Physicians Editor's Note Minimally invasive embolization can be used to effectively treat uterine fibroids with fewer postoperative complications and a lower need for additional treatments than myomectomy, finds this study presented March 25 at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 2019 Annual Scientific Meeting in Austin, Texas. Of 950 patients analyzed, half…
Editor's Note The US government claimed that digitization of healthcare records would improve the quality and value of healthcare; however, 10 years after legislation fast-tracked the move to electronic healthcare records (EHRs), even the architects of the effort agree that the $36 billion investment has not delivered as expected, the…
Editor's Note After a hospital-wide intervention and state-wide legislation, this community hospital in Michigan achieved a 60%-70% decrease in postoperative opioid prescriptions and less variation in opioid prescription practices. This retrospective study of opioid naïve adult patients who had one of five general surgical procedures between 2015 and 2017 found…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 8 issued a letter to alert healthcare providers about an increasing number of medical device reports on surgical staplers for internal use and implantable surgical staples. The most common reported problems include opening of the staple line, malformation of staples,…
Editor's Note Long-term opioid use among family members was associated with persistent postoperative opioid use in opioid-naïve adolescents and young adults and should be screened for preoperatively, this study finds. Of 346,251 opioid-naïve patients aged 13 to 21 years having common surgical and dental procedures, persistent opioid use occurred in…
Editor's Note In this multicenter study, overlapping surgery was not significantly associated with in-hospital mortality or postoperative complication rates, but it was significantly linked to increased surgery time. Researchers from Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard, analyzed 66,430 procedures, of which 8,224 were overlapping. Overlapping surgery…
Editor's Note Though physician burnout and satisfaction with work-life integration are improving, physicians remain at high risk for burnout, compared to workers in other fields, this study finds. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, and the American Medical Association surveyed 30,456 US physicians in more than 20 specialties; 5,197…
Editor's Note Making a simple change to the electronic system used by physicians to order urine tests can cut by 45% the number of bacterial cultures ordered without compromising the identification of patients who need treatment for urinary tract infections (UTIs), this study finds. In this analysis of 18,954 patients…
Editor's Note Communities in the US with more primary care physicians had lower mortality rates than those with fewer physicians, this study finds. Results showed a: 51.5 day increase in life expectancy for every 10 additional primary care physicians per 100,000 people 19.2 day increase in life expectancy for every…
Editor's Note This study from a large academic medical center finds that the practice of overlapping surgery does not expose patients to increased risk of negative outcomes. Data on operative procedures from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, were used to compare…
