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This page shows you the most recent publications within this specialty of the MedWorm directory.

The unhappy hospital CEO
Dr Desai is a bright young hospital CEO . After finishing his M.D. in internal medicine he completed his MBA and now runs a 100 bed multispecialty hospital. The hospital is doing well , but he is unhappy . He knows that his hospital has excellent equipment and that his doctors are very skilled and competent. However, he is concerned that his bed occupancy is still low. He wonders what he is doing wrong and why more patients don’t come to his hospital. One major problem is the competition. Most patients prefer going to the big brand-name hospitals such as Apollo and Fortis, because they have much larger marketing budgets...
Source: The Patient's Doctor - May 6, 2013 Category: Obstetricians and Gynecologists Tags: empty hospital beds low hospital occupancy hospital CEO hospital profitability Source Type: blogs

Match Day 2013 at the Pritzker School of Medicine (video)
Holly J. Humphrey, MD'83, and James N. Woodruff, MD, describe the Match Day experience at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine as the medical students discover where they will be placed for their residencies. Look at the pure joy in their faces: The most popular specialties chosen this year by Pritzker students were Internal Medicine (21), Pediatrics (11), Family Medicine (6), Obstetrics-Gynecology (6), and General Surgery (5). For more information, see the Match Results at http://bit.ly/Yz681a Disclaimer: I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at UChicago. Posted at Clinical Cases...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - March 23, 2013 Category: Professors and Educators Tags: UChicago Source Type: blogs

MRCP: Stop Already.
Conclusions MRCP has a high rate of false normal results compared with IOC and is not as accurate as more invasive techniques. There is no need for preoperative MRCP in patients with suspected choledocholithiasis caused by stones. MRCP (magnetic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) is a costly imaging modality (although one would have no idea how much it costs due to pricing opacity and lack of published data---I spent 30 minutes googling "how much does an MRCP cost" without finding a reliable estimate, try it yourself). I have found it to be one of the most overused studies in modern American medicine. T...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - March 23, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

New DG of Health Appointed
The MMR wishes to congratulate Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah upon his appointment as the new Director General of Health. The Star has the news Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, been appointed Health director-general, effective March 1 KUALA LUMPUR: Health Ministry deputy director-general (medical)Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has been appointed director-general, effective March 1. His appointment to replace Datuk Seri Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman was announced Thursday by Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Dr Ali Hamsa. In a statement, Dr Ali said Dr Noor Hisham‘s appointment, which was approved by the Yang d...
Source: Malaysian Medical Resources - February 22, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: palmdoc Tags: - Nation - Palmdoc DG MOH Source Type: blogs

Robotic Hysterectomy: Everybody's Doing It!
A cohort study done by Columbia University evaluating the rise of robotic hysterectomy from 2007-2010 had some pretty breathtaking findings. Use of robotically assisted hysterectomy increased from 0.5% in 2007 to 9.5% of all hysterectomies in 2010. During the same time period, laparoscopic hysterectomy rates increased from 24.3% to 30.5%. Three years after the first robotic procedure at hospitals where robotically assisted hysterectomy was performed, robotically assisted hysterectomy accounted for 22.4% of all hysterectomies.... In a propensity score–matched analysis, the overall complication rates were simi...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 22, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

App News
Apple launches dedicated ‘Apps for Healthcare Professionals’ collection One of the updates to the Apple App Store recently is the inclusion of a specific collection entitled, “Apps for healthcare professionals”. This collection can be found within the ‘Medical Category’. It is a useful starting point for physicians with new mobile devices looking for relevant apps. The collection is further subdivided into: Reference Apps, Medical Education Apps, EMR & Patient Monitoring Apps, Nursing Apps, Imaging Apps, Patient Education Apps and Personal Care Apps. To read about: http://bit.ly/12SWKtr ...
Source: BHIC - February 21, 2013 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Monica Rogers Tags: General Health Information Literacy Source Type: blogs

TechTool Thursday 018
TechTool review of GenSurgCall by on Jeremy Tan on iOS (reviewed on iPhone) Website: – iTunes - Website GenSurgCall is a quick-reference guide, which gives a brief overview of general surgical problems. It’s most useful for med students and very junior doctors. Design and User Interface The design is absent and the UI is all over the place. On first glance it looks just like a very basic app with text and rows and general dullness – to be honest I almost couldn’t face looking through it. However, it has a few surprising features in there. The UI is completely inconsistent – every page has...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - February 21, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tessa Davis Tags: Education eLearning Emergency Medicine Featured General Surgery iOS Reviews TechTool application gensurg iPhone App Tech Tool Source Type: blogs

TechTool Thursday 018
TechTool review of GenSurgCall by on Jeremy Tan on iOS (reviewed on iPhone) Website: – iTunes - Website GenSurgCall is a quick-reference guide, which gives a brief overview of general surgical problems. It’s most useful for med students and very junior doctors. Design and User Interface Urgh. The design is absent and the UI is all over the place. On first glance it looks just like a very basic app with text and rows and general dullness – to be honest I almost couldn’t face looking through it. However, it has a few surprising features in there. The UI is completely inconsistent – every ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - February 21, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Tessa Davis Tags: Education eLearning Emergency Medicine Featured General Surgery iOS Reviews TechTool application gensurg iPhone App Tech Tool Source Type: blogs

Single Port Appy?
Conclusions: SPLA failed to show any advantages over CLA relative to pain and cosmesis. However, SPLA is as safe as CLA (Source: Buckeye Surgeon)
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - February 3, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

Interview: Phillip Hornbostle,MD Bariatric Surgeon
This is the first in a series of interviews I plan on publishing. Dr Phillip M. Hornbostel, M.D., FACS, FASMBS is an accomplished bariatric surgeon in Missouri who has performed thousands of weight loss procedures over the years. He is also the resident dean of the commentariat at the physician-only social media website Sermo. The following represents a series of email exchanges he and I had over the holidays: Dr Hornbostel, tell me about your professional journey from general surgeon to an exclusively bariatric practice. I finished general surgery residency in 1984 and immediately wen...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 22, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

Post Call Operating
Conclusions Performance of general surgery operations the day after an overnight in-hospital trauma shift did not affect complication rates or readmission rates. At this time, there is no compelling evidence to mandate work-hour restrictions for attending general surgeons. This is right up my alley. I am a general surgeon in a practice of two who takes call every other night, every other weekend. I also cover the trauma pager 7-8 times a month. Most of my post call days involve attending to electively scheduled cases. All I can say is that I agree with the above findings. I do...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 20, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

RN to MD. Is this possible?
by Enot (Posted Sat Jan 12, 2013 5:19 pm)http://www.nrmp.org/data/index.htmlIf you are curious about how competitive you might be, you can search to find an site that will correlate your MCAT score to a Step 1 score, and then you can compare the graph on the link above to your projected score. THere is also a score comparison tool on this website. I think it is found under "medical students". Anesthesia is moderately competitive, looking at this, board scores seem to be just above average. By Trauma, I assume you mean surgery. General surgery is a competitive residency. Cardiology is a subspecialty of the general specialt...
Source: Med Student Guide - January 12, 2013 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Residency Blues
Last month, JACS published results from a national web-based survey completed by general surgery residents. The findings paint a bleak picture of overall morale: Results A total of 464 completed surveys were analyzed. Overall, 75% of residents expressed dissatisfaction with the new duty hour limitation. PGY II to V residents reported a higher level of dissatisfaction compared with PGY I residents (87% vs 54%, p < 0.01). Eighty-nine percent of PGY II to V residents responded that there has been a shift of responsibilities from the PGY I class to PGY II to V residents, with 73% reporting increased fatigue as a res...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 5, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

Surgeons as Employees
AMA Physician Masterfile data was examined to determine the shifting paradigm in surgical practices. The results are unsurprising: Results The number of surgeons who reported having their own self-employed practice decreased from 48% to 33% between 2001 and 2009, and this decrease corresponded with an increase in the number of employed surgeons. Sixty-eight percent of surgeons in the United States now self-identify their practice environment as employed. Between 2006 and 2011, there was a 32% increase in the number of surgeon in a full-time hospital employment arrangement. Younger surgeons and female surgeo...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - January 3, 2013 Category: Surgeons Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD Source Type: blogs

Unaccountable: A Book About The Underbelly Of Hospital Care
I met Dr. Marty Makary over lunch at Founding Farmers restaurant in DC about three years ago. We had an animated conversation about hospital safety, the potential contribution of checklists to reducing medical errors, and his upcoming book about the need for more transparency in the healthcare system. Marty was well dressed and soft spoken – sincere, and human. We exchanged business cards and wished each other luck in changing the healthcare system for the better. We were two doctors tilting at windmills. Just two months ago my fiancé sent me a “must read” article from the Wall Street Journal. It was Ma...
Source: Better Health - November 30, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Dr. Val Jones Tags: Book Reviews Complication Rates General Surgery Hospital Safety Marty Makary Patient Safety Readmission Rates Transparency Unaccountable WSJ Source Type: blogs

Covidien’s LigaSure Small Jaw Instrument Now for Open ENT Procedures
Covidien received FDA regulatory approval to market its LigaSure small jaw instrument, an open sealer/divider, for use in head and neck procedures. The device, which adjusts energy delivery to the tip 3,333 times/second, is used to seal vessel walls while keeping surrounding tissue from being damaged by the heat. The jaw mechanism can be used independent of sealing, providing both cutting and blunt dissection for extra flexibility for the surgeon. Energy delivery can be activated with either a hand or foot switch.The LigaSure small jaw instrument was cleared last year in the U.S. for general surgery.Read More (Source: Medgadget)
Source: Medgadget - September 11, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Gene Ostrovsky Tags: ENT in the news... Surgery Source Type: blogs

should I consider surg programs without surg LoR need advice
by njmedstudent26 (Posted Sat Sep 01, 2012 4:08 pm)I do not have any surgery LoRsUS CitizenSaba univ. student (IMG)Step 1 246clinical rotations all honors and a few high passLoRs from psychiatry, obgyn, cardiology. all attending physicians and strong letters.still want to consider general surgery, but is it going to be futile since I don't have a letter from a surgeon? (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - September 1, 2012 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Kelly McCoy, MD
Kelly McCoy is a surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and considered one of the top endocrine surgeons in the United States. She is a former senior naval officer who saw significant experience as a combat trauma surgeon in Iraq. Dr. McCoy gives us here thoughts, Where are you from? I was raised in Clarksville, Pennsylvania and spent all of my young life and early education in western PA. Where did you go to college and what was your academic major? I went to Washington and Jefferson College and was a Molecular Bio major. Where did you do your medical training? I went to med School at Hahnemann University...
Source: Inside Surgery - August 20, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Editor Tags: Interviews Al Anbar endocrine surgeon Iraq Kelly McCoy MD navy Source Type: blogs

Free #Android medical app listing updated: ABSITE quiz & Trauma Scenarios
Our Free medical Android app listing has been updated with the inclusion of Absite quiz Description The ABSITE quiz app is a great review of general surgery questions. Each question has a full explanation and added reference for further reading. The explanation and references is the collaborative effort of several residents from Lehigh Valley Health Network and Cedar Sinai Medical Center – Los Angeles. Thus , this review is for residents by resident. This app is also very beneficial to medical students during their surgery clerkship. It is also of great benefit to any surgeon who wants to keep up with their general surge...
Source: The Palmdoc Chronicles - July 27, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: palmdoc Tags: Software News Updates to Site Source Type: blogs

UK graduate, US residency?
by attendingmd (Posted Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:45 am)You will have to take my advice with a bit of a gain of salt. I am not in plastics but have several friends in plastics and am somewhat familiar with UK medicine as I often visit my colleagues in London and have studied in the UK in the past. My daughter also studied at UCL.There are two basic ways of training in plastics in the US. There are integrated programs where one starts in general surgery and progress through plastic surgery to finish in 5 to 6 years. The more traditional approach is to do general surgery or sometimes ENT for a minimum of three years than apply for a...
Source: Med Student Guide - June 20, 2012 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

diaphragm
in the old days, before i would operate, i used to get a bit worked up. i used to have an adrenal rush at the sheer prospect of cutting a fellow human being open and fixing something. these days...not so much. most of it has become a bit mundane. but there are exceptions. traumatic diaphragm rupture is right up there and for the flimsiest of reasons. it was my first month in a general surgery firm. my registrar was one month away from his finals so he tended to keep his head down. this meant he stayed at home with his nose in the books while i handled the calls. once the patient was on the table i would call him to come i...
Source: other things amanzi - June 1, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs

I know you are, but what am I?
Denialism. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. The story might be apocryphal, and it might not even be true, but it's often used as a metaphor. I'm referring to the "boiling frog" story. Basically, the idea is supposedly based on an observation that a frog, when placed in a pot of hot water, will immediately jump out. However, or so the story goes, if the frog is placed in room temperature water and the water is heated gradually enough, the frog won't notice and will eventually boil to death without trying to escape. The metaphor, of course, is designed to illustrate how people will ...
Source: Respectful Insolence - May 4, 2012 Category: Surgeons Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs

Medscape Physician Compensation Report Physicians Skeptical of ACO Model
Medscape, WebMD’s flagship site for medical professionals, issued a report in the end of April highlighting the opinions of 24,000 U.S. physicians regarding their compensation, and opinions on healthcare reform, including Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and treatment guidelines. The survey was conducted from Feb. 1-17, 2012 via an online survey from a third-party collection site. The respondents represented 25 different physician practice areas. Below is a summary of findings. Medscape Physician Compensation Report ACO’s: Currently, only about 3% of physicians participate with ACOs, which are a type of ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - May 1, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs

Which Doctors Get Paid How Much?
Medscape has released the results of a survey of physicians on pay, and found that though income in general declined, some of the top-earning specialties remained the same as in the 2011 survey. In 2012, radiologists and orthopedic surgeons topped the list at $315,000, followed by cardiologists ($314,000), anesthesiologists ($309,000), and urologists ($309,000). Previously, radiologists and orthopedic surgeons led the pack, at a mean income of $350,000 each, followed by anesthesiologists and cardiologists (both at $325,000). The bottom-earning specialties in this year’s survey were pediatrics, family medicine, and i...
Source: Pharmalot - April 26, 2012 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Iowa Kansas Medscape Missouri Nebraska Northeast pay Physicians Reimbursement specialties Source Type: blogs

Physicians and pay: some better, some worse
Medscape has released the results of a survey of physicians on pay, and found that though income in general declined, some of the top-earning specialties remained the same as in the 2011 survey. In 2012, radiologists and orthopedic surgeons topped the list at $315,000, followed by cardiologists ($314,000), anesthesiologists ($309,000), and urologists ($309,000). Previously, radiologists and orthopedic surgeons led the pack, at a mean income of $350,000 each, followed by anesthesiologists and cardiologists (both at $325,000). The bottom-earning specialties in this year’s survey were pediatrics, family medicine, and i...
Source: Pharmalot - April 26, 2012 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Iowa Kansas Medscape Missouri Nebraska Northeast pay Physicians Reimbursement specialties Source Type: blogs

The Book of Nurses: Sharon.
OK then, to start off tell us what country/area you live in, how long you have been nursing for, what areas you have worked in and the specialty you currently work in - I live in a rural part of the UK and have been in nursing since 1982 (gulp! that’s a loooong time….) I`ve had a varied career, general surgery, ITU, oncology, palliative care but now work as a specialist occupational health nurse advisor, mainly in prisons dealing with the fraggled and battered staff but it all might be changing soon…… What made you decide to become a nurse? – I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do and was wor...
Source: impactEDnurse - April 4, 2012 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: not just a nurse. Source Type: blogs

Personalized Help Much Appreciated
by nicolocomd (Posted Wed Apr 04, 2012 11:41 am)Thank you for the advice I would consider DO programs and I will include them in my plans to apply. Maybe I'll be part of the lucky ones who can get a shot at an MD (although not very likely) but DO's are great as well IMHO medicine is medicine after all. Although I am curious as to what are the differences in getting funding for research between MD and DO, and also what are the possibilities general surgery residencies among DO what would be my career path then if that is my interest? (Source: Med Student Guide)
Source: Med Student Guide - April 4, 2012 Category: Medical Students Source Type: blogs

Expanding GME
I recently wrote a piece for Med Monthly – We need more residency slots, but who will pay Over the past 5 years, we have worked to start a new internal medicine residency. Our biggest hurdle involved finding adequate funding for the residents. We have 1 or 2 new IM residencies in the US in the current match. Few programs can expand. Some programs have to decrease or go out of existence. We have a physician shortage and we cannot address this with more medical students. Most residency slots in this country are funded by the Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This CMS fund...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - February 28, 2012 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs

Viewbox Holdings, LLC Releases Innovative Medical Imaging App on iTunes
Viewbox is a newly released application for the iPad that allows users easy mobile access to view, share, and present medical images. Created with the radiologist and medical professional in mind, Viewbox is an incredibly convenient tool allowing easy portability for your teaching file images in the workplace as well as the classroom. Say goodbye to the tedious days of using multiple storage devices for your images because Viewbox just made utilizing the iPad the most efficient to view and present anonymized medical images for teaching purposes. Viewbox offers radiology trainees and other medical professionals a metho...
Source: radRounds - February 18, 2012 Category: Radiologists Authors: Seth Crapp Source Type: blogs

Thanks, CWRU, for forcing me to get the paper bag out again
It's rare that I have much in the way of reluctance to leap into writing about a topic. Any regular reader of this blog should know this to be true, given the topics I regularly take on and how often my writing draws flak my way from various proponents of quackery and pseudoscience, in particular the antivaccine crowd. Still, sometimes a topic gives me pause, although, I must admit, the reason is that blogging about it will bring embarrassment to me. Usually, I can overcome this reluctance, as I have done in discussing, for example, how my alma mater, the university from which I obtained both my undergraduate and graduate ...
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 30, 2012 Category: Surgeons Tags: Skepticism/critical thinking Source Type: blogs

The homeopathic treatment of burns: The ultimate in valuing symptomatic treatment over all else
I had been planning on either discussing a study or analyzing another cancer cure testimonial, but things have been (mostly) too serious around the ol' blog the last few days. What with depressing posts about the return of whooping cough thanks to antivaccine idiocy, more evidence that Andrew Wakefield is a despicable human being, and evidence that there are equally despicable ideas prevalent in "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM), I was starting to enter one of my periodic periods of depression brought on by contemplating the sheer scope of human gullibility and stupidity. I needed a break, or at least somethin...
Source: Respectful Insolence - January 18, 2012 Category: Surgeons Tags: Medicine Source Type: blogs

ProFibrix US Phase II Study with FibrocapsTM Meets All Primary and Secondary Endpoints
ProFibrix B.V., a leader in the development of innovative products for hemostasis, today announced that its U.S. multicenter Phase II clinical trial with Fibrocaps in spinal, peripheral vascular and general surgery resulted in a highly statistically significant reduction in mean time to hemostasis (TTH) and incidence of hemostasis at 3, 5 and 10 minutes, as compared to active control.A total of 70 patients were enrolled in the company’s U.S., prospective, randomized, single-blind, controlled, multicenter Phase II study with lead product Fibrocaps for mild to moderate surgical bleeding. The US study results confirm the ef...
Source: Medical Hemostat - January 5, 2012 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: hemostatguy at gmail.com (hemostat guy) Source Type: blogs

Gut under pressure
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Gut under pressureaka Gastrointestinal Gutwrencher 005One day, in the only hospital close to here, you are doing your ICU ward round – alone again, because the consultant has been “called away” to an “urgent meeting” – probably at the coffee shop flirting with the ICU physiotherapist again…Your first patient is a 68 year-old man, who is day 1 post-op laparotomy for perforated duodenal ulcer. They had difficulty closing the abdomen, but with some 1.0 nylon and some good strong knots they managed to appose the wound edges.(“uggh…mustR...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 13, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Gerard Fennessy Tags: Featured General Surgery Health Intensive Care abdominal compartment syndrome case-based Q&A critical care gastrointestinal gutwrencher Source Type: blogs

DVT Prophylaxis – Two Articles
There were two articles regarding deep venous thrombosis prevention in the November 2011 issue of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal. Both are worth reading. I have supplied the full references below with links. From the second article: Between 1 and 7 percent of surgeons have personally experienced a venous thromboembolism–related patient death after high-risk plastic surgery. Plastic surgeons' self-reported practice patterns indicate a disparity between clinical understanding and clinical practice. The majority of surgeons can identify patients at high risk for postoperative venous throm...
Source: Suture for a Living - December 12, 2011 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: plastic surgery article review prevention plastic surgeons DVT Source Type: blogs

Worth Your Consideration When Making Career Choices: Medical Coding and Billing
Physicians, Medical Office Managers and Hospital Administration Relies on Medical Coders and Billers Successful medical coders and coding consultants pride themselves on being personally involved and connected with each and every client and exceeding clients expectations. Wherever there are doctors you find medical coders, some work in house as employees of the facility, others are independent consultants, some specialize in areas such as billing and collection, others become medical coding instructors, or speakers at conferences and seminars; some work long hours, others work part-time telecommuting fr...
Source: Medical Coding and Billing Blogspot - November 11, 2011 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Danni R. Source Type: blogs

Worth Your Consideration When Making Career Choices: Medical Coding and Billing
Physicians, Medical Office Managers and Hospital Administration Relies on Medical Coders and Billers Successful medical coders and coding consultants pride themselves on being personally involved and connected with each and every client and exceeding clients expectations. Wherever there are doctors you find medical coders, some work in house as employees of the facility, others are independent consultants, some specialize in areas such as billing and collection, others become medical coding instructors, or speakers at conferences and seminars; some work long hours, others work part-time telecommuting fr...
Source: Medical Assistant Net Blog - November 11, 2011 Category: Nurses Authors: Danni R. Source Type: blogs

Medical Coding and Billing Coding Specialties
Physicians, Medical Office Managers and Hospital Administration Relies on Medical Coders and Billers Successful medical coders and coding consultants pride themselves on being personally involved and connected with each and every client and exceeding clients expectations. Wherever there are doctors you find medical coders, some work in house as employees of the facility, others are independent consultants, some specialize in areas such as billing and collection, others become medical coding instructors, or speakers at conferences and seminars; some work long hours, others work part-time telecommuting ...
Source: Medical Coding and Billing Blogspot - November 11, 2011 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Danni R. Source Type: blogs

The growing physician shortage
We have a growing physician shortage. The AAMC addressed this problem several years ago. We are producing many more US MD grads and DO grads, and those numbers will continue to grow over the next 5 years at least. We have new medical schools and new regional campuses. We have thousands of International graduates (some US citizens, some from other countries) who want to train and practice in the US. None of these activities will address the physician shortage. How can that be true? The bottleneck for creating more practicing physicians is not the production of medical school graduates. Th...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - November 8, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs

physician, heal thyself
even doctors get sick, but there is often a difference. i was rotating through orthopaedics and was on call that night. they tended to relegate us mere general surgeons to casualties during the calls so i was quite excited to get some theater time that afternoon, even if it was for a simple wound inspection and secondary closure and even if it meant there would be a backlog of patients in casualties for me to see afterwards. once i had finished operating i rushed through the change rooms to get back to casualties. while i was changing i heard the unmistakable sounds of someone throwing up in the toilet cubicle. quite soon...
Source: other things amanzi - October 30, 2011 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs

The Higher Risk General Surgical Patient towards improved care for a forgotten group
Scan or click to download 'The Higher Risk General Surgical Patient towards improved care for a forgotten group' Title: The Higher Risk General Surgical Patient towards improved care for a forgotten group The Skinny: Report that describes key issues and standards relating to higher risk non-cardiac general surgery that is undertaken in every acute hospital. By way of comparison, the mortality for this group, which includes most major gastro-intestinal and vascular procedures, exceeds that for cardiac surgery by two to three fold and complication rates of 50% are not uncommon. There may be a lack of awareness of ...
Source: Fade Library - October 18, 2011 Category: Medical Librarians Authors: western4uk Tags: Ooops Missed Category! Clinical Audit Clinical Governance Cost control Financial Management Grey Literature Health Outcomes Health Risk Assessment Health Services Hospital Services Monitoring of standards Patient outcomes Performan Source Type: blogs

the GoTo list.
The sum of us is far greater than the one of us. I often receive emails asking me advice about some specific medical intricacy, or medicinal topic that I really don’t know all that much about. Zip, nix, nada, nought. This got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be great to have a repository of contact information for nurses with specialized knowledge in a particular area? A GoTo list of people who might give far better advice or have far more experience than me. The right questions could then be sent off in the right directions. So let’s have a crack at it. You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to have...
Source: impactEDnurse - October 6, 2011 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: the nurses desk: Source Type: blogs

Integrated Total Clinical Care by Organ System at UAB
I have been an advocate of what is called integrated diagnostics (ID) which consists of closer integration, or even merger, of the major diagnostic specialties, primarily pathology, lab medicine, and radiology (see: Siemens' Pursuit of an Integrated Diagnostics Portfolio; Revisiting Integrated Diagnostics and the Integrated Diagnostic Report; Diagnostic Delay Time (DDT) and Integrated Diagnostics). As a vision for the future, I have suggested that integrated diagnosticians might focus their attention on a single organ or organ system. Meanwhile, there is a parallel trend occurring in hospitals that I will refer to here...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 26, 2011 Category: Pathologists Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Healthcare Solutions Other than Lab Hospitals and Healthcare Delivery Imaging Other Than Pathology Laboratory Industry Trends Source Type: blogs

Adult emergency services: acute medicine and emergency general surgery - case for change
This report by NHS London and London Health Programmes sets out the need for change in hospital care for emergency patients and new clinical standards. The evidence put forward by leading clinicians suggests that increasing the number of hours hospital consultants are available at weekends and improving access to diagnostic scans could save more than 500 lives every year in London. Report Links to summary report, commissioning standards and survey of current arrangements NHS London - news (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - September 23, 2011 Category: UK Health Authors: The King's Fund Information & Library Service Source Type: blogs

Celebrating the divine feminine in all hospital workers
by Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn As I mentioned in "The Myth of Physician Alignment," we need to evolve our thinking and acting from command and control to a more holistic model built on inquiry, dialogue, and long-term relationships that inspire us to improve outcomes. I will share steps in my evolution to provide courage to male colleagues and hope to female colleagues that it is possible for a surgeon to evolve in his thinking... In "Nursing Collaboration," I analyzed the results of a survey that I conducted as an attending surgeon in the 1990s. The principal question asked, "What should be the aims of a residency program i...
Source: hospital impact - September 2, 2011 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs

How doctors can write about clinical cases online
Recently, Kevin Pho wrote about a physician, Alexandra Thran, who was disciplined by both her hospital and the state medical board for writing about a trauma patient she had seen. Although Dr. Thran hadn’t divulged the patient’s name, enough information was conveyed that allowed others in the community to identify the patient in question.That story really freaked me out. Because, as you know, I sometimes write about my adventures in general surgery. Am I a dead man? Is the Ohio State Medical Board going to give me the Bradley Manning treatment? Am I destined to working the night shift at a CVS minute clinic in ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 1, 2011 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Kevin Tags: Social media Facebook Patients newtag Source Type: blogs

Do physicians receive Facebook requests from patients?
According to a recent Journal of General Internal Medicine study the answer is no! By specialty, the JIM study found 42% of family practice physicians, 38% of ob-gyns, 27% of pediatrics and 13% of general surgery physicians have received friend requests. The study found that 68% of respondents correctly identified that it was not ethically acceptable to interact with patients in online social networks with 80% stating that they had concerns about patient confidentiality. *** The source of this post is the Journal of General Internal Medicine: The Patient–Doctor Relationship and Online Social Networks: Results of a Na...
Source: Nicola Ziady - August 27, 2011 Category: Medical Marketing and PR Authors: Nicola Ziady Tags: Facebook interactive marketing Physician Marketing Tomorrow's Healthcare Source Type: blogs

Snookered
A case-based Q&A on the assessment and management of patients presenting with suspected rectal foreign bodies. (Source: Life in the Fast Lane)
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - August 22, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Clinical Case eLearning Emergency Medicine Featured Gastroenterology General Surgery billiard ball gastrointestinal gutwrencher rectal foreign body snooker Source Type: blogs

Healthcare Updates — 08-22-2011
This article notes that overcrowding in Canada results in many who need to be admitted waiting on stretchers for up to two days. Most patients are seen by a doctor in 24 hours, though. I think that Pennsylvania’s Health Department would go into convulsions in Canada. I know the waits are long, but can’t you just read book or watch TV? Guy sitting in a hospital emergency department waiting room decides to flash his “business” to little girls. By the way, the newspaper needs to choose a different headline. “Man with history of exposing himself to children held“? That just conjures up the w...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - August 22, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs

Role Playing to Learn Communication
I was alerted to this Archives of Surgery article (full reference below) by MedPage Today: Role Playing Boosts Surgical Residents' Bedside Manner. I find it intriguing. Role playing gives you a chance for a “do-over” when you make a social or communication faux pas. So much of medicine is communication. Those of us who have been at it for years, deliver bad news differently (learned the hard way) now than we did previously. You choose your words more carefully (though I still occasionally screw up). Some words are more emotionally charged than others. Some patients want more i...
Source: Suture for a Living - August 18, 2011 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: surgeons surgery practice medicine Source Type: blogs

Surgery Journal July 2011 emphasizes importance of social media for professionals
My attention was drawn to a series of articles in the July 2011 subscriber-reserved issue of Surgery concerning the importance of social networks for the medical profession. Each author explains why he or she considers social media important and provides examples of their relevance to doctors.Please read on for highlights Social media in medical school education Katie M. Wells, MD, Macon, GA. Graduate from the Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA; and General Surgery Resident, Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Examples: Facebook for ar...
Source: Denise Silber's eHealth - July 25, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Denise Silber Tags: Doctors 2.0 Health 2.0 Hospitals Source Type: blogs