http://lenoxdoctor.com Primary Care in the Berkshires Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Very useful article in this week's New England Journal. We usually screen healthy adults for diabetes by drawing a fasting blood glucose as part of the annual physical. This study from Johns Hopkins suggests that glycated hemoglobin might be a better test. Particularly impressive is the accuracy ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2010/03/05/blood-test-predicts-risk-of-future-heart-attack-and-stroke-in-healthy-adults/ Swine flu (H1N1 influenza) may be contagious for several days after the fever breaks, according to an abstract presented at the American Society for Microbiology today. Usually we tell people to go back to work when their temperature returns to normal. With H1N1, it may be necessary to stay home ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2009/09/15/true/ Primary care doctor shortage continues in MassMMS Physician Workforce Study 2009Mass Medical Society has released this year's Physician Workforce Survey.  The number of primary care practices accepting new patients has dropped from 58 to 44 percent.  The practice climate for primary care is getting more difficult every year, with the ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2009/09/15/worsening-primary-care-shortage-in-massachusetts/ The New England Journal has the first two clinical trials of the H1N1 Influenza vaccine.  The data are summarized in an editorial: NEJM -- Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Policy -- Considering the Early Evidence.The standard vaccine seems to generate an adequate immune response in healthy adults after a single dose.  It ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2009/09/11/first-trials-of-swine-flu-vaccine-out/ I finally had a few minutes to look at the website again. I upgraded Wordpress. I put a new theme in place, hope you like it. There are some things in the About section that I need to update. Maybe I will start posting blog entries ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2009/02/20/new-look/ I am (finally) upgrading this site, so please bear with me - it might look a bit funny while I'm working on it. Thanks for your patience, and thanks to all my patients for your loyal support of Lenox Internal Medicine! http://lenoxdoctor.com/2008/08/13/site-upgrade/ From Medgadget, I find that Nikon has posted the winning photographs in its Small World competition for photomicrography - photographs of microscopic structures and critters. They are so cool! Here is a picture of a cedar leaf in cross section, using polarized light. And here's a marine worm using a technique called confocal ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2007/10/06/marine-worms-and-rat-neurons-in-technicolor/ We took a trip Sunday. It was my dad's idea. He thought the kids would be interested in seeing llamas. How he heard about Tregellys Fiber Farm in Hawley, I do not know. What he failed to tell us when we met up at the Creamery ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2007/09/28/a-trip-to-tregellys-and-i-do-mean-a-trip/ Amidst the crowd of articles on medical therapeutics in the journals every week (it's where the money is), I'm always pleased to find a good study on the pathophysiology of disease. Here's one from the American Heart Journal, Progression of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation to persistent atrial fibrillation in patients with bradyarrhythmias. We ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2007/09/19/natural-history-of-atrial-fibrillation-new-study-from-american-heart-journal/ I've written here mostly about clinical medicine but I had other things on my mind this morning. Seeing as this is a blog, and I can post whatever I want, I thought I would put up this meditation on the origins of the idea of sin and redemption in ... http://lenoxdoctor.com/2007/09/14/rosh-hashanah-part-i-origins-of-the-theme-of-guilt-and-redemption/