Infectious disease

2,187 articles · Since 2008

Articles, page 102

How can doctors avoid killing or hurting people in their care?

April 8, 2013Apr 8, 201315

Hospitals are very focused on avoiding harming patients lately. They have been moving in that direction for a long time, but with health care reform legislation, payments are on the line, which makes something that was a very good idea…

In the year 2000, the Institute of Medicine, a non-profit organization that monitors various aspects of medical care, reported that 44,000-98,000 people died each year due to medical …

Conditions and diseases

CRE bacteria: The next superbug threat in your hospital

Daniel J. Morgan, MD

March 31, 2013Mar 31, 20135

A new CDC report is bringing a lot of attention to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals and long-term care centers across the country. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, strike critically-ill patients in nursing homes and intensive care units where…

Without being able to count on …

Physician voices

Doctors: It’s ok to shed the white coat and tie

Michael Edmond, MD, MPH

March 30, 2013Mar 30, 201311

Those of you who have followed our blog for the past few years probably know that one of my favorite topics in infection prevention is the role of clothing in transmission of pathogens. But I’m also fascinated by the sociologic aspects of clothing in medicine, which is usually framed around questions of professionalism (for example, is a doctor in a white coat more “professional” than a doctor …

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Health policy

How a smart process helped Kaiser Permanente save lives

Chip Heath & Dan Heath

March 27, 2013Mar 27, 20132

The following is an exclusive excerpt adapted from #1 New York Times best selling authors Chip and Dan Heath’s new book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, which was released on March 26, 2013. Click here…

The following is an exclusive excerpt adapted from #1 New York Times best selling authors Chip and Dan Heath’s new book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, which was released on March 26, 2013. Click here to order.

One of the most fundamental problems of decision-making, according to psychologists, is that people get stuck in a “narrow frame”—they view their decision in an unduly limited …

Conditions and diseases

Baby cured of HIV: What’s the real story?

Paul Sax, MD

March 25, 2013Mar 25, 20132

As undoubtedly you’ve heard by now, there’s another person cured of HIV out there — this time, it’s a baby born to an HIV-infected mother. Here’s the story: The mother didn’t know she was HIV positive until delivery, and the…

As undoubtedly you’ve heard by now, there’s another person cured of HIV out there — this time, it’s a baby born to an HIV-infected mother.

Here’s the story: The mother didn’t know she was HIV positive until delivery, and the baby was found to be infected by both HIV DNA and RNA right at birth. The doctors started combination antiretroviral therapy approximately one day later, essentially as soon as the results …

Patient voices

Practice being an engaged patient: Choose your own adventure

Sherry Reisner

March 24, 2013Mar 24, 20139

Be empowered. Get informed. Be engaged. Get involved. We’re exhorted to help make our medical decisions, to speak up, to ask questions, to say how we feel. But if we’re going to get the hang of being engaged patients, we…

Well, read on my fellow patient. I give …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 64-year-old woman with fever and chills

mksap

March 24, 2013Mar 24, 2013

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 64-year-old woman is hospitalized for a 2-day history of fever and chills and a 1-day history of hypotension and dyspnea. Medical history is…

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 64-year-old woman is hospitalized for a 2-day history of fever and chills and a 1-day history of hypotension and dyspnea. Medical history is significant for adenocarcinoma of the colon diagnosed 3 weeks ago for which she had a partial colectomy. Her course was complicated by the development of a polymicrobial intra-abdominal abscess. After …

Physician voices

The filtering of medical evidence has clearly failed

Ryan Radecki, MD

March 23, 2013Mar 23, 20137

Let me tell you about this fabulous new test – it's far better than the old tests, I've got a decade's worth of research publications to show you, plus it's a floor wax and a dessert topping. Who am I?…

Let me tell you about this fabulous new test – it’s far better than the old tests, I’ve got a decade’s worth of research publications to show you, plus it’s a floor wax and a dessert topping.

Who am I? Why, I’m simply an academic clinician, advocating for this test because it’s the next great thing to help us tailor treatments to patients. Does it matter that I’m on the unofficial …

Conditions and diseases

What doctors are supposed to do when your child has an earache

Claire McCarthy, MD

March 19, 2013Mar 19, 201314

Your child has an earache. You are worried it is an ear infection. You call the doctor and make an appointment. After all, he needs antibiotics, right? Maybe not. We have a real problem of antibiotic overuse in our country--and…

Your child has an earache. You are worried it is an ear infection. You call the doctor and make an appointment. After all, he needs antibiotics, right?

Maybe not.

We have a real problem of antibiotic overuse in our country–and because we are overusing our antibiotics, many bacteria are getting smarter and stronger. Because ear infections is the diagnosis that kids in the United …

Physician voices

When doctors don’t know the cost of medical care

Benjamin Robbins

March 14, 2013Mar 14, 20137

The Saturday after Sandy hit, I was the medical student in a Cambridge, Massachusetts emergency room. Around the time my shift started, Andrew, a man about my age, couldn’t bear the pain in his nose any longer. The ED nurse still talks about the “huge booger” bulging from his nose. A few days before coming to the ED, he’d left behind his flooded, powerless Brooklyn apartment seeking refuge in his …

Physician voices

Cookbook medicine can make doctors clinically lazy

David Mokotoff, MD

March 7, 2013Mar 7, 20137

Juan Gonzales, (not his real name), is a somewhat demented elderly Hispanic male, who I met last week in an intensive care unit. He spoke little English, and I spoke limited Spanish. His devoted family was at the bedside, and fortunately his daughter was able to provide some history. He was admitted with palpitations and dizziness and atrial fibrillation with a rapid response.

His family had just moved him from Miami, …

Health technology

Technology is being held back from transforming healthcare

Michael Cetta, MD

February 24, 2013Feb 24, 201312

Right now, the technology exists to completely transform healthcare. A doctor should be able to walk into the room where a patient is waiting for them and get everything they need to make an informed decision about that patient’s care.…

Right now, the technology exists to completely transform healthcare.

A doctor should be able to walk into the room where a patient is waiting for them and get everything they need to make an informed decision about that patient’s care.

Location-based technology should sense the doctor approaching and already know which patient is waiting for them. A computer or a tablet in the room should have access to thousands of data points …

Health technology

Refuting RAND: Why I am optimistic about EHRs

Sally Ginsburg, MD

February 24, 2013Feb 24, 20134

I recently read an article on the RAND Corporation’s analysis of electronic health records (EHRs). As a practicing pediatrician currently using EHRs, and given the reality that EHRs are still a relatively new addition to the U.S. medical profession and have created a fundamental shift to the care delivery process, I am compelled to respond to assertions made in this article.

The first RAND study, sponsored by a …

Conditions and diseases

The young and healthy can die from influenza complications

Emily Gibson, MD

February 20, 2013Feb 20, 20132

Nothing was helping. Everything had been tried for a week of the most intensive critical care possible. A twenty year old man, completely healthy only two weeks previously, was holding on to life by a mere thread and nothing and…

His battle had been lost against MRSA pneumonia precipitated by a brief influenza-like illness. Despite aggressive hemodynamic, …

Physician voices

Needle exchanges: When the perfect is the enemy of the good

Ishani Ganguli, MD

February 11, 2013Feb 11, 2013

Between 7:30 and 10 a.m. on a glacial late November morning, a tall white van lingers at a street corner in Boston's South End. I consult my iPhone one more time to confirm that I'm in the right place and…

Between 7:30 and 10 a.m. on a glacial late November morning, a tall white van lingers at a street corner in Boston’s South End. I consult my iPhone one more time to confirm that I’m in the right place and knock on the vehicle’s glass-paned door. Ritchie, with his oversized Las Vegas baseball cap and faint smell of cigarettes, ushers me inside and I settle in across from him on …

Health technology

A virtual office visit for your cold is not a good idea

Kevin Pho, MD

February 10, 2013Feb 10, 20132

USA Today. Like many other primary care doctors across the country, I’m seeing my fair share of patients with runny noses during this winter season. I recently saw a patient for a sinus infection whom asked, “Why did I have…

A version of this column was published on January 13, 2013 in USA Today.

Like many other primary care doctors across the country, I’m seeing my fair share of patients with runny noses during this winter season.

I recently saw a patient for a sinus infection whom asked, “Why did I have to come in to see you? Couldn’t you have given me an …

Drugs and prescribing

Why I hold off on antibiotics for my cough

Edward Pullen, MD

February 9, 2013Feb 9, 20135

For as long as I can remember I have tended to develop a bad cough nearly every time I get sick in the cold and flu season. I’m not sure if I have a minor tendency to bronchospasm or if…

For as long as I can remember I have tended to develop a bad cough nearly every time I get sick in the cold and flu season. I’m not sure if I have a minor tendency to bronchospasm or if my years of passive smoke exposure as a child somehow damaged my lungs. Who knows, but I seem to have the tendency for every URI become a lingering bronchitic cough.

In …

Conditions and diseases

How to know whether your cough is serious

Suzanne Koven, MD

February 7, 2013Feb 7, 2013

I saw 17 patients in my primary care practice yesterday. Six of them were coughing. One of the most basic parts of my job is sorting out who's a little sick from who's very sick, or in danger of getting…

I saw 17 patients in my primary care practice yesterday. Six of them were coughing.

One of the most basic parts of my job is sorting out who’s a little sick from who’s very sick, or in danger of getting very sick. How do I do that when so many people have the same symptom? And, as a patient, how do you …

Drugs and prescribing

Answers to common vaccine questions from patients

Davis Liu, MD

February 6, 2013Feb 6, 20133

One of the true joys of being a primary care doctor is partnering and educating patients to make the best decision for themselves and their families. Though they may not always agree with what I have to say, at least I know I’ve done my best to give them the information they need to be informed. What follows are common conversations I …

Conditions and diseases

Clostridium difficile: A fecal transplant when all else fails

Janice Boughton, MD

February 6, 2013Feb 6, 20134

The bacteria that live in our healthy guts are a garden of cooperating and competing species that help to determine our intestinal health. When we take antibiotics, we kill countless bystander bacteria in our guts and sometimes develop changes in our digestion which can be severe. Clostridium difficile infection is one of these conditions, a superinfection with a bacterium which is pretty resistant to antibiotics and causes infection of the …

Infectious disease

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