I recently followed along for several weeks as a medical information site posted their ranking of the “Top 50 Most Influential Doctors in History.” Despite the fact that I benefitted from their insight and life’s accomplishments nearly every day, I had almost no clue who many of them were.
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I’ve seen a list of the Top 50 Most Influential Physicians of All Time somewhere, I think in a physicians-only magazine called Medscape. It was compiled by physicians, I suppose from some committee somewhere.
Reviewing it, I’d heard of nearly every name on the list save it be a couple, so I typed one or two into Wikipedia to see what they had on the doctor and was pleasingly suprised with the new insight. These people had done amazing things, many against terrible odds, most with huge personal sacrifice and a few barely escaping dangerous backlash and physical hurdles (or not).
I decided to start a historical series myself, explaining in more detail their contribution to the medical care you and I take for granted today. That was more years ago than I’m proud of; but, I’m still struggling to add these tough-to-write posts to this series.
This is a “link post” which, as you know, enables me to provide “sidebar” information to you which I find useful from other sites on the web. Also, as you know, I do not link to sites full of “agendas,” “ads” or monetary gain – no matter how good they are. Today’s link: Medical consent by children for their own care.
Usually, I merely give a sentence intro; BUT this topic does require some background information so don’t click until you’ve read the short info below – it’s not long. Read more →
This video is another one of Dr. Mike Evans productions where he explains in clear language what a concussion is and how it is treated. More specifically how a child should help themselves heal so they can have the best chance of returning to full activity levels – always the goal.
It is an updated version of his previous video (still available) which includes all the new information we’ve learned about the topic over the last several years of player observation and research – and that’s a lot!
You’ll also note that this post adds to the growing collection of articles I’ve written in this series about concussion in children and teens; which not only reflects the fact that concussion makes up a huge percentage of cases of morbidity and death in the US, but that it’s also largely preventable and therefore unnecessary – as well as one of the hottest topics in medical research these days. Give all of them a look-see, the links are in the box below.
[The web site www.allkids.org/ has more information or, better yet, you can contact your own school’s administration for information about your local return to learning policies.]
Thirty-six million kids participating in organized sports across the US means that 2.6 million of them will be treated in ERs this year with sport’s injuries – and that’s not counting informal recreational activities or kids over 19.
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We’ve written about common summer problems in previous posts. But we’ve got a new crop of kids going out the front door now this season and a new crop of parents worrying about their bumps, bruises and fractures.
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The “Concussions 101” title is used by Dr. Mike Evans for his short video because it covers the basic information that kids and their parents need to understand when they’ve had a concussion – sort of like the “101” courses you take in college do.
Dr. Evans is a “family practitioner” – – who has a way with little video segments and has “hit the nail on the head” – – with this short summary.
Oh, this is not the complicated medical stuff that we doctors worry about; it’s merely three of the things which are sometimes considered so “simple” that nobody thinks to talk to you about them!
Your brain is You. Everything you’ve gotten good at is stored in there; all your memories, all your skills for figuring things out for school or life are built into your brain.
Take care of your awesome brain after your concussion!
Ok, this is technically just bizarre and I’m not sure how to really present it; BUT, this issue about brain injury is just so compelling and important (if it’s true) that it clearly must not go unsaid.
The bizarreness comes because a “back-door” finding in a “brain injury and hypothermia” study showed a substantial finding about an “un-related” issue: feeding!
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It’s been so long ago now that most current young parents probably don’t even remember all the fal-de-rah that occurred in this country (US) back when “sex-education” was introduced into the official school curriculum.
Now it’s so official in the U.S. school system that most everywhere it has changed from the original “opt-in” side-bar to a teachers lesson plan into a fully-integrated, several-day portion of the curriculum only avoided by taking “opt-out” methods through official protocols.
Completely leaving out parental rights and religious issues, not discussing puberty issues with children robs them of a chance to prepare, avoid embarrassment and, as in the case of menstruation, take steps to practice adequate menstrual hygiene and avoid illness and serious complications.
Aditi Gupta, a native of India, knows all too well these current issues and described them in her current TED talk revealing that three out of ten Indian girls still don’t know about the issue at the time of their own first period. “In some areas,” she said, “it’s as high as 9 out of 10!”
Her talk was about what she and others are currently doing to break the taboo and destructive customs in her home country and around the developing world.
She advises parents that: “if YOU are ashamed about your period then your daughter will be too. Be ‘period positive’.”
We’re talking here about parents getting a good night’s sleep and we’ve already laid some extensive background in part one and discussed that good infant sleep IS possible but doesn’t come “naturally” by any means. Pretty much, by the time you’ve figured how to do it easily you’re done with having kids.
Additionally, part of that learning is coming to an awareness of how “touchy” Read more→
I’m afraid that all the things I know about the topic “sleep problems in infants” rattle around in my brain in a fairly “jumbled” manner. Frankly, the topic of infant sleep is probably the most frequently asked group of questions from new parents and in the “top 3” for all parents; but still….
The reason it’s so “jumbled” is FIRST Read more→
The physical exam has not diminished in it’s critical importance even one smidgen over the years. If anything it’s even more important now than ever. Unfortunately, some physicians have succumbed to other pressures and are short-changing patients by neglecting them in favor of added cost testing and other laboratory work.
Listen to this 5 minute story on NPR’s Morning Edition about the physical exam, its importance, its neglect and what some physicians and institutions are trying to do to get doctors to recognize its importance.