News

The risk of cardiac valve infection is much greater from brushing your teeth at home than from going to the dentist for professional cleaning.

UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation's largest health insurers, is drawing fire from providers, patients, and regulators over slow payments, claim denials, and poor customer service. According to a Wall Street Journal report, these issues are causing some fallout, as employers switch insurance companies looking for a more user-friendly program.

If a pitcher in baseball gives up five runs in the top of the first inning, the home team suddenly finds itself scrambling to catch up before even coming to bat. That's not unlike the situation many physicians find themselves in when it comes to managing debt.

Changes to the pension protection act of 2001 created the Solo 401(k) plan. Thanks to these tax-law changes, the Solo 401(k) is revolutionizing the way many self-employed individuals like physicians save for retirement.

One of our writers here at pfnlive.com, who used to work in managed care communications, told of a time his company hosted a seminar on how physicians can better provide "charity care." After the session, a doctor asked "now can you tell us how we get paid for our work." No joke.

If you were keeping up with the news at all this week, you know that hospitals have been under recent, intense scrutiny with regard to patient security and offsetting medical errors. Specifically, the healthcare industry's focus on medical privacy and compliance has led to a lack of awareness of the seriousness of patient identity theft.

Exercise routines for a cardiac-recovery patient can be upsetting for several reasons.

Dr. John Kelsoe, a psychiatric geneticist and owner of Psynomics - the first company to offer diagnostic testing for mental illness has kick started the boom in research connecting genetic variations to a host of health conditions.

"If you can get our phones to ring more often, we'll be happy campers!" It's hard to estimate how many times I've heard that request in 20 years of healthcare marketing experience.

Why does a highly successful and well-respected defensive coordinator in pro football aspire to become a head coach? Because, despite the inherent headaches, he wants to run his own show; to be his own boss.

A study recently presented at the AAAAI annual conference found that a majority of children who wheezed with colds by age 3, developed asthma by age 6.

John D. Kelly, IV, MD, Vice Chairman/Director, Sports Medicine/Orthopaedics, Temple University School of Medicine, discusses the importance of happiness in medicine.

According to an article published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, approximately one-fifth of all workers in the US work some sort of shift work.

When a family member dies, children react differently from adults and usually see death as temporary and reversible, a belief reinforced by cartoon characters who die and come to life again.

Fans are brought to their feet watching a monster slam dunk in basketball, a tape-measure home run in baseball, or a game-winning touchdown pass in football. They're all exciting feats, but not necessarily the path to a championship.

The 40-hour workweek has never been routine for America's physicians, but the 2007 Physician Compensation & Production Survey from the Medical Group Management Association shows that for several specialties, including internal medicine (37 hours), family practice (36.8) and OB/GYN (37.5), the 40-hour week is about average.

Medical Records Institute is breaking TEPR 2008 out of the traditional electronic medical records conference mold to make the conference better and more inclusive of other technologies.

Many people with HIV take a combination of antiretroviral drugs. Concerns have been raised about the cardiovascular effects of long-term use of these drugs.

Olympus and eBay partner to raise money for colorectal cancer research and awareness.

Having a large abdomen increases the risk of dementia regardless of whether the participants were of normal weight overall, overweight, or obese, and regardless of existing health conditions.

Voice search is by far the most efficient way to perform searches from a mobile device: there's nothing like the power of your voice. But Yahoo is doing it differently.

Instilling your children with the right financial values and a sense of responsibility is an important part of parentingâ€"and the affluent (this includes many physicians) have additional challenges.

Medal.org is an ongoing effort to create software implementations of useful healthcare algorithms, include documentation and references, and make both easily available to all interested. It saves people from going to numerous textbooks that they in all likelihood would not refer to as often as they should.

How much do you need in your retirement kitty to finance your golden years? It's a vexing question, one that many physicians tend to ignore. If you're curious about whether you'll be living on Easy Street or Skid Row when you hang up your stethoscope, it pays to do some math.

Many physician-investors have become disenchanted with recent stock market volatility, stories of corporate scandal and corruption. In addition to impacting retirement account values, these events have also strained investor confidence.

Nearly all of our highly successful medical practice clients have at least one person on staff whose singular mission is to find ways to make elective procedures affordable.

The only thing in greater demand than Botox is the increasing number of physicians purchasing medical spa franchises, allowing healthcare professionals to cash-in on the $1 billion dollar med-spa industry boom.

About a month ago, a close relative of mine (we'll call her Samantha) had a baby girl (we'll call her Christina). Both mom and baby handled the delivery well and were recovering happily in the maternity ward at the hospital. Samantha had decided, along with her husband, that they were going to breastfeed Christina, a relatively insignificant decision in most instances, but one that would come into play during their second night at the hospital.