As someone who professionally closely tracks the debate over the transformation of the American health care clinical delivery system, I did not learn much new from the New York Times article: The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill. I did find the article’s approach useful in explaining how the wide variations in price for procedures contribute to the unnecessary high cost of American health care.
Although the article did document many procedures ...
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1. Low Vitamin D Linked to Hepatitis B. Vitamin D deficiency might be a key player in hepatitis B (HBV) replication.
2. Wrinkles Emerge in SGR Repeal Debate. As Congress inches toward a change in the way physicians are paid under Medicare, an early-stage Republican proposal drew criticism this week for not going far enough.
3.
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Colorectal cancer.
Shudder. That’s the knee-jerk response that most of my patients give me when mention of their 50th birthday creeps into the conversation and I reveal that it is time for their screening colonoscopy.
Admittedly, a colonoscopy is not an experience that the overwhelming majority of the human race embraces with excitement and anticipation. Instead, it is a life event that is filled with ...
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Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. More Evidence Fecal Transplant Clears C. Diff. Fecal transplant for Clostridium difficile infection is a safe and effective treatment and can alter patients' fecal microbiota to resemble that of donors over time.
2. CT Lung Screens Catch Most Cancers. The National Lung Screening Trial found that CT scans were highly sensitive in detecting lung cancer in ...
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Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 45-year-old man is admitted to the hospital for a 2-day history of fever and abdominal pain. His medical history is notable for cirrhosis due to chronic hepatitis C, esophageal varices, ascites, and minimal hepatic encephalopathy. His medications are furosemide, spironolactone, nadolol, lactulose, zinc, vitamin A, and vitamin D.
On physical examination, temperature is 36.5 ...
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The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do.
- B. F. Skinner
When I was a relatively junior member of the surgical faculty, an even more junior member came to my office and announced that a general surgeon and gynecologist in Georgia had performed gallbladder surgery with a laparoscope.
“Stupid stunt,” I snorted, or something equally derisive and all-knowing.
Some weeks or months later he returned to the topic, telling ...
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In recent times, it seems as though every newspaper or magazine with a dedicated health section has a focus on the perils of gluten and the benefits that come along with adhering to a gluten-free diet. Or better yet, each week brings a new celebrity touting the dangers of gluten, and how it is an unhealthy ingredient that should be avoided religiously. Is this truly sound advice?
As a practicing academic ...
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I have been struggling with a certain degree of cognitive dissonance following the announcement this winter of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine on the efficacy of fecal transplants as a therapy for clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections. While the study is the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of fecal transplants in treating recurrent C. diff infections (15 of the 16 patients in the group were cured ...
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One of the toughest parts of treating patients is managing their expectations. We wish that everyone could enjoy a perfect recovery with complete healing, but the medical profession is imperfect and life is unfair. Some folks cruise by decade after decade without a scratch, while others sag under the weight of chronic illnesses.
Accepting reasonable expectations can change the game for patients and their families. If the patient’s expectations exceed what ...
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Next in a continuing series.
Inside the belly, everything is slippery. The peritoneum is a glistening layer of self-moistening plastic wrap, enveloping the surfaces of all the organs, and the inner aspect of the abdominal wall. Undisturbed, the intestines coil and slither, reptilian. Watching waves of peristalsis makes me smile: there's something always entertaining about those moving contractions, following one upon another, gurgling, surprisingly tight bands of tension moving ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
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