Originally published in HCPLive.comby Jonathan Bertman, MDI recently talked about Microsoft’s newest desktop operating system, Windows 7, and outlined several reasons why you might want to purchase it when it comes out this year. Windows 7 will include some really cool features—like multi-touch technology and usability improvements—that can benefit medical practitioners and their office staff.
Because it is in Microsoft’s best ...
January 2010
All Stories
The history of Medicare and its influence on American health care
Originally published on MedPage Todayby Emily P. Walker, MedPage Today Washington CorrespondentAs Congress stands poised to make the most sweeping change to the U.S. healthcare system since the creation of Medicare, a look back at the incremental growth in that program may serve as a harbinger for the progress of healthcare reform.
The program -- which provides insurance for some 43 million ...
Why doctors in the United States order so many CT scans and MRI tests
It's commonly thought that health care in the United States is heavily dependent on diagnostic testing.But how do we compare with the rest of the world? Perhaps these graphs, courtesy of the New York Times can provide a stark illustration.Here's the data regarding CT scans, showing the number of tests per 1,000 people. Guess which country's on top:
Why I had to fire my primary care doctor
I like my PCP. She is knowledgeable, kind, efficient, and trusts that I know my body best. All great qualities in a doctor.But I need to fire her and find someone new. Why? Her support staff and their administrative systems don't work for me. They make it difficult for me to access timely care and I dislike that very much.Some background: I rarely visit the doctor. Overall, I'm healthy and ...
Protecting the security of electronic patient data
Originally published on HCPLive.comIf your patient records aren’t already stored digitally, they are likely to be digitized soon. There is a tremendous push by the federal government—as well as by some private payors and self-insured employers—to get all healthcare providers wired in the near future, in order to better coordinate patient care, improve outcomes, and “bend the cost curve” all at the same time. There are some financial incentives in ...
How sleeping late can lead to depression in teenagers
Originally published in MedPage Todayby Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff WriterLater parent-set bedtimes and correspondingly shorter sleep durations appear to be related to the development of depression in adolescents, a cross-sectional analysis showed. In addition to depression, adolescents with later bedtimes also had a greater risk of having suicidal thoughts, James Gangwisch, PhD, of Columbia University in New York City, and ...
How osteopenia became a disease and made Fosamax popular
How did osteopenia, the precursor to osteoprosis, come about?Fascinating story from NPR, detailing how a drug company popularized the condition in order to expand the market for their drug, Fosamax.Osteopenia is diagnosed via a bone density study showing a "T-score" between -1.0 and -2.5. But how that definition came about was quite arbitrary.In 1994, a group of researchers from the World Health Organization poured over data, and eventually, ...
National Influenza Vaccination Week: Time to take stock of our influenza vaccination efforts
The following is part of a series of original guest columns by the American Medical Association.by Nancy H. Nielsen, MDBack in September, I wrote in this space about ways physicians can prepare their practices to handle this challenging flu season and mentioned the importance of vaccination for all health care professionals. Today as National Influenza Vaccination Week begins, this is an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves, ...
How social media can make physicians better doctors
Originally published on HCPLive.comby Mike HennessySome patient advocates, tech-savvy physicians, and other Health 2.0 proponents tout e-mail, online forums, and social media technologies because they can potentially help strengthen the patient–physician relationship by providing patients with greater access to their physicians and facilitating more open communication. Yet, after seeing patients all day, do physicians really want to spend a significant ...
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) sues Medicare over physician rate cuts
Originally published in MedPage Todayby Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff WriterThe American College of Cardiology (ACC) has filed suit against U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius charging that the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule was adopted unlawfully.The complaint seeks an injunction that will prevent the cuts -- which the association claims used a flawed survey for ...
Poll: Could your next patient be a mystery shopper?
Many companies turn to "mystery shoppers" to improve customer service, but should they be used in health care?An increasing number of hospitals are hiring people to fake symptoms and go to doctors' offices or the emergency department to assess the friendliness of the administrative staff or the interpersonal skills of the physician. In Maryland, for instance, federal money is even being used to pay mystery shoppers to secretly check ...
Cardiologists discuss how far myocardial infarction management has come
Originally published in MedPage Todayby Peggy Peck, MedPage Today Executive Editor"What we did for patients with acute MI was place them in a cool, dark place. Give them morphine for pain and lidocaine to prevent arrhythmias and hope for the best."The speaker is Steven Nissen, MD, director of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. He is describing standard care 25 ...
10 popular health blog posts, December 2009
Here are the top posts from the past month, based on the number of times they were viewed.1. Should health care workers go to jail for medical errors?2. The hidden problem when patients e-mail their doctor3. What’s a typical day of a primary care doctor like?4. Would I vote for the Senate healthcare bill? Here’s where I stand on reform5. Is the iPhone really worse ...
Is erectile dysfunction associated with restless leg syndrome?
Originally published in MedPage Todayby Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today Staff WriterMen with restless leg syndrome (RLS) had a significantly increased risk of erectile dysfunction compared with men who did not have the neurologic disorder, data from a large cohort study showed. The likelihood of erectile dysfunction increased with the frequency of restless leg episodes, reaching an adjusted risk apex about ...
Op-ed: Ways to make primary care the key to health reform
The following op-ed, co-written with Rahul Parikh, was published on December 16th, 2009 in CNN.com.America is closer to meaningful health care reform than at any time in its history. As we have all witnessed, finding a way to both provide every American access to affordable health care while seeking to control health care costs has not been easy.Many of the proposed solutions have led to sharp disagreements, with contention ...
How a psychiatrist can write 100,000 prescriptions a year, and what that means for primary care
The Miami Herald is reporting an investigation of a psychiatrist who wrote almost 100,000 prescriptions a year. Sen. Grassley and the feds have halted payment to this Miami psychiatrist who stated that "he prescribes only what is medically necessary" and "works long hours, seeing patients for 10 minutes at a time and many of his patients need four or five medications."I have no personal knowledge, interaction, acquaintance with psychiatrist Dr. ...
How to identify children at high risk for developing diabetes
Originally published in InsidermedicineStandard measurements taken in doctors' offices, such as height, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels can help predict which school-aged children will go on to develop type 2 diabetes, according to research published in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.id="play_continuous_flvs" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="385" height="239" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0">
How similar is pandemic H1N1 influenza to the seasonal flu?
Originally published in MedPage Todayby Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff WriterPandemic H1N1 influenza behaved much like seasonal and previous pandemic flu viruses in an early, isolated outbreak at a New York City high school, researchers found. Natural history and transmissibility characteristics were similar in an April outbreak that sickened about 800 students and staff members, according to Justin Lessler, PhD, ...
Why our health system doesn’t promote individualized cancer screening decisions
There have been plenty of posts debating the wisdom of the recent breast cancer screening guidelines.The New York Times has some of the best stuff, explaining the rationale of the decision, with a good discussion on the math and statistics surrounding the issue. Here's an example in an article entitled, Mammogram Math.But it goes beyond the public not accepting empirical evidence.Another piece from economist Richard H. Thaler again ...
Linking the USPSTF mammogram guidelines to their virtual colonoscopy recommendations
by Mark E. Klein, MD"I think anytime you use science to kind of fundamentally change what people are used to, I think it's a difficult thing to grapple with.” So spoke Ned Calonge, chair of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in explaining the reaction to that group’s recommendation to radically alter their previous guidelines for breast cancer screening. Regrettably the incorrect application of science, as in ...
Kevin Pho, MD
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Why more primary care doctors are referring patients to specialists
According to a recent study from the Archives of Internal Medicine, primary care physicians are referring more patients to specialists than ever...
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Should Google censor anti-vaccine claims?
One of the reasons there is such a movement against vaccines is the democratization of information, perpetuated by search engines like Google....
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Radiologists who cheat on their board exams: Who’s to blame?
In a widely circulated CNN article, many radiologists have been found to cheat on their board exams: "Doctors around the country taking an...
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Doctors: Don’t be ashamed about going bankrupt
Are doctors really going broke? According to this piece from CNN Money, some are: "Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising...
Physician
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Patients will understand an honest mistake if the doctor tells the truth
It was 1976 and I was a junior resident in urology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. I was assigned...
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Diagnosing an illness is an art
Diagnosis is the foundation on which all care and treatments rest. If the diagnosis is wrong, most probably so is the treatment. ...
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Physicians have a natural role as advocates
As physicians, we are often called upon to be advocates for our patients. Sometimes they have no other person to turn to....
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Our society expends huge sums on futile care
Mike was a runner, outdoors-man, and fitness nut. This was not so much as for health reasons as for "feeling good", but...
Patient
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How will the Baby Boomers age and die?
I love listening to life stories. As a hospice chaplain, I loved sitting with our patients and their loved ones engaging in...
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Patient engagement is the holy grail of health care
For health care professionals, patient engagement is the holy grail of health care. It is the key to patient adherence – a...
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Why do doctors delay hospice referrals?
This is a response to Deb Discenza's article requesting a one page informational sheet informing a patient about hospice or palliative care. This would...
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How touch can calm patients
So, Megen at Not Nurse Ratched wrote post recently about therapeutic presence. The following passage really caught my attention: "Question is: are...
Policy
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A lack of incentive for medical schools to train primary care doctors
A social media movement is happening before our eyes with action starting to take shape. The #occupyhealthcare movement has begun within to...
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What should be the stated aim of health care in America?
The triple aim of health care, as defined by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is: improving the experience of care, bettering...
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How Moneyball applies to healthcare
The storyline is familiar. An organization is challenged to achieve better results without spending more money. An executive is committed to obtaining...
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The problem of insurance gaps in cancer patients
Why are cancer organizations waiting until it starts to rain before they suggest buying an umbrella? “Join my Medicare Advantage plan and...
Tech
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Repetition is the curse of the doctor-patient engagement
How many times as a doctor do you ask the same questions over and over again as part of the routine process...
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Why the prognosis of patients is difficult
Many clinical decisions in older persons are dependent on life expectancy. For example, as life expectancy declines, cancer screening is likely to...
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Innovative technologies can markedly enhance safety
“To Err Is Human” is the title of the now famous book from the Institute of Medicine on patient safety published about...
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Google knows more about certain diseases than physicians ever will
Professor Gunter Dueck, is a calm and eloquent german mathematician who’s also the CTO of IBM Germany. He studied mathematics and philosophy...
Social Media
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The Internet is where patients go for pre-visit consultations
As a physician, technology cannot replace you, but it can make you more efficient and effective. This was the message from Richard...
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5 ways doctors can benefit from professional connections
Looking ahead to the next several months, I’ve found myself frequently wondering how many physicians will make this their year to take...
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Twitter Is my third office location
The physician’s decision to first dive into social media can be stress-inducing. Issues of time management, maintaining professionalism, and determining a return...
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The impact of social media on a physician assistant
The impact of social media on medicine could arguably be compared to the impact of the industrial revolution on the human condition....
