And four more news items for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and CRNAs to peruse this week.
- The Journal of Hospital Medicine has released “Improving the Safety of Opioid Use for Acute Noncancer Pain in Hospitalized Adults: A Consensus Statement from the Society of Hospital Medicine.” It is available in the April 2018 issue of the peer-reviewed publication, as conveyed in The Hospitalist newsmagazine, and offers 16 recommendations regarding inpatient opioid use in the hospital and how to improve the safety of opioid prescribing, both during hospitalization and at discharge.
- Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill that allows most nurse practitioners (NPs) in the Old Dominion State the autonomy to practice without a physician’s oversight, WHSV-TV3 reported last week. At present, more than 50 percent of the state’s affected NPs have satisfied the five years of full-time clinical experience required to practice without maintaining a contract with a supervising physician, according to the Harrisburg-based station.
- In a blog post published April 3, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) discusses the importance of understanding a patient’s life situation to improve the likelihood of positive health outcomes. Earlier this year, AAFP launched the first component of The EveryONE Project toolkit to help providers in this regard by providing a tool for documenting a patient’s status relative to key social elements, such as housing, food, transportation, child care, employment, finances, and personal safety.
- Johns Hopkins University (JHU) computer scientists and two of JHU’s computer science students, in partnership with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from two other institutions, have designed iPhone and Android smartphone apps to help Parkinson’s disease patients capture significant diagnostic data outside of a clinical setting. According to the Hub, Johns Hopkins’ online news center, the collected information will allow patients to measure the severity of their own symptoms. The new approach is highlighted in a study recently published in JAMA Neurology.
- Medscape reports on a study of online physician reviews, which was published in this month’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings. The findings show doctors who have negative web-based reviews do not receive comparable evaluations on formal institutional patient surveys. Still, the physicians with adverse online reviews frequently scored lower on issues outside of their direct control when measured against peers without commentary provided via the Internet.
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