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Video games are linked with attention problems in children

MedPage Today

Conditions and Diseases

August 9, 2010

by Michael Smith

It’s not just TV — video games are also associated with an increased risk of attention problems in children, researchers said.

A large study found that children who spent more than three hours in front of a computer or television screen — whether playing video games or watching TV — were significantly more likely to have attention problems, according to Edward Swing, MS, of Iowa State University in Ames, …

10 EMR don’ts when choosing electronic medical record

Rosemarie Nelson

Health Technology

August 9, 2010

So, you’ve decided to move forward and get an EMR for your practice, but studies and reports of EMR implementation failures are adding to your anxiety levels.

You’ve probably read scores of rules on how to go about the task — some of them in this column. But today I want to share with you some important things you shouldn’t do.

Medical groups of all sizes and specialties across the country make …

Treating people with humility, and every patient like a V.I.P.

Anesthesioboist T., MD

Patient

August 8, 2010

People often seem to think that members of the medical world are excessively preoccupied with, defined according to, and ruled by a status-oriented system.

That may have been an accurate perception a generation ago, but I’ve seen enough surgeons sweeping O.R. floors, attending physicians socializing with interns, and doctors having deep conversations with custodians to believe that “medical people” have matured a little past the old caste systems that governed the …

Academic medical centers need better conflict of interest policies

MedPage Today

Medical Education

August 8, 2010

by John Gever

Academic medical centers need comprehensive policies to manage their physicians’ relationships with industry and other commercial interests, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Disclosure of such relationships — both to patients and to their institutions — should be more detailed than is currently the case at many medical schools, an AAMC task force recommended in a new report.

In particular, significant potential conflicts should be reported annually …

Is migraine pain comparable to torture?

Diana E. Lee

Conditions and Diseases

August 7, 2010

by Diana E. Lee

Last year, People published an interview with Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona.

She revealed she has dealt with excruciating migraine attacks for about 15 years, including during her husband’s presidential campaign. Though she has never discussed them publicly before, she has chosen to talk about her situation now to help bring awareness to this disabling condition and all the people going through what …

Read more…

Is migraine pain comparable to torture?

Does surgery prevent knee osteoarthritis?

MedPage Today

Physician

August 7, 2010

by John Gever

Surgery for torn knee ligaments and meniscal cartilage may have improved patients’ short-term outcomes, but it did not seem to prevent the eventual development of osteoarthritis, researchers said.

A study that followed 326 patients for a mean of 10 years found that radiographic findings shortly after the initial knee injury strongly predicted the long-term clinical course, with no significant difference seen between those who did and did not have …

Will patients embrace Health 2.0?

Susannah Fox

Health Technology

August 7, 2010

Someone going by the name “Darthmed” recently posted a comment that stopped me in my tracks:

… The remaining 95% of “patients” out there are not motivated to become informed, or invest the time/energy/money in using any of these tools. These are the folks that know that fast food isn’t healthy, but are just too tired to choose differently. Some (emphasis on some) will do a standard Google search when they …

Read more…

Will patients embrace Health 2.0?

Testosterone and when should low levels be treated in older men

William R. Yates, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 6, 2010

I’ve been interested in the role of testosterone in physical performance, depression and aging for many years. While at the University of Iowa, I was involved in research to detect testosterone doping, the psychological effects of testosterone and the potential for testosterone to alleviate depression in older men.

One of the difficult questions facing clinicians is when is testosterone too low in older men.

One problem with answering this question is the …

3 tips to stick with an exercise program

Jeffrey Knuppel, MD

Potpourri

August 6, 2010

How many times have you started a new exercise program and been determined that this time would be different? You’d actually keep it up. You wouldn’t quit. But, a few weeks or months later, you’re back to your old ways. You’re busy, and you have lots of “legitimate” excuses for skipping a fitness routine.

I think most people who have tried to make regular exercise a part of their lives have …

Patients will skip care with higher deductibles and copays

Davis Liu, MD

Health Policy

August 6, 2010

The Wall Street Journal reported that overall medical use fell as patients had fewer doctor office visits, lab testing, and maintenance medications possibly due to the recession or as a result of consumer driven healthcare in the way of higher deductibles and copays.

This is very worrisome. Certainly patients should have some financial responsibility for their care, but skimping on care will only result in Americans not becoming healthier, but sicker. …

Laughter and humor heals the soul in life’s most difficult times

Charles Bankhead

Patient

August 6, 2010

by Charles Bankhead

My oldest sister died recently. She spent the last three years of her life in a nursing home, trying to hold on to reality and her dignity as her mind and body betrayed her.

Barely five feet tall, my sister Peggy had a big heart and a vibrant personality that made her seem much taller. I have a lot of fond memories of her, many of which involve her …

MKSAP: A 35-year-old man with red eye and acute eye pain

mksap

Conditions and Diseases

August 6, 2010

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

A 35-year-old man is evaluated for red eye and acute onset of right eye pain. He wears contact lenses daily. Fluorescein staining is positive for corneal abrasion without a dendritic, or branching, pattern. He is instructed to stop wearing the contact …

Will Medicare really lose physicians because of the SGR?

Bob Doherty

Health Policy

August 6, 2010

For years, physicians have argued that the specter of annual cuts in Medicare will cause many of them to leave the program, or at the very least, to limit how many new Medicare patients they will accept in their practices. Yet, for the most part, measures of seniors’ access show that the vast majority enjoy good access to care.

For instance, in May of this year, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission …

Attribution error in a patient with colon cancer

Jerome Groopman, MD and Pamela Hartzband, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 5, 2010

Zahia Esber, ACP Associate Member, who practices at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Eugene, Ore., told us about a case of a 71-year-old obese woman whose mental status deteriorated rapidly while in the hospital.

The patient had undergone a sigmoid resection in December 2009 for colon cancer. At that time, her mental status was intact. Three weeks after surgery, she returned to the hospital because of nausea and anorexia. She told the …

Metastatic cancer and the matching walkers

StorytellERdoc, MD

Patient

August 5, 2010

They made a regal couple, the elderly man and woman sitting in Room 19. She was the patient, he the supportive husband. She sat in the treatment cot while he sat in a chair pulled near her bedside. Together, they greeted me with their warm smiles as I walked into their room.

They both had full heads of healthy, silvery hair that shimmered from the overhead fluorescent bulbs. Their eyes were …

Commercial CME funding and the rise of medical errors

Thomas Sullivan

Medical Education

August 5, 2010

While the percentage of commercial support for continuing medical education (CME) has continued to drastically drop over the past few years (29% decrease from 2007 to 2009), recent data, which show an epidemic of medication errors in hospitals, make this decrease even more troublesome.

At a time when 30 million more patients will flood our hospitals, do we really need to …

How developing countries use foreign health aid matters

Yann Meunier, MD

Physician

August 5, 2010

Year: 1994

Setting: Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea
Position: Chief medical officer for Chevron Oil Co.

The wife of an expatriate employee has injured her arm and, suspecting that she has fractured her left elbow, I accompany her to the Port Moresby hospital for further evaluation. The building looks good and new. In fact, it was recently donated to Papua New Guinea by the Japanese government.

While waiting for the X-rays, I …

Pharmaceutical sponsored dinners have educational value

Randall S. Bock, MD

Medications

August 5, 2010

It is insulting to think that doctors who are ostensibly smart enough to save one’s life are in fact so stupid, or merely gullible enough, to be swept away by what is in actuality only a very weak potion of sales-presentation intermixed with and embedded within generally informative and pharmaceutical-balanced subject-focused medical lectures.

Such lectures occur usually at a private function room at a restaurant or, in conjunction with a served …

Notes in the chart are helping patients less

Paul Sax, MD

Physician

August 4, 2010

What is the purpose of the note in the patient chart?

Depends who you’re asking.

The best guidance I ever received on how to write a good note came from my residency program director, who told us that a note needn’t be encyclopedic to be excellent; in fact, he urged us to get away from the “second-year medical student” style, which typically includes absolutely everything.

Instead, he urged us to write, as concisely …

ABIM: Patient centered care is crucial in health reform

Christine K. Cassel, MD

Health Policy

August 4, 2010

A guest column by the American Board of Internal Medicine, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

The concept of patient-centered care was catapulted into the mainstream by the publication in 2001 of the seminal Institute of Medicine report Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. This report identified six aims of improvement for the U.S. …

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