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.

A state panel restored the license of the doctor who is medical director of a group of abortion clinics accused by state regulators of putting women's health at risk, while the licenses of two other physicians who worked at the clinics remain suspended. The Maryland Board of Physicians this week reinstated the license of Dr. Mansour G. Panah of Associates in OB/GYN Care, saying that evidence he presented at a hearing showed that he poses "no imminent danger to public health or safety.

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.

Administration UMBC's Brown wins Under Armour AD of the Year Award UMBC athletic director Charles Brown has been named a Division I-AAA Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year Award recipient by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. Brown will be honored at the NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week on June 15 at the World Center Marriott Resort in Orlando, Fla. The Under Armour AD of the Year Award was created to honor intercollegiate athletics directors for their commitment and administrative excellence within a campus or college community environment.

The University of Maryland Medical Center will send layoff notices to employees at the end of the month as it looks to cut costs in the wake of federal budget cuts and what it and other state hospitals have called inadequate rate increases. Jeffrey Rivest, president and CEO of the Baltimore hospital, sent an email to managers Tuesday that said individual letters regarding layoffs would be given out June 25, 26 and 27. The number of people who will lose their jobs still is being finalized, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver said.

A half-century after his untimely death at the age of 38, celebrated tenor and movie star Mario Lanza is receiving fresh medical attention from a Baltimore doctor who takes a dim view of one of the singer's weight-loss treatments - injections of the urine of pregnant women, a controversial therapy with new followers today. Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak, vice chairman of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the Medical Care Clinical Center at the Veterans Administration Hospital downtown, teamed up with Armando Cesari, Lanza's Australia-based biographer, for an article about the singer's health issues just out in The Pharos, the journal of the medical honorary society Alpha Omega Alpha.

Sherrie Walter will never wear earrings again, but recently started styling her hair in a ponytail the way she used to before she was diagnosed with skin cancer nearly four years ago. It's a big step for Walter, whose life was turned upside down when doctors finally figured out the persistent sore in her ear was actually basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of cancer. By then it had spread so much that the Bel Air mother of two had to have part of her skull and most of her left ear removed.

A foot and half separated Marc Burleson from the buried bomb he was trying to defuse last December in a narrow alleyway of a small Afghanistan village. The bomb exploded, mutilating the Marine's face, ripping off part of his right arm, paralyzing his left arm, blinding him in one eye and leaving him unconscious for nearly a month. Burleson, a 31-year-old Texan, finally awoke to a pain he never imagined could exist. An excruciating burning sensation came from the paralyzed left arm — a pain that overpowered any of the hurt he felt from his other injuries.

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.

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.

The state suspended the medical licenses of three doctors at abortion clinics accused by state regulators of putting women's health at risk — including one case in which a woman died. The suspensions include Dr. Mansour G. Panah, the medical director of Associates in OB/GYN Care, who has been disciplined by the state three times before, including incidents in the 1980s and 1990s when he had unwanted sexual contact with patients. The Maryland Board of Physicians also suspended the licenses of Dr. Iris E. Dominy and Dr. Michael A. Basco, citing violations of the state's new abortion regulations at Associates in OB/GYN Care, which runs four facilities in the state.

As the nation implements health care reform, emergency care has never been more important. We treat everyone, from babies to seniors, and we see the full spectrum of medical problems that exist. We are available at all times for all people. A new report by the RAND Corporation finds that emergency physicians are playing a role in reducing health care costs. This report urges policymakers and hospital administrators to pay closer attention to the role that emergency physicians can play in evaluating, managing and preventing hospital admissions.

The Anne Arundel County government is looking for a licensed physician to serve on the county's Adult Public Guardianship Review Board. Members of the board provide oversight of the care provided for adults who are under public guardianship. They review the health of people under public guardianship and make recommendations whether the guardianship should continue or not. Public guardians are appointed for people who are older than 65 who are unable to care for themselves and to make decisions about their well-being.

Update : Carver said this afternoon that 50 total employees would lose their jobs, including 10 to 15 doctors and midwives. They could get jobs at other UMMS facilities, including other positions at Maryland General.  The obstetrics unit at Maryland General will close June 30th displacing 10 to 15 doctors and midwives. The news was first reported in the Baltimore Business Journal. The University of Maryland Medical System, which owns Maryland General, made the decision to stop the services because of a declining number of deliveries at the hospital, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver.

In 1988, I became extremely ill. I had many tests, saw many doctors and was given various medicines. Some caused allergic reactions. Through it all, I remained sick — and actually became worse. Eventually, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, a very rare disorder. Much of the information I read said I had about 10 years to live. Making matters worse, I was soon diagnosed with another autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA). My treatment options for RA were severely limited because of my autoimmune hepatitis, as most of the RA drugs would filter through the liver and could initiate another attack.

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

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.

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.

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.