Speaker: Arthur H. Elkind, MD, Director, Elkind Headache Center, Mount Vernon, New York, and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York. The use of frovatriptan (Frova®, Elan) during the initial mild phase of a migraine attack promotes more rapid pain relief while preventing the progression of migraine pain intensity from [...]

Lowering Blood Pressure Reduces Vascular Events in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation Speaker: Hisatomi Arima, MD, PhD, Clinical Research Scientist, George Institute for International Health, and Lecturer, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Pharmacists often know more about the medications that they dispense than the physicians who prescribe them, yet they have little authority under the laws of most states to make actual decisions about patient care. Pharmacy school provides rigorous training in the physiology and chemistry of pharmaceuticals and related products, and pharmacy practice affords regular personal [...]

I’ve spent a lot of time addressing the accuracy of the initial medication list in the context of what patients (or their family or friends) remember. I certainly cannot argue about the importance of ensuring that medication orders, written anew for each setting of the hospital, are scrupulously checked to verify that a medication has [...]

Few would dispute the fact that many patients do not fill their prescriptions and many do not take medications as prescribed. Indeed, I have always suspected that most patients, when asked about their current medications, remember the drugs they actually take, or at least what problem those drugs are intended to treat, but generally do [...]

I hate to be a spoiler, especially amidst all the deafening applause, but I must ask: Just how reasonable is it to expect that most, or even many, patients (or their friends and family) will produce an updated and accurate medication form (much less schlep it around with them)?

One didn’t have to watch this year’s presidential address to know that this motherhood-and-apple-pie line probably drew enthusiastic applause from both sides of the aisle. Who doesn’t want to reduce costs and medical errors? Who doesn’t want better information technology? Who wouldn’t ardently support a nonbinding resolution to improve the quality of health care, casting [...]