Table of Contents
From the Editor
- Functional health illiteracy: What patients don’t know can hurt them
Patient education has become a discipline in itself, and physicians need to take better advantage of it.
1-Minute Consult
Intravenous or oral steroids: Which is better for acute exacerbations of asthma or COPD?For asthma, oral steroids appear to be as effective as intravenous. For COPD, we have less evidence.
Cancer Diagnosis and Management
- Assessing cancer clinical trials: Will your patient benefit from a ‘breakthrough’?
Pick up a newspaper or turn on the news, and you will see a story about some breakthrough in cancer. So will your patients.
Interpreting Key Trials
- The CURE trial: Using clopidogrel in acute coronary syndromes without ST-segment elevation
An important advance, but at the cost of excess bleeding.
Im Board Review
- A 25-year-old woman with hemiparesis and a solitary brain lesion
What is the cause of this patient’s symptoms? A self-test.
Review
Two new treatment options for infections due to drug-resistant gram-positive cocciDrug-resistant gram-positive cocci are on the rise, including VRE and MRSA strains. Synercid and Zyvox are welcome and needed, but they should not be used empirically.
Patient Information
Medical Grand Rounds
- Recognizing and overcoming inadequate health literacy, a barrier to care
A shocking number of patients cannot read adequately or understand medical concepts, with adverse consequences for their health.
- The new American diet and the changing face of foodborne illness
Foodborne illness isn’t just about bad potato salad any more.
Review
- Benign breast disease: When to treat, when to reassure, when to refer
Many women have symptoms of breast disease, but few have cancer.
Heart Failure Update
- ACE inhibitors vs ARBs: Is one class better for heart failure?
A patient who apparently cannot tolerate ACE inhibitors presents with worsening heart failure. What should be the next step?
