by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 2, 2019 | Don't Miss This, Nutrition & Wound Healing
Fifty years ago I stayed up late with my grandfather to watch the Apollo 11 astronauts land on the moon. We sat riveted, watching grainy images on a tiny black and white television set, marveling at how far technology had advanced. In the 1960s, my father was an...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jul 25, 2019 | Cassandra Chronicles: Regulatory and Coverage Policy, Fight the Good Fight, Nutrition & Wound Healing
This month in TWC, learn about the history of total parenteral nutrition and how the Space Race of the 1960’s helped patients with malabsorption. I explain why QCDR quality measures have been a disappointment for all specialties, why Practice Improvement Activities...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Mar 11, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing
84 year old man with a history of lymphoma but is purportedly disease free. Severe peripheral edema began 2 years ago. He says he developed this very large ulcer after minor trauma. His skin perfusion pressure is normal (68 mmHg), he has a biphasic PVR and strong DP...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Oct 3, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What scares me is the fact that I didn’t really pay attention to this until I started developing quality measures for wound care. But now that I’m paying attention, the extent of it is terrifying. In one day I saw three patients who were starving, two of whom had on...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 23, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing
On Saturday May 19th I joined Drs. Jay Shah, Noel Oliveira and Rafael Rafols at the Texas Medical Association (TMA) meeting in San Antonio, Texas for the first ever wound care CME event at a TMA meeting. We focused on wound care for the primary care physician, and it...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jan 23, 2018 | Don't Miss This, Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing
Forget about the flu epidemic. At least it’s pretty easy to figure out when a patient has the flu. I feel sure I have missed some patients with wounds due to low Vitamin D. The Vitamin-D deficiency epidemic is ridiculous. What scares me is not that 80% of the tests I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 8, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. Sometimes nutrition is the medicine. This is a wonderful patient over 90 years old who is still driving and mentally alert. He sustained...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 7, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. It’s so easy to overlook nutritional issues. Recently I saw a fairly young woman who suffered from juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Sep 5, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing, Quality Payment Program
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. It is amazing how prevalent nutritional deficits are among patients with non-healing wounds. In late March I saw a woman with severe ulcers...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 24, 2017 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Nutrition & Wound Healing
What you put IN the patient may be as important as what you put ON them I have been focusing more on nutrition with my patients. Nutrition support and correction of nutritional deficiencies is critical to wound healing. Arginine, a conditionally essential amino acid,...
