Evaluations

R3 Evaluation Meeting was held today. R3s, please check the portfolio for a summary within the next few days.

Will There Be Enough Family Doctors?

Please watch this short video produced by TAFP. It features (among others) Dr. Falcon, who is one of our preceptors in Rio Grande City, Dr. Clare Hawkins who is the FMR PD in Baytown and Dr. Sam Adkins who is the FMR PD in Austin. Residency funding is addressed.

BTW, UTMB residents - on 2/12 the GMEC voted near unanimously (1 nay) to recommend a pay raise for next fiscal year. This recommendation goes to Finance. When further action is taken, I'll post an update.

Some new DSHS requirements/resources

Umbilical Cord Blood Banking and Donation Brochure

During the 2007 regular legislative session, legislators passed HB 709 which requires that a physician or other person permitted by law to attend a pregnant woman during gestation or at delivery of an infant shall provide the woman with the brochure before the third trimester of the woman’s pregnancy or as soon as reasonably feasible.

More info is available on the DSHS website, including downloadable brochures.

Information for Parents of Newborn Children
This law, effective September 1, 2005, requires physicians, certified nurse midwives, direct entry midwives, hospitals and birthing centers that provide prenatal care to a pregnant woman during gestation or at delivery to provide the woman with information on immunization, newborn screening, postpartum depression and shaken baby syndrome.These brochures can now be either downloaded from the Parents of Newborn Children webpage in English or Spanish or ordered from The DSHS Warehouse . The stock numbers are: #1-316, English and #1-316a, Spanish.

Important Organization Links

American Academy of Family Physicians
American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians

American Board of Family Medicine
American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians

Texas Medical Association
Texas Osteopathic Medical Association
Texas Academy of Family Physicians

Society of Teachers of Family Medicine
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

AOA on YouTube
AOA on MySpace

Single dose of honey effective for cough in kids

I take care of a lot of kids. With the recent withdrawal of so many children's cough/cold meds, I was happy to see this "old fashioned" remedy determined useful. And it's cheap.

From InfoPOEMS...

Clinical Question:
Is honey effective for cough suppression in children?

Bottom Line:
A single dose of honey is effective at decreasing cough severity and sleep disruption in children with cough due to uncomplicated upper respiratory infections. Please remember that honey should never be given to infants because of the risk of botulism. (LOE = 2b)

Reference:
Paul IM, Beiler J, McMonagle A, Shaffer ML, Duda L, Berlin CM Jr. Effect of honey, dextromethorphan, and no treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep quality for coughing children and their parents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2007;161(12):1140-1146.

Study Design:
Randomized controlled trial (double-blinded)
Funding:
Industry
Setting:
Outpatient (any)
Allocation:
Uncertain

Synopsis:
Children aged 2 years to 18 years with cough attributed to upper respiratory infections of less than 7 days' duration were randomly assigned to receive honey (n = 35), specially compounded honey-flavored/honey-scented dextromethorphan (n = 33), or no treatment (n = 37). The honey and dextromethorphan were administered 30 minutes before bedtime. The honey was dosed by age: children aged 2 years to 5 years received 8.5 mg (1/2 teaspoon), 6- to 11-year-olds received 17 mg (1 teaspoon), and 12- to 18-year-olds received 34 mg (2 teaspoons). Only children whose coughs were moderately disruptive were eligible to participate. The researchers used multiple exclusions to limit this to viral respiratory infections. The authors main justification for using a no treatment arm instead of a placebo group was that in a previous study they found dextromethorphan to be equivalent to placebo. Although the no treatment group obviously knew what they were getting, the other 2 groups were unaware of their treatment. The parents of the children provided ratings of cough severity, effect on sleep, and so forth at baseline and the next day. Only 81% of the children enrolled completed the study. Every treatment group improved by the second night, even those receiving no treatment. Children in the 2 treatment groups had slightly greater reductions in cough frequency than untreated children. Children receiving honey had slightly greater improvements in cough severity and in sleep disruption. Five parents reported hyperactivity, nervousness, and insomnia in children treated with honey compared with 2 parents of those treated with dextromethorphan, and 0 of those receiving no treatment.

Launch of new AAFP brand

I hate it when things change for no good reason. You know... a certain common term has become offensive or there is some other "politically correct" reason for changing the name of something. The thing itself hasn't changed but the name must change...?

This IS NOT one of those times. I was already getting the above mentioned attitude in full gear when I heard AAFP was changing the logo. I was pretty happy with who we are and what we look like. But the truth is, the Future of Family Medicine project pretty clearly outlines that America doesn't understand who we are really, or what we do. I like the new logo and I'm on board. I like the message. Check it out at this link. And there is a good promo video too, you'll find the link on the promo page.

What do you think?

resident research grant awards

I would like to congratulate Drs. Jerome Alonso and Adriana Gomez for successfully obtaining American Academy of Family Physicians awards for their research projects!

Alonso - "A Retrospective Cohort Study Evaluating the Relationship between Uncontrolled Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Intensity of Hypoglycemic Therapy among Type 2 Diabetics." Dr Ripsin - Mentor

Gomez - "Relationship between depression and Glycemic control and its correlation with medication adherence in patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2: a cohort study in a primary care setting." Dr. Cass - Mentor