August 13th, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Continental Testing Services, Costs, Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, Federation of State Medical Boards, Fees, Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, Licensure, Med School, Med School Debt, Medicine, National Board of Medical Examiners, Residency, Students, USMLE
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You could see the frustration in his eyes as he spoke to his fellow resident.
“I had to fork over eight hundred and thirty five dollars,” he said slowly in a disgusted tone, “… and that doesn’t even include the $300 state license fee we have to pay later….”
So much for starting our EKG conference on time.
The comments continued. No one could understand why medical school licensure has become so expensive in the US. I thought I’d look into what medical students can expect to pay these days for licensure since it had been a while since I had gone through the gauntlet. Here’s what I found out: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
August 13th, 2011 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News, Opinion
Tags: Apple, Apps, Business Data, Doctors, Forbes, Health IT, Healthcare Providers, Hospital Setting, iPad, Medical Technology, Mobile Devices, Patient Interaction, Personal Data, Physicians, Tom Gillis, Work
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Great blog piece in Forbes by Tom Gillis — VP of Cisco’s Security Technology Business Unit — on how hospital Chief Security Officers (CSOs) are having issues with managing physician use of mobile devices at work. He had dinner with the CSOs of five major healthcare providers, who stated their biggest headache is how Doctors love their iPads and want to use them for work.
Gillis is in the business of enterprise security, and he gives an insider’s perspective on mobile device use in the hospital setting. He writes about the fundamental shift in how physicians are consuming content. Before the proliferation of mobile devices, hospitals had complete control of managing the “endpoint” — how the content was consumed. This is no longer the case, and since these personal devices have created a new paradigm, IT teams are left playing catchup.
It was refreshing to hear Gillis talk about how the solution Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
August 13th, 2011 by MotherJonesRN in Opinion
Tags: Back Pain, Big E Transportation, Delivery Men, Health Insurance, Lowes, Luxury Items, Marriage, Minimum Wage, Mixing Medications, Moving Company, Nurse, Pain Killers, Refrigerator Nurse, Registered Nurse, RN
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Meet Nurse Prudence Perfect. She is the unit’s refrigerator nurse. It’s her job to make sure that everything is perfect and meets Joint Commission standards because you never know when the old JC will drop by for an unannounced visit. Insulin vials labeled and dated? Check. Refrigerator thermometer easily accessible and log up to date? Check. Hey, who put their lunch in here? There is to be no food in medication refrigerator! Prudence is gearing up. Stand by for one of her Joint Commission inservices.
For you nursing history buffs, the term “refrigerator nurse” goes way back to a time when Prudence was a graduate nurse. The term was coined back when it only took one paycheck to support a family, and when nurses, typically women, quit working once they got married. A nurse who went back to work after she was married in order to buy luxury items for her family, such as a refrigerator, was known as a refrigerator nurse. Some have suggested that these nurses were less dedicated to their patients and to the nursing profession, but this is simply not true. It was a different time back then. Women who went back to work after they got married broke with convention. They were rebels and some of the best nurses I’ve known.
This week, I also became a refrigerator nurse, but not in the classic sense. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*
August 12th, 2011 by M. Brian Fennerty, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Ablation, Ablation Techniques, argon plasma coagulation, Barrett's Esophagus, BE Elimination, cryotherapy, endoscopic mucosal resection, Gastroenterology, Long Segment, multipolar electrocautery, Nodular, Patient Care, radiofrequency ablation, Short Segment, Surgical Techniques
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The first cases of Barrett esophagus (BE) ablation in the late 1980s used YAG and Argon laser. Since then, a myriad of ablation techniques have been described, including multipolar electrocautery (MPEC), argon plasma coagulation (APC), cryotherapy, radiofrequency ablation (RFA), and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR). Each technique has had its advocates, and some of the techniques appear to have certain advantages in certain types of BE: e.g., long segment, nodular, etc.
Most cases of BE are short segment, and most neoplastic cases do not have nodules or erosions. So the question I would like to see discussed is: In a patient with 1–2 cm of otherwise featureless flat but neoplastic BE:
What ablation technique would you use, and what do you feel makes this technique advantageous? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gut Check on Gastroenterology*
August 12th, 2011 by Shadowfax in Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Aneurysm, Arteritis, Brain, Case Study, Cranial Nerve 3, Demyelinating Diseases, Diplopia, Double vision, Herpes Zoster, Medical School, Meningitis, MRA, MRI, Neuroanatomy, Neurology, Oculomotor Nerve, Post Trauma, Ptosis, Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Unilateral, Vision
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Yesterday, I presented the case of a woman with double vision and ptosis and challenged you all to a game of “spot the lesion.” To be honest, I found this stuff impenetrable as a medical student and it was only by sheer force of will that I was able to commit it to memory for exactly long enough to pass a test on it before immediately purging it from my memory. I did this several times for various board exams and such, but it never really “stuck.” Hated neuro beyond words, I did.
As mind-numbing as I found it all in the abstract, I get excited about these cases in application. I may not remember where exactly the internal capsule is or what it does, but when I see someone with an interesting neuro deficit due to a lesion there, all of a sudden it makes so much more sense, and is, dare I say it, cool. I know, kinda sad.
This case is as classic (and cool) as you will ever see. It’s a complete palsy of the Oculomotor Nerve (CN 3 for those keeping score at home).
So how do you approach figuring that out? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
