by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 17, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
It’s time for a new acronym. You might not have heard of an organization called MedPAC, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. MedPAC has a lot of influence and no power. Or maybe it’s the other way around. It is an independent US federal body...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 12, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Driving into work today I caught the NPR story with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. I had no idea that the effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies so much from year to year! Some years it is nearly zero and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 8, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
Like every hospital, everyone in my clinic received the flu vaccine. Despite this, 30% of my staff became ill with the flu (confirmed via testing) which is unprecedented in my memory. According to the CBS Evening News, flu cases nationwide are “up sharply,” based on...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 29, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
I thought I would wind up 2017 with something that I hope will be a useful tool in 2018. Dr. Jane Armor at the Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri spearheaded the American Lymphedema Framework Project (ALFP). The goal was a systematic review of all the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 15, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Quality Payment Program
It has taken a decade. In 2008 I put together a program called “Pressure Ulcers and the Law” which I patterned after the programs on birth injuries and the law that changed the way cerebral palsy cases were handled. It was demonstrated that most cases of CP happen...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 11, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
On Thursday, Dec. 7th 2017, the FDA issued draft guidance explaining which clinical decision support (CDS) tools won’t be considered devices (and thus will NOT require FDA clearance). This is part of the homework that the FDA needed to do to adhere to the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 8, 2017 | Don't Miss This, Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
The photo above is a pretty classic case of vasculitis, with palpable purpura, and these lesions HURT. The patient is a young healthy school teacher and we never found the cause. This is a leukocytoclastic vasculitis, too. This patient, who has a lot of medical...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 29, 2017 | Don't Miss This, Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
This is atrophie blanche. Note the smooth ivory white plaque of skin with telangiectasias. It has other names, including lividoid vasculopathy. These areas often ulcerate. It is NOT vasculitis. It is usually excruciatingly painful. The majority of these lesions are...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 27, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
A recent issue of JAMA contained a Viewpoint article by Pronovost and colleagues about the need for transparent standards in quality reporting by healthcare organizations:. I communicated with Pronovost to thank him for raising this issue. I’ve been troubled about...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 20, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care
I’ve noticed a lot of postings about what topics NOT to discuss at Thanksgiving. In an era of heightened sensitivity even about topics that used to seem safe (e.g. food), it may seem that there are no safe conversation topics left. A friend sent me this list of GOOD...
