April 28th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Board-Certified Doctors, Colon Cancer Screening Test, Colonoscopy, Colorectal Cancer, Colorectal Health, Fecal Occult Blood Testing, FOBT, Gastrointestional Medicine, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Crisis, Healthcare reform, Home Stool Testing, In-Office Stool Testing, Inadequate Healthcare, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Primary Care Doctors, Sigmoidoscopy, Solo Practice, Sub-Standard Care
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A recent article found that primary care doctors the United States are providing sub-standard care when it comes to colon cancer screening.
In the Journal of General Internal Medicine, researchers found that 25% of primary care doctors used in-office stool testing to screen for colon cancer. Specifically, doctors do a rectal exam and then swipe the rectal contents off their gloves onto a stool-testing card. A positive test result indicates the presence of blood, which can be invisible to the naked eye. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
April 28th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Access to Healthcare, Association of Staff Physician Recruiters, Decision-Making Ability, Defensive Medicine, Doctor Satisfaction, Doctor-Patient Communication, Family Medicine, Healthcare Economics, In-House Recruitment Benchmarking Survey, Internal Medicine, Jackson Healthcare, Medical Group Management Association, Non-Metropolitan, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Physician Opinion Survey, Primary Care Shortage, Primary Care Workers, Working Environment
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Two new surveys take the temperature of the primary care working environment.
In the first, a collaboration between the Medical Group Management Association and the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters, recruiters took a median of six months to fill positions for internal medicine or family practice physicians, according to the In-House Recruitment Benchmarking Survey: 2010 Report Based on 2008 Data.
Among the findings:
— It cost less to recruit specialists, due to the economic downturn and a 30% rise in the use of Internet job boards as a primary recruitment method.
— It takes longer to fill a position in non-metropolitan areas, where the impact of the primary care shortage is greatest. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
April 28th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Research
Tags: Adverse Drug Reactions, Dr. Jon Duke, Drug Side Effects, e-Tool, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Internal Medicine, Journal of Biomedical Informatics, Medical Informatics, Multiple Medications, Primary Care, Regenstrief Institute, RXplore
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Jon D. Duke, M.D., a medical informatics fellow at the Regenstrief Institute at the Indiana University School of Medicine, has created an easy-to-use graphical online tool called RXplore that allows physicians and other healthcare providers to retrieve adverse reaction data for multiple medications simultaneously, and with an intuitive visual representation.
With RXplore, a physician can easily call up a visualization of the top 10 side effects of a specific drug or ask only for side effects relating to a particular specialty, such as gastroenterology. Alternatively, the doctor may request a snapshot of those drugs that cause a particular symptom, such as liver problems. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
April 27th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: Breast Cancer Prevention, Breast Cancer Research, Buckets for the Cure, Diet and Nutrition, Double Down Sandwich, Heart Health, Jennifer LaRue, KFC, Oncology, Preventive Medicine, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Washington Post
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I must say I was surprised (astounded) when I first saw the KFC commercial touting their Buckets for the Cure. It’s a partnership between KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. KFC donated 50 cents for each bucket purchased.
This, after the recent addition to KFC’s menu of the Double Down Sandwich! It’s my opinion that KFC doesn’t have anyone’s health as their goal.
I want to encourage anyone who wants to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure or other breast cancer groups to simply bypass KFC and donate directly to the group. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
April 27th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Controlling Blood Pressure, Diet and Exercise, Dietetics, Food and Nutrition, General Medicine, High Blood Pressure, Kinesiology, Lowering blood pressure naturally, New York Times, ResearchBlogCast, Weight Loss
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First, an article in the New York Times talks about whether exercise can actually help you lose weight. Short answer: Probably not, but it may help you keep the pounds off. Click here to read the article.
Second, I’ve done a podcast about my post on whether diet can be used to control blood pressure long term. Each week Razib Khan, Kevin Zelnio and I discuss an article we’ve covered on one of our blogs, and it was my turn. Click here to listen to the podcast online, or click here if you’d like to subscribe to the podcast. You can also visit iTunes and search on “ResearchBlogCast.”
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*