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Cardiac Devices Causing More Infections: What’s The Cause?

A new report published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and reported in theHeart.org and elsewhere, suggests the infection rate of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CEID’s) between 1993 and 2008 has greatly increased from 1.53% in 2004 to 2.41% in 2008 (p < 0.001) with a dramatic rise in 2005:

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The authors explain this sudden increase on the basis of comorbities: Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*

Juvenile Diabetes: The Walk For The Cure

This weekend is the Western Carolina Walk for the Cure for Juvenile Diabetes. Our son Seth is 13, and has been diabetic since age five. The Walk is one of our favorite yearly events. More than that, the idea of a cure is one of our favorite dreams!

Seth has come a long way. He wears an insulin pump, and is now wearing a continuous glucose monitoring system. His chances of long-term complications, such as blindness or renal failure, are remarkably low compared to what kids faced in past decades.

His physician, Dr. James Amrhein of the Greenville Hospital System, is outstanding. He and his outstanding nurse practitioners brought us through the shock and trials of diabetes with great compassion and understanding. He offered us that precious commodity: Hope. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*

Watching A Man Die

The myth of the glory of war is perpetuated in part due to the fact that the stories are only told by survivors. If the guy that took one through the neck in no man’s land in world war one and then slowly faded away in a mess of saliva mixed with blood, lying in his own stools, crying for his mother were to tell his story from beyond the grave it wouldn’t look so glorious at all. It would maybe be a better reflection, though, of the reality of it. In a certain sense we run the risk of glossing over medicine too. I would hope this blog does not.

I am extremely affected by the patient calling out to me to save him in strained monosyllabic speech at the last moment of his life. It is almost too much to bear. And yet I am the survivor. I walk away to live another day or to tell the story or to enjoy a sunrise in the African bush. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at other things amanzi*

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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