A daily decision to prioritize my patients over my notes
It’s been a long day in the psychiatry clinic.
Seeing patients is never dull, and each interaction is meaningful in its own way. From the moment they walk into my office to the moment they leave, I try my best to be fully present with the patients sitting in front of me. That means listening to every word, watching every nuance of body language, hearing every concern — both spoken and unspoken. It means bearing their grief as they tell me about the father they’re losing to cancer, their pain as they suffer through profound bouts of depression and their agony as they recall their nightmares of childhood trauma.
It...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 16, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Mary C. Zeng, MD Tags: Physician Health IT Source Type: blogs
Addressing Tobacco And Secondhand Smoke Exposure In Maternal And Child Survival Programs
Ending preventable child and maternal deaths (EPCMD) by 2035 is one of US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) three global health priorities, along with creating an AIDS-Free Generation and protecting communities from infectious diseases. In June 2014 USAID launched the report Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Maternal and Child Deaths, which provides an evidence-based approach to meeting this goal across USAID’s 24 EPCMD focus countries. One of the key elements of the EPCMD approach is alignment across interventions to meet the needs of affected populations; for this reason, Acting on the Call incorpor...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 24, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Karen Wilson, Jonathan Klein, Sally Cowal, Aaron Emmel and Emily Kaiser Tags: Equity and Disparities Featured Global Health Population Health Public Health CDC Children cigarettes Environmental Health second hand smoke tobacco USAID Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Health Affairs November Issue: Food And Health
The November issue of Health Affairs, released today, contains a number of articles focusing on the relationships between food and health in the United States. Some of the topics studied include policies that can encourage healthier eating, the impact of food insecurity on overall health, and the cost of obesity to state Medicaid programs, among others.
This month Health Affairs launches a new DataGraphic feature, which will appear primarily in theme issues. This month’s DataGraphic (excerpt below) provides a pictorial view of key facts about obesity, including data from several studies in this month’s issue.
Health A...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 2, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Tracy Gnadinger Tags: Costs and Spending Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Medicaid and CHIP Population Health Public Health Quality Children diet Food and Health nutrition Obesity poverty SDH Source Type: blogs
I’ve Been Arrogant for 15 Years and Now I Atone
As published on Gather the JewsIt is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In synagogue I recited one of the most important prayers Jews read each year called viddui, or the confession. Al chet she-cha-tanu l’fanecha. For the sin we have committed against you.There are many sins. One stood out to me.“. . .The sin we have committed against You by our arrogance. . .For all these sins, O God of mercy, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!”* * * * *I distributed stickers of my Instagram character named Cancerslayer to the sticker-hungry children who visited my table. “Cancerslayer fights illness by day and bad guys by...
Source: cancerslayerblog - September 25, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: life lessons Source Type: blogs
I ’ve Been Arrogant for 15 Years and Now I Atone
< b > As published on Gather the Jews < /b > < br / > < br / > It is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In synagogue I recited one of the most important prayers Jews read each year called < i > viddui < /i > , or < i > the confession < /i > . Al chet she-cha-tanu l ’fanecha. For the sin we have committed against you. < br / > < br / > There are many sins. One stood out to me. < br / > < br / > “. . .The sin we have committed against You by our < b > arrogance < /b > . . . < br / > < br / > For all these sins, O God of mercy, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement! ” < br / > < br / > < div style="text-align: center...
Source: cancerslayerblog - September 25, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: life lessons Source Type: blogs
4 things on the horizon in childhood cancer
The 20th century saw striking advances in curing childhood cancer, primarily as a result of the discovery that broadly toxic chemotherapy agents could kill malignant cells. As a result, pediatric cancer, once a virtually incurable disease, now enjoys an overall long-term survival rate that tops 80 percent. In the 21st century, attention is turning to newer agents that promise to open additional, less toxic avenues to cure. As we mark Childhood Cancer Awareness Month 2015 throughout September, here are four things on the horizon for pediatric cancer.
Precision medicine. Treatment for cancers is now being transformed bec...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 21, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Lisa Diller, MD Tags: Meds Cancer Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
5 things OB/GYNs should know about treating survivors of childhood cancer
Recent research shows improvement in long-term survival rates for childhood cancer patients, but also highlights the challenges that remain for many of the almost 400,000 survivors in the United States. Among these survivors are women facing gynecological health issues from the late effects of their treatment. What follows are several areas of concern that gynecologists and obstetricians should consider when treating women who had cancer as girls.
1. Treatment summary. An adult woman who had cancer during childhood should have a written summary of treatments she received. Certain commonly utilized treatments for childhoo...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 3, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Lisa Diller, MD Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
Legalizing Medical Marijuana
TUESDAYS WITH ROSEMARY AND MYRAVirtually everyone is familiar with Mitch Albom’s book, Tuesdays With Morrie. Myra Christopher (Foley Chair at the Center and former Center CEO) and Rosemary Flanigan (Retired Center Program Staff) have decided to regularly contribute to the Center for Practical Bioethics’ blog and call it “Tuesdays with Rosemary and Myra” (even though it won’t necessarily be published on a Tuesday). Read more about Rosemary and Myra at the bottom of this post. Note: Today, Myra and Rosemary are discussing an article about the legalization of marijuana that appeared in...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - September 2, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Practical Bioethics Tags: Health Care syndicated Tuesdays with Rosemary & Myra Source Type: blogs
American Hospitals Need to Stop Offering Fast Food, Quick!
Ban on Hospital Smoking: A Model
In the 1950′s the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published what was, at the time, an incredibly surprising finding: smoking is detrimental to health1. By 1964, the Surgeon General had publically acknowledged the linkage between smoking and cancer and, by the seventies, the smoking-cancer relationship was standard curricula in U.S. medical schools 2. Despite both medical and public awareness, however, hospital policy lagged behind the science; most healthcare centers had little to no official regulation regarding smoking in their facilities2. Reducing Smoking in Hos...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - August 26, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Consumer Health Care Food Policy Publc Health Source Type: blogs
A Perfect Combination: The Cleveland Neighborhood Model For Urban Health Care Education
I grew up in inner-city Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated high school at the top of my class with high aspirations. I was going to change the world and make my family proud. I was going to be a doctor. There was always enthusiasm whenever I shared that I was a pre-med major.
The thrill was soon gone after I rode the wave of pre-med classes that got increasingly difficult with each passing semester. I completed my science degree with average grades and somewhere along the way, lost my desire to pursue medicine.
Thankfully, all of my science education and interest in health was not lost, as I embarked on a successful career in ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 28, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Kimalon Meriweather Tags: Equity and Disparities GrantWatch Health Professionals Quality Access Chronic Care Health Philanthropy Minority Health Nonmedical Determinants Physicians Primary Care Workforce Source Type: blogs
Americans Are Finally Eating Less - From the New York Times
Americans Are Finally Eating LessAfter decades of worsening diets and sharp increases in obesity, Americans' eating habits have begun changing for the better.Calories consumed daily by the typical American adult, which peaked around 2003, are in the midst of their first sustained decline since federal statistics began to track the subject, more than 40 years ago. The number of calories that the average American child takes in daily has fallen even more — by at least 9 percent.The declines cut across most major demographic groups — including higher- and lower-income families, and blacks and whites — though they vary s...
Source: Dr Portnay - July 26, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr Portnay Source Type: blogs
Patients just want their doctors to care. But too many don’t.
A few months ago, the father of one of my best friends was diagnosed with cancer. He had to have surgery to remove the tumor. His father, being someone I’d known since childhood was like an uncle to me. After the surgery, I sat across from him in an otherwise empty hospital room on a sunny day in beautiful San Diego. It was the first time I had seen him in a while, and he looked surprisingly calm for just having had a major surgery. He told me the story of his diagnosis and how he was first seen by a doctor who told him he had cancer but seemed rather cold and detached otherwise. This made him feel uncomfortable, and so ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 23, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Ahmad Bailony, MD Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
Population Life Expectancy Inversely Correlated with Childhood Autoimmune Disease Incidence
A researcher here runs the numbers to demonstrate an inverse correlation between autoimmune disease incidence and life expectancy. It is interesting to speculate on the mechanisms here, which are probably not going to turn out to be a straightforward matter of (a) declining immune function being important in the progression of aging, and (b) more autoimmunity indicating a greater tendency to subclinical immune dysfunction over the course of aging in a population:
The autoimmune diseases are among the ten leading causes of death for women and the number two cause of chronic illness in America. They are a predisposing facto...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 30, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The Heart is a Strange Sort of Organ
We examined the heart tissue from 29 deceased individuals of various ages and found that even by one month after birth, the heart contains the same number of cells as it has in adults."
According to the study, the heart grows during childhood because its cells increase in size rather than in number; in other words, heart cells are generated on only a modest scale, and even during a long life, only forty per cent of muscle cells are replaced. "Our findings suggest that it can be rational and realistic to develop new therapeutic strategies for strengthening the body's own regenerative capacity to treat heart diseases."
Tel...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 22, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Will Governor Brown Take the Risk as the African-American Community Says NO to SB277?
Conclusion
Will Governor Jerry Brown think twice and really risk the wrath of the black community? Will he even read Mrs. Sullivan’s letter or care about the many religious groups opposing vaccinations due to their ingredients?
It appears that more governments worldwide are mandating vaccinations on a daily basis and parents are completely powerless to stop them. Who are these people who make all the decisions, and what right do they have to impose their largely unproven theories that ALL vaccinations are safe and effective for ALL children?
Let’s face it, it does make you wonder what their real agenda is, doesn’t it...
Source: vactruth.com - June 16, 2015 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Christina England Tags: Christina England Logical Top Picks Mandatory Vaccination SB 277 vaccine mandate Source Type: blogs
