Internal Medicine 2012 coverage highlights core topics
Wrap-up coverage of ACP's annual meeting covers how to make opiates safer and more efficient, how to address the sensitive topics of sexual history and an inability to drive, and what are the worst drugs to come to market, among other topics.
Internal Medicine 2012 was held in New Orleans this April, and as always, ACP Internist's staff was there to provide updates via daily newspapers, blog posts and e-newsletters. If you missed it, our coverage is available online.
We feature topics from the meeting that can be complicated for internists to handle. Prescribing opiates in primary care is often necessary for pain management but is fraught with potential problems. Our story discusses ways to handle opiate prescribing safely, including setting limits on dosing, using a written care agreement, and tracking red flags. It also covers what to do if a problem does arise and clinicians must tell a patient that opiates aren't a safe option anymore.
Our second story offers clinicians advice on broaching two especially tricky topics: taking a sexual history and assessing driving ability in older patients. In both cases, clinicians must earn patients' trust to get to the truth and provide appropriate care. Some ways to do that, experts said, include asking specific rather than general questions when taking a sexual history and incorporating discussions about driving into Medicare's Annual Wellness Visit.
Internal Medicine 2012 coverage continues with stories on the best and worst drugs currently available (at least in one expert's view), how to apply genetic testing in primary care practice, and how to deal with obesity and its management. There's also bonus conference coverage from Hospital Medicine 2012 offering valuable advice on providing helpful, thorough feedback to trainees.
In other news, I'm proud to announce that ACP Internist was recently recognized by both Association Media & Publishing and the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors for excellence in publishing. We won two Silver EXCEL Awards from Association Media & Publishing, one for Newspapers: General Excellence and one for Stacey Butterfield's February 2011 cover story on overuse of CT scans, which was recognized in the Feature Article category for newspapers with a circulation of 50,000 or greater. The American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors, meanwhile, awarded us a tie for Bronze in the Best Cover Illustration category for David Cutler's artwork on the front page of our February 2011 issue.
We consider it an honor to be named among the best in association and health care publishing for 2012, and as always, we want to continue to improve. Please send your thoughts on how to make our coverage better.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Kearney-Strouse
