Interesting JAMA article by Emergency Physician Esther Choo regarding the likely transition of opiate use/abuse to marjiuana use/abuse. With the current nationwide epidemic of opioid abuse, dependence, and fatalities, clinicians are being asked by federal agencies and professional societies to control their prescribing of narcotic medications for pain. Federal guidelines emphasize tapering, discontinuing, and limiting… Read More
Opiate abuse is a nationwide epidemic. We are constantly looking for solutions One might be using buprenorphine implants. This study in JAMA found that the implants were as successful as sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone in maintaining clinical stability in opioid-dependent patients. During the 6-month study period, 63% of patients in the buprenorphine implant group and 54% of… Read More
From Modern Healthcare, October 31,2016 which reported on the private purchase of Team Health by the Blackstone Group. With roughly 19,000 physicians and $80M in earnings, there are likely big changes in store for TeamHealth. Physician-staffing giant TeamHealth has agreed to be purchased by affiliates of the Blackstone Group for $6.1 billion. The Blackstone price… Read More
TeamHealth is one of the nation’s largest physician-staffing companies with 19,000 physicians, Merging hospitalists into a company primarily composed of emergency physicians is proving to be challenging. Team Health bought IPC in November 2015 for $1.6 billion. IPC was noted to have higher physician turnover and offers a different salary structure than does Team Health. TeamHealth reportedly has 3,400… Read More
There is a tremendous demand for electrical storage. One of the most frustrating things about smartphones is battery life, and the limitation of electric cars in battery storage. Now the future might involve smarthomes and even smart wearables. The limitation is power and the battery hasn’t advanced in decades. This article reviews some of the… Read More
In the last several years, hundreds of children across the country have shown up at hospitals unable to move their arms or legs. Dozens of kids have become paralyzed in the past few months alone. Doctors are not exactly sure why but suspect a viruse in the same family as poliovirus, known as enterovirus. A… Read More
This study published in JAMA Cardiology looked at risk factors for mortality and concluded that exercise recovery is helpful in predicting mortality. The study further investigated whether exercise and other clinical variables have differential associations with mortality outcomes in men and women and assesses whether sex-specific risk scores better estimate all-cause mortality among patients undergoing… Read More
Imagine you are an athlete and in this situation both you and the opposing kicker missed an easy field goal to win the game. Which coach would you rather have? Fast-forward to the postgame press conference. When Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians was asked if he had any words for his kicker after the game,… Read More
Another company is entering the physician direct to patient or “housecall” market in California. It is surprising how much money is being thrown at this and how unfortunately, the business model is still not sorted out. Excerpts from the MSN article include California-based Heal is betting that housecalls can not just make you healthier, but… Read More
