The ED’s Expanding Role in Hospital Admissions

Jul 31, 2013

Although research has focused heavily on increased use of EDs, little attention has been paid to the changing role that these facilities play in the entire healthcare system. In a study published in the New England Journal of...

Atrial Fibrillation Treatment With Microwave Ablation

Jul 31, 2013

Robotic assisted surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation with guidant flex-10 microwave...

Gastric Bypass Surgery for Mild Obesity in Diabetics

Jul 30, 2013

In 2003, a study of more than 1,000 patients who underwent gastric bypass found that one-third of...

Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

Jul 30, 2013

Dr. Lowe presents a step by step laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure for obesity...

Top 10 Specialties Sued: 2013 Malpractice Report

Jul 30, 2013

Nearly 1,400 physicians who were sued for medical malpractice share their experience in Medscape’s...

Wisconsin Informed Consent Law is Ill-Advised

Jul 29, 2013

I normally wouldn’t do this but you need to see excerpts from an article in the Wisconsin...

The Impact of Depression on ED Stays in ACS Patients

Jul 28, 2013

Studies suggest that about 30% of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) experience symptoms...

Dedicated Hospital Observation Units to the Rescue

Jul 22, 2013

Along with growing demand, rising costs and lower payments have threatened the financial viability...

The ABI: Standardizing Measurements & Interpretations

Jul 22, 2013

When the ankle-brachial index (ABI) emerged in 1950, it was initially proposed for use as a...

In-Hospital Mortality

Jul 22, 2013

Improving Skills With Surgical Simulation

Jul 22, 2013

Requirements for surgical proficiency are generally based on an absolute number of procedures...

Should Resident Work Hours Be Capped?

Jul 22, 2013

Blogging at his site “Adventures in Emergency Medicine,” Dr. Sam Ko says resident work hours should be limited to 40 per week. Via Twitter, I warned him that I would rebut his assertion. Without any data or...

Review: interventions to increase influenza vaccination among healthcare workers in hospitals

Jul 20, 2013

Abstract Annual influenza vaccination rates among hospital healthcare workers (HCW) are almost...

Forgetting the Fast Food

Jul 20, 2013

The figure below shows the percentage of daily calories consumed from fast food among adults aged...

Avoidable Healthcare Costs

Jul 19, 2013

The IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics estimates that $213 billion was spent on avoidable...

Dumbing it Down: Where to Draw the Line?

Jul 18, 2013

Dumbing down medical information for patients can come in different forms. Some docs only provide the basics as to not overwhelm patients. Others may use a patronizing “you’ll be okay” tone that may be misleading. And recently a...

Uncertain Diagnosis or CT Scan Radiation?

Jul 15, 2013

It is so nice to be right. To summarize what I wrote 2 and 3 years ago, here and here—based on my experience, patients and families will accept the theoretical risk of a future cancer if it means they’ll get an accurate...