Second California Nurse Dies by Suicide on the Job
A nurse took his own life at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center last week, marking the second apparent suicide by a nurse in a matter of months. On April 30, the nurse shot himself in the supply closet halfway through his shift in the emergency department, according to NBC Bay Area. His name has […]
Diet type can increase potentially harmful gas in the gut
Published in Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School looked at colonic hydrogen sulfide — a toxic gas in the body that smells like rotten eggs — production in people in response to animal- and plant-based diet interventions. “Although the role of hydrogen sulfide has long been a subject of great interest […]
Opinion | 10 Ways Medicine Is Like the Airline Industry
I am standing before a team of fellows, residents, medical students, and pharmacists on Monday morning about to start rounds on the oncology service. As the intern is about to dive into the first patient presentation, I take a moment to ask a question: “Is anyone here into aviation?” This is met with an awkward […]
Opinion | As a Fake Neuro Patient, I Got High-Quality Care
I was recently given the opportunity to act as a standardized neurology patient in a case simulation for a group of medical students. When I was in training, we often did simulations with mannequins, but since it is difficult for a mannequin to display subtle neurologic findings, having a neurology-trained doctor play the patient can […]
How Is Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) Diagnosed? Symptoms, Treatment, Causes
Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is mainly diagnosed based on characteristic signs and symptoms and medical history. Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is mainly diagnosed based on characteristic signs and symptoms and medical history. There is no specific test to confirm TD. Typically, symptoms should go away after six months or more of stopping the culprit medications (dopamine receptor […]
Cannabis Linked to Less Opioid Use in Back Pain, Osteoarthritis
Medical cannabis can greatly reduce or eliminate the need for opioid painkillers in patients with chronic back pain and osteoarthritis, a pair of studies found. The studies, reported at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting and published in Cureus, are limited since they don’t include control groups and can’t […]
Opinion | ‘I Don’t Have a Red Flag on My Application’: What We Heard This Week
“I don’t have a red flag on my application.” — Medical student Kaitlyn Thomas on how more students who don’t match to residency training program are taking to #medtwitter to support each other. “I think waning immunity is not something we all need to be concerned about.” — Jesse Erasmus, PhD, of the University of […]
9/11 Responders More Likely to Carry Genetic Mutations Tied to Cancer
Firefighters and emergency medical personnel who were among the first to respond to the World Trade Center (WTC) attack on Sept. 11, 2001 harbor significantly higher rates of genetic mutations associated with blood cancers and other inflammatory diseases, researchers have found. A full 10% of WTC responders exposed to particulate matter from the burning twin […]
How Can the U.S. Preserve Its Medical Supply Chain?
WASHINGTON — Onshoring medical manufacturing is part of a strategy to shore up the nation’s medical supply chain, but it can’t be the entire strategy, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). “If you are thinking about onshoring the entire global supply chain, that would be a […]
Debunking the ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis for Deaths in Police Custody
For decades, the term “excited delirium” has been erroneously used as a catch-all medical diagnosis for people who have died in police custody, despite having no legitimate scientific roots, a new investigative report has found. While delirium and its subtypes are recognized by the International Classification of Diseases and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of […]