Originally published in MedPage Today
by Liz O’Brien
My grandmother and her hospital roommate — aged, tiny, frail, and sporting matching bright pink hairnets.
They looked like twins — two thin shrubs in winter that had each sprouted an improbable, big pink rose.
Although sick and scared, my grandmother had admired the pink hairnet on the lady in the next bed, so my mother …
Medicare and how a grandmother worries about its costs
by Brian Eule
While the debate continues to rage over the health care reform bill in Washington D.C., today at Noon Eastern time, the newest class of 15,000-plus graduating medical students will get their marching orders, beginning their lives working in medicine.
It’s called Match Day and each year, on the third Thursday of March, the nation’s graduating medical school students gather with their classmates and wait for an envelope with their …
Match Day and how each medical school celebrates
A 21% cut for Medicare physician fees is set to go into place soon. This year, fixing physician payment has been overshadowed by all the talk about health insurance reform.
In fact, I remember being invited to talk about healthcare reform on a panel for medical students this past fall. As part of my remarks, I mentioned the 21% pending cut in physician payment and recall the questions and …
Medicare doc fix questions and answers
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Taxing junk food may help reduce obesity and improve health, researchers have found.
Patients got significantly less of their energy (calories) from soda or pizza when there was a 10% increase in the price of either (P<0.001), Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues …
Taxing junk food may improve your health
Homebirth advocates like to tout the many “advantages” of giving birth at home. High on the list is limiting exposure to hospital acquired infections, and since only your “own germs” are in your home, you are protected.
Yes, you are protected from hospital acquired infections, but the most dangerous infectious agents are actually those that live inside the mother, not the ones in the hospital. Consider that for newborns both Group …
Homebirth does not protect against serious maternal infections
At my office we provide care for a fair number of patients without medical insurance. Sometimes we are faced situations with no good options.
At a patient visit, often times the diagnosis is not clear without doing some diagnostic tests other than the history and physical exam. Many of these tests are ordered from sources outside the office, where I have little or no control over the cost of the test …
Patient costs when making medical decisions
by Stuart Sutton, MD
Our very large and very integrated health care system is plowing ahead with EMR implementation. All the offices are gradually converting from paper charts and all the hospitals have completed the process.
As a member of one of the last offices to be converted to the EMR, I’ve had the pleasure of patients being assured that the notes were sent to me (albeit via the EMR we are …
EMR conversion doesn’t always help physician communication
A number of respected physicians have called for a renewed emphasis on the physical exam. Perhaps most prominently, Abraham Verghese has joined with colleagues at Stanford University to publicize the Stanford 25, a list of physical-exam maneuvers that they hold should be required of internal medicine residents.
These calls reflect in part the fear that checklist medicine will lead to doctors’ obsession with what Jerome Groopman calls the “iPatient” (the …
Physical exam evidence and whether it’s still useful
Emergency rooms are notorious for their long waiting times – that’s pretty common knowledge. But now the Hospitals of Central Connecticut are looking to a new medical app for the iPhone to help improve their emergency room wait times.
Having spent a fair amount of time recently working in an emergency room, I (and probably everyone with similar experiences) can assure you that no one – physicians, nurses, administrators – want …
Use iPhone apps for emergency room wait times with caution
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Crystal Phend
The ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium met recently, just after the American Cancer Society updated its prostate cancer screening guidelines to emphasize shared decision making and Congress heard testimony over use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer screening.
Now urology is no stranger to debate. Controversy continues on overdiagnosis, overtreatment, and other issues raised …
PSA for prostate cancer screening is likely to continue
Originally posted in MedPage Today
by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent
A day after the American Cancer Society (ACS) released updated prostate cancer screening guidelines, the group’s chief medical officer was before Congress urging the government to fund research into alternative screening methods for prostate cancer.
Otis Brawley, MD, an oncologist and chief medical officer for the ACS, told the House Oversight …
PSA screening for prostate cancer debated in Congress
Blogging is a great way to get things into an open forum for discussion. But I still have nagging doubts about doctors who post blogs or replies about healthcare issues without giving their names.
As a new blogger, I often look at those replies to my postings that are anonymous and think, “Who are you? Why do you think the way you do? Why will you not put a name and …
Why doctors should blog with their real name
When I make rounds with my students and interns, I always try to sneak in a poem at the end. I think poetry is important because it helps convey the parts of the medical experience that don’t make it into textbooks. It’s important because it teaches creative thinking—something of immense value to doctors.
It’s important because interpreting metaphors is a critical clinical skill in diagnosis; patients’ symptoms often present in metaphorical …
Poetry that your patient can appreciate
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Many non-correctional health care providers will also treat inmates from time to time. This may occur in the office or hospital. How can one best approach the challenges of working with the incarcerated in order to deliver the best possible care while simultaneously managing risk?
1. Treat the patient with respect. Not submissive respect, but mutual respect — the way we all want to be treated. I believe that this principle …
7 ways inmates can receive quality medical care from doctors
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Chris Emery, MedPage Today Contributing Writer
Nearly a third of children with special healthcare needs are underinsured, and where a child lives strongly influences whether he or she will have adequate healthcare coverage, a new study found.
The unadjusted proportion of underinsured special-needs children varied strongly by state, ranging from 24% in Hawaii (standard error=1.75) to 38% …
Children with special healthcare needs are underinsured
The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American Medical Association.
by J. James Rohack, MD
Physicians in nearly every area of the country face a David and Goliath scenario when negotiating with entrenched health insurance companies. This is clearly illustrated by a new AMA study showing that competition in the health …
AMA: Health insurance consolidation can undermine physicians
There are certain actions we take even though we know that ultimately we will not be successful. Sometimes we do this out of hope for a better tomorrow (like playing the lottery) or because we are taking a moral stand (like supporting a candidate that has no chance of winning).
Supporting health care reform is probably a little of both.
Even if any of the currently proposed health care reform plans pass, …
Health care reform needs to pass now, and here’s why
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Chris Emery, MedPage Today Contributing Writer
The symptoms of autism tend to emerge in children after six months of age, with a loss of social and communications skills that is more common and more subtle than previously thought, according to a new study that questions previous assumptions about the progression of the condition.
At six months, …
Autism in children can be missed early in life
Anyone affiliated with a teaching hospital knows that the controversy regarding resident work hours is heating up again. It’s been over 5 years since the ACGME limited resident hours to 80 hours per week with a maximum of 30 consecutive hours. While this may not sound like ‘reform’, as someone who trained prior to these rules, it is definitely a change.
More recently, the Institute of Medicine issued a …
Patient handoffs limit residents work hour cap gains
Part four of a series. See also parts one, two, and three.
When dealing with your doctor’s biases, you have on your side a fact I firmly believe to be true: most doctors want to do a good job and help their patients as best they can. So what exactly can you do to maximize your doctor’s ability to help you?
1. Position your symptoms and requests carefully. Don’t demand medications …
Help doctors to best care for their patients
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