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<\/a>By Diane Batshaw-Eisman, M.D. FAAFP<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat the heck is going on?<\/p>\n
It was a trickle, now I see it more and more.<\/p>\n
I began to notice this trend while answering multiple choice questions as part of doing continuing medical education.<\/p>\n
And then, I saw an actual, real, authentic editorial in one of the throwaways, titled something like: “Is the History and Physical Worth doing Anymore?”<\/p>\n
As I recall, it involved a study in an emergency room investigating which modalities were of greatest value in coming to a correct diagnosis. Ye Olde History and Physical came out very well. The physician\/author presented the study, asking readers for comments.
\nBut why even study this?<\/p>\n
We are all familiar with multiple choice questions. My heart lurches when I see choices like these:<\/p>\n
A. Order stat CT of all toes.<\/p>\n
B. Get serum chocolate level.<\/p>\n
C. Immediate neurosurgery consult<\/p>\n
D. Do a history and physical.<\/p>\n
Now of course, A, B, and C are not actual choices that I have seen, but D! I have seen it many times.<\/p>\n
How can that possibly be an “option?”<\/p>\n
Doing a history and physical? Well…forgive me…I cannot stop sputtering.<\/p>\n
History and Physical? It\u2019s like breathing. Like having your daily chocolate.<\/p>\n
If you don’t do a careful History and Physical, how on earth do you know what to order?<\/p>\n
Why even waste time with a study like this?<\/p>\n
Two prime directives of Medicine:<\/p>\n
HISTORY AND PHYSICAL<\/p>\n
PRIMUM NON NOCERE<\/p>\n
The Curmudgeon will now resume normal respiration.<\/p>\n
Doctor Curmudgeon\u00ae is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nSERMO www.sermo.com<\/a> \u201ctalk real world medicine\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n[si-contact-form form=’2′]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[AdSense-A] By Diane Batshaw-Eisman, M.D. FAAFP What the heck is going on? It was a trickle, now I see it more and more. I began to notice this trend while answering multiple choice questions as part of doing continuing medical education. And then, I saw an actual, real, authentic editorial in one of the throwaways, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19034],"class_list":["post-75718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-doctor-curmudgeon-wait-wait-dont-touch-that-patient"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75718"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}