News

Among life's inevitabilities (along with cell phones that cut out and computers that go down) are employee absences. You have to plan for them. The more jobs your employees can do, the better it is for them, for you, and for your patients.

Screen children and adolescents for risk factors for latent TB infection and active disease, perform a tuberculin skin test if-and only if- a risk factor is present, and treat patients with a positive finding according to strategies discussed here.

Today's focus on intense, specialized sports training at younger ages means that children are increasingly susceptible to back injury. The authors provide an overview of the diagnosis and treatment of back pain in child and adolescent athletes, including conditions to consider in the differential.

Eye on Washington

Congress ponders Medicare and Medicaid cuts, the push to ban "partial birth abortion" is back in the news, and the FDA offers warnings on two drugs taken by children.

Eileen Ouellette, MD, JD, of Newton Center, Mass., today began her role as the 2005-2006 President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), based in Elk Grove Village, Ill. Dr. Ouellette is the AAP's fourth woman president since it was founded in 1930.

Allergic diseases are the sixth leading cause of chronic disease in the United States and cost the health-care system more than $18 billion a year. But despite the seriousness suggested by these numbers, many people don't understand how deflating allergies can be to quality of life for patients and families, according to Mark Boguniewicz, MD, professor at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

There will be many new vaccines and new vaccine recommendations over the next three years or so, two of the top experts in the vaccine arena reported today at the AAP National Conference.

Despite the best efforts of clinicians, accidents still occur in pediatric care settings. Speaking from the American Academy of Pediatrics' Conference and Exhibition in Washington, D.C., this week, Marlene Miller, MD, MSc, and Uma Kotagal, MD, MBBS, MSc, presented an audience of pediatricians with 10 strategies for improving the safety of that care in inpatient and outpatient settings, based on their experiences and studies.

It isn't exactly news: For the past few years, a commercially available device has helped physicians, nurse practitioners, medical students, residents, and pharmacists, quickly obtain the medical information in the palm of their hand. That handheld device is the personal digital assistant known as Epocrates Essentials, delivering information to clinicians on drugs, diseases, and diagnostics.