Doctors // Current

Why is Your Doctor Getting Your Child Hooked on Unnecessary Drugs?

Published: November 09, 2009 Unfortunately it is becoming more and more common to... more

PepsiJuror
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2 days ago
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Self Magazine’s Healthiest Cities for Women

For the 10th year in a row, SELF Magazine set out to determine the healthiest cities... more

YourUpdateTV
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5 days ago
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U.S. Doctors See Third World Things in their Practice; Half a Million Support Health Care Reform

Doctors have been traveling across the U.S. in a road show they call "Doctors; Mad as... more

JonRaymond
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9 days ago
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CIGNA Kills Girl, Doctor Arrested

Grigor Sarkisyan tells us of his daughter who was denied treatment and died because of... more

JonRaymond
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12 days ago
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4 comments

WHACKO-TV THE NIGHT WATCHMAN

WHACKO-TV has some of the hottest thespians at its fingertips for its continuing... more

dwightdouglas
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14 days ago
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100 Awesome iPhone Apps for Med Students and Doctors

New technology makes it easier than ever to keep up with your studies, track patients... more

sunnyspeaks
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14 days ago
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Doctors afloat hope to help the underprivilidged

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/28/floating.doctors.sailboat/index.html

JuJubeez
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14 days ago
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Doctors are the Third Leading Cause of Death

Stop being spoon fed by BIG PHARMA

franksalot
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19 days ago
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4 comments

DAMN! This Man Weighs 980 lbs And They Can't Move Him

doggeman
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21 days ago
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Unsafe Abortion Costs the Developing World Millions Each Year

Treating the complications that result from unsafe abortion costs Africa and Latin... more

Future_America
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22 days ago
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Unsafe Abortions Kill 70,000 Women Yearly Worldwide

Increased contraceptive use has led to fewer abortions worldwide, but deaths from... more

Future_America
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22 days ago
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22 comments

Oklahoma abortion law to put women's details online

A new law to take effect in will require doctors provide detailed information about... more

Future_America
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22 days ago
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1 comment

Watch Outspoken Guests on Medicine, Nursing, Beauty, Travel, Dining and Legal on Ustream.tv and Chgo

Watch Cable TV Ch25 in Chicago on Thursday nites at l0 pm and Friday nights at 9:30 pm... more

auntclaus
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27 days ago
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WHACKO- TV VASECTA-MEX

The sales department at WHACKO-TV once again proved that they will take any... more

dwightdouglas
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28 days ago
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Drug Makers and Doctors Rake In Billions Battling H1N1

No wonder they are testing the waters of mandatory vaccines on health care workers in... more

S3th
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28 days ago
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Doctors' Piecework: How Many Unnecessary Operations or Procedures?

(Quote: Should getting health care be like buying a car? Some people drive BMW's,... more

thinkingblue
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28 days ago
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For doctors, less sleep is linked with more mistakes

The debate over the lengthy hours and the sleepless overnight shifts that characterize medical training programs continues to rage, both in the U.S. and abroad. But new research published in the October 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association underscores that getting enough sleep isn't only crucial for medical residents. In an analysis of nearly 1900 surgical and obstetrical procedures performed by attending physicians—that is, senior doctors who have completed training—the day after completing overnight shifts, researchers found that, in surgeries, mistakes were made nearly twice as often when the doctor had slept fewer than 6 hours, compared with those performed by surgeons who had gotten more sleep.

The study, led by Dr. Jeffrey M. Rothschild of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, set out to determine whether working late night or overnight shifts (between 12AM and 6AM) negatively impacted doctor's performance the day after. Rothschild and colleagues analyzed data for procedures performed between January 2000 and December 2007 by 86 surgeons and 134 obstetricians and gynecologists who had just worked a late night or overnight shift. Those were then compared with some 8,500 procedures performed by doctors who hadn't just pulled all-nighters.

They found that, proportionately, the rates of errors were comparable, and statistically insignificant, between control and "post nighttime" surgeries—4.9% compared with 5.4%, respectively. (The most frequent complications—errors—during surgeries were injured organs and bleeding.) Longer shift length too was associated with slightly higher, but statistically negligible differences in rates of complications—physicians who worked 12 or more hours in a shift had complications in 6.5% of procedures, compared with 4.3% for those who worked fewer than 12 hours.

Yet what was statistically significant, the researchers point out, was the difference in errors made by surgeons who had less rest. "Surgeons who had limited opportunity for sleep had significantly higher rates of complications than those who had a longer sleep opportunity," they write. In fact, among surgeons who had slept fewer than 6 hours the night before, mistakes were made in 6.2% of surgeries, compared to just 3.4% in those who'd gotten at least 6 hours of rest.

Interestingly, the researchers didn't find this same increase in complications among obstetrical and gynecological procedures performed by doctors who'd gotten less sleep. They suggest this might reflect the lower number of complications generally found in deliveries compared with surgeries, but recommend further studies to analyze the impact of exhaustion on attending physicians in obstetrics and gynecology, and across a broad range of specialties.

Future studies are essential to determining how safe it is for doctors to perform procedures after working into the wee hours, the researchers suggest. And in the meantime, they write, "[f]or situations in which it is necessary for attending physicians to conduct life-saving procedures following overnight work, effective strategies to minimize the effects of fatigue should be adopted into practice."The debate over the lengthy hours and the sleepless overnight shifts that characterize... more