Jim Anderson, MPAS, PA-C, explores the role and limits of guidelines. He notes: Whether these practice aids are considered friends or foes, they can never eliminate the inevitable gray areas.
Suspecting that this phenomenon might be the source of my nighttime pain, causing significant REM sleep deprivation, I reasoned that a neuromodulator such as a gabapentinoid might be helpful.
One physician assistant reflects on an important lesson in listening closely to your patients and why it is important to not jump to conclusions when making a diagnosis.
A recent bill passed in the US House of Representatives proposes a number of changes to malpractice liability rules, including a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages.
Aetna will have access to data on pharmaceutical usage patterns that will give the company the opportunity to figure out who is willing to pay more for healthcare. What does this mean for patients?
Decision support systems in clinical settings can dramatically decrease the time and manpower needed to perform a variety of tasks, but are they more harmful than helpful?
From helping patients with opioid addiction to finding pain management programs, one physician shares his experience with chronic pain management in the primary care setting.
Evidence of the streetlight effect can be found across several fields, in which cases investigators draw suspect conclusions from analysis of irrelevant data.
One physician shares his insights on the culture of overprescribing medications and how prescribing habits are reflective of swindling by the pharmaceutical industry
Two physicians offer their opinions on June’s Legal Advisor from Clinical Advisor about a female nurse that was fired for falling asleep while on duty in a hospital.
The natural curiosity provoked by looking at research and clinical care with a sense of wonder may help us find new ways to deal with old problems and, in turn, improve care for our patients.
A physician reflects on his past medical missions to Haiti and shares what he could have done differently to make it a more satisfactory trip for him and his patients.
An example of a simple use of technology that not only averted the inconvenience and discomfort for the child of a trip to the ER, but also avoided exposing him to additional illnesses and avoided exposing others to what he had.
Calling a preoperative evaluation a “clearance,” in fact, belittles the purpose of the assessment, and provides little in terms of meaningful information to the surgeon.
Though there is no law that says patients must be told that the medications they have been prescribed are for an off-label use, and the FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine, I feel it is important to provide at least a brief explanation to my patients.
If we invest in providing addiction treatment that is evidence-based and fundamentally invested in the dignity of every person who needs that treatment, a lot more people are going to find themselves ready to seek it out.
“To write the program off saying it is too complicated or not worth it may be short-sighted,” Dr Shapiro concluded. “Almost anything that is incrementally beneficial to the practice financially becomes important in an era where there is pressure on declining reimbursement.”
“As [a member] of the NIH Task Force on pain, I would say that one of the things that’s important to show is that an interdisciplinary model and a multimodal approach are effective and cost-effective, as they certainly are expensive.”
Promoting public-private partnerships to maximize resources, knowledge-sharing, and expediency in treatment development, as a way to attract emerging and established researchers.
Does your pain clinic currently allow the use of cannabis in combination with opioid medication? If so, has a maximum THC threshold been identified? How have your patients responded to such treatment?
This case study highlights discrepancies between physical and radiologic findings and physical limitations in a patient with cervical and lumbar pain complaints.
The correlation between mental health and how well chronic pain is controlled has been well established, and this particular case appears to demonstrate this relationship quite well.
A patient with debilitating chronic pain experiences an altered level of consciousness following a bout of the flu. Could his high-dose opioid regimen be to blame?
The tendency to overprescribe opioids and undertreat pain will swing back and forth until generalists and pain specialists can come to a common understanding about controlled substances and opioids.
Low back pain is one of the most common pain syndromes. In fact, about 69% of adults in the United States will have low back pain at some point in their lifetime.
Even though movement causing exacerbation of pain can happen with both somatic and visceral abdominal pain, asking patients to do a sit-up or a twister can identify trigger points in the rectus muscles and the obliques
Finishing a fellowship means it’s now time to find the right job. Not every practice model is the the perfect fit for everybody, so it’s rather important for physicians to understand which structure will work best for them.
An essential part of our job as health care practitioners as one of bridge building; encouraging our patients to shorten the distance between the world of the ill and world of the well by enhancing connection.
Since pain is a subjective experience for which there are no accurate objective measurements, patient-derived information regarding their pain experience is important to analyze
Key features include: concise daily news, drug monographs, full length clinical features, continuing medical education courses, and coverage from major conferences.
A night with inadequate sleep may result in increased pain the next day, which may disrupt sleep even further. Learn how to help patients break this detrimental cycle.
