November 12th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: AF, Atrial Fibrillation, Brand Name Drugs, Cardiac Electrophysiology, Cardiovascular Drugs, CV Drugs, Dabigatran, Dofetilide, Dr. John Mandrola, Drug Prescribing By Doctors, Generic Drugs, Lovenox, Overprescribing, Pharmaceutical Reps, Physician Drug Prescribing Habits, Pradaxa, RE-LY Trial, Warfarin
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I loved my old status. Perhaps, reveled in it would be a better description. I was a crotchety, generic medicine-only doctor.** Sadly, my status changed today. Dabigatran (brand name Pradaxa) was the culprit.
It was a little nerve racking. I wrote the order, looked at it, thought it out again, talking to myself: “John, are you sure you don’t want to do it the old way? [pause to think] No, I am embracing the new.” And then, I closed the chart and handed it to the nurse.
“What’s that? Pradaxa?” asked the nurse. “Stop the Lovenox? You sure?” My face must have told the story.
Eight days had passed since dabigatran’s approval. “That’s plenty of time to mourn warfarin’s demise,” I thought. Enough studies, enough blogs — it was time for the rubber to hit the road. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
November 4th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Humor
Tags: Dr. Wes Fisher, e-Prescriptions, Internet-Based Pharmacy Systems, Medical Abbreviations, Medical Humor, Medication Instructions, Prescribing Online, Twitter, Writing Prescriptions Online
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I’m surprised I didn’t notice this sooner, but e-prescriptions will only accept 140 characters in their instructions, just like Twitter. If you have longer instructions, you must print the prescription and hand it to the patient for it to be manually filled at their pharmacy.
Then again, maybe doctors will start to use some twitter-like abbreviations in their instruction fields, like: “Chk ur BP b4 taking b/c itz K 2 hold if nl. TIA.”
Dude. That’d b fab.
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
November 2nd, 2010 by admin in Health Policy, Humor, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Canada, Care Tips From A Patient, Carolyn Thomas, Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research, Consideration for the Patient, Direct Patient Care, Exam Room Etiquette, General Medicine, Guest Post, Healthcare Professionals, Heart Sisters, Hospital Staff, How To Treat Patients, Improving Patient Care, Medical Staff Behavior, Medicine and Humanism, Patient Care Etiquette, Professional Roles in Patient Care, Professionalism In Healthcare, Quality Patient Care, Respectful Patient Care, Successful Patient Care, The Ethical Nag
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This is a guest post from Carolyn Thomas:
An Open Letter To All Hospital Staff
Dear hospital employees,
After a particularly bizarre experience undergoing a treadmill stress echocardiogram at your hospital recently, I decided to do something that I have never done before: I called the manager of the cardiology department to complain about her staff. (Incidentally, a recent opinion survey of international tourists found that Canadians were #1 in only one category: “Least likely to complain when things go wrong” — so you can appreciate that lodging an official complaint is a fairly big deal here!)
In my best PR fashion, I told the manager how distressing the appointment had been because of the behaviour of the two cardiac technicians in the room. It’s not so much that they were openly rude, but it was their insufferable lack of people skills that had pushed me over the edge. No introductions, no eye contact, no consideration of how awkward this test can be, no explanation of the test procedures or even the flimsiest effort at polite conversation. To them, I was merely the 1:00 o’clock appointment, the obstacle between them and their next coffee break, just a piece of meat on a slab — but worse, an invisible piece of meat. Read more »
November 2nd, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor, Opinion
Tags: Dr. John Mandrola, Election 2010, Fixing American Healthcare, Healthcare Administration, Healthcare reform, Medical Humor
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Have you ever thought: “What if I won an election and was put in charge of an administration?”
Halloween weekend seemed the perfect time for considering the fantasy (or some would argue the horror) of a DrJohnM administration. (Let it be known, I have some leadership experience: I lead local group rides with some success. A community organizer of sorts.) But for the sake of college-like dreaming, let’s consider government under my realm.
First off, clearly the present-day political costumes would have to change. There would be a ban on suits, ties (MRSA-spreading), and uncomfortable shoes. People think better if they are dressed in comfy clothes. It works for Google.
Of course, since I am a practicing doctor, a focus of my administration would be on healthcare reform. And like our current president, I would also have “expert” panels — only my “fix healthcare” panel would look very different. To illustrate these phenotypical differences, let’s consider some of my panel’s inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Panel exclusions:
Anyone with a 4.0 GPA. You are out. Sorry, there are plenty of other think tanks for you, in pretty cool places too, like Cambridge, Ann Arbor, and Palo Alto. A very wise retired urologist once told me that B students nearly always make better doctors, and surely those who tried other things in life (besides the classroom) will make better real-life decisions. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
October 30th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Humor, Medical Art
Tags: Ben Tripp, Flesh Wounds, Halloween, Medgadget, Medical Art, Medical Humor, Rise Again, Zombie
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To promote his new zombie book, “Rise Again,” author Ben Tripp is offering a printable sheet of flesh wounds that, to our relatively trained eyes, are reasonably accurate depictions of what undead flesh wounds would look like. You have to provide your own sticky sheets to print them on. (Note to medical students: Do not stick these on your anatomy cadavers.) Happy Halloween!
SOURCE: “Stickers for Quick Undeadliness: Assorted Zombie Wounds“
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
