Deborah Millians of Athens was feeling the pinch of social distancing. With her 11-year-old son Charles in need of a follow-up urology appointment regarding complications from an overactive bladder, an in-office visit proved daunting. It would call for an hour-plus trek to Atlanta and pulling her child away from school work, among other logistical challenges. Using the ... Continue Reading
Mindfulness and the Physician
By Jennifer Whaley, M.D.
“Mindfulness” seems to be everywhere in the news today. Books, videos, classes and websites are springing up to help us be more “mindful.” Everyone is talking about it, including your patients. But what is it? And how might it help you in your life and clinical practice? Most of the research into mindfulness has been a direct consequence of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s work at the ... Continue Reading
Burning Out in Georgia
By Faria Khan, M.D. A thirty-eight year old physician friend of mine recently told me, “I’m just going to stick it out another 15 years, but I hate this. I’m trying to find something good to invest in so I can retire early.” She’s not the only one who has told me something along these lines. After all our years of training, are we not enjoying what we do? Is this just stress ... Continue Reading
Prescribing Opioids: A Question of Balance
By P. Tennent Slack, M.D. On considering the implications of a recent MedScape article, “The Opioid Crisis: Anatomy of a Doctor-Driven Epidemic,” it would seem that the attention that is focused on the issue of the prescription opioid overdose problem has finally reached critical mass. As physicians and prescribers, we find ourselves at the epicenter of a controversy ... Continue Reading
Trauma Resuscitation: Principles and Practice
By Mark Walker, M.D. Trauma is a unique illness that presents several challenges in the early period after injury. Time is of the essence as vital functions must be restored quickly to minimize ongoing damage from shock, severe brain injury or multiple fractures across several anatomic compartments. To complicate matters, trauma physicians are often working with an ... Continue Reading
When Does My Patient Need a Medical Geneticist?
By Rossana Sánchez, M.D. Medical Genetics is a vast and rapidly advancing field. With an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the human genome, mutations in these genes give rise to many disorders. The scope of practice of a geneticist is necessarily broad, encompassing inpatient and outpatient consultations for inherited conditions and congenital malformations, for genetic ... Continue Reading
Glucose Management in the Hospital
By Bruce W. Bode, M.D., FACE From ATLANTA Medicine, Vol. 85, No. 4 Elevated glucose in the hospital is very common, occurring in more than 38 percent of patients. The presence of hyperglycemia has been shown to increase morbidity and mortality as well as total cost of care1,2. Over one third of these patients have newly discovered hyperglycemia and are confirmed upon ... Continue Reading
Patients Should Be Educated About Clinical Trials
By Roland Matthews, M.D. and Nancy M. Paris, MS, FACHE According to a national public opinion poll released last summer, more than two-thirds of Americans say it’s likely they would participate in a clinical trial if recommended by their doctor, but only 22 percent say a doctor or other healthcare professional has ever talked to them about medical research. Commissioned by ... Continue Reading
Physician Burnout: Causes Effects and Treatments
By Carl Czuboka, M.D. Many of us fell in love with our profession while watching famous TV “doctors.” Do you remember the episode when Dr. Marcus Welby talked about how he felt tired, overworked and burned out? Or the one when Dr. Kildare complained to his colleagues about the struggle to keep up with changes in healthcare technology or answer a seemingly endless stream of ... Continue Reading
Morehouse School of Medicine Addresses Health Needs of the Indigent Through Partnerships
From ATLANTA Medicine, 2013, Care for the Underserved, Vol. 84, No. 2 By Rachel Harris, M.D., M.P.H. The categorization of indigent in the United States has been the mainstay for many Americans as they are “deficient in what is required”1 to live long, happy and prosperous lives. There are many dynamic elements which play integral roles in this ongoing game of chess, if ... Continue Reading
The Satcher Health Leadership Institute’s Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Health Disparities
From ATLANTA Medicine, 2013, Care for the Underserved, Vol. 84, No. 2 By Rachel Harris, M.D., MPH, Elizabeth Ofili, M.D., FACC, David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., and Rachel Harris, M.D., MPH The Determinants of Health are the “range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status” and involve the interaction between policy making, social ... Continue Reading
Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center
From ATLANTA Medicine, 2013, Care for the Underserved, Vol. 84, No. 2 By Tabia Henry Akintobi, Ph.D., MPH, Lisa M. Goodin, MBA, & LaShawn Hoffman Socioeconomic status and ethnicity have been associated with a variety of health outcomes. Blacks have disproportionately higher morbidity and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer, homicide, diabetes ... Continue Reading
Lab Tests Assist Rheumatologists in Making Correct, Cost-Effective Diagnoses
Many times as rheumatologists, we are asked about lab testing in patients with rheumatic problems. This article will mix some of the political, operational and mechanical issues within this topic. Most important above the entire lab testing is the history and physical examination. The labs tests are a guide that helps define our patients, but the history and physical are ... Continue Reading
Study Finds More Americans Bypassing Their Personal Physician When Immediate Treatment Required
Only 45 percent of the 354 million annual visits for acute care in the United States are made to patients’ personal physicians, as Americans increasingly make busy emergency departments, specialists or outpatient care departments their first point of contact for treatment of new health problems or a flare up of a chronic condition like asthma or diabetes. The findings, which ... Continue Reading
Georgia Pain Initiative’s Conference on Policies and Paths to Improvement
July/August National and state experts in the field of pain management discussed topics ranging from patient and prescriber perspectives on pain to the state of pain management in Georgia at the Georgia Pain Initiative’s recent conference, “Connecting Pain Management Policy and Practice to Serve Our Communities.” The Georgia Pain Initiative was founded to improve the ... Continue Reading
