Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
For years, the pager and cell phone have summoned on-call radiologists to the emergency room. Now this leap in technology: an iPhone App that lets radiologists diagnose a patient remotely, wherever they may be.
Using a $20 iPhone application called OsiriX, radiologists made correct diagnoses of appendicitis in 124 of …
iPhone radiology app to diagnose appendicitis
The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American College of Physicians.
by Steven Weinberger, MD, FACP
It is difficult to find a medical guideline that has garnered so much press and controversy as the recent recommendations about breast cancer screening developed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and published in Annals …
ACP: Teasing out science, politics, and emotion about the mammography guidelines
Originally posted in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Medical students are frequently stuck by needles, and few report their accidents, researchers say.
In a survey, about 60% of surgery residents reported being stuck with a needle while they were in medical school, Martin A. Makary, MD, MPH, of Johns Hopkins, and colleagues reported in the December issue of …
Medical student needlestick injuries
Barack Obama is certain that electronic health records (EHRs) can improve the quality of care and the efficiency with which it is delivered. How certain? Certain enough to have bet billions on a program that pays providers to adopt and meaningfully use EHRs.
Of course there are many ways to improve quality and efficiency. The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) for example, publishes outcomes data for the states’ 172 …
Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Anthony Niehaus
As part of the 2009 HITECH Act, a national health information technology infrastructure (NHITI) is required for access and use of electronic health records resulting in a more “effective marketplace, greater competition… [and] increased consumer choice (HITECH Act, Section 3001(b)).”
Such a system is not only necessary, but it is cardinal to improving delivery and reducing costs …
The privacy and security risks of electronic health records
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
The CDC is keeping a careful eye on a mutation in some strains of the pandemic H1N1 flu that Norwegian researchers isolated from three patients with severe disease.
The mutation has been seen “sporadically” in the U.S., according to Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization …
Will the H1N1 flu virus mutate?
I practice in the rural, northwest corner of South Carolina, also known as “The Upstate.” It is a place of expansive lakes, white-water rivers and the mist covered foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area includes thousands of acres of Sumter National Forest. The natural beauty is breathtaking. Sumter National Forest and our various parks are laced with hiking trails, which are lined with unique plants and trees, some …
The joys of practicing rural emergency medicine
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Only a quarter of baby boomers take advantage of preventive services such as flu vaccines and cancer screenings, a new report from the government and two powerful interest groups says.
At the same time, states are falling behind goals to increase certain screenings and reduce unhealthy behaviors, according to the …
Baby boomers don’t receive enough preventive health
by Jeoffry B.Gordon, MD, MPH
The recent recommendation of the US Preventive Services Task Force against routine screening mammograms for healthy, low risk women under the age of fifty has demonstrated our broad consensus about the value of breast cancer screening. The discussions about new guidance from the American Academy of Obstetrics and Gynecology on when to start and how often to do PAP smears illuminate the impact, effectiveness and support …
How the mammogram and Pap smear debates ignore the uninsured
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent
The emotional debate over a federal panel’s proposal to end routine mammograms for women in their 40s has reignited controversy over a contentious healthcare reform issue: comparative effectiveness research.
Healthcare reform opponents say the new mammogram guidelines by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) make their point: If …
The health reform politics of mammograms and breast cancer screening
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) has just revised their guidelines for Pap smears under some pressure. This resulted from an Annals of Internal Medicine article which documented that only 16.4% of gynecologists followed the College’s prior guidelines. Most did more screenings than indicated, the worst record of the specialties tested. But the ACOG still recommends that nearly all women obtain regular screening at intervals of 1-3 years.
The …
Informed consent is missing from Pap smears and cervical cancer screening
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
In the first six months of the H1N1 flu pandemic, 22 million Americans fell ill from the virus, the CDC now estimates.
Of those, about 98,000 needed inpatient care, and 3,900 died, according to Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The estimates …
What is the death toll for the H1N1 flu pandemic?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Peggy Peck, MedPage Today Executive Editor
By a margin of 0.014 mm in carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), extended-release niacin (Niaspan) demonstrated superiority over ezetimibe (Zetia) as an add-on for high risk patients on long term statin therapy.
But is a difference of 0.014 mm clinically significant?
The niacin versus ezetimibe findings come from the ARBITER 6-HALTS trial, …
How does Zetia and niacin affect the carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT)?
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Among the many differences between the U.S. and the French health-care systems is the approach to medical training. While U.S. medical school graduates in 2008 had an average debt of $154,000, French medical students receive their training virtually for free. For example, first-year medical students at the Faculte de Medecine Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris have only one mandatory cost for this year: an enrollment fee of $264.
The amount …
How training to become a doctor in France differs from the United States
A version of this op-ed, co-written with Doug Farrago, was published on October 26th, 2009 in Medscape.
It’s tough to be a doctor these days. Whether it’s listening to the difficulties of our medical colleagues as they try to best care for their patients, or engaging other health professionals about the uncertainties surrounding health reform, we’ve noticed a tense, sometimes gloomy, atmosphere among physicians.
A recent survey from the Annals of Internal …
Op-ed: Humor can be healing for both doctors and patients
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Women can wait longer for their first Pap smear and then repeat the test less frequently, according to recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
The organization now says women should begin cervical cancer screening with a Pap test at age 21. Subsequent tests should occur at …
When women should have their first Pap smear; the new cervical cancer screening guidelines
We found out that her real name was Cindy Chapman, and that she died alone and afraid.
Cindy was a paralegal, an activist and a fighter of lost causes who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was part of an online community called RATEMDs, where she had many soul mates. Her posts on health care were funny and cynical and wise. Her screen name was Jane Q. Patient.
My wife, Pam, was especially …
Discharged from the hospital without answers; the death of Jane Q. Patient
Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Colleen O’Leary, RN, MSN, AOCNS
Last time I talked about how I had never really experienced the concept of nurses eating their young in action.
However, I have seen the opposite begin to evolve. I see this as a bigger issue in nursing these days. The “putting out to pasture” of seasoned, experienced nurses is happening more often …
Are older nurses being forced out of the profession?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent
Drug and device makers are urging the FDA to establish clear guidelines that will allow the industry to discuss and promote products in the unsettled world of online social media.
The FDA is hearing testimony from drug and device companies, online marketing experts, and consumer groups about what steps the …
How should the FDA regulate the social media advertising of drugs?
Doctors have understood for some time that it was inevitable. The American Cancer Society has acknowledged that cancer screening has been oversold.
It seems like every day you read in the newspaper that what was standard medical care yesterday is now no longer recommended. Don’t doctors know anything? Well, actually they do. And what seems like paradoxical behavior, no longer recommending aggressive screening for certain cancers, actually represents a more sophisticated …
Can less aggressive cancer screening recommendations be better for patients?
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