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Mashup Score: 0What we choose to name a disease matters - 3 day(s) ago
Originally published on Common Sense Family Doctor on October 5, 2017. ** A couple of years ago around this time, I was dealing with a series of minor health problems. I developed a sinus infection that took several weeks to resolve. I twisted one of my knees ice skating, and for a while I feared that I had torn a meniscus. Occasionally after eating a heavy meal, I had the sensation that food was getting stuck on the way to my stomach – so along with an x-ray and MRI for my knee, my doctor also sent me for an
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Mashup Score: 019th century mental disorders and the American Civil War - 9 day(s) ago
Earlier this week, I gave this lecture as part of the “Lunch and Learn” webinar series sponsored by the Lancaster Medical Heritage Museum. I appreciated the opportunity to combine my interests in history and medicine to discuss how post-traumatic stress disorder manifested in former Civil War soldiers and its historical and present-day treatment.
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Mashup Score: 0
Prescribing beta-blocker therapy to a patient after a myocardial infarction (MI) is thought to reduce recurrent MI and mortality and has been a reportable quality measure for decades. A 2000 American Family Physician article on this topic, “Optimizing beta-blocker use after myocardial infarction,” implied that this intervention was settled science. However, the benefits of beta-blockers were established in studies mostly conducted in the 1980s, when most diagnosed MIs caused significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction, and prior to the use of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin tests, percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), thrombolytics, high intensity statins, and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system antagonists.
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Mashup Score: 0STFM Research Paper of the Year - 13 day(s) ago
Thanks to Dr. Laura Blinkhorn for snapping this photo, since I wasn’t able to travel to the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine conference this year. It’s an honor to be recognized! Common Sense Family Doctor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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Mashup Score: 0How artificial intelligence will make my work easier - 24 day(s) ago
A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette outlined the various ways that artificial intelligence (AI) is improving health care in Pennsylvania. For example, AI software can serve as a “virtual scribe,” listening to the doctor-patient conversation during an office visit and drafting a note, freeing the doctor to focus on the patient for 100% of the time. AI can “draft letters to health insurers on behalf of patients who need specialty medications, medical equipment or other care that’s not standard in their insurance benefits,” saving time for doctors and office staff. In the future, AI could respond to patient portal messages, triage phone calls, or even suggest diagnoses.
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Mashup Score: 0Reducing harms associated with PSA screening - 27 day(s) ago
In the U.K. Cluster Randomized Trial for PSA Testing for Prostate Cancer (CAP), more than 400,000 men in primary care practices between 2001 and 2009 were either invited to receive a single PSA screening test or usual care. After a median follow-up of 10 years
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Mashup Score: 0Some common sense on breast cancer screening - 1 month(s) ago
Originally posted on Common Sense Family Doctor on October 21, 2015. ** Yesterday, the American Cancer Society updated its guidelines on screening mammography for women at average risk, moving closer to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines by recommending that most women start screening at age 45 (rather than 40) and be screened every other year (instead of annually) starting at age 55. The ACS also cast doubt on the effectiveness of the clinical breast examination in women who are already undergoing mammography screening. Although I don’t agree with every aspect of the new guideline, it has the potential to make breast cancer screening more effective by preserving the benefits and reducing the harms.
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Mashup Score: 0Should race be incorporated into weight management decisions? - 1 month(s) ago
I have a personal stake in the answer to this question. For most of my adult life, my body mass index (BMI) has ranged between 22 and 25 kg/m2, which is considered to be in the normal range (the threshold for overweight is a BMI of 25, and obesity a BMI of 30). But it turns out that I’ve been overweight for most of that time if one applies a race-specific definition of overweight (BMI greater than 23) for individuals of Asian descent. Where did this race-based cutpoint come from, and is it still relevant in an era when we generally frown on using race as a surrogate for social determinants of health in making clinical decisions?
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Mashup Score: 2
Since human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines were first added to the routine U.S. childhood immunization schedule nearly two decades ago, the evidence of their effectiveness has become stronger every year. In 2019, a Medicine by the Numbers in American Family Physician
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Mashup Score: 0Family physicians are natural health system leaders - 2 month(s) ago
Originally posted on Common Sense Family Doctor on May 26, 2014. ** Last week, the subtitle of a JAMA editorial on accountable care caught my attention: “the paradox of primary care physician leadership.” The authors observed that although a typical family physician’s or general internist’s patient panel accounts for about $10 million in annual health care spending (of which only $500,000 is primary care revenue), primary care physicians have been “underused” as role players in health system reform. They further suggested that claiming leadership positions in accountable care organizations could be “a powerful opportunity [for family physicians] to retain their autonomy and make a positive difference for their patients – as well as their practices’ bottom lines.”
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What we choose to name a disease matters https://t.co/Xv9XCuf1KL