Author Archives: Ryan Madanick, MD

Scientific conferences overwhelm me… and now I know why

Here I am, blogging for the first time in 7 years, and this is as good a time as any to get back out there as I sit here at another scientific conference…And I’m completely overwhelmed. But at least I … Continue reading

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#TowardsHealing: How Doctors Can Help the Country After the 2016 Election

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” — Hippocrates Doctors help the body heal. The body does the work, we just provide the help. It is now time for us to help … Continue reading

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Live tweeting from a meeting: A brief tutorial to help structure tweets

After 5 years of live-tweeting several academic meetings, I am pleased to see its exponential growth. Yet physicians who are new to this practice frequently struggle to get started, especially without any live peer guidance. With that in mind, here is a simple proposal … Continue reading

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Let’s stop using adjectives to identify patients

We have all heard it, we have probably all said it: “My diabetics never follow my instructions” “That schizophrenic is back in the hospital again” “How should I screen cirrhotics?” “Did you hear about my CHF-er?” It might be easy to … Continue reading

Posted in medical education, patient care | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Are we really training learners to manage diseases?

If you pay close attention to medical education and training, you have surely read something like this as an goal or learning objective: “Manage inflammatory bowel disease and its complications” However, this is not exactly what our goals should be. One push in the … Continue reading

Posted in cancer, gastroenterology, GERD, Heartburn, IBD, medical education, patient care | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CVS to stop selling tobacco products: some grass-roots contribution from the blogosphere?

In 2011 I posted this petition to try to get CVS and Rite Aid to stop stop selling tobacco (see my 2011 blog post). Although the petition closed in 2013 with just under 2800 signatures, today is finally the day I’ve … Continue reading

Posted in cancer, patient care, public health, tobacco | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

I’ve heard it dozens of times: My gastroenterologist says s/he can’t do my endoscopy and colonoscopy on the same day. Sometimes it’s because it was considered too “dangerous”. Occasionally it’s because “that’s not the way we do it”. Sorry, that doesn’t … Continue reading

Posted on by Ryan Madanick, MD | 3 Comments

In The Absence of Evidence…

In this week’s JAMA, Scott Braithwaite, MD, MS wrote a Piece of My Mind editorial, “EBM’s Six Dangerous Words,” which made me think back to a former blog post of mine from 2011, “Doc, can I use this natural supplement?” What … Continue reading

Posted in CAM, medical education, patient care | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Presenting on a consult service: Rule number four

A while back, I posted three “rules” of presenting on a consult service. I’d now like to add a fourth rule. Rule Number 4: In patients with chronic disorders, consider more than simply a “disease flare” in your differential diagnosis. … Continue reading

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An empirical scientific viewpoint about gun control

For just a moment, let’s take a scientific viewpoint about gun control here and try to leave emotions (and the Constitutional argument) out. The best type of study to determine whether gun control and/or regulation would be a Randomized Trial: … Continue reading

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