The backbone of a great health care system is its primary care task force. From Singapore to France, elite health care systems rely on these cerebral doctors to provide preventive, urgent, and acute care along with chronic disease management. Primary c…
Category: primary care
How internal medicine got its name
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Of all medical specialties, perhaps the most difficult to understand is internal medicine. While the name suggests that those who practice internal medicine focus primarily…
Why the flu shot cannot give you the flu (and why you should get one now)
Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and deaths annually, but vaccination rates are low for many reasons. During the 2018-2019 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 45% of U.S. adults recei…
How to make the most out of your doctor’s visit
For most of us, going to the doctor is not at the top of our favorite things-to-do list, but it may be one of the most important. Whether the visit is for a scheduled check-up or to deal with a new problem, there are ways you can make the visit less st…
Primary care should be one of the highest-paid specialties
Working in both the inpatient and outpatient setting, I have to frequently recommend my patients follow-up as soon as possible with their primary care doctors. I work in a couple of different locations, urban and rural, and I must say I have noticed a …
Primary care should be one of the highest-paid specialties
Working in both the inpatient and outpatient setting, I have to frequently recommend my patients follow-up as soon as possible with their primary care doctors. I work in a couple of different locations, urban and rural, and I must say I have noticed a …
Can answers to after hours calls be automated?
At a certain point, we’ve all got to go home. Whether it’s the end of the shift when the factory whistle blows and the assembly line stops rolling for a brief period while new people take our place, or late in the day after the last patient…
Vaping likely has dangers that could take years for scientists to even know about
The rise in cases of otherwise healthy young adults who have been hospitalized or even died from vaping-associated lung injury is alarming. Many people don’t know what is contained in these vaping devices, what the reported health effects actually mean…
3 ways to win back the public’s trust in medicine
The United States is currently facing the largest measles outbreak in three decades, with more than 1,200 cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control. The spread of that disease is a mere symptom of one of the most dangerous pandemics of our time…
Physician office notes should have an executive summary
I have advocated before for putting a visit synopsis at the beginning of each visit note. I have called that the aSOAP note. I think that works immensely better than APSO notes that only rearrange the order of the elements. The reason I say that is tha…
