Cyberchondria Rising – What is the Term’s Meaning and History?

Yesterday the AMA news informed me that cyberchondria is on the rise. So it’s a good moment to consider the term’s meaning and history. Cyberchondria is an unfounded health concern that develops upon searching the Internet for information about symptoms or a disease. A cyberchondriac is someone who surfs the Web about a medical problem […]

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On Deaths in the New York City Triathlon, and Pushing Ourselves to Limits

Yesterday some 3900 people swam, biked and ran in New York City’s 11th annual triathlon in what might be a celebratory event of human strength and perseverance. According to this morning’s paper, a 40-year-old woman suffered a heart attack during the 1500 meter swim in the Hudson. She was hospitalized and said to be in […]

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The Transportation Safety Authority Screens Travelers Inside and Out

I’ll be staying near my home in Manhattan this week. But if I did have plans to travel by airplane for the holiday, I think I’d be apprehensive about the new screening procedures implemented by the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA).

My concern is not so much with the scanners…Rather, I’m worried about screening errors – false positive and false negative results, and about harms – physical and/or emotional, that patients and people with disability may experience during the screening process.

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Stepping Back, and Thinking Forward to October

A question central to today’s discussion – which does at least acknowledge the decline in breast cancer mortality – is the extent to which mammography is responsible for this trend, as opposed to other factors such as increased awareness about cancer, better cancer treatments and other variables.

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Perspective on Screening for Sickle Cell Trait in Student Athletes

In some ways this seems like a pro-active, well-intentioned policy that could save lives. On the other hand, as discussed in the NEJM piece, the new screening policy raises a host of challenging issues:

* how will colleges inform minor players’ parents about results?
* how will the schools handle players’ privacy?…

Posted in Diagnosis, Genetics, Hematology (blood), Medical News, Under the RadarTagged , , , , , , , 2 Comments on Perspective on Screening for Sickle Cell Trait in Student Athletes

Why Physicians Shouldn’t Tweet About Their Patients Or O.R. Cases

As a patient who’s been there, under anesthesia more times than I care to remember, I can’t imagine anything much worse than knowing while I’m unconscious my doctor might be on-line or even just dictating tweets instead of concentrating on me, my arteries and veins and spine and…

Posted in Communication, Health IT, Life as a Doctor, Medical Ethics, Privacy, Social MediaTagged , , , , , 6 Comments on Why Physicians Shouldn’t Tweet About Their Patients Or O.R. Cases

On Patient Empowerment and Autonomy

…I think the answer is inherent in the goal of being engaged, and that has to do with the concept of patient autonomy – what’s essentially the capacity of a person to live and make decisions according to one’s own set of knowledge, goals and values.

Autonomy in medicine, which borders on the empowerment idea, can be an aim in itself, and therefore valuable regardless of any measured outcome.

Posted in Communication, Empowered Patient, Neurology, Patient Autonomy, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Social MediaTagged , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments on On Patient Empowerment and Autonomy

Another Take On An Ordinary Day

…Live Each Day Like There’s a Lot of Them Left….What she articulated is the idea that maybe the best thing to do after cancer is to live, essentially, as you would do otherwise, except with a bit of added balance:

Posted in cancer survival, Essential Lessons, Life, Life as a Patient, Patient Autonomy, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , , 2 Comments on Another Take On An Ordinary Day

Eye Care

…the office has expanded and become so systematized that when I go there I don’t feel like I’m visiting a doctor, the kind of professional who sincerely cares about my health. Instead I feel like a commodity, which I suppose I am.

Posted in health care delivery, Life as a Patient, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Physical ExaminationTagged , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on Eye Care

First Take On the Big C

The Big C’s plot includes at least two “atypical” and potentially complex features. First, Cathy chooses not to take chemotherapy or other treatment. This intrigues me, and may be the show’s most essential component – that she doesn’t just follow her doctor’s advice. Second, she doesn’t go ahead and inform her husband, brother or son about the condition, at least not so far…

Posted in cancer awareness, Communication, Informed Consent, Oncology (cancer), TV, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment on First Take On the Big C

The Physical Exam’s Value is Not Just Emotional

But what’s also true, in a practical and bottom-line sort of way, is that a good physical exam can help doctors figure out what’s wrong with patients. If physicians were more confident – better trained, and practiced – in their capacity to make diagnoses by physical exam, we could skip the costs and toxicity of countless x-rays, CT scans and other tests.

Posted in Diagnosis, Essential Lessons, Medical Education, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Physical ExaminationTagged , , , , , 4 Comments on The Physical Exam’s Value is Not Just Emotional

Shutting Off Nurse Jackie

Jackie is supposed to be a crackerjack nurse who has some serious problems including drug addiction. That premise might be fair enough, in a House-like way, if her life-saving skills had unique value. But they don’t: the underlying problem with this show is that Jackie has no exceptional or redeeming qualities as a nurse. Sure, she cares about some of her patients, but that’s nothing extraordinary…

Posted in Psychiatry, TV, Women's HealthTagged , , , , 2 Comments on Shutting Off Nurse Jackie

Doctors Not Using Email Like It’s 2010

There’s been a recent barrage of med-blog posts on the unhappy relationship between doctors and electronic communications. The first, a mainly reasonable rant by Dr. Wes* dated August 7, When The Doctor’s Always In, considers email in the context of unbounded pressure on physicians to avail themselves to their patients 24/7. That piece triggered at […]

Posted in Communication, Future of Medicine, Health IT, Patient-Doctor RelationshipTagged , , , , , 6 Comments on Doctors Not Using Email Like It’s 2010

Back to Basics – But Which Ones?

A front-page story on the Humanities and Medicine Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, here in Manhattan, recently added to the discussion on what it takes to become a doctor in 2010. The school runs a special track for non-science majors who apply relatively early in their undergraduate years. Mount Sinai doesn’t require […]

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What the Dermatologist Did Right

Kudos to my newest doctor, a dermatologist whom I met yesterday for evaluation of a small, benign-appearing mole I recently noted on my right leg. What she did right: 1. She saw me promptly, at the time of my scheduled appointment. (Thank you, you seem to value my time, as I do yours.) 2. In […]

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Staying Healthy in Hot Summer Travel

Hiking, or even just walking, in the hot summer heat to see ancient ruins, national monuments or spectacular vistas can sap the energy of healthy people. For someone who’s got a health issue – like chronic lung disease, reduced heart function or anemia – or anyone who’s pregnant, elderly or just frail, summer travel can knock you out in the wrong sort of way….Don’t plan

Posted in cancer survival, Empowered Patient, Travel, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , 2 Comments on Staying Healthy in Hot Summer Travel

Mind over Matter? Don’t Kid Yourself (on Stress and BC)

I learned of a new study implicating stress in reduced breast cancer survival by Twitter. A line in my feed alerted me that CNN’s health blog, “Paging Dr. Gupta,” broke embargo on the soon-to-be-published paper in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. The story – that women who undergo a stress relief program live longer after […]

Posted in Breast Cancer, cancer survival, clinical trials, Essential Lessons, Medical News, Oncology (cancer), Pseudoscience, Psychiatry, Women's HealthTagged , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments on Mind over Matter? Don’t Kid Yourself (on Stress and BC)

A Tapestry, and Double-Dose of Magic (on Carole King and James Taylor, Troubadour and Breaking Addiction)

My plan for today was to write on evidence-based medicine. But that can wait, at least until the morning comes. I came upon the most wonderful recording of a concert by Carole King and James Taylor played in November, 2007 at LA’s Troubadour Club, a place I’ve never been. PBS aired the video, about an […]

Posted in Life, Life in NYC, Music, Psychiatry, ReviewsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment on A Tapestry, and Double-Dose of Magic (on Carole King and James Taylor, Troubadour and Breaking Addiction)

About Those Skipped Heart Test Results

Harlem Hospital Center stands just three miles or so north of my home. I know the place from the outside glancing in, as you might upon exiting from the subway station just paces from its open doors. The structure seems like one chamber of its neighborhood’s heart; within a few long blocks’ radii you’ll find rhythms generated in the Abyssinian Baptist Church; readings at the Schomburg Center and artery-clogging cuisine at the West 135th Street IHOP.

So I was saddened to hear about the missed heart studies. Or should I say unmissed? No one noticed when nearly 4,000 cardiac tests went unchecked at the Harlem center,

Posted in Cardiology, Communication, health care costs, health care delivery, Ideas, Life in NYC, Medical News, Patient Autonomy, Under the RadarTagged , , , , , , , 2 Comments on About Those Skipped Heart Test Results

A Routine Visit

Yesterday I visited my internist. I had no particular complaint. My back hurt no more than usual. The numbness in my left foot was neither better nor worse than it was last month. I wasn’t suffering from vertigo or abdominal pain. I went because I had an appointment to see her, nothing more.

Until just a few years ago, I rarely

Posted in cancer survival, health care delivery, Life as a Patient, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Primary Care, Women's HealthTagged , , , , 1 Comment on A Routine Visit
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