Articles related to Family Medicine/General Practice

A diagnosis that is made after all differential diagnoses have been ruled out – a diagnosis of exclusion (DOE) – is a challenge for the physician. Despite the DOE being verifiable, the diagnostic tests needed simply cannot be performed – think brain biopsy – or are too difficult to perform. These five diseases are notoriously tricky to diagnose and will test your documentation skills, as well as your attention to detail.

Dead may be the wrong word – antiquated, maybe? – as the white-color 9-to-5 office job is becoming a thing of the past. According to this article, a new workforce and new work demands require a fresh approach to work/life balance. A 2019 Mayo Clinic Proceedings article detailed this approach for physicians, transforming work/life into three categories to consider: Work, Yourself, and Others.

The research, taken from the CLARITY study and published in GUT, found that 865 people given the Pfizer/BioNTech or the Oxford/AZ COVID-19 vaccine and treated with infliximab (Remicade) had significantly lower concentrations of antibodies when compared to 428 people on an alternative treatment, vedolizumab (Entyvio). Infliximab is prescribed to around two million people worldwide.

Baby steps. It’s what it sometimes takes to just get started in changing habits or building the momentum needed to push through. Although five minutes a day doesn’t seem like much, the benefits of doing these incremental activities will make a profound difference in your professional life. From tried-and-true exercise habits to practice mindfulness, learn what you can start today to become a better doctor tomorrow.

Based on the Medicus Firm’s hundreds of job searches and placements across the US, the results are a case of good news and bad news. The bad? Elective procedures canceled, hiring slowed, and signing bonuses stalled. However, the good news is that those people canceling the elective procedures still need them, bringing about a necessary return to a high-demand healthcare environment.

This article from the American College of Physicians (ACP) provides a deeper dive into the pause of the J&J vaccine, which was recommended by the FDA and CDC on April 13, 2021, after six cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) among patients who had received the vaccine was reported. The pause is being done to determine whether the vaccine is associated with any other types of thrombosis and to develop more specific recommendations for its use, possibly based on age.