Month May 2017

Insights from Dr. Robert M. Centor, Creator of the Centor Score for Strep Pharyngitis

Rachel J. Kwon, MD

Antibiotic overuse and misuse is a growing public health concern, and foregoing the administration of antibiotics in cases where they are not needed can be a challenging decision to defend without good evidence to back it up. The Centor Score for Strep Pharyngitis is one of the most practical and useful evidence-based decision tools that helps support clinicians in making those decisions. We interviewed Dr. Robert Centor on developing and using the Centor Score.

dr-robert-m-centor

Why did you develop the Centor Score? Was there a clinical experience that inspired you to create this tool for clinicians?
In 1979, while working in the “non-acute” adult emergency room, a resident asked me how to evaluate a sore throat patient. Having just finished my residency, I started to give a definitive answer, but had a moment of humility and told him that I did not know. We made a treatment decision at the time, and I went to the library to learn more. Continue reading “Insights from Dr. Robert M. Centor, Creator of the Centor Score for Strep Pharyngitis” →

Insights from Dr. Jeffrey Perry, Creator of the Ottawa Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Rule

Rachel J. Kwon, MD

Subarachnoid hemorrhage, if undiagnosed, can have devastating consequences. While headache is a common presenting complaint in emergency departments, only about 1% of these patients are diagnosed with SAH. The Ottawa SAH Rule helps rule out SAH with 100% sensitivity, to better identify which patients do and do not need further workup. We talked with Dr. Jeffrey Perry, first author of the Ottawa SAH Rule derivation study.

dr-jeffrey-j-perry

Dr. Jeffrey J. Perry

How did you develop the Ottawa SAH Rule? Was there a particular patient or clinical experience you had?

Two things: One was the apparent subjectivity I noticed as a resident in evaluating patients for SAH, where the criteria for which patients we would investigate seemed to be very different. Some of the patients I thought were very low risk, other physicians would want to still investigate them for SAH, including doing a CT, which didn’t bother me too much, but then they would go on to do an LP, which is very uncomfortable, and time-consuming, and it seemed to contribute to already very prevalent ED overcrowding. So that was the clinical side of things. Continue reading “Insights from Dr. Jeffrey Perry, Creator of the Ottawa Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Rule” →

Our Favorite Reads So Far in 2017

MDCalc

When the MDCalc team isn’t scouring PubMed for studies to help our patients (and yours), we also like to read other stuff related to digital health, evidence, and the healthcare industry. It’s always hard to keep up with all the interesting articles on healthcare, and this year medicine has been a popular topic for journalists. So, we thought we’d share some of our favorite articles. Happy reading!

On Digital Health

  1. A.I. VERSUS M.D. What happens when diagnosis is automated? – By Siddhartha Mukherjee, The New Yorker
  2. NHS to start prescribing health apps that help manage conditions – By Matt Reynolds, New Scientist
  3. A digital revolution in health care is speeding up – The Economist
  4. Future challenges for digital healthcare – By Linda Brookes, M.Sc., Medical News Today
  5. Bypassing Clinical Decision Support Tools for Imaging in the ED – By Hossein Jadvar, Medscape

On Evidence Continue reading “Our Favorite Reads So Far in 2017” →

Insights from Dr. Gregory Lip, Creator of the CHA2DS2-VASc Score

MDCalc

The CHA2DS2-Vasc Score is one of the most widely-used clinical risk scores for stroke. It’s arguably the best validated and is consistently in the top five most popular calcs on MDCalc. Professor Gregory Lip, the newest member of MDCalc’s Scientific Advisory Board, gave us an interview on developing and using the CHA₂DS₂-VASc Score.

dr-gregory-lip.jpeg

Dr. Gregory Lip

Why did you develop the CHA₂DS₂-VASc Score? Was there a clinical experience that inspired you to create this tool for clinicians?

The availability of Non-Vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs), previously referred to as new or novel oral anticoagulants, has led to a major change in the landscape for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF). Clinicians are also getting better at understanding how to manage warfarin, recognizing the importance of the average time in therapeutic range (TTR). New data are also re-emerging on the poor evidence for the efficacy and safety of aspirin for stroke prevention in AF. Continue reading “Insights from Dr. Gregory Lip, Creator of the CHA2DS2-VASc Score” →