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Clinical Knowledge Versus Clinical Judgment

November 25th, 2009 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion

Tags: Amateur, Clinical Knowledge, ePatients, Internet, Judgment, Online Health, Physicians, Seth Godin

Read Seth Godin’s most recent post, The Amateur Scientist. In a way that only Seth can do he tells how our culture has turned us all into authorities. Important stuff.

I couldn’t help but think how this applies to the Internet and our health. Unrestrained access to information has got us all thinking we know more than we do.  Godin wasn’t writing about the amateur physician but he might as well have been.

Missing from the black bag of the amateur physician is a tool called clinical judgment – the pivotal substrate necessary to tie together objective clinical information. Clinical judgment is the foundation of good medical decision-making. But you won’t find it on the Internet. It can’t be found in the cloud or the hive. It isn’t free and it’s tough to get. Read more »

Listen to Your Psychiatrist, Uncle Sam

November 25th, 2009 by MotherJonesRN in Better Health Network, Opinion

Tags: Evaluation, Fort Hood, Going Postal, Homicide, Mental Health, Military, Nursing, Psychiatry, Snap, Snapping

Dear Uncle Sam:

I know it’s been a rough week. I’m sure you’re grieving the lost of life at Fort Hood just like the rest of us, but I’m compelled to write you this letter. I hope you take it in the spirit in which it is meant.

I read an article at Salon.com today that made me wonder about your judgement. Since when did you stop listening to your doctors? The article was about Dr. Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who wanted to help troops before they went postal on military bases. Uncle Sam, Dr. Manion use to work for you at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Then he got fired. Why did you give Dr. Manion the boot for stating the obvious? He pointed out that troops at Camp Lejeune are getting bullied by superiors and dumped into an overwhelmed mental health care system when they asked for psychiatric help. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*

Pregnant, Diabetic, And Gaining Weight

November 24th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories

Tags: Diabetes, Diet and Nutrition, Endocrinology, Food and Nutrition, Obesity, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pregnancy, Type 1 Diabetes, Weight Gain

BSparl is getting bigger.  (And so am I.)

I spent a lot of time planning this pregnancy, starting from back in 2003 when I decided to go on an insulin pump.  And even though preparation didn’t begin in earnest until Chris and I were married, having a child has always been something I’ve wanted with my whole heart.  So I read up on what to expect, and what to do to help improve my diabetes control, and what prenatal vitamins to take.

What I didn’t do much research on was the actual pregnancy itself. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*

Board Certification Standards: Should They Be Lowered?

November 24th, 2009 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Opinion

Tags: ABMS, ABPS, Board Certification, Emergency Medicine, Moonlighting, Standards

This post at The Central Line caught my eye:

Texas Recognizes ABPS Certification

The Texas Medical Board ruled on Oct. 20 that physicians certified by the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS) could advertise themselves as board certified to the public.

The ABPS is the certifying body of the American Association of Physician Specialties (AAPS). The ABPS sponsors 17 boards of certification, including the Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine (BCEM).

For a number of years, ABPS, in conjunction with AAPS, has been seeking recognition from various state medical boards, requesting that they allow physicians certified through an ABPS board to advertise themselves as board certified. The organizations were successful in Florida in 2002 but were recently rebuffed by the State of New York due to the lack of residency training as a qualification for ABPS board certification.

ACEP does not recognize BCEM as a certifying body in emergency medicine. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*

Quitting Smoking? Your Nicotine receptors Take Over A Month To Normalize

November 24th, 2009 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research

Tags: Addiction Medicine, nicotine, Quitting, Receptors, smoking, Tobacco

Nicotine withdrawal symptoms typically peak in the first week of abstinence and return to normal at around 3-4 weeks. It has long been known that certain nicotinic receptors (particularly the beta-2 subtype) are closely involved in nicotine addiction, and that smokers have a larger number of nicotine receptors in their brains than non-smokers. When the smoker quits, this large number of vacant, unstimulated receptors is believed to be involved in the resulting craving and distressing withdrawal (irritability, restlessness, depression, anxiety, poor concentration etc).

Earlier this year, a study published by Drs Kelly Cosgrove, Julie Staley and colleagues at Yale University, provided evidence on the time course of normalization of these receptors after quitting smoking. Read more »

This post, Quitting Smoking? Your Nicotine receptors Take Over A Month To Normalize, was originally published on Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..