Primary Care

For clinics with computerized medical records, a pharmacist-led intervention significantly reduces the risk of medical errors and is likely to be cost-effective.

A considerable number of U.S. surgeons have alcohol abuse and dependence, which is more likely in those who have recently reported major errors, are burned out, and are depressed.

Melanoma mortality rates are significantly lower in U.S. counties with 0.001 to 2.0 dermatologists per 100,000 people, compared to those with no dermatologist.

Maternal smoking or use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of infantile colic in offspring.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) superseded HIV as a cause of death by 2007; and birth cohort screening is cost-effective for HCV.

A gene variant on the X-chromosome is associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) only in boys, particularly those who die at the ages of highest SIDS prevalence.

In ischemic stroke patients, aphasia is associated with greater morbidity, higher mortality, and increased length of stay, and adds $1,703 per patient to the cost of stroke-related care.

More than half of young women diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have fewer children than they had hoped for.

Higher patient satisfaction is associated with less emergency department use, but with greater inpatient admissions, expenditures, and higher mortality.

Smoke-free legislation leads to less smoking in smokers' homes, not more.

Excess mortality rates persist among adults with young-onset diabetes, and are mainly due to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and coronary artery disease (CAD).

A new biomarker is associated with osteoarthritis severity at the hip but not the knee.

Brief cognitive screening of older patients combined with further evaluation, if needed, in the primary care setting leads to a two- to three-fold increase in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment, including dementia.

Disrupted sleep is associated with amyloid pathology in cognitively normal individuals, according to a study being released in advance of its presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology

In this video, Allan Stewart, MD, assistant professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, discusses the advances in Cardiovascular surgery.

The more time children spend engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), the better their cardiometabolic risk factors, including measures of cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist size, regardless of the amount of time spent sedentary.

Patients with fibromyalgia who are severely obese have more severe symptoms and lower quality of life.

Using revised criteria for mild cognitive impairment, the vast majority of patients with very mild or mild Alzheimer's disease would be reclassified as having mild cognitive impairment, according to a study published online Feb. 6 in the Archives of Neurology.

Consuming 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day—roughly equivalent to two cups of coffee—can either increase or decrease a woman’s estrogen level, depending on her ethnic background and the source of the caffeine, a study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) finds.

In patients with type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar cannot be controlled by lifestyle modifications such as diet and exercise, metformin monotherapy should be prescribed initially, according to new guidelines from the American College of Physicians published in the Feb. 7 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.