Health & Wellness

“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…

“Like some virulent bacteria doubling on the agar plate, the E.M.R. grows more gargantuan with each passing month, requiring ever more (and ever more arduous) documentation to feed the beast,” wrote Danielle Ofri, M.D., in this New York Times article. She is not alone in her concerns about the runaway paperwork problem faced by doctors…

This is the second half of a two-part story on the use of digital step trackers in MS patients. Read Part One first. What More Can the Step Trackers Tell Us? As mentioned in part one of this story, the study done by Valerie Block, PT, DPTSc, had a retention rate of 83 percent. That…

“If I have any choice in the matter, I will never go back,” says Colorado neurologist Pearce J. Korb, MD, about his use of medical scribes in clinical practice. “Now I walk in a room and I look at somebody face-to-face, patients and their families, and I talk to them. I have to admit as…

No doubt about it, being a doctor can be stressful, and if you are not careful that stress can lead to “burnout.” In fact, neurologists may be the most burned out among doctors, according to some research. “Burnout” is a much bigger problem than simply feeling tired and stressed out. Literally, when a fire burns…

“I just feel like I’m so much more successful now than early in my career,” says neurologist Allen Gee, MD, PhD. The reason: He gets to practice neurology the way he wants to. For him that means taking an integrative approach to the care of his patients in a building he designed to maximize health…

It’s not news to anyone that physical fitness has a positive effect on the health of pretty much every system in the body. But there are so many variables at play, it’s difficult to define the exact mechanism and magnitude of its effect on brain health. Are the brain benefits from fitness due to its…

In case you missed it, the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) was held last month (April 2017), and a big topic of conversation was neurologist burnout. “[Burnout] is an epidemic, and we need to do something about it,” said Academy president Terrence Cascino, MD, FAAN in his Presidential Lecture. Physician burnout…

Intense work environments. Packed schedules. Logistical distractions from providing care to patients. Sound familiar? These issues don’t just drive burnout. They do something else pernicious: They diminish joy—within individuals and in work environments. Neurologist Kim Hutchison has developed a way for individuals and groups to push back against this problem. She calls it Joy Rounds.…

If you are like many Americans, you’ve already binged the first season of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix and started decluttering your house. You might want to hold off, though, and skip straight to another, arguably greater, source of stress in your life: your office. This month on Instagram, Marie Kondo released a…

“Don’t just be a monkey in a cage, repeatedly getting shocked,” says Donn Dexter, MD, vice chief medical officer of the Mayo Clinic Health System in Wisconsin. There is something you can do to combat physician burnout: get involved in advocacy. Whether at a local or national level, be an advocate for your patients, your…

“A family history of neurologic disease was, in large part, what prompted me to enter the field of neurology. Having that personal experience empowered me to be an empathetic medical provider but also taught me the importance of resilience for patients and caregivers,” says Justin Jordan, MD, MPH Clinical Director for Neuro-Oncology at Massachusetts General…

If you are a practicing physiatrist, you are familiar with burnout – either you have experienced it yourself or have a colleague who has struggled with it. We know this because 63 percent of physiatrists had experienced burnout as of 2014, and the problem seems poised to continue. In other words, burnout is the rule,…

In recent years, a concierge model of practice has gained popularity in the primary care world. Also called direct primary care, this model is set up so that patients pay a set amount, much like a membership, on a monthly or annual basis. In exchange they get comprehensive care from their physician. Doctors using this…

Neurologist Vanessa Baute, MD, loves food. Her favorite photo (which she graciously shared with us here) is one of her sitting down to her favorite Mexican dish. She says, “It’s literally the happiest I’ve ever been.” When her husband first saw the photo, she laughs, “He said ‘You never look at me that way.’” This…