by Eileen M.K. Bobek, MD
The year after I finished my emergency medicine residency, I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled.
Afterwards, I looked as if I had taken several punches to my face. My jaw was swollen, my skin a cornucopia of muddied blues, purples, greens, yellows and reds. If people didn’t know better, I told my husband with a laugh, they might think that I’d …
Compassion and decency overwhelmed by fear
I visited my parents this past week. The are both in their 80s and in relatively good health although my mother received a diagnosis of diabetes while having a medical exam for an unrelated problem. I spent some time educating her about Type 2 Diabetes, the causes (genetics and weight gain) and the options (medication and/or weight loss and exercise). I stayed with my brother-in-law and sister and the conversation …
Personal responsibility and societal structure changes that reduce obesity
Here are five things that you should have on your 2011 To-Do list.
1. Start electronic prescribing. What have you been waiting for? The EMR/EHR? (See number 4 below.) Electronic prescribing can work in a stand-alone (no EMR/EHR) environment. Work flow can be modified, and you will benefit tremendously with additional nurse time available to you after the nurses realize how much phone time they save each day.
Ask your current practice …
5 ways to improve your medical practice in 2011
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
Oh, those Millennials.
Also called “Generation Y,” this is the American demographic group born during and after the ’70s, that was vicariously raised by “learning is fun” Sesame Street and became accustomed to getting awarded for any effort. They don’t know about bomb shelters, walking to school, tape decks or having to get up to change a TV channel. Well, they’re now entering the workplace and their informality, disregard for rank, …
How Millennial physicians will impact disease management
It is not until about eight weeks of age that an infant has a fully developed capacity for mutual gaze.
Then a baby looks directly into his mother’s eyes, while she, in turn, reflects back this loving gaze, cooing softly in response to her baby’s earliest communication. When a mother looks at a baby in a way that communicates with him, not with words but with feelings, “I understand you,” he …
Maternity leave and infant brain development
Can you succinctly state what your company does, where it’s headed and how you plan for it to get there?
In the April 2008 edition of Harvard Business Review, Collis and Rukstad ask an important question: “Can you say what your strategy is?”
Of course, they ask this because their research found that many firms’ CEOs cannot succinctly summarize their organization’s strategy. And if the CEO cannot do this, then it’s a …
Superior customer service to grow your practice
As an infectious diseases physician with a special interest in head and neck infections, I had extensive experience in otolaryngological illnesses. However, when I was exposed to new, different, and challenging experiences as a neck cancer patient, I had to deal with these as a patient — not as a physician. I endured the consequences of radiation, repeated surgeries, and prolonged hospitalizations. I confronted medical errors in my care, discrimination …
A laryngectomy shakes this physician to the core
Electronic health record (EHR) systems are big news (and big money) these days.
Our government is pushing adoption and “meaningful use” of EHR systems because computerizing patient-specific clinical information can benefit our nation’s health care system. The primary focus has been on the benefit to the care of individual patients, but computerizing patient-specific clinical information can also benefit other parties in the health care system.
I believe that there are 6 major …
Who benefits from computerization of patient-specific clinical information?
“Facebook is for the living, not the dying” – Regina Holliday
It finally happened. The day my Facebook feed included information about a friend’s illness. This is the photograph my friend Matt posted to his feed. Normally I don’t play that close attention to everything in there, but this caught my eye immediately.
When we talked on the phone, I understood that this …
Fight multiple sclerosis using YouTube and other social media tools
by John Rossheim
To many physicians, it may appear self-evident that electronic records will improve the patient experience. After all, the doctor has speedier access to notes, labs and other patient data, and that’s got to increase the patient’s confidence in the doctor’s understanding of his health status.
But whether patient records are confined to a private-practice EMR or live in an EHR system, the usefulness of …
How to improve patient satisfaction with electronic records
by Roberta Bivins
As a historian who writes about the controversial topic of ‘alternative medicine’, I get a lot of questions about whether this or that therapy ‘works’. Sometimes, these questions are a test of my objectivity as a researcher. My questioners want to know whether I am ‘believer’, or a fan of alternative medicine, or have any stake in promoting or disdaining a given medical …
A historical perspective of alternative medicine
I mentioned having a migraine this past weekend, and was somewhat surprised by how many people commented and wrote to me, surprised that a doctor, let alone a neurologist, would actually get migraines.
What’s up with that?
I know this may be hard to believe, but we get health problems too.
I see this odd view surprisingly often. People who somehow expect us to be beyond the health concerns of non-doctors.
We may be …
Your doctor isn’t superhuman and is allowed to call in sick
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An excerpt from Beautiful Brain, Beautiful You. Published by Hyperion. Copyright(c)2011.
by Marie Pasinski, MD
Although much has been written about how red wine in moderation can be good for your heart and your brain, I would like you to reconsider. It’s important to understand that the studies supporting this claim are “observational.” This means they were conducted through self-reported questionnaires inquiring into the drinking habits of a large group of …
Is red wine really good for your heart and your brain?
I wrote last year in USA Today about the impact of physician burnout. Not only do doctors suffer, but so do their patients.
Burnout starts early in residency, with entering interns having a depression rate of 4%, similar to the general public. But after the first year of residency, that number balloons to 25%.
Now, another study adds fuel to this disturbing trend.
A paper published in the Archives of General Surgery …
Your surgeon may be contemplating suicide
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
How often do you see your doctor? Once a year? Every 6 months? Never? Most of you are pretty healthy and only show up for screening physical exams or aches and pains. Some of you may have more health problems and come more frequently.
What if you had diabetes, coronary disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea, but no symptoms to indicate any …
How often to see your doctor when feeling well
As a family physician, I’ve found that patients’ individual health beliefs often play a big role in important decisions such as starting a new medication or undergoing an invasive test or procedure.
Some patients were more willing to endure potentially risky procedures in order to learn their diagnosis quicker, for example, while others preferred “watchful waiting,” or monitoring symptoms that were unlikely to be a sign of anything serious. Unfortunately, in …
Individual health beliefs play a role in medical decisions
Obesity is now increasingly recognized as the “natural” consequence of societal changes that have occurred over the past decades to foster an increasingly obesogenic environment.
Yet, rather than focus on the root causes of these societal drivers of obesity, governments apparently prefer to make obesity prevention a personal matter, with a strong emphasis on trying to get individuals to change their lifestyles.
It is clearly far easier to simply tell people to …
Should obesity prevention be a personal matter?
Have you ever been frustrated by an unproductive or inopportune visit with your doctor that wasted your time and money?
Here are a few tips to keep that from happening again.
The problem
Many visits with healthcare providers are poorly timed and less productive than they could be. Why? Because nobody is looking out for you between visits. It’s not that your doctor doesn’t care. He or she is simply too busy with …
Save time and money with your visit with healthcare providers
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