April 28th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
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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
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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
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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 28th, 2010 by AlanDappenMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Primary Care Wednesdays, True Stories
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At my front door stood my neighbor and his daughter making their annual Girl Scout cookie trek. “Should I make it a baker’s dozen?” the girl asked, knowing I wouldn’t refuse. Her father chimed in, “I was just at a wedding where I sat next to someone who said you saved her life. She said some very nice things about your medical practice.”
The name of the patient he was mentioning flashed me back. Mrs. BB (whose name has been altered to maintain privacy) was referred by a mutual acquaintance who already used our practice. This acquaintance felt that maybe I could solve Mrs. BB’s problem, specifically because all of our practitioners are paid for time, which means we can listen and communicate to determine how we can best help our patients.
Read more »
April 27th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
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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*
