Letter From The Editor

Over 30,000 people in the U.S. have cystic fibrosis and there are about 1,000 new cases a year. Most of these are diagnosed by the age of two and during their lifetimes they will need a lot of life-saving meds. Forty years ago the average survival age was 18 years …

There has been so much press over the failure of the ACA website that everyone wants to blame someone. You would think that a government that could fly a drone by remote control 11,000 miles away could get this correct. The continued pressure to make it work does not seem …

Last month we talked about how prescribers were getting over their fear of using SGLT2 Inhibitors because of the warning about urinary tract infections. Although incidence in the clinical trials was low there had been an apparent exaggeration in the minds of prescribers as to how often these UTIs occurred. …

Have you ever had a day when your patients just drive you crazy? They haven’t had their labs done, they didn’t get their last prescription filled, or they’ve forgotten their log books. If you string enough of these patients together, you can end up feeling pretty depressed. This type of …

This week there was a change in guidelines concerning the use of cholesterol lowering medications. New guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) point towards as much as a 30% increase in patients where statins are indicated. In addition the Obesity Society weighed (no …

There are a lot of diseases caused by recessive traits that can be devastating to our patients with diabetes and even a few that can lead to diabetes. None of these are as deadly and well known as Cystic Fibrosis. This week our intern Afshaun Haniff shares a Homerun Slides …

For the last year we have had a generic version of the alpha glucosidase inhibitor, Acarbose. Many of you would never prescribe this medication because of the possible side effects of gas and gastric discomfort. In addition there did not appear to be a real benefit as far as A1c …

Recently, a doctor who I used to do diabetes classes for called me. We had stopped the classes because of a lack of funding and he wanted to start them again. Part of his reason was to help his patients but he also knew that he was now being graded …

I have spent the past couple of weeks preparing a CE webinar for the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination. This organization represents long-term care professionals who provide quality care for nursing home residents across the nation. They asked me to prepare a webinar on the current treatment regimens and …

Over the past few years there has been a decrease in the ability of clinicians to diagnose and treat patients. According to a study in The Lancet, this decrease in diagnostic ability can be partly blamed on the increased use of smartphones and other devices that deliver information to a …