Well today is the Spring equinox and the official first day of spring — and a balmy 45 degrees it is. One could also say this is the first official day of the spring allergy season — early trees are pollinating and folks are getting symptomatic. I thought now might be a good time to go over [...]
Browsing Posts in Allergy Medications
I came across this article (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/in-medicine-falling-for-fake-innovation/?ref=health ) written by one of the faculty at UPenn. In this article he discusses how a new technology, the daVinci Surgical Robot system, while an innovative and cutting edge technology, has increased heatlhcare costs but does not seem to have a corresponding significant improvement in patient care or reduction [...]
I was talking with a colleague the other day about developing an allergy/anaphylaxis education program for a local school district. As these conversations go,we talked about the various aspects of allergy care and how the goal of such a program would be to try and make everyone in a school as comfortable as possible in [...]
I know I am not suppose to watch TV but I do. Let’s face it there are some pretty good shows on and well it is LAX season and I am a big LAX fan. So I watch tv. But I have to say that the advertisements on TV drive me nuts. One of my [...]
“Allergy shots are forever” – This is not true. In general, allergy vaccine therapy is for about five years. At the end of five years, you and your allergists will sit down and discuss the pros and cons about continuing allergy shots. There are some patients who will continue allergy shots for a longer [...]
The other day a physician colleague of mine asked me a question about a patient. The patient, who had already been seen by another Allergist, was referred to another physician ( “the consultant”) for evaluation. The consultant was in the same healthcare system as my colleague but the Allergist was not. In evaluating the patient [...]
Over the past few months, there have been hearing increased conversations about the high cost of copays for office visits. It is not unusual to see co pays for office visits to be in the $40 – $50 range. This is certainly having an impact on patients seeking care. Patients are clearly not heeding the [...]
I was shopping the other day and as I walked into a local store the first sign I saw said “Free Antibiotics”. At first, I was nonplussed and was not sure what to make of the sign. Was this a good thing that the store was offering free medications? Was this going to help those [...]
I never thought I would hear a patients tell me that they are to the point of deciding whether to buy gas for their car or buy their medications. Wow! I didn’t really know what to say. Gas is or was $4/ gallon and in the course of a week it may cost $60 to fill up a [...]
So how much albuterol is too much? For an asthmatic who is under good control, one albuterol canisiter should last for a year. The general rule of thumb is to use your albuterol no more than twice a week. So if you use your albuterol twice a week (and use two puffs with each use) [...]
