Can Medical Decision-Making Keep Up With the Science?
On average, it takes 17 years for new treatments to reach mainstream clinical practice. That means that when patients see a doctor in 2020, they are often getting guidance from 2003. To put this into perspective, current practices come from a time before the iPhone! But during the pandemic, the speed of changes to medical […]
FDA Panel Mulls Which Devices Are Critical in a Public Health Emergency
What bare minimum equipment would you need to practice your specialty during a public health emergency? It depends on what the emergency is, members of an FDA advisory panel said Tuesday. “If we have a thermonuclear war, all I need is a scalpel,” said Stavropoula Tjoumakaris, MD, a professor of neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University […]
Advanced Practice Providers Push to Unionize in Oregon
It’s not just physicians who are moving to unionize: More than 600 advanced practice providers (APPs) at the Oregon Health & Science University Hospital (OHSU) system have announced their intent to join a union. Members of the group include nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants (PAs), according to the Oregon Nurses Association […]
Opinion | Emotional Intelligence Must Guide Artificial Intelligence
Lazarus is an adjunct professor of psychiatry and a regular commentator on the practice of medicine. I don’t understand the brouhaha about artificial intelligence (AI). It’s artificial — or augmented — but in either case, it’s not real. AI cannot replace clinicians. AI cannot practice clinical medicine or serve as a substitute for clinical decision-making, […]
Heart Injuries Suggest Reconsideration of Holding BP Meds for Surgery
The practice of taking some patients briefly off their antihypertensive medications before non-cardiac surgery did not work as intended, and in fact led to excess acute hypertension in the SPACE trial. Myocardial injury rates were no worse, even numerically better, for people randomized to stay on their renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors (41.3%) compared with peers […]
7 Things Dementia Experts Would Never, Ever Do
Jacobs Stock Photography Ltd via Getty Images There are habits you should and shouldn’t practice in order to keep your brain sharp. More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s and dementia, making it the seventh leading cause of death globally. While myriad factors, including genetics and environment, can cause dementia, it can also […]
Low Tidal Volume Compliance Still Lacking in Mechanical Ventilation
Implementation of a well-established protective ventilation setting was limited in practice in the U.S. and U.K., electronic health records showed. From the records of mechanically ventilated people, median tidal volume was 7.48 mL/kg of predicted body weight in a U.K. database and 7.91 mL/kg in the U.S., both approaching the accepted upper limit of <8 […]
What Not to Do When Starting a Private Practice
In the fifth episode of Practice Matters, Payal Kohli, MD, founder of Cherry Creek Heart in Denver and the medical expert for 9News/Daily Blast Live, discusses three mistakes she made while starting her private practice and advises new practice owners on how to avoid these pitfalls. The following is a transcript of her remarks: Hello, […]
How Can Primary Care Be Improved in the U.S.?
WASHINGTON — Are you taking Fridays off at your medical practice? If so, you’re not alone, said Ishani Ganguli, MD, a primary care physician at Harvard Medical School in Boston, at a primary care forum here Thursday. “We see this 20% dip [in office visits on Fridays] — specialist visits more than primary care visits,” […]
Opinion | The Million-Dollar Mistake
Every physician without a business education who works in private medical practice leaves approximately $1 million on the table, and is unaware of that, a fact that’s well known to business experts who work with doctors experiencing financial difficulties. Experts such as Dan S. Kennedy, Peter Drucker, Michael Gerber, Maxwell Maltz, MD, Neil Baum, MD, […]