Sinai Physiatrist Enthusiatic About Word Addition
It’s a word that’s been around since the days of the Truman presidency. But a patient looking up “physiatry” would find nothing in the dictionary.
Until now.
Last week, Merriam-Webster Inc. released its list of the more than 100 entries now included in the latest edition of its Collegiate Dictionary. Physiatry, a synonym for physical medicine and rehabilitation, made the cut, along with locavore, fan fiction and earmark.
The physiatrists at Sinai Hospital couldn’t be happier about the linguistic recognition of their field.
Study singles out pesticide in Parkinson’s risk
New research provides more evidence for a link between pesticide exposure and Parkinson’s disease and pinpoints a specific risky chemical.
Dr. Jason R. Richardson of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey, and his colleagues found that Parkinson’s disease patients were more likely to have detectable levels of beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH) in their blood, and also had higher average levels, than healthy individuals or Alzheimer’s disease patients.
The first evidence suggesting an association between pesticides and the degenerative brain disease Parkinson’s came out in the 1990s, but the current findings are the first to finger a specific chemical, Richardson told Reuters Health.
CBO says costs will rise as healthcare expanded
Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf told lawmakers on Thursday legislation to expand health care coverage would increase federal healthcare costs “to a significant degree” and revenue will need to be found to keep from increasing the deficit.
Asked by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee about his remarks to a Senate committee earlier Thursday that the legislation would not hold down healthcare costs, he said, “The point I made earlier this morning is that it raises future federal outlays more than it reduces future federal outlays.”
Elmendorf told the panel, “The coverage proposals in this legislation would expand federal spending on health care to a significant degree and in our analysis so far we don’t see other provisions in this legislation reducing federal health spending by a corresponding degree.”
Psoriasis treatment may up cancer risk
Patients with moderate to severe psoriasis may need life-long treatment with a variety of therapies to relieve symptoms of the scaly skin condition and research has shown that both traditional and newer therapies for psoriasis can increase patients’ risk of certain cancers.
Long-term treatment with so-called PUVA therapy, they note, is associated with increased risks of deadly malignant melanoma as well as a less deadly non-melanoma skin cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Dr. Jeffrey M. Weinberg, of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, and colleagues note in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
During PUVA therapy, patients are given the photosensitizing drug psoralen and exposed to ultraviolet A light.
Prepared Patient: Seeking a Second …or Third …Opinion
Is it OK to seek a second (or a third, or a fourth) opinion on your diagnosis? Many people feel uncomfortable with the idea that they are questioning the authority or expertise of their physician. Some fear that they will receive worse care if they appear to be pushy or difficult patients. Gathering multiple opinions on your medical condition can be one of the most emotionally fraught decisions that a patient has to make.
When Chip Wells visited a hematologist after learning he had leukemia, the doctor’s attitude struck him as more cavalier than low-key. Wells asked him to recommend another specialist although it wasn’t an easy request to make.
But patients do have to make this decision. Research confirms what most people already feel in their gut: not all doctors are alike. Physicians vary in how they were trained, what they specialize in and where they practice. A decade-long Dartmouth project has documented significant differences in treatment between regions of the country. Major studies suggest that doctors deliver the best, evidence-backed care only half of the time. And it’s a rare medical condition that responds to only one treatment or therapy.
