I practice clinical electrophysiology in a private practice setting in Louisville, Kentucky. I follow patients, render opinions, do catheter ablations, and implant devices. When I left Indiana University residency and fellowship training in 1996, ablation of atrial fibrillation and cardiac resynchronization therapy did not exist. These two procedures [...]
A Q&A with behavioral economist Dan Ariely Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) activities can be perceived as a burden — perhaps one with an unclear benefit. Sure, physicians value medical learning and keeping up with changes in guidelines and new research, but do you [...]
Editor's Note: This post about decision-making shortcuts was previously published in CardioExchange, an online community hosted by the New England Journal of Medicine and NEJM Journal Watch. John E. Brush, MD, is a practicing cardiologist and professor of medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School. A patient comes to [...]
We were slightly surprised to learn that in this digital era, many physicians are still turning to internal medicine textbooks to prepare for board certification and recertification. In a recent online survey of more than 900 Physicians’ First Watch readers, 56% of respondents checked the box for “textbooks” [...]
Every week for the past 7 months, we've emailed NEJM Knowledge+ IM board review questions to thousands of physicians and residents as part of our NEJM Knowledge+ Question of the Week initiative. Some of the recipients are preparing for their board exams, and some are looking to maintain [...]
On July 1, the NEJM Knowledge+ Question of the Week asked which testing was most appropriate for a sexually active 18-year-old woman who inconsistently uses condoms for contraception. The correct answer was to screen for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV infection, but 50% of all respondents thought the patient [...]