc. But when I broke my hip in an accident a few days ago, …

Read more…

My iPad and my hip fracture

Who benefits most from psychological therapy?

Christina Girgis, MD

Patient

September 12, 2011

There is a saying in psychiatry, “even bad therapy is good therapy.”

I always thought this was a terrible thing to say, but really, there’s some truth to it. The basic tenet of therapy is that a person is able to vent their feelings with an objective third party. Depending on how good the therapist is, he or she will be able to help that person process their feelings in …

The worst abuse of an embargo this medical journalist has ever seen

Larry Husten, PhD

Medications

September 12, 2011

In general I support embargoes in medical journalism. Although the current system is far from perfect and contains all sorts of wrinkles and unexpected consequences, I support the system because it allows journalists a bit more time to work on complicated stories and to try to get them right. Recently, though, I came across the single worst abuse of an embargo that I have encountered in the course of my …

Born premature, my sons have already endured a lifetime of hardship

Jennifer Gunter, MD

Patient

September 11, 2011

Thump.

There is a strange sound emanating from the hallway. It’s more of a series of sounds, of thuds, punctuated by an odd, louder noise. The hallway is narrow, not much room for a five-year-old to create too much havoc. I close my eyes, and as I try to visualize the corresponding sequence of events the rhythm is interrupted by a much louder sound and the house shakes. A child has fallen …

New HIPAA rules won’t enhance privacy, but they will burden physicians

Jared M. Rhoads

Physician

September 11, 2011

Hospitals and physician practices are waiting with bated breath for the final changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is expected to release by the end of the year. One of the new rules could require healthcare providers to keep track of the instances in which patients’ health information is shared with third parties for reasons including treatment and managing payments. …

A contract for patient responsibility

Stewart Segal, MD

Patient

September 11, 2011

I often refer to myself as a fireman pouring water on the flames that are burning my patients. Often, I view my patients as arsonists, pouring gas on the fire I am working to put out. Taking personal responsibility is a critical component of success in any of life’s ventures. While my patients are very responsible business and family men and women, they often take no responsibility for their …

Read more…

A contract for patient responsibility

How elderly patients can be stubborn to their own detriment

Sharon Bahrych, PA-C, MPH

Patient

September 11, 2011

The elderly population can be fun to take care of (they have more stories than you have time to hear), or they can be a handful in regards to all of their chronic complaints and numerous medications. But then, there are those senior citizens that come into clinic and tell us, “I don’t need to take medications, I haven’t taken medications my whole life, and look at where it’s …

When not to use a physician recruiter

Bo Claypool

Physician

September 11, 2011

As a physician recruiter of prominence, a number of times during any given week I get a fair number of calls from physicians in training who, honestly, should not be calling me whatsoever and I am very frank in telling them this. The call normally starts something like this:

“Hi Bo, my name is Dr. Doe. I am finishing up my dermatology residency and I want to be there in …

Read more…

When not to use a physician recruiter

9/11 grieving in the social media era

Elias Aboujaoude, MD

Potpourri

September 11, 2011

Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and our keyboards, monitors and smartphones will likely play a big role as we commemorate the events. Numerous remembrance websites and videos already appear online, and people will undoubtedly take to Facebook and Twitter over the weekend to share their personal stories and express their thoughts on that tragic day.

Never before have we been so “plugged in,” and I had to …

Read more…

9/11 grieving in the social media era

How Jenny McCarthy became a medical thought leader

Mark Britton

Physician

September 10, 2011

The mere mention of Jenny McCarthy gets an immediate eye roll from many physicians. The closer their practice is to autism or immunology, the more likely the eye roll turns into a lecture on why Ms. Playboy should focus on what she knows.

The problem is that “Ms. Playboy” is kicking the medical profession’s behind on thought leadership. Jenny McCarthy has become a – if not the – leading voice regarding …

What to ask a doctor when faced with a difficult diagnosis

Linda Pourmassina, MD

Patient

September 10, 2011

We live in an era of medicine in America in which patients want to be involved in their healthcare. This is very satisfying to physicians like me, who prefer to educate and engage patients rather than just telling them what to do. Granted, there are some instances when a patient does need to be told what to do (ex: “You have appendicitis. You need surgery.”)

However, when faced with a …

How an EHR will impact physician productivity

Robert Rowley, MD

Health Technology

September 10, 2011

One of the big concerns about implementing an electronic health record (EHR) into a medical practice is the fear that it will slow you down. In fact, after cost, usability (and its effect on productivity) is the second-biggest perceived barrier to EHR adoption.

Numerous studies have shown that EHR implementation actually ends up saving cost in a group practice, mainly because of reducing or eliminating the need for paper-based medical …

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts