On a lighter note… Many years ago, in medical school there were a brave few who–for generous compensation–agreed to participate in various drug trials. They were mysteriously sequestered and given various potions and elixirs and then poked and prodded. Here would have been a far more interesting trial to have been a subject of study. […]
This Memorial Day makes me think of a recently deceased patient of mine. We had known each other for years. He benefited from many of our modern EP procedures and implanted cardiac devices, and I benefited from knowing him and his devoted wife. It was as he entered the final innings of his life, that […]
In medical practice, the words, “in my experience,” or “this is the way we have done it forever,” are scary. Do these words imply an out of date doctor who fails to embrace the new, or is it really true that older less expensive therapy is still better–like Classic Coke. So much of medical dogma lingers […]
Doctoring in the trenches, using our knowledge and techno-gadgetry to enhance or save lives, is uplifting. Reading news on heath care reform is “not so much.” Reform has yet to begin, but businesses and doctors are already changing their behavior. As chronicled in this depressing piece, it is clear that doctors are joining consolidated practices and […]
Defibrillators (ICDs) are in the news today. Few medical treatments are more misunderstood, both by doctors and patients, than the ICD. It was a huge observational study presented today in Denver at the annual HRS (Heart Rhythm Society) meeting. In 88,804 ICD patients from 2500 centers, researchers studied how ICD programming related to inappropriate shocks. They concluded: (translation […]
It’s terrible news. Speeding through college to save 10,000 dollars. Seriously? As a mid-forty year old solidly ensconced in the mini-van era of life, it saddens me to see young people–in an effort to save a few dollars–rushing through the finest of times, life in college. Treating college as some sort of right of passage to […]
It’s late at night, the pain is transcendent and worse yet, I am tangled up in tubes in a sweat-soaked hospital bed. The collapsed lung, fractured ribs and chest tube have transformed an independent doctor into a needy patient. She answered my ring right away, coming to my aid quickly and with a warm demeanor, […]
Really sound information is out there in the internet universe. DrRich has put out an incredibly timely and pertinent piece of advice concerning the common practice of stenting blockages in the coronary arteries. He succinctly summarizes a small retrospective study that showed an increased risk of cardiac events after non-cardiac surgery in patients who have […]
Medical advancement stomps on. This week, Genetics takes front stage. Really, it’s cool. I know; I was a skeptic too. That is, until I read this most amazing paper on the real-life clinical utility of knowing the whole genome of a person. It felt like peering into the future of medicine. Background from the real […]
It’s official. It now takes longer to do all the necessary forms, than to do a simple cardiac procedure, like a cardio-version. Seeing the patient, administering a sedative, and delivering a synchronized shock that converts AF to regular rhythm takes just a few minutes. However, in 2010 (in all hospitals), the number of forms has […]
Medical prowess has exploded in the past decade. Â The toolbox of therapeutic options has grown so large that often times, the most challenging aspect of patient care is in matching the right tool to the right patient. Â There is no better example than the expanding capability to ablate atrial fibrillation. Now that I can successfully […]