Medical Minimizer or Medical Maximizer: which one are you?

April 2, 2023May 1, 2023 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 21 Comments

I’ve been thinking lately about why so many heart patients don’t seem to follow their doctor’s advice (because that’s the specific topic I’ve been invited to speak on this month during the annual Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit being held in beautiful Vancouver, BC).

I’m pretty sure I was invited to speak because I’ve been harping on about the patronizing term “non-compliant” for years. This is how some physicians label patients who are not advice-followers. I’m not a physician, so I tend to rely on what others far above my pay grade offer as suggestions to replace that cringe-worthy term. See also: First, There was Compliance. Then, Adherence. Now, Concordance.

No matter what you call it, researchers tell us that there are several commonly reported reasons that many patients don’t follow ‘doctor’s orders’. This week, I learned about another reason: .

Continue reading “Medical Minimizer or Medical Maximizer: which one are you?” →

Coronary stents: interventions that come with a cost

February 16, 2020February 27, 2023 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

Remember last month when I covered the topic of “stretch pain” in heart patients who have had a coronary stent implanted?

To recap, temporary post-stent stretch pain in the chest is considered to be due to the dilation (stretching) of an artery while a metal stent is being implanted inside that artery, and it typically occurs in about 40 per cent of stent patients.¹A number of you wrote in with some variation of this question: “Is it still stretch pain if it’s happening months afterwards?”

And now a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that something entirely different might be going on.² Continue reading “Coronary stents: interventions that come with a cost” →

Dear Doctor – here’s why we need you on social media

December 7, 2019February 14, 2020 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 17 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

Dear Doctor,

Several years ago, when the British Medical Association openly warned U.K. docs and med students NOT to make “personal or derogatory comments” online about their patients (guidelines mercifully updated since then), I became even more alarmed than I had been. Why, I wondered at the time, was it even necessary to issue this warning to intelligent, educated brainiacs who practice medicine? And are there some physicians who should simply not be allowed on social media?

Lately, I’ve been rethinking my former alarm. And the reason for the rethink is this: I’ve noticed that many of you physicians might be in danger of abdicating your traditional role as our medical educators. . . Continue reading “Dear Doctor – here’s why we need you on social media” →

ISCHEMIA study: that blockage isn’t a time bomb in your chest

November 24, 2019November 4, 2021 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

If you’re a heart patient living with stable angina, the ISCHEMIA clinical trial presented at the 2019 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions is all about you. Cardiologist Dr. John Mandrola described the impact of this study in his Medscape column like this: