Two prestigious medical journals published studies involving Alzheimer disease (AD) and amyloid beta in successive weeks; both were paired with guest expert commentaries (editorials). One editorial, about a drug study, also reviewed several other fail…
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 62-year-old woman is evaluated during a routine examination. She feels well and has no exercise limitations. Medical history is significant…
“As soon as I mentioned the ‘A’ word, I knew she would not be calling me back.” This was what one of the parents I met at my preschool told me about what it was like trying to register her son with autism in a non-specialized local communi…
Busy primary care physicians have a lot on their plates. But when it comes to helping people with diabetes learn how to improve their health, they don’t have to do it all themselves. Diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) programs, led …
Kaiser Health News told the story of a 69-year-old woman who went to a new doctor for her annual check-up, assuming it was covered by Medicare and was happy with the visit until she got a $400 bill. Most Americans believe in “annual check-ups,” at whic…
Alex and Edward Santos have just returned from a weekend away at their aunt and uncle’s place. They love it there. The couple is in their 20s and spoil the boys with late bedtimes, movies and video games, and home-made cupcakes with chocolate icing and…
Here’s what they should have told you: “We found cancer in your lymph nodes, your liver, your lungs, and your brain. It explains your weight loss, your difficulty breathing and your loss of appetite. This wasn’t just your depression l…
He struggled to breathe, progressing from deep breaths with wet sounds reverberating in his lungs, to guppy breathing — opening the mouth like a fish, contorting the entire face. His heart rate slowly decreased, from 150 beats a minute — a pace attempt…
Like more than half of older men, I take a cholesterol-lowering medication called a statin. Sometimes that seems a bit strange, because I don’t have high cholesterol. My doctor prescribed it based on a formula that largely hinges on age and sex. I’m 71…
These events happened over 18 years ago. Some content has been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. Searching for positive changes in the health care industry. We are not a number, and the patients are not a number. I’m not good at lying. My…
