KevinMD.com

March 25, 2011Mar 25, 2011

There isn’t a country on this planet where there isn’t someone dreaming of curing cancer. What if there was something even more spectacular than curing cancer? What if you could stop cancer right in its tracks and eliminate its existence.…

Vincent Tuohy, PhD, an immunologist at Cleveland Clinic, may be on a path toward …

Patient voices

How can research capture the complexity of tiny moments?

Claudia M. Gold, MD

March 24, 2011Mar 24, 20112

Recently, as I listened to leading researchers grapple with the question of how to design a feasible study of intervention for postpartum depression, I held in my mind an image of a particular moment in my office. I was sitting…

I was sitting on the floor with 10 month old Madison and her mother Nancy, who was struggling with postpartum depression. Nancy spoke of the strain Madison’s refusal to take a bottle and her …

Patient voices

Giving the patient and family precious minutes to say goodbye

Richard Sheff, MD

March 24, 2011Mar 24, 20119

An excerpt from Doctor Confidential: Secrets Behind the Veil. by Richard Sheff, MD Dorothy suffered a second heart attack, leaving more of her heart muscle damaged and causing her to slip into congestive heart failure. There was not much we…

An excerpt from Doctor Confidential: Secrets Behind the Veil.

by Richard Sheff, MD

Dorothy suffered a second heart attack, leaving more of her heart muscle damaged and causing her to slip into congestive heart failure. There was not much we could do to reverse the many blockages in her arteries. Yet she was cheerful, as were her four children.

One morning Mary came to find me. “Dorothy says …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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Health policy

Expand health care systems in a way that is professionally satisfying

Michael D. Shapiro, MD, MBA

March 24, 2011Mar 24, 20115

You try to do the right things to sustain your business. You set high standards for delivery of quality care, follow the basic tenets of marketing, align your organization so that everyone in your firm “gets it,” avoid unnecessary expenses but identify important growth opportunities and prudently invest so that you remain competitive and serve your patients well. But can you afford investing in the assets you require to become or …

Conditions and diseases

Restricting nuclear cardiac stress testing in favor of stress echocardiography

Adam Rothschild, MD

March 24, 2011Mar 24, 20113

Dr. William Follansbee is the chairman of the American College of Cardiology/American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ACC/ASNC) task force on non-invasive cardiac imaging and the director of nuclear cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute. He recently…

He recently published an editorial in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in which he criticized the local Blue Cross/Blue Shield carrier, Highmark, for restricting the use of nuclear cardiac stress testing in …

Patient voices

Patient volume and money instead of quality patient care

Linda Burke, MD

March 24, 2011Mar 24, 201121

To everything there is a season and mine comes to an end today. For 720 weeks I attempted to give quality care to my patients. The task was not always easy especially when most of my patients held the unenviable position of having a high risk pregnancy and receiving Medicaid or being uninsured. Babies have a right to be born healthy …

Physician voices

Engage employees in healthcare to enhance patient outcomes

Donald Tex Bryant

March 24, 2011Mar 24, 2011

It is an axiom of business that employee engagement produces many positive results, no matter what the setting—manufacturing or service. This is true for healthcare as well. Employee engagement produces a better product or service. In healthcare, engaged employees produce…

It is an axiom of business that employee engagement produces many positive results, no matter what the setting—manufacturing or service. This is true for healthcare as well.

Employee engagement produces a better product or service. In healthcare, engaged employees produce enhanced patient outcomes. When employees are engaged there is less turnover, which reduces training costs. Engaged employees are problem solvers.

How …

Physician voices

Can family medicine really be defined?

Anonymous

March 23, 2011Mar 23, 2011

Going into medicine from a suburban community in the northeast, I never really knew exactly what family medicine was as a specialty. I had heard of it before, but did not see it in action until going to undergraduate school…

Read more…

Can family medicine really be defined?

Health technology

Why the return on investment in an EHR is poor

Rosemarie Nelson

March 23, 2011Mar 23, 201118

I had a déjà vu experience recently when I visited a medical practice that was like so many others I've been to before. This practice just wasn't getting their investment back from their EHR. The practice had been live on…

I had a déjà vu experience recently when I visited a medical practice that was like so many others I’ve been to before.

This practice just wasn’t getting their investment back from their EHR.

The practice had been live on the EHR for about five months and was functioning effectively without pulling charts for patient visits. The clinical staff was comfortable with the …

Health technology

How a patient support tool works to help patients and doctors

Ted Eytan, MD

March 23, 2011Mar 23, 20112

When you go to see the doctor, how do they know (a) if you are due for any preventive health screenings like mammography or (b) if you have a chronic condition, if it is being monitored and managed? And actually,…

When you go to see the doctor, how do they know (a) if you are due for any preventive health screenings like mammography or (b) if you have a chronic condition, if it is being monitored and managed?

And actually, not just if it is being monitored or managed, but are you able to achieve your life goals with good health? And what about …

Health technology

How your EHR can help with physician recruiting

John Rossheim

March 23, 2011Mar 23, 20114

by John Rossheim What’s the latest tool for recruiting the best clinicians to your hospital? Is it the professional pride of being associated with an organization that provides the best care in the region? Is it showing respect for the…

by John Rossheim

What’s the latest tool for recruiting the best clinicians to your hospital? Is it the professional pride of being associated with an organization that provides the best care in the region? Is it showing respect for the growing number of clinicians who seek to work hard but protect their personal lives from excessive intrusions in the form of frequent on-call duty or mandatory …

Patient voices

Being a physician is not just about medicine

Sunjay Devarajan

March 23, 2011Mar 23, 201111

by Sunjay Devarajan "Mrs. Adams" slowly ambled into the family medicine clinic on a Wednesday afternoon. I immediately noticed her slight hunch as she made her way into the lobby. “A case of back pain?” I thought to myself. “Perhaps…

by Sunjay Devarajan

“Mrs. Adams” slowly ambled into the family medicine clinic on a Wednesday afternoon. I immediately noticed her slight hunch as she made her way into the lobby.

“A case of back pain?” I thought to myself. “Perhaps an exacerbation of the scoliosis she’d had since childhood?” I shrugged my shoulders and carried on with my …

Health technology

How Microsoft Kinect can help in radiology to view a CT or MRI

Lukas Zinnagl, MD

March 22, 2011Mar 22, 2011

Radiology has transformed into a core subject of medicine, since imaging procedures are getting more and more crucial to clinical decisions. Whether these developments, be it over-diagnosing or unnecessary radiation on the one hand or a more detailed and enhanced…

Drugs and prescribing

Cannabis use and medicine, the debate over benefits and harms

Marcello Pennacchio, PhD

March 22, 2011Mar 22, 201112

An excerpt from Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke: Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine. by Marcello Pennacchio, PhD Few plants have generated as much debate and controversy as cannabis (Cannabis sativa). Throughout the ages, it has been…

An excerpt from Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke: Its Ethnobotany as Hallucinogen, Perfume, Incense, and Medicine.

by Marcello Pennacchio, PhD

Few plants have generated as much debate and controversy as cannabis (Cannabis sativa).

Throughout the ages, it has been labelled both a dangerous drug and potent medicine. Where the former is concerned, law-enforcement agents and governments spend …

Health technology

How to convince doctors to embrace electronic medical records

Kevin Pho, MD

March 22, 2011Mar 22, 201154

Doctors are now incentivized to convert antiquated paper charts to electronic medical records. Despite a few doctors who love their EMR, most readers here at KevinMD.com are skeptical, as the difficulties in transitioning, along with questionable benefits, have been well…

Doctors are now incentivized to convert antiquated paper charts to electronic medical records.

Despite a few doctors who love their EMR, most readers here at KevinMD.com are skeptical, as the difficulties in transitioning, along with questionable benefits, have been well chronicled.

Recently, the Washington …

Drugs and prescribing

What to do with a prescription bottle with the wrong pills inside

Stephen Meyers, MD

March 22, 2011Mar 22, 20113

Have you ever opened a prescription bottle to find the wrong pills inside? If so, you may have found it to be an expensive mistake. Whatever the reason for the error (and there are numerous possible causes), here is how…

Have you ever opened a prescription bottle to find the wrong pills inside? If so, you may have found it to be an expensive mistake.

Whatever the reason for the error (and there are numerous possible causes), here is how to best handle the situation.

Of course, it is always smart to confirm the medications, quantities and dosages at the pharmacy checkout. A mistake recognized at the time of purchase can be easily …

Health policy

Accountable care organizations: The lost art of medicine?

Sharolyn Rhees Medina, MD

March 22, 2011Mar 22, 201111

It’s no secret that healthcare’s inevitable move toward accountable care organizations (ACOs) has many physicians feeling a bit …nervous. Admittedly, most physicians are creatures of habit who fiercely defend their individual approach to patient care, focus on cures not cost,…

And under the ACO model, physicians are going to, without …

Patient voices

Doctors should ask the people what they want for health care

Pamela Wible, MD

March 22, 2011Mar 22, 201113

Americans typically rely on elected officials to uphold the will of the people. Now physicians—traditionally confined to exam rooms—are taking direct action to fulfill community needs. In 2004 I decided to meet face to face with citizens in my hometown.…

Americans typically rely on elected officials to uphold the will of the people. Now physicians—traditionally confined to exam rooms—are taking direct action to fulfill community needs.

In 2004 I decided to meet face to face with citizens in my hometown. I thought, “Why wait for legislation? I’m a board-certified physician. What’s stopping me from serving the public?”

So I led town hall meetings and invited ordinary citizens to create the clinic of …

Physician voices

A surgeon on those who understand murderers, rapists and child molesters

bongi, MD

March 21, 2011Mar 21, 201113

(Editor's note: reader discretion advised) Recently I was involved in a discussion with a guy that was explaining how we should understand criminals. The emphasis was on farm murders but we touched on murderers in general, rapists and child molesters.…

(Editor’s note: reader discretion advised)

Recently I was involved in a discussion with a guy that was explaining how we should understand criminals. The emphasis was on farm murders but we touched on murderers in general, rapists and child molesters. My point of view was that I did not understand them and felt that he was justifying their actions. In the end I was informed that I was smug. Apparently that …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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