by Felasfa Wodajo, MD
In a recent post, entitled, Why doctors should choose Google Android over the iPhone for medical apps, the author seems to have gone out of his way to make a series of increasingly hyperbolic arguments declaring Motorola Droid superior to the iPhone.
The long trail of negative comments on the site demonstrate that perhaps not all readers were swayed …
iPhone medical apps can be improved by Google Android
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer
As one of the two MedPage Today writers on full-time H1N1 duty since the beginning of the outbreak in April, I feel like I know the issues well enough to help clear up misconceptions when they come up in conversation.
The other day, just such a situation presented itself. An …
Tamiflu kills babies, and other H1N1 flu pandemic misconceptions
by David Rind, MD
A number of the other blogs that have noted the existence of this blog seem to have “Pharma” in their titles in one way or another, and the implication is not that the blogger likes much about Big Pharma.
In the late 1990s, when I was spending much of my clinical time providing HIV care, I was a defender of Pharma on Usenet, at least as it related …
Originally posted in Insidermedicine
The eye is very similar to a camera. Both are optical systems that have lenses in the front to focus light rays onto a film. The retina is the eye’s film. It is a tissue that consists of 10 layers and is about 500 microns thick—or, half a millimeter. The main function of the retina is to trap light rays, convert them into electrical impulses, and send …
Seeing floaters or flashing lights can be caused by posterior vitreous or retinal detachment
The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American College of Physicians.
by Steven Weinberger, MD, FACP
It is difficult to find a medical guideline that has garnered so much press and controversy as the recent recommendations about breast cancer screening developed by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and published in Annals …
ACP: Teasing out science, politics, and emotion about the mammography guidelines
Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Anthony Niehaus
As part of the 2009 HITECH Act, a national health information technology infrastructure (NHITI) is required for access and use of electronic health records resulting in a more “effective marketplace, greater competition… [and] increased consumer choice (HITECH Act, Section 3001(b)).”
Such a system is not only necessary, but it is cardinal to improving delivery and reducing costs …
The privacy and security risks of electronic health records
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
The CDC is keeping a careful eye on a mutation in some strains of the pandemic H1N1 flu that Norwegian researchers isolated from three patients with severe disease.
The mutation has been seen “sporadically” in the U.S., according to Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization …
Will the H1N1 flu virus mutate?
I practice in the rural, northwest corner of South Carolina, also known as “The Upstate.” It is a place of expansive lakes, white-water rivers and the mist covered foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area includes thousands of acres of Sumter National Forest. The natural beauty is breathtaking. Sumter National Forest and our various parks are laced with hiking trails, which are lined with unique plants and trees, some …
The joys of practicing rural emergency medicine
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Only a quarter of baby boomers take advantage of preventive services such as flu vaccines and cancer screenings, a new report from the government and two powerful interest groups says.
At the same time, states are falling behind goals to increase certain screenings and reduce unhealthy behaviors, according to the …
Baby boomers don’t receive enough preventive health
by Jeoffry B.Gordon, MD, MPH
The recent recommendation of the US Preventive Services Task Force against routine screening mammograms for healthy, low risk women under the age of fifty has demonstrated our broad consensus about the value of breast cancer screening. The discussions about new guidance from the American Academy of Obstetrics and Gynecology on when to start and how often to do PAP smears illuminate the impact, effectiveness and support …
How the mammogram and Pap smear debates ignore the uninsured
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) has just revised their guidelines for Pap smears under some pressure. This resulted from an Annals of Internal Medicine article which documented that only 16.4% of gynecologists followed the College’s prior guidelines. Most did more screenings than indicated, the worst record of the specialties tested. But the ACOG still recommends that nearly all women obtain regular screening at intervals of 1-3 years.
The …
Informed consent is missing from Pap smears and cervical cancer screening
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
In the first six months of the H1N1 flu pandemic, 22 million Americans fell ill from the virus, the CDC now estimates.
Of those, about 98,000 needed inpatient care, and 3,900 died, according to Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
The estimates …
What is the death toll for the H1N1 flu pandemic?
A version of this op-ed, co-written with Doug Farrago, was published on October 26th, 2009 in Medscape.
It’s tough to be a doctor these days. Whether it’s listening to the difficulties of our medical colleagues as they try to best care for their patients, or engaging other health professionals about the uncertainties surrounding health reform, we’ve noticed a tense, sometimes gloomy, atmosphere among physicians.
A recent survey from the Annals of Internal …
Op-ed: Humor can be healing for both doctors and patients
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Originally published in MedPage Today
by Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today Staff Writer
Women can wait longer for their first Pap smear and then repeat the test less frequently, according to recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
The organization now says women should begin cervical cancer screening with a Pap test at age 21. Subsequent tests should occur at …
When women should have their first Pap smear; the new cervical cancer screening guidelines
We found out that her real name was Cindy Chapman, and that she died alone and afraid.
Cindy was a paralegal, an activist and a fighter of lost causes who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was part of an online community called RATEMDs, where she had many soul mates. Her posts on health care were funny and cynical and wise. Her screen name was Jane Q. Patient.
My wife, Pam, was especially …
Discharged from the hospital without answers; the death of Jane Q. Patient
Originally published in HCPLive.com
by Colleen O’Leary, RN, MSN, AOCNS
Last time I talked about how I had never really experienced the concept of nurses eating their young in action.
However, I have seen the opposite begin to evolve. I see this as a bigger issue in nursing these days. The “putting out to pasture” of seasoned, experienced nurses is happening more often …
Are older nurses being forced out of the profession?
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington Correspondent
Drug and device makers are urging the FDA to establish clear guidelines that will allow the industry to discuss and promote products in the unsettled world of online social media.
The FDA is hearing testimony from drug and device companies, online marketing experts, and consumer groups about what steps the …
How should the FDA regulate the social media advertising of drugs?
Doctors have understood for some time that it was inevitable. The American Cancer Society has acknowledged that cancer screening has been oversold.
It seems like every day you read in the newspaper that what was standard medical care yesterday is now no longer recommended. Don’t doctors know anything? Well, actually they do. And what seems like paradoxical behavior, no longer recommending aggressive screening for certain cancers, actually represents a more sophisticated …
Can less aggressive cancer screening recommendations be better for patients?
What if a non-partisan, authoritative entity wrote a robust, evidence-based guideline, but nobody followed it?
That is precisely what’s happening with the USPSTF’s recent revision of their breast cancer screening recommendations. The change most find problematic is their recommendation that women younger than 50 not undergo any breast cancer screening, such as with a mammogram.
Here are their reasons explaining why:
The harms resulting from screening for breast cancer include psychological harms, …
Why health reformers should be worried about the breast cancer screening backlash
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Chris Emery, MedPage Today Contributing Writer
Complications from first trimester abortions performed by family practitioners are rare, and family doctors could help address abortion provider shortages across the U.S., a new study found.
Among more than 2,500 abortions performed by family physicians, abortion was successful without complications in 96.5% of patients using medications (95% CI 95.5% …
Can family doctors do safe first trimester abortions?
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