ICYMI: Telemedicine Bloopers and Successes

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At my COVID home command center, I feel pretty prepared for everything. From here, I can run my practice, manage and home-school 3 children and keep the family afloat.  I have 2 computers: one for telemedicine/business meetings and one for e-learning lessons/school updates that teachers and school administrators email me throughout the day for my children.  As a no-nonsense, organized mom and doctor, I felt ready to handle any issues that would arise. 

Telemedicine Bloopers and Successes

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Best of 2018: Rheumatology Dead Word Cemetery 2019

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I recently heard of a secondary school assignment wherein students were challenged to “bury” a word that was no longer useful or appropriate. Their exercise has now evolved into an unofficial RheumNow task force to retire diagnostic terms that have grown into misuse in rheumatology and medicine. How did we decide which words should perish? And by what criteria? Who has the final say?

Pain: Objectifying a Subjective Symptom

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My typically pleasant 76 year old male was livid when I walked into the exam room. He was pacing back and forth with furrowed eyebrows. I gingerly inquired what was bothering him the most.

Rheumatology Dead Word Cemetery 2019

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I recently heard of a secondary school assignment wherein students were challenged to “bury” a word that was no longer useful or appropriate. Their exercise has now evolved into an unofficial RheumNow task force to retire diagnostic terms that have grown into misuse in rheumatology and medicine. How did we decide which words should perish? And by what criteria? Who has the final say?

Ten Things to Do At Every Visit

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Busy days, overbooked patients and EMR overloads will certainly derail your day, especially if you don’t have a system to optimize efficiency.  However, in your harried efforts you may overlook several simple, smart, if not crucial, tasks while seeing your next patient.

The Great Masquerader

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The Pain of Funerals and Suicides

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The Purse Exam: a Forgotten Part of the Physical

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Should you assess your patients' “purse-onality? The purse exam is an important part of the physical that can help make the diagnosis and improve patient outcomes. I often wonder if downsizing the purse should be part of the T2T (treat to target) initiative.

Be the CEO of Your Health

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Patients should act as if they are the CEO of a new business. Their business is the disease they must manage. The analogies of managing a business and a disease are numerous and instructive for patients and physicians alike.

The Ill-Conceived Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia

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Notalgia, Lyme disease in Texas and still wearing your hospital ID bracelet? You may have been misdiagnosed and instead have fibromyalgia!

Hydrocodone: Then and Now

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Today marks the one year anniversary of hydrocodone becoming a schedule II drug with more restrictive access. Has life been better under these new rules?