LIVE tonight: Dr. Val on Dr. A show

Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 10:00pm Eastern Time

Join us tonight for Val Jones MD. She writes the Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason blog. There is a little bit more detailed post below, or just click here

I'm really hoping that my BlogTalkRadio chat room will be working tonight. I've been listening to other shows this week, and it seems to be working for them. The chat room is really "the show within the show!" See you tonight!

Update: Thanks so much to the Clinical Cases and Images blog for mentioning the show in their post today. I had no idea they have 1,354 readers according to feedburner. Yeesh! I'm definitely jealous of that. Thanks again for the plug today.

Update2: Thanks to Dr. Val for being on the show tonight. The show started off with my internet connection cutting out. So, there's about 2 minutes of silence close to the start of the show. But, the chat room was working (for once) - and people stayed with me there.

I was able to get everything back at about 4 minutes into the show - so start listening there for the Dr. Val interview. The chat room was great! More than a dozen people in there before my connection went out.

I admit I was a little flustered for the entire show. But, this is live radio and the show must go on. So, if you didn't listen live to the fun, you must listen to the archives - or even download the show for your enjoyment. Just check out the Doctor Anonymous Live site. Have a great weekend!

The Dr. Val Interview

This week The Doctor Anonymous Show welcomes Val Jones MD. She writes the blog called Dr. Val And The Voice of Reason over on the Revolution Health site. You can read her promo post here. Dr. Val has supported the show since its beginnings - and I very much appreciate it!

Some of her recent posts include Why Do People Enjoy Being Frightened? Also, she blogs about concierge medicine and rating doctors. What's up with that? Check it out over there and take a read.

Join us on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 10PM eastern time. I'm really hoping that the chat room will be working this time. The BlogTalkRadio chat room has not been working for me for the past two shows. So, keep your fingers crossed. Who knows what we will talk about? Check here tomorrow for details....

Happy Halloween!

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Pain Relief

Yes, I know this sounds like an album name, but this story has nothing to do with the music group. (Great music, though.) Imagine this: How do you treat an open knee wound during a surgery? Well, you put chemicals in there from chili peppers. No joke. Really..... (Associated Press)

How could something searing possibly soothe? Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The hope is that bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose will numb them for weeks, so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal.

"We wanted to exploit this numbness," is how Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist in Denmark who is testing the substance, puts it.

Chili peppers have been part of folk remedy for centuries, and heat-inducing capsaicin creams are a drugstore staple for aching muscles. But today the spice is hot because of research showing capsaicin targets key pain-sensing cells in a unique way.

Who knew Red Hot Chili Peppers could be so useful? How would you like to be in the research studies for this? Ok, so, what we're going to do is putting a cream on your skin and you tell us how much pain you are in before and after. How about in the operating room? I guess the key is not to spill this stuff on yourself during surgery. Yeaoww!

MRSA overkill?

It was only a matter of time until hospitals succumbed to the pubic outcry of what the press is now calling "The MRSA Epidemic." Now, don't get me wrong, MRSA is a serious infection and we should not ignore it. Following up this story, communities are well aware that this infection is out there. Here is another local story.

All that being said, I believe that some hospitals are starting to be too aggressive in looking for MRSA. Yesterday, Loyola University Medical Center announced that it will test every patient for MRSA. (Chicago Sun-Times)

Now, this is nothing new. Other hospitals in that area have been doing this for years. And, according to the stats in the article, it has made somewhat of a difference. But, is screening EVERY patient the best way to look for MRSA?

But some experts believe universal screening may be overkill. Dozens of studies have found that screening only high-risk patients, combined with other proven infection-control measures, are sufficient to control MRSA, said University of Virginia emeritus professor Dr. Barry Farr.

Farr noted that hospitals in the Netherlands have achieved extremely low MRSA rates without universal screening. Had those hospitals screened every patient, "it would have wasted large amounts of resources unnecessarily," Farr said.

Everyone is always complaining about the cost of health care - especially in the United States. I'm curious in these hospitals at what the cost is for screening everyone who comes in the door. I believe that this is an expensive program, and someone is going to have to pay for this. "Yeah, but Dr. A, how can you put a price tag if a program like this saves one life?" (Like this story from New York)

I totally understand that point. But, let me put it to you this way. How much more of your pay check are you willing to give up to have this program in place in every US hospital? How much more of a deductible and co-pay are you willing to pay for these health care services? These are just part off the hard questions that need answered as the US figures out how to deliver its health care in the most cost-effective manner.

Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds 4.06 is now up and running over at Running A Hospital. This blog is run by Paul Levy who is the president and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. According to the site, the theme is the following: A personal experience I (or a loved one) had at a hospital and how it caused me to change my behavior or beliefs.

If you don't know what Grand Rounds is, it is a weekly compilation of the best posts from the medical blogosphere that moves to different sites each week. And, who doesn't like reading about medicine and science? Next week, GR moves to Counting Sheep.

AHEM! If you haven't heard already, on November 13th (two weeks from now) Grand Rounds 4.08 will be right here! Yay! So, get ready. Right as of this moment, I'm not planning to have a theme. So, start getting your best posts ready.

Also, The Doctor Anonymous Show is scheduled to have Dr. Nicholas Genes (the GR founder) on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 10 PM Eastern Standard Time. I hope you will be able to join us for the show and to participate in Grand Rounds!

What time is it?

So, I come into the office this morning to find all the phones and computers screwed up. The time is off by an hour. How could have this happened? Is this the twilight zone? Well, sort of. Thanks to our favorite US Congress, they changed the dates when Daylight Savings time happens. Yeesh! Why do they have control over time? They can't even run Medicare? (image credit)

Relaxing

I had a great weekend! I hope that you did. I was out of town relaxing and not thinking about work or even blogging (ek!). So, if I'm not posting that much for the next few days, I'm slowly getting back into things. And, I'll be getting my home Mac ready for upgrading to the new system released last week. (image credit)

Mimi LIVE tonight on Dr. A show

Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 10:00pm Eastern Time

Show Link - Chat Room Link - Archive Link

Join us tonight (actually in a few hours) for Mimi Lenox. There is a little bit more detailed post below, or just click here.

After the last couple of shows, I'm getting a little more comfortable with the 60 minute format. So, we'll be doing that again tonight. I chat it up with Mimi for most of the first half hour of the show. And, then welcome callers (like you) for questions, to say hello, or to talk about whatever your like.

The chat room is always "the show within the show." The chat wasn't working for the last show. So, hopefully, it will be working tonight. The only way to find out it to tune in tonight! Talk to you later....

Update: Thanks so much to Mimi for appearing on the show. Also, thanks to MJRN and Roy for calling into the show. I'm very frustrated that the chat room was not working again tonight. This is the second time that happened. I really have to get that fixed.

Anyway, that's not going to get me down. This show is continuing to grow. We had the largest live audience this show has ever had. And, it's growing every week - Thanks to you. If you missed the show, you can listen in the sidebar or check it out anytime on my BTR site (you can even download it, that's scary LOL). Have a great weekend, everybody!

MRSA panic

There is so much apathy in the country these days about a number of issues. Unfortunately, the only way most people learn about pertinent issues is during a crisis situation (image credit), or during a tragedy. This is evident now through the California wildfire situation. I admit that I really did know much about the specifics of how wildfires happen until recently reading about them.

The same can be said of MRSA. I think it's reasonable to say that most of the public didn't know what MRSA was until recently, especially before the tragic death of that Virginia teen.

Now, it seems to be everywhere in the media. And, our office is getting calls about this every day. In today's Newsday, an associate professor at NYU School of Medicine outlines what's probably been happening in doctor's offices across the country.

But thanks to widespread media coverage of the CDC report, people are worried. Last week many of my patients called me with fresh concerns over their usual pimples and boils, and a frightened neighbor refused to shake my hand, pointing out that because I worked in a hospital I might be in contact with the superbug.

Such hypervigilance will do nothing to eradicate MRSA. Quite the contrary, in fact. Excessive concerns over rare bacteria lead patients to pressure physicians for antibiotics to treat the slightest sniffle or scratch. Though more than 90 percent of upper respiratory infections are viral and don't respond to antibiotics, and though most skin bumps go away on their own, physicians are nevertheless quick to overprescribe oral antibiotics. This bad habit leads to more impervious bacteria, which develop resistance to existing treatment.

This is an interesting national article, and I encourage you to check it out. But, when it comes down to it, all politics is local, right? People really don't learn all the ins and outs of an issue until it hits home. Here is the beginning of an article from one of our local papers today:

Niles — A McKinley High School football player has contracted a drug-resistant staph bacteria infection, sparking city health and school district officials to take precautionary measures. ‘‘We are taking precautions,’’ Niles schools Superintendent Rocco Adduci said.

City Health Commissioner and school physician Dr. William Eddy said it takes 48 to 72 hours to determine that a staph infection is Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA). The confirmation of the Niles case was made Tuesday.

But, what I really enjoyed was the end of this local article. It is so pragmatic. It makes total sense. It's definitely what this community needs right now. And, of course, the quote is not from a doctor, but from a nurse and mother. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Still, infections can happen, according to parent Cindy Rosenberger of Niles. Although she’s a nurse in a local hospital and taught her kids how to wash their hands and prevent infection, three of her children — one of them an athlete in the schools — have come down with staph infections over the years. ‘‘It’s definitely a concern,’’ she said. ‘‘You hear of schools where there are staph infections, where kids may have died.’’

When her children had staph infections, Rosenberger watched for signs of illness, such as fever and chills, and also made sure they finished the prescriptions their doctor gave them. ‘‘Kids want to take one or two of the doses, and then when the symptoms go away, they don’t want to take any more,’’ she said. ‘‘I always make sure they finish them.’’

Update (1pm): Niles player has MRSA infection