Friday, January 22, 2010

eMedicine Medical Reference from WebMD


I've had some people asking for recommendations for a medical reference product that can be accessed anywhere. One option is eMedicine from WebMD. eMedicine touts its 8,000 professional contributors, and 6000 topics.

New eMedicine articles undergo several levels of physician peer review plus an additional review by a PharmD prior to publication. Sources for subsequent revisions of articles include the author, a physician or PharmD member of the editorial board, user-driven feedback, and systematically reviewed medical literature.

eMedicine has been around for over 10 years and in 2006 was bought by WebMD, a provider of consumer health information. WebMD is like reading a mainstream health magazine, with seamlessly integrated ads, and it's advertised on national television, so your patients have probably looked at it.

eMedicine is aimed at physicians, and is paired with Medscape, a site with medical news, selected full-text journal articles, and cme, and a company also purchased by WebMD.

Registration may be required to access all features, but there is much material available free of charge, though with integrated advertising.

It's not too late to get vaccinated for H1N1!

Get Vaccinated… It's National Influenza Vaccination Week. www.flu.gov

Occupational Health still has H1N1 vaccine available for:

  • Staff
  • Patients WITH A DOCTORS ORDER.

Presidential Proclamation for National Influenza Vaccination Week

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Rational Clinical Examination Series from JAMA

The Society of General Internal Medicine has compiled the Rational Clinical Exam Series from JAMA, focusing on signs and symptoms to answer questions such as:

Does this patient have dementia?

Holsinger T, Deveau J, Boustani M, Williams JW.
JAMA 2007;297:2391-404. PMID: 17551132

PubMed:
Abstract - Related articles
Fulltext options:
JAMA: html - pdf

Does this dyspneic patient in the emergency department have congestive heart failure?

Wang CS, FitzGerald JM, Schulzer M, Mak E, Ayas NT.
JAMA 2005;294:1944-56. PMID: 16234501

PubMed:
Abstract - Related articles
Fulltext options:
JAMA: html - pdf

Does this patient with headache have a migraine or need neuroimaging?

Detsky ME, McDonald DR, Baerlocher MO, Tomlinson GA, McCrory DC, Booth CM.
JAMA 2006;296:1274-83. PMID: 16968852

PubMed:
Abstract - Related articles
Fulltext options:
JAMA: html - pdf

JNC-7: Guidelines for the Treatment of High Blood Pressure



The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute(NHLBI) publishes clinical guidelines for the treatment of hypertension. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, otherwise known as JNC-7, was published in 2003 and is currently in revision for JNC-8 due out in March 2010 for comment and in final form in summer of 2010.

A JNC-7 Express Guide has been written for primary care.

A JNC-7 Pocket Reference Card contains all the main points in a concise 2 pages.

JNC-7 PDA Application

Printable Patient Diaries

There is an abundance of patient symptom diaries and trackers available on the internet. Many are sponsored by drug companies in hopes that you will prescribe their medication for the symptoms. Others are from associations or foundations devoted to advocacy for a specific disease.

Cigna Insurance has a huge collection of symptom trackers, self-assessments and checklists for patients with topics such as:


The medical librarian blogger at InfoRxCases has assembled a useful list of printable symptom diaries for patients to fill out.

Some topics include:

Health Link BC: Sleep diary
International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: Bowel disorder symptom diary (pdf)
About.com: Tracking fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms
American Urogynecologic Society Foundation: Bladder diary
National Headache Foundation: Headache diary
WebMD: Food diary and food allergy triggers
American Cancer Society's Great American health challenge: Food diary

Symptom Diary from Ovarian Cancer Alliance