Clinical Applications Archives - Page 2 of 7

Clinical Applications, Health & Wellness, Today's Neurologist,

More Bad News About E-Cigarettes

The introduction of e-cigarettes brought promise for good and bad. We hoped it would be the answer for smokers who really wanted to quit, offering a way to focus on tapering the nicotine addiction while reducing other substances, such as tar, that cause so many health issues. E-cigarettes also offer an outlet for the physical…

Clinical Applications, Today's Neurologist,

Caring for Chronic Low Back Pain in the Elderly as a Geriatric Syndrome

For older adults with chronic low back pain (CLBP), functional impairment is often a way of life, and ineffective treatment is at the core of this problem. In order to change this too-frequent outcome so that quality of life can be maintained, we need new ways of managing patients with CLBP. A recent study,…

Clinical Applications, Today's Neurologist,

Transitioning the Pediatric Neurology Patient to Adult Care

For children reaching adulthood, the excitement of impending independence can be tempered by worries. What career will I choose? How will I support myself? Will I really be able to succeed? But for 17 year-old Jade, the list of concerns is much longer. Jade was diagnosed with spina bifida before she was born, and with…

Clinical Applications, Marketing, Practice Growth, Today's Neurologist,

The Rules All Neurologists Need to Know to Get the Most out of Visual Marketing

Gone are the days when simply hanging your shingle was enough to build a practice. Today you need to decorate that shingle, take selfies with it, and share them on social media. In other words, to market your brick and mortar practice, you need to have a consistent presence online, and increasingly—a visual presence. According…

Group of young people in yoga lesson, lying in corpse pose

Clinical Applications, Health & Wellness, Practice Growth, Practice Management, Today's Neurologist,

The Top Three Reasons You Should Care About Integrative Neurology

Neurologist Sarah Mulukutla, MD, MPH, says her path to integrative neurology began with a search to cure her own debilitating headaches. “When I was 25 years old, I developed chronic migraine, seemingly out of nowhere.” Her tests were all negative and she says, “the physicians I went to said everything seemed alright.” But there she…

Clinical Applications, Today's Neurologist,

Bias in Dementia Screening

Since its 1975 publication in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) has become a staple of dementia screening. The simple test, which requires no special equipment, provides a cursory assessment for cognitive impairment, testing for things like orientation to time and place and the ability to follow complex instructions. The MMSE…

Grandfather carrying grandson on shoulders in park

Clinical Applications, Health & Wellness, Today's Neurologist,

The Years Are Short but the Days Are Long—Are You Still Engaged in Your Neurology Practice?

“What we have is an untapped resource—mid- to late-career physicians now have the bandwidth to share their passions and experience.” This is just a bit of the wisdom shared by Heidi Schwarz, MD, at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting earlier this month. In the panel discussion titled “Not Dead Yet: How to Remain…

Clinical Applications, Today's Neurologist,

For Better or Worse, Video Games Do Affect the Brain

This summer more than 23,000 people crowded into New York City’s Arthur Ashe Stadium to watch their favorite Fortnite players compete to win $30 million in prize money. The players may have been wearing Nike apparel, but this was no ordinary sporting event. In fact, the only running that occurred was from offstage to individual…

Clinical Applications, Marketing, Practice Growth, Today's Neurologist,

Educate Your Community About CTE and Become the Resource They Need

There is no safe blow to the head, especially for a child. —Bennet Omalu Bennet Omalu’s bona fides derive from more than his post-mortem research on football players. He is also the only pathologist to ever be portrayed standing up to the NFL by Will Smith. In the public’s eyes, that makes Omalu the expert…

Clinical Applications, Practice Growth, Practice Management, Today's Neurologist,

How ‘Tele-Movement’ Can Bridge the Gap for Neurology Patients with Movement Disorders

In most parts of this country there simply aren’t enough neurologists. Twenty states have, in fact, been identified as neurology deserts, according to data presented this year (2017) at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference. Jaime M. Hatcher-Martin, MD, PhD, a neurologist in Atlanta, says that out of the 159 counties in Georgia, there are only…

Man walking with crutches wearing step counter

Clinical Applications, Health & Wellness, Today's Neurologist,

New Research: Remote Activity Tracking in Patients with MS (Part One)

“At the risk of making a pun, this has got legs,” was one response to the exciting new research that Valerie J Block, PT, DPTSc, presented at a recent (2018) meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Block, a physical therapist, has been studying the use of wrist-worn accelerometry (step counters) to track daily mobility…

Businessman on video meeting from home in shirt and tie with shorts and flipflops

Clinical Applications, Health & Wellness, Practice Growth, Practice Management, Today's Neurologist,

Looking to Add Revenue Without Increasing Stress? Try Teleneurology

“This is a fabulous supplement to a practice,” says neurologist Elaine C. Jones, MD, FAAN, about telemedicine. “It’s fun, and I do enjoy it.” Jones started doing telemedicine about four years ago, evenings and weekends at first while running a busy solo neurology practice. After a couple of years, she says, “It was going well,…

Senior female doctor taking notes of patients ct scan while consulting with young colleague

Clinical Applications, Health & Wellness, Today's Neurologist,

Should Neurologists View APPs as Assets or Competitors in Practice?

Between 2012 and 2016, visits to nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) increased 129 percent. That’s according to a 2018 insurance claims review of primary care office visits, which also reported an 18 percent drop in PCP visits in that same time frame. Along with this trend have come some tensions and some sense…

Clinical Applications, Today's Neurologist, Uncategorized,

Why the 0–10 Pain Scale Should Go Away (Hint: It Has to Do with the Opioid Epidemic)

“How many of you still use the comparative pain scale (0–10)?” asked John Bowman, CEO of Sure Med Compliance, during his talk at the annual meeting of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) this fall. Half the audience raised their hands. He then asked, “If a [chronic pain] patient walks into your practice, and you…

Clinical Applications, Today's Neurologist,

Want to Improve Patient Attendance? Keep ‘Needle Fear’ at Bay

If you treat kids, you know about “needle fear.” But this problem is not reserved for kids alone; it’s not to be taken lightly in adults either. It can seriously get in the way when you are trying to provide care, and when it results in a vasovagal response, no one is happy. Sometimes it’s…