Primary Care Physicians

Nearly two-thirds of clinicians reported relying on telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain patients’ access to care, according to survey findings from the Larry A. Green Center and the Primary Care Collaborative.

Many primary care physicians may be overusing laboratory tests for anemia screening, misinterpreting iron studies and underusing bidirectional endoscopy for new-onset iron deficiency anemia, according to a recent survey study.

A project that restructured primary care health professional shortage area designations could improve the distribution of primary care clinicians and resources in the United States, according to a recent analysis in JAMA Network Open.

Most practicing physicians in the United States who were surveyed reported being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with no significant differences in vaccination by gender, age or geographic location, according to the AMA.

Primary care practitioners need increased education and recommendations for early-onset colorectal cancer screening practices, according to a presentation at Digestive Disease Week.

In the days following the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, it was distributed to institutions nationwide, each of which had different plans for vaccine prioritization among health care workers.

The Primary Care Collaborative and other nonprofit organizations are taking action to help remove barriers to reforming primary care delivery and payment, according to a presentation at the Primary Care Collaborative’s virtual meeting.

Experts might use words like “suboptimal” or “insufficient” to describe gout management in the United States. To be fair, many gout specialists and rheumatologists use those exact words. But they also say that gout management in the U.S. is “crummy” or outright “sucks.” They say these things not behind closed doors or at dinner meetings, but from the dais of national and international rheumatology conferences. This suggests that gout management is beyond problematic.

Results of a newly released study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers and others show why HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar II’s goal of reducing the cases of ESKD by 25% during the next 10 years may be difficult.

There’s an old expression, “Nobody cares what his camel thinks till it dies in the middle of the Sahara.” Uncomplaining, a camel is supposed to deliver its passenger to the next oasis with little food, water or attention. But wouldn’t a savvy nomad invest a little effort in making sure his camel was at least healthy, if not happy? As doctors, how often do we prescribe medications to patients, treating them like a camel and expecting them to endure a long journey of compliance while spending little or no effort to assess their well-being along the way? With glaucoma medications, we care mostly about adherence to the regimen and pressure-lowering efficacy, often labeling as “noncompliant” the patient who doesn’t follow our directions. Instead of actively eliciting patient feedback on their drops, we assume “no news is good news,” and like many primary care physicians, we underestimate how often topical therapy can cause very real systemic side effects.