Be empowered. Get informed. Be engaged. Get involved. We’re exhorted to help make our medical decisions, to speak up, to ask questions, to say how we feel. But if we’re going to get the hang of being engaged patients, we could use a way to practice our role in the privacy of our own homes.
Well, read on my fellow patient. I give ...
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Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 64-year-old woman is hospitalized for a 2-day history of fever and chills and a 1-day history of hypotension and dyspnea. Medical history is significant for adenocarcinoma of the colon diagnosed 3 weeks ago for which she had a partial colectomy. Her course was complicated by the development of a polymicrobial intra-abdominal abscess. After ...
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Let me tell you about this fabulous new test – it's far better than the old tests, I've got a decade's worth of research publications to show you, plus it's a floor wax and a dessert topping.
Who am I? Why, I'm simply an academic clinician, advocating for this test because it's the next great thing to help us tailor treatments to patients. Does it matter that I'm on the unofficial ...
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Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. PFO Closure Still an Open Question. The negative results of three studies should have closed the book on patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure in cryptogenic stroke, but somehow the book is still being picked up.
2. Norovirus Main Gastroenteritis Culprit in Kids. Norovirus far surpasses rotavirus as the primary cause of acute gastroenteritis in children younger ...
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Your child has an earache. You are worried it is an ear infection. You call the doctor and make an appointment. After all, he needs antibiotics, right?
Maybe not.
We have a real problem of antibiotic overuse in our country--and because we are overusing our antibiotics, many bacteria are getting smarter and stronger. Because ear infections is the diagnosis that kids in the United ...
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Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. Treat Concussed Athletes Individually. Although athletes with suspected concussions should be benched immediately, their return to play may be handled flexibly according to symptoms and risk of further injury.
2. Nurse Shortage Linked to NICU Infection Rates. Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are widely understaffed, potentially increasing the risk of infection in critically ill babies.
3.
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1. Specialists Agree HRT Best for Menopause Symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the most effective available treatment for menopause symptoms.
2. Data Misleading for HRT, Breast Cancer Link. The evidence as to whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) plays a causal role in breast cancer is insufficient to support that hypothesis, and there are major flaws in ...
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The Saturday after Sandy hit, I was the medical student in a Cambridge, Massachusetts emergency room. Around the time my shift started, Andrew, a man about my age, couldn’t bear the pain in his nose any longer. The ED nurse still talks about the “huge booger” bulging from his nose. A few days before coming to the ED, he’d left behind his flooded, powerless Brooklyn apartment seeking refuge in his ...
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Juan Gonzales, (not his real name), is a somewhat demented elderly Hispanic male, who I met last week in an intensive care unit. He spoke little English, and I spoke limited Spanish. His devoted family was at the bedside, and fortunately his daughter was able to provide some history. He was admitted with palpitations and dizziness and atrial fibrillation with a rapid response.
His family had just moved him from Miami, ...
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Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. Even Mild Hits to Head Disrupt Blood-Brain Barrier. Football players who experienced repeated mild hits to the head, even without receiving a true concussion, showed evidence of disruption of the blood-brain barrier and an autoimmune response in the brain, which may help explain the premature neurodegeneration increasingly seen in athletes.
2. Cellulitis Dx Often Incorrect. Three-fourths ...
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-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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