Heart Rhythm Medicine, Health, Cycling, Fitness.
I like positive thinking. Optimism helps keep inflammation at bay. You can’t be a heart doctor and think problems are hopeless or that bad outcomes will occur. But…I have to tell you, obesity and its flume of chronic diseases makes it tough to stay upbeat. As an office doctor, obesity frustrates; as an internationalist, working [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In the Choosing Wisely initiative, nine medical groups have contributed their list of five misused and overused tests and treatments. Some of the highest cost-of-care groups are on board–cardiologists, oncologists, radiologists, nephrologists (kidney) and gastroenterologists. Front line doctors, like internists and family doctors, have also weighed in. Coming soon are lists of five from the [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I like to tell my patients that good health, at its root, comes from just three things: good movement, good food, and good sleep. At least these are the three they can control. Good luck and good genes are beyond our control. On our Easter: The world looks and feels like a different place after [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Cycling Wednesday has to be postponed this week. There is indeed a more pressing and relevant health matter that has come to light today. I am talking huge news; a story ripe with optimism and hope. Let me tell you about a possible paradigm-changing idea in the seemingly hopeless matter of controlling runaway healthcare costs—a [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Slightly over a year ago, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation of a large number of institutions regarding concerns that implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) procedures were performed for reasons outside of the criteria set forth in Medicare’s National Coverage Decision (NCD). This investigation occurred just after Al-Khatib and others published a report January [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I know the title sounds crazy, but this isn’t just a headline grabber. It is real. Here’s the story: Tambocor is the brand name version of the helpful AF drug, flecainide. “Flec,” as we call it, helps control AF episodes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) AND a structurally normal heart. Its patent long expired; [...]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
