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Heart Conditions You Don’t Learn About In Medical School

This gave me a chuckle from Doc Cartoon:

Heart conditions 

*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*

Locally Grown Medical Students More Likely To Stick Around

Nearly a third of medical graduates at the University of North Dakota continue in primary care, down from nearly half just two years ago. This is the university that leads the nation for the percentage of students (about 20 percent) choosing family medicine.

North Dakota overall will be short about 160 physicians by 2025, and the need is now affecting urban areas as well as rural ones, said Joshua Wynne, FACP, dean of the university’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Keeping medical students interested in practicing primary care in rural America depends upon whom medical schools choose to admit. For example, one-fourth of the University of North Dakota’s student population hails from small towns, and 80 percent are in-state.

More and more medical schools are looking at locally grown talent to fill their residencies, believing that these students are more likely to stay after graduation. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*

U.S. Medical Residencies Via Alleged Hospital Bribe

In another one of the things I had no idea about, there’s a market to assist FMGs [foreign medical graduates] in getting U.S. residencies, which makes sense. Allegedly, this guy was willing to go the extra mile for his clients.

Full marks for creativity, but…

Mr. Everest allegedly provided an employee at the hospital with forged letters from a California hospital to show that the applicants had been accepted into a second-year program. And he gave her a check for $4,000, followed by another check for $2,000. She reported him to hospital officials, and later told him she knew the letters were forged. He then allegedly gave her $6,000 for time to get a letter from a different hospital—which was also forged—and gave her $3,000 more before he was arrested.

Geez.

- Via Hospital Bribe Alleged – WSJ.com

*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*

What It’s Like To Be In Medical School

Ever wonder what a day in the life of a medical student is like? A father of two, a husband of one, and a medical student and soon-to-be doctor of many describes his daily routine in one day in his life as a second-year medical student.

I heard one of my partners describing a friend of hers recent exit as an intensive care unit nurse and into the life of a medical student. How did the RN describe his experience?

“Man, this is hard.”

Yes, it is. No matter how many years you spend as a nurse, there is no replacement for a medical school education.

*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*

Do Foreign Medical Graduates “Doctor” Better?

Yes, according to a study in today’s Health Affairs. (The full text of the study is available only to subscribers, but Kaiser Health News Daily has a good summary of its findings and links to other news reports.)

The study compares inpatient death rates and lengths of stay for patients with congestive heart failure or acute myocardial infarction when provided by U.S. citizens trained abroad, citizens trained in the United States, and non-citizens trained abroad. Treatment was provided by internists, family physicians, or cardiologists. The differences were striking, according to the authors:

“Our analysis of 244,153 hospitalizations in Pennsylvania found that patients of doctors who graduated from international medical schools and were not U.S. citizens at the time they entered medical school had significantly lower mortality rates than patients cared for by doctors who graduated from U.S. medical schools or who were U.S. citizens and received their degrees abroad.”

Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*

Latest Interviews

The Surprising Economic Burden Of ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

If you can read this you need to download a more recent browser It is estimated that as many as million U.S. adults have ADHD Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder A recent research study publication-pending suggests that the economic burden of ADHD on America could be as high as billion annually. I…

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Is The Adderall Shortage A Harbinger Of Future Drug Supply Problems?

If you can read this you need to download a more recent browser Today most- if not all- Doctor’s offices are strained by the shortage of some prescription medication or vaccine. A month ago President Obama signed his executive order directing the FDA to take steps to reduce drug shortages…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: The First Step To Improve Health Care Is A Close Examination Of How It’s Delivered

My friend and former Chair of the CFAH Board of Trustees Doug Kamerow has written a book that I think you will like. Besides being a mensch and witty as heck Doug is a family doctor and a preventive medicine specialist. In his new book Dissecting American Health Care Commentaries…

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“Your Medical Mind” Explores Factors That Influence A Patient’s Medical Decisions

Recently I had a conversation with Shannon Brownlee the widely respected science journalist and acting director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation about whether men should continue to have access to the PSA test for prostate cancer screening despite the overwhelming evidence that it extends few…

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Book Review: Food Truths, Food Lies

Food Truths Food Lies written by family physician Eric Marcotte M.D. may be the most refreshingly evidence-based diet book of the decade. You will not find a single mention of super-foods magical berries or supplement must-haves in the entire book. What you will find is the cold hard truth about…

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