Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Infants don’t learn a great deal from language-acquisition DVDs, and may in fact be hindered from learning vocabulary, researchers have found.
Tots who watched such DVDs over a six-week period didn’t have better language knowledge scores than youngsters who didn’t watch, and those who first tuned in at a younger …
DVDs don’t help infants learn language
I went to my physical therapist yesterday for knee treatment and we talked about the fact that Blue Cross is cutting their reimbursement to the point that the cost of providing care will not even be covered. All I could do was lament with him and listen.
One insurer even told him (the owner of the business) to just “make the sessions shorter and don’t give as much care.”
Clearly the insurance …
Primary care needs to be valued first before it can be saved
In the Tony award winning play God of Carnage two couples meet in an elegant living room for an ostensibly civilized conversation about the aggressive act of one couple’s child against the other’s. The meeting soon degenerates to reveal the underbelly of conflict in the two marriages. Husband and wife hurl insults, precious items and even themselves with escalating rage. We see, as they attempt in vain to focus on …
Aggressive behavior in children and the family dynamic
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Even though 90% of parents believe vaccines protect their children against disease, many are also concerned about potential adverse effects, a new survey found.
More than half of survey respondents said they were concerned about vaccine safety profiles, particularly for newer immunizations, Gary L. Freed, MD, MPH, of the University …
Vaccine safety still concerns parents
One of the joys of practicing at an academic center is that I get to do many different things in my job.
The foundation of my work is seeing my own patients in a large group (more than thirty doctors!) primary care practice.
Two months a year, I take my turn rotating on the hospital inpatient services, supervising teams of residents and students who are the primary caregivers for patients with illnesses …
Helping organ donation with donor advocate teams
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Physicians are working fewer hours than they once did, the result of a decade-long decline that coincided with lower fees for their services, a study showed.
After two decades of stable hours, a steady decrease began in 1997, according to Douglas Staiger, PhD, of Dartmouth College, and colleagues.
The decline coincided …
Why physicians are working fewer hours
Remember the trial a couple of years ago that showed that group support participation was associated with prolonged survival among women with metastatic breast cancer?
I’ve thought a lot about that over the years. Isn’t it interesting that something as simple as a supportive environment can make a difference in what researchers consider to be the hardest endpoint there is: survival? In our dualistic view of the human organism, we think …
Evidence and the Eastern paradigm of medical treatment
Avandia continues to dominate cardiovascular-related news this week. Recently, the AHA and the ACC issued a highly detailed, thoughtful, though perhaps slightly over-diplomatic science advisory on TZDs and CV risk. Taking a completely opposite tack, GSK, in no mood to take prisoners, and apparently about to nominate itself for a Nobel Prize, issued a 30 page White Paper in response to the Senate report published on Saturday.
At the core …
Why rosiglitazone would not have been approved today
During residency, there was always a case of misdiagnosed chest pain to discuss in conference. Incorrectly sending a patient home and missing the diagnosis of cardiac chest pain was an infrequent, but repetitively observed, phenomenon.
So as to tread carefully with words, it is sufficient to say that even now, chest pain triage remains a vexing problem.
Chest pain diagnosis is like appendicitis; there are always small numbers of unusual cases in …
Using CT scans to diagnose chest pain in the ER
Part three of a series. See also parts one and two.
Previously, I have suggested that patients should do their best to get their doctors as free from the influences of their biases as possible. In order to do that, patients (and doctors) need to recognize what forces are working against them.
Here’s what negatively influences a doctor’s decision making:
1. They fall behind in clinic. Your doctor may be naturally …
How doctors allow bias to affect patient care
I made a New Year’s resolution to become a vegetarian. Or a mostly vegetarian.
I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, but with young children who love meat and don’t have the broadest palates, I think it’s important to feed them protein any way I can get it in them.
Having passed 40, I’ve finally realized that I can no longer eat what I want with impunity. Further, as a …
Becoming vegetarian can help fight high cholesterol
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Charles Bankhead
From time to time, I hear a “mature” person lament the sad state of affairs of the “next generation.” Sometimes I wonder whether the same concern should apply to the next generation of doctors.
I was at a cardiology meeting, and my schedule included a breakfast program. As I headed toward the meeting, I …
Young doctors gathered around the beer machine
A recent story from the UK reported a school child who developed diarrhea and tested positive for C difficile.
The alarming thing is that there did not seem to be any explicit risk factors for this. The appalling thing is the mis-information by the story that, “children rarely become ill with C diff, which normally strikes elderly people in hospital.”
This is how things used to be, before the BI/NAP1/027 bug evolved …
C Diff and antibiotic resistance in kids
ADVERTISEMENT
The Framingham Heart Study is perhaps the most famous long-term medical study. As every medical student learns, starting in 1948, the lifestyle habits of thousands of residents of Framingham, Massachusetts were followed to determine important risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
It is because of this study that your physician can, with a few keystrokes, predict with great accuracy your risk of having a heart attack within the next 10 years and …
Obesity treatment in family members should be contagious
Originally published in MedPage Today
by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor
Many hospitals that spend relatively little per patient deliver good-quality care, researchers said.
Medicare data indicated that hospitals in the highest quartile of per-patient cost for initial treatment of pneumonia or congestive heart failure (CHF) did not have markedly lower readmission or risk-adjusted mortality rates than hospitals in the lowest …
Hospitals can deliver low cost, high quality care
by Iltifat Husain, Yousif Alkadhi, MD, and Satish Misra
If you’re a physician, medical student, or in any other health care related field, trying to find the best free medical apps for the iPhone is a hassle.
Apps such as “Dream Meanings”, “Relax Ocean waves”, and “Stool Scanner Lite” dominate the Top Free Medical Apps list in the App Store. Our top 10 iPhone medical apps list contains no such app, …
Free iPhone medical apps that every doctor can use
As the health reform debate rages on, the central issue of how to improve care while reducing costs remains unaddressed.
Fee-for-service has reduced doctors to assembly line pieceworkers, paid by the office visit and procedure rather than by effectiveness of treatment. The result is an inefficient, costly and dangerous system. It is not unusual for a five minute office visit, which excludes clinical examination or note taking. Many patients/consumers can be …
Health reform needs to end fee for service medicine
Originally published in MedPage Today
by John Gever, MedPage Today Senior Editor
The placebo effect is a real and therapeutic psychological phenomenon that, with more research, could be exploited more systematically in medical practice, said Australian researchers.
“There is not one placebo effect, but many,” wrote Damien Finniss, MSc, of the University of Sydney in Australia, and colleagues in the Feb. 20 …
Placebo effect ethics in medical treatment
At 3am on Jan 1st 2010 my cousin-brother stubbed his last cigarette. New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking, lose weight, or change another bad habit are certainly not uncommon. Having tried — and failed — to quit a number of times before, my cousin took a bold, new approach to quitting. Whether a cleverly devised plan, or just a whim, he decided to post his quitting on Facebook.
On January 4th, …
Quit smoking by using Facebook
Imagine that as a child you thought you had been born in the body of the wrong gender. If you were biologically male, in your mind you really thought of yourself as female. Likewise, if you were born in a girl’s body, you thought that you were actually a boy.
Yes, you were probably more interested in children’s role-playing games more often associated with the opposite gender as well, but the …
Transgender patients face significant challenges in prison
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
