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Here is a tip that can help you cover all the elements of the review of systems: Ask the question as you examine the relevant body part.

Maintain a “murmur log” to record compliments and complaints from your patients.

Assign one clinical staff member to check the expiration dates on all prescription samples once a month, and keep a log of these inspections.

At sites where cosmesis is critical, such as on the face, use aluminum chloride and pressure for hemostasis rather than electrocautery.

I advise patients with diabetic neuropathy to break in new shoes gradually.

About 70% of patients with gout are treated exclusively in the primary care setting. Because the prevalence of gout is rising, particularly among older patients, you are increasingly likely to encounter this disease in your practice.

A 41-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with chest pain and dysphagia. Routine laboratory studies reveal profound neutropenia. She denies recent fever, chills, or weight loss.

Sandeep Juahar, who wrote an excellent warts-and-all account of his medical education in Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation, is now old enough to be having a midlife crisis. In a recent New York Times essay, he may or may not have been projecting his own current feelings of disillusion onto the entire medical profession. He writes about the sorry state of medical practice today.

In the next 5 minutes, Wilmer L. Sibbitt Jr, MD-one of the world's leading authorities on the subject-offers succinct answers to questions.

Biomarker:   Putative molecular indicator of a specific biological state.1  Some biomarkers, called surrogate endpoints, are used as substitutes for actual clinical endpoints such as incidence of disease or death.2

That’s the question we put to Dr. Kenneth Saag. In the next few minutes, Dr. Saag, will summarize the latest developments in osteoporosis therapy.

For 2 months, a 29-year-old man had pain and circular, soft swelling (7 x 7 cm in diameter) over the anterior left knee, superficial to the patellar ligament. Pain was minimal and associated with extension and flexion.

When counseling patients about why they should receive the influenza vaccine, I remind them that each year the disease kills 250,000 to 500,000 persons worldwide and more than 37,000 persons in the United States. This means that influenza kills more people per year than auto accidents.

Sometimes patients, particularly children and adolescents, are very anxious during the abdominal examination.

To make wound closure easier, position the patient so that the wound “points” to your solar plexus or xyphoid process.

Those of us who have responded to overhead announcements for a doctor on the plane or tended to an ailing friend on the hiking trail know that medical care is rarely limited to the 4 walls of the office.

During the past 24 hours, a 56-year-old man has experienced melena and 2 episodes of hematemesis. He has biopsy-proven cirrhosis that resulted from heavy, prolonged alcohol consumption; however, he no longer drinks. Previous endoscopy revealed esophageal varices.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a burgeoning epidemic. Patients with various stages of CKD initially seek care from their primary care physician; some of these patients sustain acute, reversible renal injuries as well.