Primary Care/Hospitalist
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Colon Cancer Screening by Stool DNA Testing
Recent guidelines issued by the American Cancer Society and American Society of Gastroenterology recommend colonoscopy as the preferred screening method for colon cancer, but wisely include the philosophy, “The best colon cancer screening test is the test you can get done!” — reflecting the relative reticence shown by many Americans to undergo colonoscopy. CT colonography compares very favorably colonoscopy, yet many insurers are not willing to pay for it.
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Long-term Payoff of Bariatric Surgery
The benefits of bariatric surgery are gaining new levels of respect as long-term evidence of favorable outcomes — other than cosmetic — continue to accrue. Indeed, in the population of obese diabetics, bariatric surgery is one of the only interventions documented to improve all-cause mortality.
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Weighing the Harms and Benefits of E-cigarettes
So far, studies evaluating whether e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes remain mostly inconclusive.
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Hypoglycemia Increases Cardiovascular Risk in Patients With Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
This is a retrospective analysis of data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink which includes 265,868 insulin-treated patients age > 30 years diagnosed with diabetes between 2001 and 2007. 3260 were diagnosed with T1DM and 10,422 had T2DM. During a median follow-up of 5 years for type 1 diabetes patients and 4.8 years for those with type 2 diabetes, hypoglycemia was experienced by 573 (18%) and 1463 (14%) of patients, respectively. Compared with patients who did not experience hypoglycemia, the hazard ratio (HR) for CV events among T1DM patients who experienced hypoglycemia was 1.51 (not significant) and 1.61 for those with and without a history of CVD. For T2DM patients, the respective HRs were 1.60 and 1.49. The median time interval between the first hypoglycemia event and the first CV event was 1.5 years for all diabetes patients. Thus, hypoglycemia increases the risk of both CV and all-cause mortality in patients with diabetes.
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Influenza, 2014-2015 — Something Old, Something New, and a Mismatch
By early January, influenza activity had reached epidemic proportions in large parts of the United States, despite prior vaccination.
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The Devalued Body: Symptoms of BPD in Mental Health and Medical Settings
Borderline personality disorder is a complex dysfunction often caused by childhood trauma and it may result in your patients harming themselves.
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Quality Family Planning (QFP) — Put it into practice
“Providing Quality Family Planning Services — Recommendations of CDC and the U.S. Office of Population Affairs” is the newest member in the “suite” of family planning recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. -
Where should teens access condoms?
On the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 40% of sexually active U.S. high school students reported that they did not use a condom at last intercourse. This percentage has significantly declined since 1991 when the survey began but has increased since a low of 37% in 2003.1 Additionally, in 2013 less than 10% of students reported dual use of condoms plus a hormonal method.
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Despite new options, oral contraceptive pills are still in birth control mix, survey respondents say
How are oral contraceptives being used in today’s family planning practices? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) might be making a difference when it comes to use of the Pill. Between 2012 and 2013, the number of women who filled prescriptions for the Pill with no co-pay more than quadrupled from 1.2 million to 5.1 million, according to data from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics in Parsippany, NJ, an information and technology service.
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Oral contraceptives — Should they be OTC?
When it comes to moving oral contraceptives over the counter (OTC), almost 50% of participants in the Contraceptive Technology Update Contraception Survey say they support such a move. Support for OTC access is growing; 62% of American women support the pill being available without a prescription.