Many doctors roll their eyes whenever patients bring in a stack of research they printed out, stemming from a Google search of their symptoms.
A piece by Zachary Meisel in TIME.com describes a familiar scenario:
The medical intern started her presentation with an eye roll. “The patient in Room 3 had some blood in the toilet bowl this morning and is …
Patients Google their symptoms, doctors need to deal with it
Either as a patient or as a physician there’s a very high chance that you’ve ever got your hands on a simple blood test.
These range from very basic ones to complex ones with multiple pages and are substantial to any cinlical evaluation. Blood tests are probably one of the most performed tests in a clinical environment with direct patient contact. Also, if you’ve ever seen a typical blood test from …
Your blood test and the need for better designed results
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 …
Quora in health and medicine, what doctors and nurses need to know
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 …
How cocaine can be used in sinus surgery
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 …
Why doctors should profit from dispensing medications
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 …
Alternative medicine and osteopathic medical education
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 …
Kind and thoughtful words from a fellow physician colleague
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 …
Mischaracterizations by the popular media of medical conditions
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” …
Intubating the combative patient
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 …
Common things are common, except when the diagnosis is rare
I sat at the checkout desk in my practice last week for the first time and as always, it was a revelation. If you haven’t worked your check-in and check-out desks recently, I highly recommend it.
An insured patient that I checked out was shocked when I said the charge for her visit was $100. She said, “But he was only in …
Your 10 minute office visit needs 8 people and 45 minutes of work
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 …
Adding tiotropium (Spiriva) to an inhaled steroid a mistake?
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 …
Hospital meals make it difficult to control blood sugars
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 …
Your attention deficit disorder may be an anxiety disorder
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, …
Tips to find a good psychiatrist
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 …
Reduce phone calls in your medical practice
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 …
Patient complaints do not fit the primary care office visit
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:
Successful surgery rotation tips
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 …
Everything about medicine is now big business
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 …
The cost of keeping the terminally ill alive
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