Healthcare Archive

Do your homework and ask questions to find a primary care physician who'll meet your needs.

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Don't wait any longer if you've put off your search for a primary care physician (PCP). The United States is in the midst of a doctor shortage, and demand will continue to outpace supply, suggests the Association of American Medical Colleges. In March, the group projected a shortfall as high as 43,000 PCPs by 2030, fueled by an aging population.

The time to establish a relationship with a PCP is sooner and not later, but not just because you need to stake your claim on a doctor. "There are a lot of things that sneak up on you if you don't go for regular check-ups. For instance, you won't know if your blood pressure is creeping up, or you may not know if it's time to get important cancer screenings," says geriatrician Dr. Suzanne Salamon, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Marketing terms like "cure" and "miracle" can alert you to bogus treatments.

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We all want a magic pill to make aches and pains go away. But that longing sometimes makes us vulnerable to health scams. These come in the form of untested remedies promising to treat or cure everything from arthritis to aging. "From my experience, some older adults fall for the scams that focus on issues where there really is no good medical treatment or cure, such as Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, or cancer. The vulnerability comes in because people are looking for hope," says Dr. Anthony Zizza, a geriatrician at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Warning signs

The first tip-off to a health scam is often the way a product is described. Be wary of words used in marketing claims, such as quick fix, miracle, secret, cure, and breakthrough—and anything that promises to relieve your medical problems. "You might see something that says 'Take this pill and you'll reverse memory loss,' but don't believe it," says Dr. Zizza. Other clues include the terms no-risk, money-back guarantee, free gift included, or limited supply.

Protect yourself to ensure a speedy recovery and avoid infections and readmission.

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Whether you go in for surgery, testing, or an outpatient procedure, your hospital stay can pose further health risks if you are not careful.

"Your potential risks depend in part on why you have to go into the hospital and the facility itself, but there are steps you can take to minimize your risk, especially when it comes to developing hospital-acquired infections that can lead to a longer hospital stay or readmission," says Dr. Erica Shenoy, an infectious diseases specialist and associate chief of infection control at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

By Hope Ricciotti, M.D., Editor in Chief

If you've come to expect a pelvic exam as a routine part of your annual well-woman physical, you may be surprised to learn that health experts disagree over whether it is necessary. The exam — in which the clinician inserts gloved fingers into the vagina to examine the cervix, uterus, and ovaries — has been routine for decades, but recently its benefits have been called into question.

In 2014 the American College of Physicians — an influential group of internal medicine specialists — issued a recommendation against routine pelvic examinations for women who aren't pregnant and have no unusual risk for or symptoms of pelvic diseases. However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has stood by its longstanding policy recommendation — annual pelvic exams for women ages 21 and older — based on expert opinion. In March 2017, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force — the pre-eminent medical guidelines organization — ruled that there is insufficient evidence to recommend either for or against annual screenings.

The FDA announced in December 2016 that it would no longer enforce the requirement that adults receive a medical evaluation or sign a waiver prior to purchasing most hearing aids.

What if someone you love doesn't have an advance directive? That's common, although the underlying reasons may differ. Basic barriers include thinking that an advance directive isn't needed, not wanting to think about death or serious illness, not wanting to burden people, not knowing enough about advance directives and health care choices, needing help to fill out the forms, and lack of time with the doctor to discuss the matter. A person's ethnic or cultural background can also be a barrier: minorities tend to be more suspicious of health care providers and resistant to talking about or completing advance directives. According to AARP, African Americans in home health care and nursing homes are half as likely as whites to have advance directives.

To deal with this situation, try asking your loved one two simple questions, even if you think you know the answers.