Drug interactions and the problem with default settings

Medications
February 2, 2013

At some hospitals, pantoprazole is not on the formulary. So, when a patient takes clopidogrel and pantoprazole, the drugs are automatically switched to clopidogrel and omeprazole. For a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), the default is omeprazole.

The Medical Letter, the FDA and UK’s National Guidelines for Stroke recommend if patients take clopidogrel and need a PPI, avoid omeprazole and use pantoprazole instead. The concern is …

Read more…

Drug interactions and the problem with default settings

Why physicians are susceptible to hardball tactics

Physician
May 21, 2012

I was invited to a medical staff leadership conference sponsored by our hospital. A company specializing in training physician leaders ran the meeting. The topic was healthcare reform and its effect on hospitals and physicians. Included were discussions on patient-centered medical homes, accountable care organizations, bundled payments and physician integration and alignment with hospitals.

The course director made it crystal clear that there will be no place in the future for …

Read more…

Why physicians are susceptible to hardball tactics

Corruption of the medical literature is impossible to prevent

Physician
May 8, 2012

Medicine improves regularly. Our tests, our surgeries, our medicines are better now than they were 10 years ago. The main driver of this improvement is the scientific method. Using this, the worse is discarded and the better retained. Doctors have to work hard to keep up with the progress. They rely on impartial and accurate information transmitted by articles, reviews, and CME material in order to advise and treat their …

Read more…

Corruption of the medical literature is impossible to prevent

3 common misconceptions about doctors

Health Policy
April 28, 2012

In the current climate of health care reform, it is important to understand doctors and the work they do. I have found 3 common misconceptions, held even by doctors themselves, concerning the job of being a doctor.

The first is the idea that doctors are conservative, resistant to change. Facts show that doctors deal with change all the time. They are familiar with the concept of change for change’s sake and …

Read more…

3 common misconceptions about doctors