Boarding ICU patients: Are our rounding practices subpar?

Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) patients "boarding" in ICUs other than the designated home unit have been shown to suffer increased rates of complications. We hypothesized that ICU rounding practices are different... read more

Boarding ICU patients: Are our rounding practices subpar?

Nurses make me a better doctor

I firmly believe that the relationship between a nurse and physician should be one of collaboration without hierarchy. It takes a very special person to become a nurse. Without them, physicians cannot function. I thank all... read more

Nurses make me a better doctor

We're Bad at Death. Can We Talk?

Despite growing recognition that more care isn't necessarily better care, particularly at the end of life, many Americans still receive an enormous dose of medicine in their final days. On average, patients make 29 visits... read more

We're Bad at Death. Can We Talk?

New Telestroke Guidelines by American Telemedicine Association

These new telestroke guidelines were developed to assist practitioners in providing assessment, diagnosis, management, and/or remote consultative support to patients exhibiting symptoms and signs consistent with an acute... read more

New Telestroke Guidelines by American Telemedicine Association

What Is Permitted in Text Messaging About Protected Health Information?

This Viewpoint discusses the best use of texting clinical information, noting that neither Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act nor the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act offer... read more

What Is Permitted in Text Messaging About Protected Health Information?

Emory Healthcare leverages Philips eICU platform to save $4.6 million

Emory Healthcare used Philips' technology for an eICU program, resulting in massive savings, lowered readmission rates and more. Emory's story began in 2010 and 2011, when team members saw tele-ICUs based on platforms... read more

Emory Healthcare leverages Philips eICU platform to save $4.6 million

Many Factors Contribute to Nurses' Alarm Response Time

Multiple factors including nurses' experience and assignments determined how fast they responded when monitoring alarms were triggered in a children's hospital, a video analysis found. Nurses were more likely to... read more

Many Factors Contribute to Nurses' Alarm Response Time

Changing Mindsets to Enhance Treatment Effectiveness

This Viewpoint defines mindsets - frames of mind that orient beliefs or expectations - discusses how they can influence patients' perceptions about treatment and self-efficacy, and proposes ways physicians might shape... read more

Changing Mindsets to Enhance Treatment Effectiveness

Top 5 Skills Every Nurse Should Develop Quickly

What are the top five skills that every nurse should develop? Nope! Not those. I imagine many of you reading automatically think about the clinical skills it takes to become a professional nurse. While clinical skills are... read more

Top 5 Skills Every Nurse Should Develop Quickly

Communicating Context in Quality Improvement Reports

The study by Demb and colleagues reports on the positive results of an intervention strategy to reduce excess radiation exposure across 5 academic medical centers associated with the University of California. Leading up to... read more

Communicating Context in Quality Improvement Reports

Pricey Technology Is Keeping People Alive Who Don’t Want to Live

As an ICU physician, I’ve used technologies like breathing machines and feeding tubes to save lives that would have been lost just a few decades earlier. But I’ve also seen the substantial costs, both human and financial,... read more

Pricey Technology Is Keeping People Alive Who Don’t Want to Live

Family Responses to Prognostic Information in Chronic Critical Illness

Prognostic disclosure by skilled clinician communicators evokes a repertoire of responses from surrogates for the chronically critically ill. Recognition of these response patterns may help all clinicians better communicate... read more

Family Responses to Prognostic Information in Chronic Critical Illness

Defining the Role of Specialists in Value-Based Health Care

Health care is at a crossroads and under pressure to add value by improving patient experience and health outcomes and reducing costs to the system. Efforts to improve the care model in primary care, such as the patient-centered... read more

Defining the Role of Specialists in Value-Based Health Care

Learning to talk about death should start early in doctors' careers

At first glance, physicians’ poor understanding of death and the process of dying is baffling, since they are supposed to be custodians of health across the lifespan. Look deeper, though, and it may reflect less the attitudes... read more

Learning to talk about death should start early in doctors' careers

Visual Abstracts, A New Strategy for Creating Journal Articles

You might be interested in this initiative arising out of surgery, and primarily developed by Andrew M. Ibrahim MD, MSc of the University of Michigan. Dr. Ibrahim is a Clinical Lecturer in Surgery here and a Robert Wood Johnson... read more

Visual Abstracts, A New Strategy for Creating Journal Articles