Standard Podcast [26:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (820)

Harnessing information power for your patients and your practice

This week’s show: The I.T. Sword has Two Edges: benefits and Risks of I.T. for neurology

Hear these reports:

Double-edged Sword of I.T.: It’s reaching into physician practices whether they’re ready for it or not. The government’s seeing to that. Is it a ‘brave new world’ for neurology and medicine? One possibly with significant risks and benefits: clinical practice guidelines and electronic medical records. Ninety (90)% of authors of clinical practice guidelines had financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry (according to JAMA back in 2002). See the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) website.

Will you recommend that your patients put their health records in the hands of Google, Microsoft or Wal-Mart? You may soon be getting requests to do so. See this Newsweek story.

The National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI): This software is available to equip every physician in the US with electronic prescribing software. Created by a coalition of health insurers and software companies, it’s compatible with the software in 99% of the nation’s pharmacies. It’s easy to learn and free of charge. Could there be future privacy and control-related risks with this technology as well?

CaringBridge.org: Patients or their families easily create - for free - their own private website so that family and friends can provide the patients and caregivers with support through guest book messages and photos.

I.T. for Autism: This is a must-see video produced by Amanda Baggs who has autism. We became aware of the video thanks to Wired Magazine. Ms. Baggs might otherwise be considered mute and retarted, if not for technology. She shares amazing insights with us from her valuable and intelligent perspective using her computer and synthetic voice technology from Dynavox. Dr. Mike Merzenich, neuroscientist at UC San Francisco is quoted: the idea that 75 percent of autistic people are mentally retarded is “incredibly wrong and destructive.” Let’s see if many more autistics start ’speaking out’ through information technology.

Next week’s show: It’s the second part of this two-part series on Information Technology for Neurology: new learning enhancements available through I-T, the use of ‘Wikis’ for the establishment of independently developed clinical practice guidelines, and more.

 

 Standard Podcast [24:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (432)

This is part 2 of this 2-part Podcast for Peds series.

Hear these reports:

• Nursing Mothers’ Codeine Use May Be Risky for Infants: The CYP2D6 enzyme is involved in breaking down about 75 percent of all psychotropic medications, codeine being one of them. This is part of the early concept and specialty of ‘psychiatric pharmaco-genomics.’
• Noise Helps Memory Performance in ADHD Children: White noise appears to selectively improve the performance of kids with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Possible reason: stochastic resonance can be beneficial to dopamine deprived neural systems, with ADHD being one example. External auditory noise can restore low dopamine levels - and thus improve cognitive performance in these scholastically ‘low achiever’ children,
• In Utero Exposure to Smoking by Mother Can Increase Risk of ADHD: Maybe it’s time that this information be used to alert practitioners and families that at least some cases of ADHD may be preventable in utero!
• Computerized Training of Working Memory as a Therapeutic Strategy in ADHD: Working memory can be improved by computer-based training exercises in children with ADHD, and such training may be of clinical use for ameliorating the symptoms in ADHD.
• CDC Urges Meningitis Vaccine For All Adolescents: Tetravalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine is recommended for all 11- to 18-year-olds. This is the result of a vote by the CDC back in June (2007). Actual long-term risk-benefit ratio: unknown.
• Simple Approach to Reduce Part of World’s Pediatric Mortality Rates By Essentially 45%: Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets (‘mosquito nets’). You can donate any amount of money you wish - to provide nets for children in Africa – at www.nothingbutnets.net. According to the site: no portion of your donation will be diverted for ‘administrative’ costs.

OTHER REPORTS:

• Early Results Of Aricept Study Hint At Autism Improvement
• New Autism Research Funded
• Is Autism Prevalence Truly On The Rise?
• Majority Of Traumatic Brain Injuries Are Pediatric

Next week’s show: Installment #5 of Quest For The Best In Neurology: robots are extending the reach of Neurologists; nanomedicine has opened the way for nerve cell regeneration; and much more.

 

 #83: Podcast for Peds - Installment #4 [34:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (841)

Podcast for Peds: Issues related to problems of the developing nervous system.

Focus: The Interactive Autism Network: Interview with ‘IAN’s’ founders Drs. Paul and Kiely Law.

The two pediatricians will discuss their personal family experience with the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and how it led to their founding of IAN. We’ll also discuss how this rapidly growing online community of families and researchers may help us understand the incidence, etiology and pathogenesis of ASDs, and help in our ability to diagnose and treat this troubling and apparently rapidly growing spectrum of disorders. Please get involved with the Interactive Autism Network and tell your families affected by autism about IAN: www.iancommunity.org.

Listener feedback: Two STAT! doctor subscribers provide feedback. One regarding the importance of Neurolgists’ continued use of medications off-label. The other doctor provides his comments regarding the quality level of STAT! productions, and his wish for additional lines of Medical News Podcasts productions.

Next week’s show: Our 6th installment of Ideology for neurology- working toward neurological perfection: Would you choose neurology again today, if you were considering specialties to pursue? And here’s another question: accumulation of which metal in the gray matter is tied to multiple sclerosis? Listen and learn.

Weblinks:

• Interactive Autism Network

• Internet System for Assessing Autistic Children (Dr. Law’s letter describing the ‘ISAAC’ system).

 

 #77: Podcast for Peds - Installment #3 [38:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (923)

Publication Date: July 6th, 2007.

Installment #3 of Podcast for Peds: Issues related to problems of the developing nervous system, and the young folks who have them. Focus: Autism.

• Online Autism Registry Offers Research Portal: The Interactive Autism Network already has 6000 registered autistic children. This project is analogous to when researchers banded together to successfully fight childhood leukemias!
• Familial Versus Sporadic Autism: DNA microarray technology has revealed that the majority of cases of autism spectrum disorders likely result from de novo genetic mutations after conception. An important question to be answered is: What factor or factors are causing the gene mutations? Mercury from the thimerisol preservative in vaccines is in the ‘lineup’ up suspects.

And last but not least: the alkaloid theobromine in chocolate may be superior to fluoride for preventing tooth decay (for ‘kids of all ages’).

Next week’s show: 5th installment of Ideology for Neurology-working toward neurological perfection. Hear news about last month’s stem cell victory in California; also how palliative care medicine is cost-effective medicine; and more.

Weblinks:

• Interactive Autism Network: www.ianproject.org.
• Lyme-Autism speculation: http://autism.about.com/b/a/257714.htm
• Book information: Healing The New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma And Allergies by Kenneth Bock, MD - http://www.amazon.com/Healing-New-Childhood-Epidemics-Groundbreaking/dp/0345494504
• Mercury and DNA damage — potential for gene mutations from mercury: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16655361

 

 #64 - Podcast for Peds, Installment #2 [34:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (570)

Issues related to problems of the developing nervous system, and the young folks who have them. Installment #2.

Publication Date: Apr 6th, 2007.

Hear the interview with Dr. A. David Rothner from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation - specialist in pediatric headaches.

Rapid Fire News includes:
1. Topiramate may prevent pediatric migraine
2. CDC launches autism study
3. Diet plus vagal nerve stimulation calm refractory epilepsy in kids
4. Hyperbaric oxygen aids cognition in cerebral palsy

And last but not least: ban cheddar to beat blubber, or shave the fat by shelving the sugar?

 

 #63 - Vulnerability in Neurology, Installment #4 [28:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (573)

Potential challenges for neurologists on the clinical front lines. Installment #4.

Publication Date: Mar 30th, 2007.

1. Thimerosal Haunts Flu Shot Recommendations: The ‘jury is still out’ on the issue of thimerosal and autism, but there are plans to expand the recommended age range to receive annual flu shots - from the current 6 months to 5 years, to children up through age 18.
2. Is there a link between mobile phone use and gliomas? Overall, even among heavy and long-term users, the researchers found no link between cell phone use and gliomas, but certain users may be at risk.
3. The FDA eliminated two indications for the antibiotic telithromycin (Ketek), and added a black box warning to its label stating the drug is contraindicated in people with myasthenia gravis.
4. Data to date seem to suggest that the overall risk for Guillain-Barre syndrome following receipt of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine Menactra is not significantly increased.
5. A federal jury recently convicted a New Jersey physician (and her coconspirator) of defrauding patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Stem cell therapy was involved.
6. And last but not least: What happens when doctors attack…each other?

Show links: Environment, Health and Safety Online at www.ehso.com. A helpful website on the cell phone/brain tumor controversy.