A veteran ’ s battle against possible lung cancer
During my night shift at the emergency department, I encountered a 72-year-old decorated war veteran named Mr. Sun. Accompanied by his concerned wife, he came to address a year-long struggle with fatigue and a non-productive cough he’d been experiencing in recent weeks. Initially resistant to seeking medical attention, Mr. Sun finally gave in to his
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A veteran’s battle against possible lung cancer originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 22, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Ton La, Jr., MD, JD Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
AI vs. human doctors: Why patients prefer the real thing
In a Black Mirror-esque video I watched recently on YouTube, a young man with a persistent cough notices a booth labeled “Instant Doctor” as he’s waiting in a train station, and decides to give it a try. The somewhat pleasant robot voice immediately recognizes him and dutifully (creepily?) reads off his age, height, and weight. She then
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AI vs. human doctors: Why patients prefer the real thing originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 21, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Jeanne Sandella, DO Tags: Tech Health IT Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Two Patients With More Than One Diagnosis
BY HANS DUVEFELT
I have written many times about how I have made a better diagnosis than the doctor who saw my patient in the emergency room. That doesn’t mean I’m smarter or even that I have a better batting average. I don’t know how often it is the other way around, but I do know that sometimes I’m wrong about what causes my patient’s symptoms.
We all work under certain pressures, from overbooked clinic schedules to overfilled emergency room waiting areas, from “poor historians” (patients who can’t describe their symptoms or their timeline very well) to our own mental fatigue after many hours on the...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 16, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Hans Duvefelt neuralgia sinusitis Source Type: blogs
A big data COVID train wreck
BY ANISH KOKA
If there was any doubt the academic research enterprise is completely broken, we have an absolute train wreck of a study in one of the many specialty journals of the Journal of the American Medical Association — JAMA Health.
I had no idea the journal even existed until today, but I now know to approach the words printed in this journal to the words printed in supermarket tabloids. You should too!
The paper that was brought to my attention is one that purports to examine the deleterious health effects of Long COVID. A sizable group of intellectuals who are still socially distancing and wearing n95s ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 13, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Anish Koka Covid research COVID-19 Long Covid Source Type: blogs
A 30-something with Chest pain and SOB
In conclusion, the presence of negative T waves in both leads III and V1 allows PE to be differentiated simply but accurately from ACS in patients with negative T waves in the precordial leads. "See this post for more detail on the ECG in pulmonary embolism. Still more cases are here.==================================My Comment by KEN GRAUER, MD (1/19/2023):==================================How good is the ECG for the diagnosis of acute PE? The answer is — it depends! Sometimes the ECG is excellent, in that it immediately tells you " high probability for massive acute PE ...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - March 4, 2023 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
Dear Patient, If You Have to Treat a Cold, Know This:
BY HANS DUVEFELT
Americans hate being sick. There are too many cold medicines out there to remember by name. But there are really only a handful of different drug classes to consider.
In order to choose any one of them, be clear about what you want to accomplish. It’s actually very simple.
1) Make my cold go away faster: Zink, echinacea, visualization/manifesting, sauna, prayer (may be mostly placebo effect ).
2) Stop my nose from running (including post nasal drip): You’ll want the crud to leave your body as soon as possible, so turning off the drain pipe that your nose has become can increase the risk of ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 9, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Cold Hans Duvefelt Medical Education Source Type: blogs
The “Antebellum Paradox”: What is it and why it matters.
BY MIKE MAGEE
I recently made the case that “Health is foundational to a functioning democracy. But health must be shared and be broadly accessible to be an effective enabler of good government.” I also suggested that the pursuit of good health is implied and imbedded in the aspirational and idealistic wording of our U.S. Constitution, and that the active pursuit of health as a nation is essential if we wish to rise to Hamilton’s challenge in Federalist #1 and prove that we are “capable of establishing good government from reflection and choice.” So why are native white males lagging behind in health?
...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 30, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy antebellum paradox health informatics Mike Magee Population Health Source Type: blogs
The Cough Medicine That Could Be New Parkinson ’s Treatment
Summary: Ambroxol, a drug which is currently used to treat respiratory conditions, could slow the progression of Parkinson's disease. (Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog)
Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog - January 15, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: P R Tags: PR Source Type: blogs
From cough to cancer: one woman ’ s determination to find answers and relief
My mom is putting garlic oil in her ears because her house cleaner told her it would help with her recent hearing loss. When I asked her why she was continuing to do this even after being assessed by two physicians, including an ear, nose, and throat specialist, she just shrugged and told me she
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From cough to cancer: one woman’s determination to find answers and relief originally appeared in KevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 3, 2023 Category: General Medicine Authors: Mikel Segal, MD Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
The Top 10 Digital Health Stories Of 2022
Edging towards the end of the year, it is time for a summary of how digital health progressed in 2022. It is easy to get lost in the noise – I myself shared well over a thousand articles, studies and news items between January and the end of November 2022. Thus, just like in 2021, 2020 (and so on), I picked the 10 topics I believe will have the most significance in the future of healthcare.
1. The Rise Of Digital Therapeutics (DTx)
Unlike a number of unsubstantial hypes (NFTs, Metaverse to name a few), we see DTx as a meaningful trend that has the capacity to bring major short-term improvements in personalised ...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 29, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF digital health pharma drones digital health trends vocal biomarkers WHO DTx digital therapeutics Metaverse virtual ward summary AI healthcare worker Source Type: blogs
High risk features in the history of a syncopal event
Some features in history of syncope indicating a high risk of cardiac origin are:
Associated with new onset of chest discomfort or breathlessness
Syncope during exertion or while supine
Sudden onset palpitation soon followed by syncope
Syncope which occurs after prolonged standing or in crowded or hot places indicates reflex syncope as the most likely possibility. Other associated features for a low risk syncope are being triggered by cough, defecation or micturition, during a meal or post prandial, after sudden unexpected unpleasant sight, sound, smell or pain and while getting up from supine or sitting position.
Refer...
Source: Cardiophile MD - November 22, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
What do you think of this " Ventricular Bigeminy " ?
Written by Bobby Nicholson MD, with edits by MeyersA woman in her 50s with past medical history of heart failure, prior stroke, atrial fibrillation on Eliquis, lung cancer in remission, and CKD, presented to the emergency department for evaluation of cough and shortness of breath. EKG was obtained in triage and read as ventricular bigeminy. What do you think?On my first read of the EKG, I agreed with the initial interpretation. Pendell Meyers then recommended that I take a second look at the morphology of the QRS complexes. I think it was easiest for me to see in the rhythm strip, but there are clearly P waves in front of ...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - November 19, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
What Do Digital Biomarkers Mean?
The spread of wearable digital technologies in healthcare generating big data entailed the appearance of a new type of medical information. They produce actionable insights into the biological state of individuals, just like “general” biomarkers, but are collected through digital tools.
Here’s our summary of what digital biomarkers mean and how they will be used in the near future.
The appearance of user-generated big data in healthcare
In the last couple of years, Fitbit, Jawbone, Apple Health, Withings, Garmin, Sleep as Android, WIWE, MocaCare, Skeeper – in other words, fitness trackers, step count...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 3, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: berci.mesko Tags: Digital Health Research Health Sensors & Trackers Innovation prediction prevention digital biomarkers population health preventive health Source Type: blogs
What is pulmonary edema? Cardiology Basics
Pulmonary edema is collection of fluid within the lung alveoli.
The most important cause of pulmonary edema is heart failure, specifically, left ventricular failure. Pulmonary edema can also occur when there is fluid overload in the body as in renal failure.
Other causes of pulmonary edema are mitral stenosis, pulmonary venous obstruction and increased permeability of the pulmonary capillaries. Increased permeability of the pulmonary capillaries occurs in noncardiogenic pulmonary edema – e.g. adult respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS.
Sudden breathlessness is the most important symptom of pulmonary edema as the lungs ...
Source: Cardiophile MD - October 8, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Explorations in French Health Care! (Or what I did on my vacation!)
By MATTHEW HOLT
This is a personal story about this blog’s publisher (me!) but it has just enough health care stuff to keep it relevant!
This year I finally got invited on the annual mountain bike ride run by my friend JB and his ex Taiwan/Hong Kong buddies. I’ve actually been practicing and training most of the summer and arrived pretty confident even though I knew it would be tough. This edition is in Provence in France.
Before it all went wrong
And then…..2 hours in on the first day it turns out I was too confident…
Back in 2002 I smashed my knee snowboarding into a tree. When I tol...
Source: The Health Care Blog - October 4, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Patients French health care Matthew Holt Source Type: blogs
