Doctors

Hernias are a common ailment among Americans; more than 4 million people develop the painful condition. And although both men and women develop hernias, female patients may be harder to diagnose. Doctors and patients may not realize the abdominal pain a woman is feeling is because of a hernia. Dr. Hien Nguyen, assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the pain can be mistaken for other conditions with similar symptoms, such as adhesions from prior surgery, endometriosis, fibroids and ovarian cysts.

The health care industry - doctors, hospitals, medical facilities and pharmaceuticals - will do this country in and only the rich will survive ("Costs vary for same treatment," May 9). It does not make sense for hospitals to charge varying and outrageous prices for the same procedures. No wonder Medicare is in trouble. When doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, they vow to do no harm, but these outrageous prices seem like a defeat for the oath. lola J. Massey, Owings Mills Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

What if you're doctor smoked marijuana and then performed surgery on you? Not a comforting thought, but it could happen. That is why two Johns Hopkins doctors and patient safety experts say hospitals should make alcohol and drug tests mandatory for physicians. The doctors shared their views in a commentary published online April 29 in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They say doctors should also be tested if a patient dies suddenly or is unexpectedly injured during surgery.

Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

It is well known that HPV (human papillomavirus) can lead to deadly cervical cancer in women, but the virus is causing cancer in men as well. Throat cancers caused by HPV are showing up typically in men with little or no history of smoking, said Dr. Kevin J. Cullen, an oncologist who specializes in treating head and neck cancers. Cullen, the director of the University of Maryland's Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, talks about the growing cases of HPV-related throat cancers.

Johns Hopkins will train China's next generation of doctors, researchers and hospital administrators under a new agreement with Sun Yat-sen University. The agreement was signed this week in the city of Guangzhou, where the university has affiliated hospitals, officials with Johns Hopkins Medicine International said. China's health system is growing rapidly and officials there hope Hopkins' expertise will help them develop a strong foundation for medical care.   Under the agreement, Hopkins researchers will teach courses at Sun Yat-sen.

What if you're doctor smoked marijuana and then performed surgery on you? Not a comforting thought, but it could happen. That is why two Johns Hopkins doctors and patient safety experts say hospitals should make alcohol and drug tests mandatory for physicians. The doctors shared their views in a commentary published online April 29 in The Journal of the American Medical Association. They say doctors should also be tested if a patient dies suddenly or is unexpectedly injured during surgery.

Do you think your doctor is open and honest with you? Maybe not always, according to a new survey. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston surveyed 1,891 physicians nationwide and one-tenth said they had told a patient something untruthful in the last year. Nearly 20 percent of physicians surveyed said they had not fully disclosed an error to a patient in the previous year because they feared a malpractice case.

In response to Ritu Agarwal's commentary ("The high cost of waiting," June 1): While it can be frustrating to wait in a doctor's office, Ms. Argarwal fails to consider several important factors affecting the promptness of being seen at an appointed time. Doctors don't "run behind" just because they feel like it; falling behind schedule is stressful to the doctor and staff as well as the patient. There are legitimate reasons for falling behind schedule, including, but not limited to: true emergencies (a tooth knocked out on the playground)

Each week, The Baltimore Sun publishes a Q&A with an area college lacrosse player to help you become more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Johns Hopkins midfielder Sarah Taylor, from Farnham, England. Taylor, who leads the Blue Jays in goals with 36, played for the Scottish national team in the 2007 under-19 world championships and for England in 2011. This summer, she will play for England in the elite World Cup. Taylor also has 23 draw controls and 17 ground balls for the Blue Jays, who visit Ohio State in the regular-season finale Sunday before hosting the American Lacrosse Conference tournament at Homewood Field beginning May 2. The junior is majoring in biology with a focus on pre-med.

If doctors were better informed about the cost of lab tests, they would request fewer of them for their patients or look for cheaper alternatives, Hopkins researchers have found. Researchers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital put the price on some blood tests for six months and found use of tests declined 9 percent. The hospital saved $400,000 over the six months. The results of the study were published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. Hospitals don't normally display the price of tests to doctors.

The publication of Alfred Sommer's new memoir, "10 Lessons in Public Health," comes precisely 30 years after the publication of the most important thing he's ever written: "Increased mortality in children with mild vitamin A deficiency," a report of a medical discovery that has saved an estimated 10 million children from blindness and death. This is one of the classic stories from the realm of epidemiology, the stuff of medical detectives, and for it we slip back to the winter holidays of 1982 in Baltimore: Sommer, an ophthalmologist and professor at the (pre-Bloomberg)

In the final week of the blind audition round, coaches Blake, Adam, Shakira and Usher waste no time choosing the 12 that will go on and compete to become this season's Voice.  The coaches spent last night's episode hoping to find the three or four remaining members of their teams. While it was fun to watch each coach build the anticipation that comes with pushing the big red button, it was far more entertaining to watch the judges fight for the attention of two of the night's best competitors.

Anne Moore Burnett knew the other moms at the playground were rolling their eyes at her. Her son wouldn't go down the slide unless it was clean, so she was looking around for a stray napkin or anything she could find to wipe it down. As she felt their eyes on her, Burnett found herself almost wishing her son had a visible condition, such as Down Syndrome, so that at least on top of the issues she was dealing with she wouldn't also feel judged by other parents who didn't realize she took these "extra" measures because her son has sensory-sensitive autism.

Doctors and patients alike are often uncomfortable talking about sexual health and sexually transmitted disease. But a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows that this squeamishness costs society millions of dollars spent trying to treat or cure diseases that could have been prevented, vaccinated against, screened for or detected at an earlier stage of development. According to the CDC, about 19 million Americans each year are affected by sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

A Johns Hopkins bioethicist joined other government and health officials in calling on the U.S. Congress to do more to protect doctors in war zones such as Syria. In recent remarks to Congress, Leonard Rubenstein, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics specializing in protection of human rights in areas of conflict, said violations of medical neutrality must have consequences. “Adherence to norms won't take place unless it becomes a diplomatic priority, with the U.S. and other states using their considerable leverage to demand adherence to international law,” he said in a prepared statement.

Nurse practitioners who educated legislators, negotiated with MedChi and reached out to all stakeholders were happy with the outcome of legislation to reduce the administrative burden of a physician collaborative agreement. The lengthy form and approval process was eliminated and will be replaced with a written statement by each nurse practitioner on file at the Board of Nursing. This highlights two things. First, public acceptance of the high quality, safe and cost effective care by nurse practitioners.

Dr. Theodore Houk's condition after being struck by a car on North Charles Street on Thursday was upgraded from critical to serious over the weekend, according to a Maryland Shock Trauma Center spokeswoman. Houk, 50, is well-known for jogging 5.5 miles a day from his home in Lutherville to his job as an internal medicine specialist at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson. About 8:12 a.m. Thursday near North Charles Street and Chestnut Avenue, police said Houk was jogging and "strayed into" a northbound travel lane of the roadway, where he was struck by a 2005 Toyota RAV4 being driven by a 65-year-old woman.

Shirtless, hair flowing, legs pumping, Dr. Theodore Houk is a familiar sight running along North Charles Street on his twice-daily, 5.5-mile trek between his Lutherville home and his job at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. "You always see him out there," said Kathleen Wrona, who has seen Houk, an internal medicine specialist, often during her commute. On Thursday, she saw him again, witnessing as the vehicle in front of her struck Houk, critically injuring him and sending him to Maryland Shock Trauma Center via helicopter.