2003

Some humor at the expense of academicians and the pharmaceutical industry

December 19, 2003

Often I have seen David Sackett introduce himself at medical meetings. He generally uses the pseudonym – Kilgore Trout. Of all my heroes (and yes he is clearly one of my heroes) he has the best sense of humor. This piece from the BMJ uses humor in hopes of making us think about the insidious [...]

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Thoughts from the BMJ

December 19, 2003

Richard Smith, editor at the BMJ, recently spoke to a group of new medical students. He asked many physicians for advice. His remarks appear in today’s BMJ – Thoughts for new medical students at a new medical school While these thoughts are originally meant for new medical students, I would argue that all physicians should [...]

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More on atrial fibrillation

December 19, 2003

I ranted earlier this week on the new atrial fibrillation guidelines. Medscape does an excellent job of developing selected articles for in depth coverage. Here is the link for those who want to learn more about this issue – ACP/AAFP Issues Guidelines for Management of Atrial Fibrillation viagra free viagra buy viagra online generic viagra [...]

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Treating BPH

December 18, 2003

Virtually all men eventually develop benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). Our goals of therapy are twofold, improve quality of life and prevent surgery. Today’s NEJM has an important article – summarized in this story – Drug Combo Can Fight Enlarged Prostate The two drugs in the study, doxazosin and finasteride, are now widely used, but not [...]

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Fitness matters!

December 17, 2003

I harp on fitness often. Personally I work out approximately 5 days a week, some resistance training, some cardiovascular work. This article speaks to young adults, but I suspect it is rarely too late. Treadmill Tests Gauge Future Fitness The study involved about 4,400 men and women who were given a treadmill test when they [...]

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New guidelines for atrial fibrillation

December 17, 2003

The American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians have jointly released new guidelines for atrial fibrillation management. I am providing the link for those who have access to the Annals of Internal Medicine and for my own future use – Management of Newly Detected Atrial Fibrillation: A Clinical Practice Guideline from [...]

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Appeals court on medical marijuana

December 17, 2003

My previous rants on medical marijuana are just a search away. This particular story deserves wider coverage. Federal appeals court OKs medical marijuana in some cases A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a congressional act outlawing marijuana may not apply to sick people with a doctor’s recommendation in states that have approved medical marijuana [...]

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A tricky ethics question

December 16, 2003

Robert Prather writes: I have a question. I don’t know if you read this post: Regulation Through Litigation but a friend went to a surgeon’s office and the doctor won’t provide service to plaintiff’s attorneys or their employs. In a political / philosophical sense I agree with it since you could make a good argument [...]

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The danger of decreasing antibiotic use

December 16, 2003

Infectious disease experts worry about antibiotic resistance. Generally they err on the side of underusing antibiotics. The National Health Service in Great Britain now wonders whether this movement leads to difficulties. UK considers antibiotic policy A big rise in pneumonia deaths may be linked to a clampdown on the use of antibiotics for coughs and [...]

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Are you worried about the flu?

December 16, 2003

We were sitting in clinic yesterday afternoon with some residents. One had a documented exposure to influenza. He had taken the vaccine last month but was trying to decide whether or not to take Tamiflu as prophylaxis. Our opinion was that given the imperfect coverage of this vaccine this year, we would take 75 mg [...]

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