Top medicine articles for June 2012

Here are my suggestions for some of the top articles in medicine for June 2012:

Open access to research is inevitable, says Nature editor-in-chief http://goo.gl/N3OEU

Diagnosis, treatment, and management of echinococcosis | 2012 BMJ review http://goo.gl/r65Nd

How to be a cool headed clinician. Imperturbability is an essential characteristic for doctors, but how compatible is it with empathy? BMJ http://goo.gl/X7l5y

A doctor's guide to E/M coding - How to minimize lost revenue and likelihood of an audit - ModernMedicine http://goo.gl/RT6OC

Forgotten notebooks shed light on controversial discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic to cure TB http://goo.gl/1au0m

Apps for the Traveler With Medical Issues - NYTimes http://goo.gl/vFJzE

Statin Use Linked to Fatigue in Randomized Trial http://goo.gl/4xv0I and http://goo.gl/U2cMh

Thiazolidinedione use is associated with increased risk for diabetic macular edema http://goo.gl/1O0Tz

"Superbug" gonorrhea, becoming untreatable, accounts for 10% of STDs in Europe - doubling since last year http://goo.gl/y5aWr

Rapid Saliva Test for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR) http://goo.gl/LEsMO and http://goo.gl/GCean

Journal offers flat fee for ‘all you can publish’ Whereas PLoS ONE charges $1,350 per paper, PeerJ users pay $299 http://goo.gl/0kArd

Ipratropium linked to increased risk of stroke in COPD, especially with concomitant use of SABAs or theophylline http://goo.gl/CEr25

Chagas Disease is “The New HIV/AIDS of the Americas” claims the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases http://goo.gl/1P1qu

Cleveland Clinic summit on Patient Experience shares presentation slides - a must-read for those interested in #HCSM http://goo.gl/EnMbK

Doctors are using electronic records more - but liking them less - Washington Post http://buff.ly/Lpb8SY

Only 6.7% of office-based physicians routinely email with patients http://buff.ly/PPdusu

5 Key Benchmarks That Could Make or Break a Physician Practice http://buff.ly/LpbskH

90% of patients prefer web-based access to health information and education. 88% want to receive email reminders when it is time for preventive or follow-up care. 72% would like to use online services to book, change or cancel physician appointments. http://buff.ly/L0jjQS

The articles were selected from my Twitter and Google Reader streams. Please feel free to send suggestions for articles to clinicalcases@gmail.com and you will receive acknowledgement in the next edition of this publication.

Comments from Twitter:

Mike Cadogan @sandnsurf: Another great collection of the top #hcsm articles in medicine June 2012 via @DrVes litfl.com/LdO8X4

@DrVes: @sandnsurf @hjluks I'm glad you liked the summary http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/top-medicine-articles-for-june-2012.html - it's helpful to collect the article tweets for later reference.

Healthcare social media #HCSM - top articles

Here are my suggestions for some of the top articles related to healthcare social media (#HCSM) in the past 2 weeks:

Facebook's user growth rate in the U.S. is slowing sharply http://goo.gl/wGO4c

Making social media work professionally in sensitive jobs – teaching, the police, healthcare http://goo.gl/ywfSP

A Brief Social Media Guide for Authors of Medical Resources http://goo.gl/6n17e

Phil Baumann: I hope that there is never ever going to be a “Facebook for Healthcare” http://goo.gl/hh3cI

Are hospitals into social media? A worldwide map: http://goo.gl/AAly2

Cleveland Clinic summit on Patient Experience shares presentation slides - a must-read for those interested in #HCSM http://goo.gl/EnMbK

Vote for 100 Most Influential People in Heathcare http://goo.gl/LXOhd - Not a single medical blogger apart from @Bob_Wachter made the list

10 Survey Tools for Bloggers http://goo.gl/8z21Y

Doctors use YouTube to build their personal brand by putting their expertise on video http://goo.gl/BQkGU

Millions of Healthcare Hashtags in the Symplur project - a vast database of information that can mined http://goo.gl/099ld

4 ways social media can improve your medical practice - AMA MedNews http://goo.gl/4b2RZ

2012 Physicians Survey reveals dissatisfaction and gloomy outlook - Orthopedic surgeon Howard J. Luks, shows the way forward http://goo.gl/eBzUA

The articles were selected from my Twitter and Google Reader streams. Please feel free to send suggestions for articles to clinicalcases@gmail.com and you will receive an acknowledgement in the next edition of this publication.

Mayo Clinic CEO's one-hour presentation on how Mayo Clinic is transforming medicine

Mayo Clinic president and CEO John Noseworthy speaks at Karolinska Institute on how Mayo Clinic is transforming medicine, June 25, 2012:

Genital ulcers - 2012 review from Am Fam Physician

Here is an excerpt from a review article in the official AAFP journal American Family Physician:

Causes of genital ulcers

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection and syphilis are the most common causes of genital ulcers in the U.S.

Other infectious causes include:

- chancroid
- lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV)
- granuloma inguinale (donovanosis)
- secondary bacterial infections
- fungi

Noninfectious etiologies of genital ulcers include:

- sexual trauma
- psoriasis
- Behçet syndrome
- fixed drug eruptions



CDC Streaming Health | This video, produced by Be Smart. Be Well., raises awareness of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs): 1) What are they? 2) Why they matter? and, 3) What can I do about them? Footage courtesy of Be Smart. Be Well. http://www.besmartbewell.com, featuring CDC's Dr. John Douglas, Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention.

Diagnosis

The following tests should be considered in all patients:

- serologic tests for syphilis and darkfield microscopy or direct fluorescent antibody testing for Treponema pallidum
- culture or polymerase chain reaction test for herpes simplex virus (HSV)
- culture for Haemophilus ducreyi in settings with a high prevalence of chancroid

No pathogen is identified in up to 25% of patients with genital ulcers.

Treatment

The first episode of herpes simplex virus infection is usually treated with 7-10 days of oral acyclovir (5 days for recurrent episodes). Famciclovir and valacyclovir are alternative therapies.

One dose of intramuscular penicillin G benzathine is recommended to treat genital ulcers caused by primary syphilis.

Treatment options for chancroid include a single dose of intramuscular ceftriaxone or oral azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, or erythromycin.

Lymphogranuloma venereum and donovanosis are treated with 21 days of oral doxycycline.

Treatment of noninfectious causes of genital ulcers varies by etiology, of course. Topical wound care for ulcers caused by sexual trauma. Subcutaneous pegylated interferon alfa-2a is considered for ulcers caused by Behçet syndrome.

References:

Diagnosis and management of genital ulcers. Roett MA, Mayor MT, Uduhiri KA. Am Fam Physician. 2012 Feb 1;85(3):254-62.

Best of Medical Blogs - weekly review and blog carnival

The “Best of Medical Blogs - weekly review and blog carnival” is a weekly summary of the best posts from medical blogs. Feel free to send your suggestions to my email at clinicalcases@gmail.com. Best of Medical Blogs (BMB) is published every Tuesday, just like the old Grand Rounds.

Cycling for doctors and patients

Dr. Mandrola reviews Strava app that uses GPS information collected from a smartphone or Garmin device to track your numbers. Beware: Always racing up segments can quickly lead to over-training and excess inflammation. That’s both bad and silly. Becoming a slave to kilojoules burned or personal-best power risks squeezing the fun out of exercise. That’s worse than bad or silly. A Mandrola axiom: never take the fun out of fun stuff. If you come to Louisville, you can stomp up the Sleepy Hollow Climb and see how you stack up against “an aging cardiac electrophysiologist.” http://goo.gl/02zBx

Three things about Healthcare Social Media

Ed Bennett shares three things he's learned about Healthcare Social Media: Our patients are ahead of us, Real change start at the top, Social media is more than the sum of its parts http://goo.gl/fD2Sj

Three things I've learned about Healthcare Social Media

View more PowerPoint from Ed Bennett

Dr. Rob: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Meaningful Use: My dream of universal acceptance of EHR has turned sour http://goo.gl/Zr7Xg

Phil Baumann: I hope that there is never ever going to be a “Facebook for Healthcare” http://goo.gl/hh3cI

Are hospitals into social media? Here is a worldwide map: http://goo.gl/AAly2

The Social MEDia Course: The First Graduate http://buff.ly/PgaLYG

Information overload: average computer user checks 40 websites a day, 60% of adults addicted to the internet http://buff.ly/PgbdWW

A day in the life of a clinical scientist - and the 4 reviewers of his article http://goo.gl/61AYu

Millions of Healthcare Hashtags in the Symplur project - a vast database of information that can mined http://goo.gl/099ld

Comments from Twitter:

Heidi Allen @dreamingspires: @DrVes thanks for the shout out on best of blogs!