News

Homemade trick-or-treat treats are nice but unless you know the maker well, don't let your child eat such goodies. That's one bite-size piece of Halloween advice that parents will appreciate hearing from you-and there is more for you to pass along.

Small changes in the way physicians run their practice can have a major impact on the bottom line. Three simple steps, controlling overhead costs, increasing collections, and billing for all services, can make a difference in your patients' clinical outcomes as well as your own financial health.

There is no secret to finding, hiring, and keeping great office staff. Prepare before you need to hire, hire correctly, and be the best boss in town.

Small changes in the way physicians run their practice can have a major impact on the bottom line. Three simple steps, controlling overhead costs, increasing collections, and billing for all services, can make a difference in your patients' clinical outcomes as well as your own financial health.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are becoming standard equipment for primary care physicians. More than 70% of clinicians claim to use PDAs for reference information, noted Jeremy Golding, M.D., associate professor of clinical family medicine at the University of Massachusetts College of Medicine in Worcester, Mass. Among medical students, residents, and younger physicians, PDAs are ubiquitous.

The Internet. It's a worldwide repository of medical information larger than any physical library ever imagined. It's searchable. It's open any time of the day or night. And it's a jungle, filled with misinformation, traps, and predators.

Alea jacta est, The die is cast. The time has come. You have decided to join the 21st century with an electronic health record, or EHR. But what comes next?

Taylor Hooton had it all. A solid high school student, popular, a star baseball pitcher in Plano, TX. But at 16 years old and 6'3", he wasn't big enough to be a varsity star. Or so his JV coach warned, telling Taylor that if he wanted to make the cut, he had to get bigger.

Athletes are peculiar patients. Relief from the pain of injury is not their first priority, nor is healing an injury. The number one priority is getting back in the game, back on the bike, back on the road.

Americans are caught in a twin epidemic. On one side is a rising tide of obesity, fueled by changes in eating habits, diet, and exercise. On the other side is a tide of diet plans, fueled by our desire for a magic bullet to cure the problem with minimal effort.

Anxiety and depression are both common and commonly missed in children and adolescents. At any given time, 5% of the population under the age of 18 has some symptom of anxiety or depression, said Helena Karnani, MbChb, a practicing physician in the St. Vincent's Family Residency Program in Jacksonville, FL. By the age of 18, 20% of children have had at least one major episode.

Are American children getting fatter or are they getting more exercise? Both, it turns out.

Adolescents are different from other patients, and not just because they are teenagers. Adolescence spans the transition from childhood to adulthood, a time when teens establish their own identity by testing boundaries and trying on different adult behavior patterns.

A cool compress for itchy eyes-and rumbling stomachs

An improved prognosis for children with autism depends on prompt and intensive intervention. That can happen only if the condition is screened for and diagnosed at a very young age.

Supreme Court gets a new chief justice, grand plans emerge for rebuilding flood-ravaged Gulf Coast, and OTC status for Plan B again in limbo.

Prompt diagnosis and treatment of what was once considered a rare disorder of early childhood can eliminate symptoms and prevent long-term problems, such as osteoporosis and intestinal cancer.