Internal Medicine

Distinguishing Between a Hemothorax and a Pneumothorax

One of our NEJM Knowledge+ Internal Medicine Board Review questions has generated a fair amount of discussion and uncertainty. It asks the learner to select the best immediate response to a patient with a complication of central venous catheter (CVC) placement. The case-based question requires several cognitive...
| December 20th, 2018| Internal Medicine| 8 Comments|
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How Do You Approach a Patient with Suspected Bacterial Meningitis?

In NEJM Knowledge+ Internal Medicine Board Review, we have a number of questions about managing patients with suspected bacterial meningitis, and these tend to generate comments from our learners. How do you balance the need to give antibiotics rapidly with the time needed to obtain required diagnostic...
| July 26th, 2018| Internal Medicine| 7 Comments|
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Internal Medicine CME: Lifelong Learning for the Busy Internist

Internists want to stay up to date on medical knowledge, and they need to meet state licensing requirements — this is where continuing medical education (CME) comes in. But between practice, research, and the many other duties of a practicing physician, where exactly does internal medicine CME...
| January 26th, 2018| Internal Medicine| 6 Comments|
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Are Internal Medicine Board Questions Relevant to Medical Practice?

On June 13, 2017, a study to determine the relevance of internal medicine board questions was published by JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, entitled “Comparison of Content on the American Board of Internal Medicine Maintenance of Certification Examination With Conditions Seen in...
| July 13th, 2017| Internal Medicine| 4 Comments|
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Should Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Take Aspirin to Prevent Stroke and Coronary Events?

What is the role of aspirin in primary prevention — preventing the first cardiovascular event in our patients? This has been an area of changing recommendations leading to considerable uncertainty among practitioners. Aspirin is an effective antiplatelet agent that acts by inhibiting cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) which leads to...
| June 22nd, 2017| Family Medicine| 19 Comments|
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