September 5th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Advice For Parents, Children's Health, Decisions For Your Child, Family Medicine, Father's Perspective, General Medicine, Parenting Behavior, Parenting Preferences, Parenting Styles, Pediatrician, Pediatrics, Primary Care
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Many times when faced with a clinical dilemma, a parent will turn to me and ask: “What would you do if this were your child?”
When faced with this question, I never quite know what to say. And each time I feel a little on-the-spot. But why is that? Aren’t I comfortable recommending for someone else exactly what I would do for my own child? After all, what have I got to hide?
Here’s the problem: The decisions we make as parents involve our values, tolerance of risk, level of concern and frustration, prior health experience, and religious belief — to name but a few. There’s no way to fully tease those things from the parent sitting across the room. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
September 4th, 2010 by Dr. Val Jones in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News
Tags: California, Canada, Infectious Disease, News, Pertussis, Public Health, Public Health Agency Of Canada, Vaccines, Whooping Cough
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The Public Health Agency of Canada has issued a “travel health notice” to its citizens who plan to travel to California. Childhood vaccination against whooping cough (pertussis) has dropped low enough to result in a 7-fold increase in the number of infections over the past year alone.
An increasing number of parents are opting out of vaccines, a trend that could threaten to reverse the preventive health gains we’ve made against certain infectious diseases this past century. How scary is that?
Incidentally, whooping cough can be lethal — killing a small percentage of kids who suffocate from the damage it does to the respiratory tract. For more information about whooping cough, I recommend the Mayo Clinic’s consumer health website.
To all the moms and dads out there, please vaccinate your kids. The benefits far outweigh any potential harms. And to you Canadians, make sure you’re vaccinated before you go to California.
September 4th, 2010 by BarbaraFicarraRN in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: 15-Minute Office Visit, Doctor-Patient Communication, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Good Patient Outcomes, How To Talk To Your Doctor, Less Time With Patients, Managed Care Environment, Not Enough Time For Patients, Office Visit Interruptions, Patient-Physician Relationship, Primary Care, Rushed Office Visit, Time Spent With Patients
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From Kevin Pho’s medical blog, KevinMD, a post archived from 2004, Pho talks about the struggles of communication between doctor and patient during the 15-minute office visit.
Pho sites a New York Times article that explains that more than two decades ago, research shows that patients were interrupted 18 seconds into explaining their problem (on average) and less than 2 percent got to finish their explanations.
Pho sites that he sometimes falls into the “interruption trap,” saying: “I think this is a natural progression to our managed care environment. Physicians are compensated by quantity of patients seen, and are kept to a strict schedule -– in most cases every 15-minutes.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Health in 30*
September 3rd, 2010 by Felasfa Wodajo, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: 24-Hour Security Monitoring Service, 911, Accelerometer, Android Smartphones, Automatic GPS localization, Emergency Medicine, Fall Detection, Florida State University, General Medicine, iPhone App, iTunes, Medical Alert Bracelet, Medical Apps, OnCall Defender Medical Alert, OnCall Defender Panic Alert, Wireless EMT Alert Service
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OnCall Defender Medical Alert (available via iTunes) is an iPhone app that features 3G connection to a 24-hour security monitoring service. Via a subscription service, you can use your iPhone to send an emergency notification to the service after which local law enforcement or EMT services, depending on the type of alarm, will be dispatched.
The advantage over using 911 is that the monitoring service automatically receives GPS localization of your whereabouts and that you can cancel the emergency call within 15 seconds. The service costs $16.99 a month or $9.99 with a one-year subscription. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
September 3rd, 2010 by Jon LaPook, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research, True Stories
Tags: Adenomatous Polyp, Benign Polyps, Colon Cancer, Colon Cancer Screening Test, Colonoscopy, Colorectal Health, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Family Medical History, Family Medicine, Gastroenterology, Gastrointestional Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Katie Couric Effect, Lack Of Exercise, Obesity, Pre-Cancerous Colon Polyp, Preventive Medicine, Preventive Screening, Primary Care, Processed Meats, Public Awareness, Red Meat, Smokers, smoking, Too Much Alcohol
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Dr. Mehmet Oz just might be the last person on earth people would expect to get a colon polyp. He’s physically fit (he left me in the dust the last time we ran together), he eats a healthy diet, he doesn’t smoke, and he has no family history of colorectal cancer or colon polyps.
But several weeks ago, when Mehmet had his first screening colonoscopy at age 50, I removed a small adenomatous polyp that had the potential to turn into cancer over time. Statistically, most small polyps like his don’t become cancer. But almost all colon cancers begin as benign polyps that gradually become malignant over about 10 to 15 years.
Since there’s no way of knowing which polyps will turn bad, we take them all out. The good news is there’s plenty of opportunity to prevent cancer by removing these polyps while they are still benign. But only about 63 percent of Americans between ages 50 and 75 get screened for colorectal cancer. Read more »
