Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 79-year-old man is evaluated for a 2-month history of progressively worsening headaches, nausea, visual disturbance, and difficulty speaking. He also has hypertension and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Medications are lisinopril and omeprazole.
On physical examination, vital signs are normal. Right oculomotor nerve (cranial nerve III) and bilateral abducens nerve (cranial ...
Parents often ask me about snacks for their children once they are eating table food. Should they even give them snacks? If so, what kinds are good for them, and how often? In general, after age one I recommend three kid-size meals and 1 to 2 snacks to help them get their daily nutritional requirements. Try not to stress or obsess at each feeding about them eating all that you ...
As a sports medicine orthopaedic surgeon, I often see patients with complaints at their elbow. One of the more common diagnoses is tennis elbow, otherwise known as lateral epicondylitis. Surprisingly, most of my patients with this condition don’t even play tennis! Many types of repetitive arm movement can lead to tennis elbow. It all has to do with the tendons in our arms.
Tendons are the structures that hold muscle to ...
World Kidney Day reminds us of the 850 million people globally affected by kidney diseases. It draws attention to the 1 in 7 American adults managing Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and the 660,000 Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). It also reminds us that kidney disease is the 9th leading cause of death in the United States.
But perhaps one of the most important statistics on World Kidney ...
As medical professionals, one of the most challenging things to do is to motivate a patient to make changes in their lives. We passionately want the best for our patients, and it is sometimes so difficult for us to be able to connect with and inspire them to take the next step on a path to disease prevention and longevity. The solution? Enter Lebron James and Tom Brady.
It is no ...
I didn’t become a primary care doctor to treat opioid addiction.
I wasn’t trained for it. To be honest, it scared me.
But when you work, like I do, at a clinic that serves a lot of people who have little money or who struggle with mental health and substance use issues, there comes a point when you have to step up.
When I started seeing patients in 2009, I knew that opioid ...
Most patients have an idea of how surgery and chemotherapy work. It’s not difficult to picture a surgeon cutting out a cancer or a medical oncologist prescribing chemotherapy. But how does radiation therapy work? For the vast majority of patients, and a good number of physicians, radiation therapy is a completely foreign concept.
In my practice, I find that a good portion of every new patient consultation is spent explaining what ...
More than two-thirds of Americans use social media, and 90 percent of adults in the U.S. have a cell phone. With these tools surrounding us, we must be more connected with one another than ever before. Right?
It doesn’t feel like we are. At least, the people who engage with the health care system don’t feel connected to the rest of us. They feel lonely. It feels like we send them ...
When it comes to communication in the hospital setting, I have seen many iterations. My favorite version was at the VA on the inpatient medicine unit. Every morning, we all met in the medicine team room to discuss patients on the floor. The team’s social worker, nurses, residents, students, and the attending ran down the list to identify individual patient goals, what’s needed for safe and effective discharges home, and ...
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
The aim of medical education is not only to transfer scientific knowledge, but also impart the wisdom accumulated over the long history of medicine that equips us to apply this knowledge for the betterment of our patients.
Although much of medical wisdom transmitted in ...
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