When killer tornadoes struck Missouri and Alabama in the spring, doctors often worked in chaotic conditions to save severely injured patients.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

Some stressed-out physicians are seeking the seeming safety of anonymity to blog and tweet about the travails of their lives in medicine. The results can be funny, provocative and revealing, but to some eyes these anonymous accounts veer from physician professionalism.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

More than 116 million Americans struggle with chronic pain each year, and associated medical charges and lost productivity cost the nation as much as $635 billion annually.

These are the findings of “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research,” a July report by an Institute of Medicine panel that calls for an aggressive national strategy to combat the problem.

Read the whole shebang.

Here are the stories that I reported out of the American Medical Association’s Annual Meeting last month:

• AMA delegates reaffirm key policy but target parts of law for change
• AMA backs challenge of “don’t ask” gun law
• AMA house seeks repeal of OTC drug-spending rule
• Delegates ask AMA council how to just say no to patients

Here is the the complete PDF of the House of Delegates issue.

My lede:

A bill that would give Massachusetts patients the right to have a video recording of their surgery is drawing opposition from organizations representing physicians and hospitals.

Hearings on the bill and related medical legislation were held in June before the Joint House-Senate Committee on Public Health.

“The costs would be paid by the patient, and the camera would be there if the family wanted to see what went on in the operating room,” said State Rep. Martin J. Walsh, who filed the bill.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

The National Quality Forum in June proposed an updated version of its list of serious reportable events, such as medication errors that kill or gravely injure patients.

Hospitals in 24 states and the District of Columbia are required to report on some version of the National Quality Forum’s list, and items from the list have been selected for nonpayment by private health plans, Medicare and many state Medicaid programs.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

About 60% of emergency physicians say they have less empathy for so-called frequent-flier patients who visit the ED more than 10 times a year.

Nearly 80% told researchers they hold some bias against these patients, and 82% said caring for them contributes to their level of burnout, according to survey data presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s June annual meeting in Boston.

Read the whole shebang.

Family members who make life-or-death decisions for loved ones are at high risk for anxiety and depression. Here’s how to ease the strain.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

Every year, adverse drug events send more adult patients to American physician offices and emergency departments than do pneumonia or strep throat.

The trips add up to an estimated 4.5 million annual outpatient visits related to medication problems, with seniors and patients taking more than six medications the most likely to show up in doctors’ offices.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

A New York bill that is the first of its kind in the nation would make participation in torture or interrogation of prisoners grounds for board discipline of physicians and other health professionals.

Dozens of medical students and other health professionals in training lobbied in favor of the legislation in late May, meeting with nearly 40 New York state legislators, said Allen Keller, MD. He helped organize the lobbying trip and directs the Bellevue Hospital Center/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

When it comes to providing primary care, physicians should adopt the motto of the German minimalist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more.”

That is the message of a set of recommendations published online May 23 in Archives of Internal Medicine that advises internists, family physicians and pediatricians on the top five commonly ordered interventions that should be avoided in each of their specialties.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

Technology that helps physicians remotely track more patients in intensive care units also improves care outcomes, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association study published in May that contradicts research finding no benefit.

So-called tele-ICUs allow intensivists, critical care nurses, respiratory therapists and other critical-care experts to see patients on video, receive electronic clinical data on their progress and communicate in real time with the health professionals in the unit to make changes in care.

Read the whole shebang.

My lede:

In front of her fellow first-year medical students, Natsai Nyakudarika spoke about the difficulty she had looking at the face of her anatomy class cadaver, a man named Gerald.

“I can’t look at Gerald’s face,” she said. “I’m afraid that I will see in it the face of everyone I’ve loved who has died.”

Nyakudarika was among several students at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago who talked about their experiences with dissection as part of the school’s closing ceremony for its anatomy class.

Read the whole shebang. See the slide show.