Telemedicine and HealthIT

Brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. Asthma Tied to Sleep Apnea. Patients with asthma were also more likely to develop obstructive sleep apnea. 2. 5-Day Steroid Tx Works in COPD. A short-term course of systemic glucocorticoid therapy in patients with acute chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was as effective as treatment of longer duration. [...]

Two North Carolina physicians have decided to have a little musical fun with their EHR-related frustrations. Pediatrician Ken Roberts , M.D., and hematologist-oncologist Jim Granfortuna, M.D., at Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, N.C., have produced this little ditty entitled, “Ode to Electronic Medical Records, or Our Song of Epic Proportions.” Cone Health just happens to have an Epic Systems EHR. Roberts and Granfortuna don’t seem like they’re anti-EHR, just anti-EHR that makes their work more difficult. From the song: “Now we ain’t saying the EHR is bad/When all the bugs are fixed I know we’ll all be glad/It’s just by then us pioneers will all be dead.” Related posts: Park defends plain-text format of ‘Blue Button’ Podcast: Anthelio’s Rick Kneipper on why current EMRs don’t improve quality EMRs at Sam’s Club

The cabdriver pulled up to take me to the community hospital where I work several weeks each year. Settling into the back seat, I made my request before he reached the intersection: “Could you please take 93 South?” He was quick to ask me why, and I hesitated. I had taken this route dozens of [...]

I read with interest this morning an article by Erin McCann, Associate Editor at Healthcare IT News . Ms. McCann shines a bright light on the sad fact that under today’s reimbursement system, better care doesn’t always yield better business results. That...(read more)

One of my students told me about his experience at TEDMED, the future-oriented medical conference that bills itself as “a celebration of human achievement and the power of connecting the unconnected in creative ways to change our world in health and medicine.” He recounted how one speaker showed off the Remote Presence Virtual + Independent [...]

Should doctors be able to write? At first glance, this might seem like a question with an easy answer. Yes, you might say, doctors receive a doctorate and are trusted with communicating to and about people at critical moments in their lives. Or you could reply, No, they are scientists and so need to be functional [...]

On April 14, The United States Preventive Services Task Force concluded that women with an elevated risk of breast cancer – who have never been diagnosed with breast cancer but whose family history and other medical factors increase their odds of developing the disease–should consider taking one of two pills that cut that risk in half. [...]

The World Wide Web gives everyone the chance to publish texts, to participate in political or social debates, to comment on events and people’s behavior, to share ideas and to make oneself known. One may say that the internet is the most democratic medium of our time. This also counts for the availability of products [...] The post Web Democracy – luxury for everyone appeared first on Government 2.0 Club.

When Angelina Jolie announced that she’d undergone a bilateral mastectomy to prevent the breast cancer for which a genetic mutation puts her at high risk, I found myself, as a doctor and as a woman, full of admiration and gratitude for her… and also, in retrospect, for Betty Ford. In a single New York Times [...]

“J.T.” is 92 and clearly a soul who lives to the beat of a different drummer. She has no children and her closest relative is a niece who she despises. Despite this the niece oversees her care, sending in a full time aide and her personnel assistant to run the household. J.T. will not come [...]

Brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. Medical Home Transition Long but Worth It. The path to becoming a patient-centered medical home is long, rough, and varies for each practice, but getting there is essential to providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to all Americans. 2. Any Bed-Sharing Puts Baby at Risk for SIDS. Bed-sharing is associated [...]

Women are undertreated and underserved when it comes to cardiovascular disease and stroke.  Now, more than ever, this may even be more important due to several recent studies that have been published recently. Several investigations have demonstrated two troublesome facts. In certain areas of the country, life expectancy for women is decreasing and women who [...]

A few years after I entered my practice as a newly certified internist, about two decades ago now, I started to burn out. I felt I was becoming a documentation drone and a guideline-following automaton. I was embarrassed for some of the care I gave–attempting to fit patients’ round needs into the square peg of [...]

With the announcement that the FDA granted 510(k) approval for the AliveCor EKG case for the iPhone 4/4S, the device became available to “licensed U.S. medical professionals and prescribed patients to record, display, store, and transfer single-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) rhythms.” Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: [...]

Portuguese and Spanish researchers in the field of social robotics are working on the use of robots to interact with children who are hospitalized for the treatment of cancer, thereby providing emotional support. The researchers are keen to take robots out of the laboratory and place them in a real environment. Until now, most of the research on social robotics has taken place in very controlled environments. As Professor Salichs from UC3M points out, 'The introduction of a group of autonomous social robots into surroundings with these characteristics is something new, and we hope that the project will help us to advance in the development of robots that are able to relate to people in complex situations and scenarios.' via cordis.europa.eu Another cause for guarded optimism about health care robotics? My hope is that it will augment the efforts of often overworked staff and allow them to better prioritize the focus of their precious attention and energy. In addition to...

Recently, over 520 of our doctors began sharing their office visit notes with patients. All primary care doctors and general pediatricians, and selected physicians within pediatric subspecialties, dermatology, endocrinology, pulmonology, nephrology, rheumatology, cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, and women’s health—including obstetrics and gynecology and gynecologic oncology—are participating in OpenNotes. That means tens of thousands [...]

Via PaleoFuture, this Knight Ridder video describes the iPad (okay “the tablet”…but Apple got there first) pretty damned well. Fascinating to me that an entity created by a newspaper company had this sort of prescience…and totally failed to act on … Continue reading →

In a word, no (unless you have cancer). So, let’s take cancer out of the picture and discuss hysterectomy for non-cancerous (benign) reasons. First of all. A hysterectomy (removing the uterus) can be done via one of the 4 methods: 1. Vaginal, a small incision at the top of the vagina and the uterus is [...]

Going public recently with her story of a prophylactic double mastectomy after testing positive for BRCA1 (a gene linked to breast cancer) via an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Angelina Jolie is clearly trying to get the message out that radical choices must sometimes be made in order to increase one’s chances of [...]

“Something bad has happened. I’ve got eyelash extensions,” singer and actress Kristin Chenoweth confessed on the “Late Show with David Letterman” last year while wearing large dark sunglasses, and visibly drowsy on Benadryl. “Here’s the problem: The glue has formaldehyde in it, and I’m allergic,” Chenoweth said. “I swelled up and I’m sneezing. . . [...]

We live in a strange world. What would happen if tomorrow a common sedative was found to cause 21,000 cancer deaths every year? What if it resulted in breast cancer, mouth cancer, hepatoma and esophageal malignancies, and if the average patient lost 19 years of life?  What if the drug also killed by cirrhosis, massive [...]

Brought to you by MedPage Today. 1. Hospitalists Work Longer, Patients Stay Longer. Long work hours for hospitalists led to longer patient stays and unnecessary orders. 2. Automated BP Device Not Cutting It. An automated BP cuff billed as an in-office substitute for ambulatory monitoring may substantially underestimate pressures. 3. No Hike in Mass. Hospital [...]