Practice Corner

Practice corner: clinical practice guidelines and handheld computers.

A 22 year old woman comes to your office for the first time complaining of a 1 day history of a “terrible headache.” She describes a throbbing pain on the left side of her head. She works as a mail carrier, and the pain became worse this morning with walking. The patient describes accompanying anorexia, nausea, and several episodes of vomiting. She reports sensitivity to bright lights and loud ...

Practice corner: using clinical prediction rules.

S c e n a r i o On inpatient teaching rounds, we recently discussed the admission of a 45-year-old woman with chest pain. This patient presented to the emergency department after an episode of chest pain lasting approximately 30 minutes. The pain was pleuritic in nature, located on the right side of her chest, and was associated with shortness of breath. The patient reported no palpitations, di...

Practice corner: setting EBM in motion.

In addition to time pressures that we encounter when searching for evidence to support care decisions for individual patients, it may be difficult for us to apply the evidence that we find. The rate-limiting step may not be doing the search, but the steps needed in “setting evidence-based medicine (EBM) in motion.” We present an example of a search for evidence by a physician assistant (PA) stu...

EBM notebook Practice corner: setting EBM in motion

In addition to time pressures that we encounter when searching for evidence to support care decisions for individual patients, it may be difficult for clinicians to apply the evidence that we find. The rate limiting step may not be doing the search, but the steps needed in “setting evidence-based medicine (EBM) in motion.” We present an example of a search for evidence by a Physician Assistant ...

Practice corner: the first symptom of hyperkalemia is death.