Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
“If there is a test but there’s problems with it, I often go over this with a patient and how to decide if it’s necessary.”
Add mammography to the list of cancer screenings where evidence has challenged “best practices.”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN reported in EveryDay Health that while early cancer detection can save lives, recent studies raise new doubts about the benefits of screening without considering the risks as well.
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
“… unless we change our current practices, 3 percent to 5 percent of all future cancers may result from exposure to medical imaging.”
CT, MRI, ultrasound, nuclear scan, PET scan – why not? Just to make sure.
An article in the New York Times noted: “ DESPITE great strides in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States. Increasingly, we and many other experts believe that an important culprit may be our own medical practices: Of course, early diagnosis thanks to medical imaging can be lifesaving. But there is distressingly little evidence of better health outcomes associated with the current high rate of scans. There is, however, evidence of its harms.”
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
We all go to the doctor, the ER or are admitted to the hospital without asking what it will cost.
A New York Times article started with this vignette:
“Kim Little had not thought much about the tiny white spot on the side of her cheek until a physician’s assistant at her dermatologist’s office warned that it might be cancerous. He took a biopsy, returning 15 minutes later to confirm the diagnosis and schedule her for an outpatient procedure at the Arkansas Skin Cancer Center in Little Rock, 30 miles away.
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
In the recent past a hospitalized patient expected to see one’s primary care practitioner making rounds, examining patients and writing “orders.”
An article in Newsday addressed the question: “Do you know if your primary care physician will manage your care if you are admitted to the hospital?”
“Reflecting today’s changing medical practices, some primary care doctors don’t set foot inside their patients’ hospital rooms at all — leaving their care to physicians called hospitalists.
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
“Faster care hasn’t cut heart attack deaths in hospitals.”
A USA Today article noted “The Medicare metric for timely heart attack treatment is … “door-to-balloon” time — the time between when a heart attack patient arrives in the ER and when the balloon angiography begins — researchers found that the percentage of heart attack patients who die while in the hospital, about 5%, hasn’t changed.”
“Irreversible damage from a heart attack can begin in 30 minutes. Most tissue death occurs in the first two to three hours…” “A new study suggests that speeding up hospital care isn’t enough to save lives … A better predictor of survival might be ‘symptom to balloon time’…”
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Health Navigator
Personally I want to have an ongoing relationship with a primary care physician. I want a physician who knows me!
A New York Times article focused on the rapid growth “walk-in” clinics, often open 24/7, staffed by either a physician or nurse practitioner.
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“If there is a test but there’s problems with it, I often go over this with a patient and how to decide if it’s necessary.”
