Quora in health and medicine, what doctors and nurses need to know

Social media
January 17, 2011

by Phil Baumann, RN

What assets do physicians nurse practitioners have which they can share online? It’s knowledge.

With today’s technologies, medicine and nursing care online are obviously limited – perhaps in the future we’ll have technologies which more robustly extend traditional care.

When patients seek information online, they’re usually looking for answers to questions. Now they may be seeking answers from different sources, but if they could find …

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How cocaine can be used in sinus surgery

Meds
January 16, 2011

Many people are already aware that marijuana is now legal in some states in the US with a medical prescription.

What many people may not realize is that cocaine is also used in medical care, especially in the ENT world.

Cocaine is one of the most potent anesthetic and vasoconstrictor. These two characteristics make it an ideal medication for use during sinus surgery as well as any nasal procedure where bleeding and …

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Why doctors should profit from dispensing medications

Meds
January 15, 2011

Hold onto your hats. I am about to enter dangerous territory. I am about to suggest maybe doctors should profit from dispensing medications from their office to offset declining reimbursements and rising expenses by using prescriptions as a source of ancillary revenues.

Why dangerous?  For a number of reasons.

One, physicians still grapple with the perception that it is improper for a physician to make money from …

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Alternative medicine and osteopathic medical education

Education
January 14, 2011

by Tayson DeLengocky, DO

There has been a growing public interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in recent years. Osteopathic manipulative therapy, a form of physical manipulation of the body for improvement of health and body function, has been designated as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to data reported in 2007 by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative …

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Kind and thoughtful words from a fellow physician colleague

Physician
January 13, 2011

I was sitting on one of the hospital’s nursing units having a difficult telephone conversation.  Anyone working nearby could have easily discerned the situation from my end of the call.

Patient’s family member wants to keep aggressive care going for a comatose, terminally ill family member against the best advice of the medical team.

Having never had to make such a decision in my own life, I am left to imagine how …

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Mischaracterizations by the popular media of medical conditions

Conditions
January 12, 2011

by Joyce Graff

Medical dramas can play powerful roles in increasing awareness of rare diseases, but it’s critical that the diseases are portrayed accurately. Mischaracterizations by the popular media of medical conditions, particularly rare ones, can be very demeaning to people afflicted with those conditions, and can affect how people look at them in the workplace or at school.

The TV show, Grey’s Anatomy recently broadcast the first …

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Intubating the combative patient

Conditions
January 11, 2011

How many times have I been asked by the trauma surgeons to see a trauma patient for respiratory failure? The reason for intubation and ventilatory support – being combative and non-cooperative.

Intubating, sedating and sometimes even paralyzing a combative patient is an established practice. Combative patients are dangerous to themselves and to the medical staff. Clinical and radiological evaluation of these patients is difficult as well. Asking “What is hurting, Sir” …

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Common things are common, except when the diagnosis is rare

Conditions
January 7, 2011

During my training at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis, MN, my mentor would use the following teaching pearl during rounds: “When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras!” He would also frequently use: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” What did my mentor, the Sage of HCMC, mean by this?

From Wikipedia: “Zebra …

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Adding tiotropium (Spiriva) to an inhaled steroid a mistake?

Meds
December 30, 2010

There is a lot of press about a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows that adding tiotropium (Spiriva) to an inhaled steroid might have benefit in asthmatic patients. This study is creating a lot of buzz due to recent concerns of ICS/LABA safety and might prompt doctors and patients to start switching (some already have before this study came out). However, this …

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Hospital meals make it difficult to control blood sugars

Physician
December 30, 2010

My mom doesn’t take any diabetes medicine.  She keeps her blood sugars normal through a combination of common sense and careful carbohydrate consumption.

A few months ago, she had to be hospitalized for what she calls a “minor procedure.”  The procedure went fine, but not the food.  The first meal they brought her consisted of breaded fish (frozen), mashed potatoes (instant), corn (canned), a dinner roll (frozen), and tea (2 sugar …

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Your attention deficit disorder may be an anxiety disorder

Conditions
December 29, 2010

Are you one of those people who simply cannot concentrate for long enough? Do you find that no sooner than you start doing something, that your attention is scattered all over the place? Do you find that you log onto your computer and within minutes are surfing every possible tangential site that you find?

Your problem may not be a problem with your attention. In fact, it may be that the …

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Tips to find a good psychiatrist

Physician
December 29, 2010

Seems like a simple enough question: How do you find a psychiatrist?

It’s not that easy to answer. There are all sorts of psychiatrists who do all sorts of things (therapy, not therapy, specific forms of therapy like psychoanalysis or CBT), and then there’s the overriding insurance question. Not to mention location, location, location.

We’ve talked before about insurance, and if you haven’t read Why Shrinks Don’t Take Your Insurance, …

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Reduce phone calls in your medical practice

Physician
December 28, 2010

A physician approached me at the end of a talk on optimizing practice efficiency and improving service to patients and said, “I dream of an office with no phones.”

Do you have days where the phones are ringing off the hook? Or the phone message forms in your in-box seem to be reproducing? Maybe it’s been one of those days when you can never get your nurse’s help because she’s been …

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Patient complaints do not fit the primary care office visit

KevinMD
December 28, 2010

Primary care physicians often have to see patients with a litany of issues.  Often within a span of a 15-minute office visit.

This places the doctor in the middle of a tension — spend more time with the patient to address all of the concerns, but risk the wrath of patients scheduled afterwards, who are then forced to wait.

And, in some cases, it’s simply impossible to adequately address every patient question …

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Successful surgery rotation tips

Education
December 24, 2010

I recently finished my two months of surgery rotations.

I am happy to say that I really enjoyed my surgery rotations. I thought I was going to be intimidated by the OR, but I found it fascinating. I am relieved, since surgery is a big part of OB/GYN.

Here are a few things I learned on my surgery rotation:

  • Scrub in before the surgeon but after the OR nurse.
  • Before you scrub in, introduce …

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Everything about medicine is now big business

Policy
December 18, 2010

Med­i­cine used to be different. Doc­tors couldn’t do too much for you. They didn’t get paid very much and they were focused more on helping than on managing a business.

Hospitals were community-based not-for-profit or public entities. Drugs and devices were not as sophisticated or expensive, and they weren’t marketed directly to consumers. Well Toto, we’re not in Kansas any­more.

After witnessing our “health­care reform” process you must have seen that almost …

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The cost of keeping the terminally ill alive

Physician
December 16, 2010

Last year, Medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients’ lives.

And it has been estimated that 20 to 30 percent of these medical expenses may have had no meaningful impact. Most of the bills are paid for by the federal government with few or no questions asked. This statistic is from a 60 Minutes story on “The Cost of Dying” and …

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A physician story of addiction and recovery

Physician
December 16, 2010

by an anonymous physician

I am a physician now in recovery.

I don’t like that term. The correct thing to say is, I am sober.  I am going on a year sober without any problems. Recovery suggests some disease state and I don’t think it is that simple.  It also suggests an ongoing daily struggle or effort to remain sober, and I don’t find that the case, either.  I know this …

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How to intubate: Teaching a medical student during anesthesia residency

Education
December 16, 2010

The first time I let a medical student try to intubate was in August. Now in my final year of anesthesia residency, I had volunteered to mentor a third-year medical student for a week. A few weeks in advance I got an email with the form she had filled out. Anesthesia experience: none. Excited to learn: yes.

I met her on Monday morning after she navigated through the preoperative holding area …

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