Sir Winston Churchill: Be clear, be brief, be seated. I have been told that I could improve my chances of selling my product of delirium prevention to various stakeholders by developing a good elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a product or service and sell […]
This is a video with powerpoint presentation I put together recently after realizing that there are some practical realities to staffing a medical-psychiatry unit that make it an interesting challenge in the era of integrated care. I owe a lot to Roger Kathol, MD who built the Medical-Psychiatry Unit at The University of Iowa Hospitals […]
This is another GeezerVideo, which is a Dirty Dozen on suicide risk assessment. Suicide risk assessmet is arguably the most important thing psychiatrists do. While it may be debatable that we can ever prevent suicide in general psychiatric practice (see references), there are ways to develop a more systematic approach to suicide risk assessment. Slide […]
Well, I was supposed to participate in a telephone conference call with the Iowa Board of Medicine about Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) in Iowa on April 25, 2013, but when they called me at 3:30 PM, the board was already running 20 minutes late and I was too busy to really participate. On that particular […]
This is yet another GeezerVideo with slide show on a common psychiatric consultation question, decisional capacity assessment. In my opinion, it’s important to help med-surg colleagues develop greater confidence in their ability to conduct these assessments themselves. After all, the psychiatrist is really not able to hold an informed consent discussion about the risks and benefits of a […]
This is another Dirty Dozen presentation, this time on Somatoform Disorders. It can be complementary to the Dirty Dozen on Factitious Disorder and Malingering. ADDENDUM: The DSM-5 and the book “Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Responding to the Challenge of DSM-5 by Dr. Allen Frances, MD have a lot to say about the somatoform disorders. The […]
The development of delirium often goes unnoticed in the ICU because we think of it as “part of the scenery”, or an expected and inconsequential outcome of mechanical ventilation and other therapies necessary to save lives in the ICU. At Vanderbilt, Yale, and Virginia Commonwealth Universities, a series of investigations are being conducted that are […]
I’ve had some interesting interactions with attorneys about delirious patients in the emergency room, intensive care units, and in the general hospital over years. Frequently, medically ill patients who are delirious need admission to hospital to manage both the inciting medical problems and the behavioral disturbances that make them potentially dangerous to themselves and others. […]
I’m always looking for updates about QTc prolongation and Torsades de Pointes associated with psychotropic drugs, especially antidepressants and antipsychotics. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been called as a psychiatric consultant about judgment calls regarding the safety of starting or continuing antidepressants or antipsychotics in the context of abnormally long QTc […]
Here’s another quiz from the Vancouver Island Health Authority, this time on comparing deliruim, dementia, and depression. Try not to peek at the answers!
Looks like the Iowa Geriatric Education Center (IGEC) website came back to me. Lately I’ve been able to connect only intermittently. I swear if you go again, I’m going to post John Hiatt’s “Gone” on the Home Page. Hey, catch the great educational content before it’s…gone, gone away again.
