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Can Major Scarring Be Avoided With Breast Lift Surgery?

Breast Lift surgery (Mastopexy) is obviously surgery to lift the breast. There are variations of this operation – quite a few variations. Breast lift operations are usually discussed relative to the “full breast lift” which has also been called the anchor lift. This operation leaves scars around the areola, under the breast and vertically between the two. The shape of the scar configuration resembles an anchor, hence the name. The potential for scars is one of the major concerns potential patients have with the surgery. This version of the operation also has the greatest potential to change the shape of the breast.

Reduced scar breast lifts came into creation to limit the potential for scarring. The important compromise, however, is that these modified breast lifts “lift” less. Reduced scar lifts can involve any portion of the full lift scar pattern. The modified lift with an incision above the areola only is called a “Crescent lift.” It provides only Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

Cultivate Mindfulness: It Can Be A Powerful Therapeutic Tool

The hectic pace of daily life and the stresses that accompany it may make you want to tune out. A healthier approach may be to tune in.

I know that sounds counterintuitive. But paying more attention to what is going on around you, not less, is the first step toward cultivating mindfulness, an excellent technique to help you cope with a range of mental and physical problems, including stress.

The practice of mindfulness, which has its roots in Buddhism, teaches people to be present in each moment. The idea is to focus attention on what is happening now and accepting it without judgment.

Although it sounds simple, and even simplistic, mindfulness is Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*

How Technology Can Make The Doctor-Patient Relationship Impresonal

At work, we have Voceras.  They are little phones that we wear around our necks.  We use them to call each other, other departments, take phone calls.  They were a little annoying at first and kind of hard to get used to using, but now we all use them every day and I personally have found them to be really helpful.  Our unit is large, and instead of walking around trying to find Susie Q RN to tell her she has a phone call, we just click our Vocera button and can reach her instantly.  Easy.

They added a feature a little while ago.  The Voceras now tie in with the patient monitors.  I don’t know how it all works; for all I know, the unit secretary brings out a magic wand, chants a spell, and then the monitor and Vocera both know what patient I have that day.  This results in a couple of things.

First, Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*

Understanding Risk Related To Outdoor Health

Dr. Robert “Brownie” Schoene, an enormously talented, accomplished, and insightful physician who resides within the bedrock of wilderness medicine, gave a wonderful presentation about the concept of risk at the 2010 annual summer meeting of the Wilderness Medical Society. Risk is inherent in outdoor activities, whether it is part of exploration, adventure, science, or industry. I am going to summarize his approach to the topic, which is among the most important general concepts in the field, and editorialize with some of my thoughts.

When one thinks of risk related to outdoor health, it is about the possibility of suffering harm, damage, or loss. When a person is aware of the possibility of a specific risk, he or she usually weighs the risk against the possible benefits. When you hike on a slippery, snowy trail in early spring, where the trail winds over patches of ice near ledges from which a fall would cause a severe injury, is the experience worth the risk? When you ride a wave on your surfboard when the waves are intimidating and you are outside your comfort zone, is the improvement in performance worth the possibility of a tumble and possible muscle tear or broken bone? Sometimes the answer is easy. When I travel to a third world country, I always run the risk of acquiring infectious diarrhea. The benefits of the mission supersede the discomfort, and I both anticipate the risk and prepare for treatment by carrying oral rehydration supplies and appropriate antibiotics.

I love the quote from Winston Churchill that Dr. Schoene used to illustrate a risk-taker’s approach: Read more »

This post, Understanding Risk Related To Outdoor Health, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

Certain People Have Special Needs

Oh, we’re not kiddy shrinks, so this post is not really about children.  But I like the term, it implies that the person needs something more, that they have special– presumably increased– needs.  It says nothing about potential.  I use the term often, and sometimes with a bit of humor, to remind people that the playing field is not always level.  There are people who start any given race with a handicap– a learning disability, dyslexia, major health problems, mental illnesses, horrible childhoods, addictions — and these set them on a slightly different course.

Some people overcome tremendous adversity.  They function ‘as if’ they had no special needs.  They have stories that would let you understand if they didn’t do very well in life, stories that would explain burying their heads in the sand, or crawling under a large rock.  Sometimes these special needs people are Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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