BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a significant worldwide health problem, and often seen in primary care with comorbid medical problems such as hypertension, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, and others. There is a high instance of patients seen in primary care to where depression is either contributing to the physical health ailments, sequela…
First came Spice1, then Bathsalts,2then Krokodil,3and now Kratom.4 All considered designer drugs by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and all with significant risk factors that today’s physicians need to be aware. Emergency room physicians and psychiatrists especially, but all physicians need to be aware as with the earlier designer drugs Spice and Bathsalts, Kratom…
It’s bad enough not having any beef on one’s burger, but trying to pass off a knock off substitute as the real thing is sinful. Trying to pass of poor quality, outdated studies, or studies lacking power as quality evidence is analogous to trying to pass off beef substitute as the real thing. Take for example…
It’s all over the media these days about what chaos the health care industry is in, in our great country. It’s also all over the media about physician burnout and suicide. There’s a lot of pressure on MDs as if under constant assault. Assault from administrators, insurance companies, other MDs, patients, and even assault from…
This project explored the effects of nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice (SOP) legislation on the distribution and practice patterns of NPs as well as their billing practices. The goal was to understand where and how NPs are practicing, identify barriers that limit the degree to which NPs are practicing to the full extent of…
A straw man argument is defined as “an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent’s real argument.”As such, the dishonesty under the guise of promoting a profession needs to stop. My former profession has resorted to the straw man fallacy in arguing for full practice authority (FPA).…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the physician shortage is a physician problem to solve; but it literally will take an act of Congress to change. Bottom line up front (BLUF): the key to physician shortage is increasing the cap on residency slots and Medicare funding for such positions. This article references…
So I’ve seen several trends in the non-scientific literature (news articles, blogs, social media etc) on the topic of nurse practitioner (NP)/physician assistant (PA) full practice authority (FPA) versus physician collaboration and/or supervision. I support the use of NPs/PAs on Physician led multidisciplinary teams. I have written on this before that utilized correctly these mid-level…
I’ll admit it, this article made me mad. Why? Probably because I have a daughter and could empathize with her and her parents hurt and anger. When does the medical community say enough is enough already? This topic is controversial but I mean no bias, disrespect, racism, nor hate towards any individual or group of…
This article has been floating around various news feeds for a couple days now and I thought it could use a more formal response. In my opinion, the Kansas State Legislature, The Kansas Medical Society, and Kansas Physicians (MDs), have it right by requiring collaborative practice agreements between Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and MDs. However, I…