Latest Articles
- Should ‘daily labs’ be a quality priority in hospital medicine?
Evidence shows that unnecessary daily testing is only a minor contributor to anemia and healthcare costs for most inpatients. The effect on patient experience has not been definitively established.
- Laboratory stewardship should be a priority in every hospital
Considerations include indirect costs, downstream testing or other workup based on minor abnormalities uncovered during daily testing, and shortages in staff and supplies.
- Is your patient at risk for NAFLD?
The authors review identifying individuals at risk, treatment options founded on lifestyle modification, and when to consider referring patients to a hepatologist.
- Test ordering: Balancing the good for the many with the good for the one
Three articles this month address how we order clinical tests, one on the question of treating the patient with asymptomatic bacteriuria, the others on the advantages and disadvantages of standing orders for “daily labs” for inpatients.
- Asymptomatic granules on the buccal mucosa
A healthy 35-year-old man presented with multiple small, white-yellow papules.
- Does my patient need to be screened or treated for a urinary tract infection?
When patients present with symptoms that suggest but are not clearly diagnostic of urinary tract infection, urine studies should be obtained.
- Update on pneumococcal vaccination in adults: Simpler is better
Recommendations have been updated in the hopes not only of preventing more cases of invasive pneumococcal disease, but also of making the recommendations easier to follow.
Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: Effective diagnosis and treatmentThe authors review how to differentiate this balance disorder from others, and how best to treat it with position-changing maneuvers.
- Another vaccine article? Yes, but a different vaccine
As newer vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae have arrived, so have confusing recommendations and guidelines for the sequence and timing of administration.
- Reducing the risk of breast cancer
Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy in US women. Reducing this burden involves identification of high-risk individuals and personalized risk management.
