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A lack of computer skills will make a doctor unemployable

November 18, 2009

How important is it for doctors to have computer skills?
It’s imperative.
Emergency physician Shadowfax is recruiting doctors for his hospital, and balances the typical choices one must make balancing clinical knowledge versus interpersonal skills.
One deal breaker, he notes, is the lack of computer skills:
Unfortunately, in this modern age, if an employee can’t use a computer effectively, [...]

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Why doctors are doing so many unnecessary Pap smears

November 17, 2009

by Matthew Mintz, MD
The Wall Street Journal and other sources reported on a study from the Annals of Internal Medicine that showed that most US doctors don’t know the guidelines of how often women should get a pap smear. More importantly, doctors were doing a lot of pap smears on women who didn’t need them. [...]

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Will patients accept the new, evidence-based, breast cancer screening guidelines?

November 17, 2009

Breast cancer screening has been scaled back, according to the recent recommendations of the USPSTF.
That’s the right move. Although women aged 50 to 74 years should receive a mammogram every 2 years, evidence of breast cancer screening in other age groups has been marginally conclusive at best, and non-existent when it comes to clinical [...]

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Can primary care doctors actually increase health care costs?

November 17, 2009

Poor McAllen, Texas.
The much maligned city has been in the health policy crosshairs ever since Atul Gawande’s seminal New Yorker article on health costs.
Now, it has the added distinction of being the worst place in the country to live with allergies.
The reason? Apparently, there’s one allergist for the entire city. One. And [...]

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Learn how to conduct a family meeting by using a structured approach

November 16, 2009

by Alex Smith, MD
On my last day of ward attending, I handed out an EKG that resembled the Dow Jones industrial average over the last 10 years (not pictured). The normal pattern of an EKG was completely disrupted: ST segments were markedly elevated, P waves were hidden, and beats were grouped in odd patterns. My [...]

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Why you should stop taking Vytorin for high cholesterol

November 16, 2009

by Matthew Mintz, MD
At the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, the results of the ARBITER 6-HALTS study were released. No Vytorin was used in the study, but I am sure that all the headlines will mention Vytorin.
The actual study published ahead of press online in the New England Journal of Medicine. Essentially, they enrolled [...]

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Niacin beats Zetia in the ARBITER 6-HALTS trial, and what this means for ezetimibe

November 16, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today
by Peggy Peck, MedPage Today Executive Editor
Boosting HDL cholesterol with extended-release niacin (Niaspan) is a more effective way of slowing atherosclerosis in high-risk patients on long-term statin therapy than seeking additional LDL cholesterol reductions by adding ezetimibe (Zetia), researchers here reported.
Compared with ezetimibe, 2 grams of niacin led to significant [...]

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Poll: Should obese patients pay more for ambulance transport to the hospital?

November 16, 2009

Nearly one-third of the American population is obese, and 5 percent is classified as morbidly obese, defined as more than 100 pounds overweight.
The obese are more likely to have health issues, and, subsequently require more frequent trips to the hospital. Ambulance workers say that patients weighing over 350 pounds present additional challenges to transport, [...]

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Who’s dying from the H1N1 flu pandemic?

November 15, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Although the pandemic H1N1 flu tends to strike younger people, it can be life-threatening when older people are infected, California researchers said.
In the first four months of the pandemic, 1,088 people in the state needed inpatient care or died of the pandemic flu [...]

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Medicine needs to get back to hands-on basics, rather than focusing on technology

November 14, 2009

by Rahul Parikh, MD
There is plenty to criticize in our bungling trek toward health reform. Leaders on the right, left and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have sidestepped the crucial conversation of controlling the cost of care, in favor of partisan rhetoric about “death panels” and “rationing care.” Worse, the entire focus [...]

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AMA’s democracy in action at this defining moment in the history of medicine

November 13, 2009

The following is the first in a series of original guest columns by the American Medical Association.
by J. James Rohack, M.D.
Delegates Vote to Continue AMA’s Commitment to Reform, Medicare Vote Pending in U.S. House of Representatives
Twice a year, physicians come together for an exhibit of democracy at its best through the AMA House of [...]

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Does television make toddlers more aggressive?

November 13, 2009

Originally published in Insidermedicine
Both watching television and having a television on in the household are associated with a higher level of aggression in three-year-olds, according to research published in the latest issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

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Surgeons don’t receive enough training when resident work-hours are capped

November 13, 2009

by Crystal Phend, MedPage Today Senior Staff Writer
Limiting surgical residents’ work hours has compromised both surgical education and patient safety, according to an analysis concluding that an 80-hour work week isn’t enough.
The maximum 80-work week imposed in the U.S. for residents is too little to provide mastery in surgery, Gretchen Purcell Jackson, MD, PhD, [...]

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Can universal health coverage be sustained long-term?

November 13, 2009

With health reform looking more likely, it’s worth looking at the Massachusetts model to predict what’s going to happen nationwide.
I’ve written several times that the lack of primary care access will simply shift newly insured patients to already crowded emergency departments, where care is exponentially more expensive. And in the end, it is that [...]

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