As cardiopulmonologist Mark Pamer, DO, goes about his day at his South Florida practice, one adage from medical school that sticks in his mind is: “All that wheezes is not asthma.” “[As doctors], we probably all heard that. Did we understand it? You know, probably not,” said Dr. Pamer. “We understood it later on in residency or fellowship or in life.” This adage proved itself during Dr. Pamer’s treatment of a puzzling … Read More
Study: Pharmacogenomic knowledge gaps persist among physicians
More work seems needed to better familiarize physicians with the concept of pharmacogenomic testing, according to the results of a recent study. The study in the August edition of Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine found that just 12.6 percent of the 300 physicians surveyed strongly or somewhat agreed with the question, “How familiar are you with pharmacogenomics?” Study authors Johansen Taber and Dickinson report this study gels with past research on … Read More
Smart medication management key to fall prevention
Falls among the elderly are nothing to take lightly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cite falls as the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries among Americans 65 and older. In 2012, 2.4 million nonfatal falls among this age group were treated in emergency departments, and more than 722,000 of these patients were hospitalized. In 2011, about 22,900 members of this demographic died from unintentional fall injuries. Multiple government and nonprofit … Read More
YouScript cumulative interactions feature: Unique in healthcare software
Drug interaction checkers are common to most EHRs and e-prescribing solutions, but while other types of drug-interaction software will alert you about how two medications could potentially interact, they don’t take into account the effects multiple medications combined could have on each other. These cumulative interactions are more likely to be problematic than a single drug-drug interaction because they are more complex and often additive. In these scenarios, the magnitude of the increase or decrease in drug … Read More