February 25th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Cardiology, Charts, Desk, EHR, Image, Paper Records, Photo, Technology
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I came across this picture of my desk just before we went “all in” with our electronic medical record six years ago:
It was a huge amount of work for our staff to organize and box all those old medical records that were sent off to a site unknown. I remember early on when we tried to get some old records after that happened. People just shrugged – no one had a clue how to retrieve them.
But you know what?
Now that we’re farther away from that time, I can’t say that I miss them.
Still, my current desk looks just as disorganized.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
February 25th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
Tags: CRPS, Immunoglobulin, IVIG, Pain Management, Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation, RSD
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Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a multi-symptom, multi-system syndrome that remain poorly understood. As I have mentioned previously , it was called reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) when I first learned about it. I still catch myself calling it RSD.
For a complete review of CRPS, please refer to my previous post on the topic. This post is to look at an article published in the February issue of the journal Annuals of Internal Medicine (full reference below).
A research team at the Pain Research Institute at the University of Liverpool note that there is some evidence for “for immune activation in the affected limb, peripheral blood, and cerebrospinal fluid.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
February 25th, 2010 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, Research
Tags: Cancer, Colonoscopy, Evidence, Gastroenterology, GI, Guidelines, polyps, screening test, USPSTF
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Everybody knows that colonoscopy is the best test to screen for colorectal cancer and that colonoscopies save lives. Everybody may be wrong. Colonoscopy is increasingly viewed as the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening, but its reputation is not based on solid evidence. In reality, it is not yet known for certain whether colonoscopy can help reduce the number of deaths from colorectal cancer. Screening with fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) and flexible sigmoidoscopy are supported by better evidence, but questions remain. It seems our zeal for screening tests has outstripped the evidence.
Statistics show that the life-time risk for an adult American to develop colorectal cancer (CRC) is approximately 6%. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. In the US there are currently 146,970 new cases and 50,630 deaths each year. Between 1973 and 1995, mortality from CRC declined by 20.5%, and incidence declined by 7.4% in the United States. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
February 24th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Expert Interviews, True Stories
Tags: Clinic, Costs, Health Insurance, HIV/AIDS, Infectious Disease, Medication Compliance, Nausea, Side Effects
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“I like your watch,” pharmacist Jin Jun tells me as I’m sitting down to interview him.
I have a plastic runner’s watch, nothing special, but I see Jun is wearing something similar. “Do you run?” I ask him.
Jun is a tall, personable man who runs marathons, it turns out, and he enthusiastically invites me to run in a 5K race this weekend. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it but I ask him for the details anyway.
Jun is equally passionate about his job, which one day a week involves helping the patients at the Carolinas Medical Center Infectious Disease Clinic with HIV drug adherence. I ask him how he handles cases like LaShana Walker’s, where some days she just doesn’t feel like taking her medications because they make her so nauseous. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
February 24th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Loan Repayment, Medical School, Primary Care, Student Loan
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ACP Internist looks at how states are using grants to fix their primary care shortages.
Michigan launched grants for primary care doctors to repay medical school loans and is looking to tap into federal incentives to fill its needs in rural and urban shortage areas. Alaska also needs primary care doctors, so the state senate is pushing through recruiting incentives of its own. (They should show re-runs of Northern Exposure.) Rural Indiana doesn’t have a quirky ’90s hit television program to its credit, but it has nurse practitioners who are finding their niche on physicians-led teams–relieving the backlog and providing patient education. (Detroit Free Press, KTUU-TV, Journal & Courier) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
