Internal Medicine

It's Match Day, and by now medical students across the country have learned where they will spend their residencies after graduation. The National Resident Matching Program, which oversees the process, said this afternoon that of 16,527cq applicants graduating from US medical schools, more than 95 percent were selected for a program this year, the highest rate in 30 years. Fifty-seven percent were matched to their first choice. The largest increases in available residencies were in internal medicine, anesthesiology, and emergency medicine,...

It's Match Day, and by now medical students across the country have learned where they will spend their residencies after graduation. The National Resident Matching Program, which oversees the process, said this afternoon that of 16,527cq applicants graduating from US medical schools, more than 95 percent were selected for a program this year, the highest rate in 30 years. Fifty-seven percent were matched to their first choice. The largest increases in available residencies were in internal medicine, anesthesiology, and emergency medicine,...

Peter LaCamera, MD (left) and Katherine P. Hendra, MD (right) are the two latest additions to QMC staff. By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Only a few months after Quincy Medical Center declared bankruptcy and was subsequently sold to Steward Health Care, the hospital will welcome two new physicians to its staff as the hospital works to expand its outpatient pulmonology and sleep medicine services. According to a release, the Steward Family Hospital branch have hired Katherine P. Hendra, MD, and Peter LaCamera, MD, both of whom...

When Seth Hewitt was a boy, he often accompanied his father, Dr. George Hewitt, on house calls. "He was one of those old-school doctors, for sure," Seth said, "and I just wanted to spend time with him. " That was in the late 1960s, and Dr. Hewitt's former assistant, Betty Reilly, said he was still making house calls when she worked in his Lexington practice in the 1990s. "It was something he believed in," she said. "He was an all-around physician, and a wonderful, caring man. " Dr. Hewitt died in his Nelson, N.H., home Feb. 24 of esophageal cancer.

CHICAGO - Only 2 percent of graduating medical students say they plan to work in primary care internal medicine, raising worries about a looming shortage of the first-stop doctors who used to be the backbone of the American medical system. The results of a new survey being published today suggest that more medical students, many of them saddled with debt, are opting for more lucrative specialties. The survey of nearly 1,200 fourth-year students found just 2 percent planned to work in primary care internal medicine.

CHICAGO -- Trainee doctors misdiagnosed diseases caused by biological terror more than half the time, but an online program improved skills, a study has found. If there were an attack, doctors' inability to isolate contagious patients with smallpox or the plague might increase the number of victims. "The risk of spread goes up logarithmically," said a coauthor of the study, Dr. Stephen Sisson of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The lesson of the 2001 anthrax attacks, when four patients were sent home without a...

When Seth Hewitt was a boy, he often accompanied his father, Dr. George Hewitt, on house calls. "He was one of those old-school doctors, for sure," Seth said, "and I just wanted to spend time with him. " That was in the late 1960s, and Dr. Hewitt's former assistant, Betty Reilly, said he was still making house calls when she worked in his Lexington practice in the 1990s. "It was something he believed in," she said. "He was an all-around physician, and a wonderful, caring man. " Dr. Hewitt died in his Nelson, N.H., home Feb. 24 of esophageal...

Over the next few days, millions of Americans will put themselves at risk of infection, dehydration, fatigue, and even blood clots -- by flying on one of the busiest travel days of the year. "There is no way you can not get sick if you are sitting next to somebody who is sick, or traveling with someone who is sick, whether it is on a plane or a bus or just out in public," says Mary Jean Olsen, a spokesperson for aircraft maker Boeing Corp. The most serious in-flight condition -- "coach class syndrome" -- happens when passengers get cramped legs from sitting for a long time...

Dr. Loren J. Borud,cq a plastic surgeon, and Dr. Abdul Cader Asmal, cqan internist, resigned their medical licenses today, said the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. Resignation is a disciplinary action. The board had previously suspended Borud's license after he allegedly performed two operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in June 2008 while impaired and appeared to fall asleep during a patient's liposuction. One of the patients, Michael K. Hicks of Quincy, eventually sued Borud, saying he suffered...

Recent headlines offered a fresh example of how the health care system subjects people to too many medical tests — this time research showing millions of older women don't need their bones checked for osteoporosis nearly so often. Chances are you've heard that many expert groups say cancer screening is overused, too, from mammograms given too early or too often to prostate cancer tests that may not save lives. It's not just cancer. Now some of the nuts-and-bolts tests given during checkups or hospital visits are getting a second look, too — things like routine...

Recent headlines offered a fresh example of how the health care system subjects people to too many medical tests — this time research showing millions of older women don't need their bones checked for osteoporosis nearly so often. Chances are you've heard that many expert groups say cancer screening is overused, too, from mammograms given too early or too often to prostate cancer tests that may not save lives. It's not just cancer. Now some of the nuts-and-bolts tests given during checkups or hospital visits are getting a second look, too — things like routine EKGs to check...

Dr. Loren J. Borud,cq a plastic surgeon, and Dr. Abdul Cader Asmal, cqan internist, resigned their medical licenses today, said the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. Resignation is a disciplinary action. The board had previously suspended Borud's license after he allegedly performed two operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in June 2008 while impaired and appeared to fall asleep during a patient's liposuction. One of the patients, Michael K. Hicks of Quincy, eventually sued Borud, saying he suffered...

Peter LaCamera, MD (left) and Katherine P. Hendra, MD (right) are the two latest additions to QMC staff. By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent Only a few months after Quincy Medical Center declared bankruptcy and was subsequently sold to Steward Health Care, the hospital will welcome two new physicians to its staff as the hospital works to expand its outpatient pulmonology and sleep medicine services. According to a release, the Steward Family Hospital branch have hired Katherine P. Hendra, MD, and Peter LaCamera, MD,...

In both the conception and execution of her stunning new novel, “A Friend of the Family,’’ Lauren Grodstein has channeled Edgar Allan Poe and his glowing review of Hawthorne’s “Twice-Told Tales.’’ Here is Poe, theorizing: “A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out he then . . . combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect.

CHICAGO - Only 2 percent of graduating medical students say they plan to work in primary care internal medicine, raising worries about a looming shortage of the first-stop doctors who used to be the backbone of the American medical system. The results of a new survey being published today suggest that more medical students, many of them saddled with debt, are opting for more lucrative specialties. The survey of nearly 1,200 fourth-year students found just 2 percent planned to work in primary care internal medicine.

CHICAGO -- Trainee doctors misdiagnosed diseases caused by biological terror more than half the time, but an online program improved skills, a study has found. If there were an attack, doctors' inability to isolate contagious patients with smallpox or the plague might increase the number of victims. "The risk of spread goes up logarithmically," said a coauthor of the study, Dr. Stephen Sisson of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The lesson of the 2001 anthrax attacks, when four patients were sent home without a...

In both the conception and execution of her stunning new novel, “A Friend of the Family,’’ Lauren Grodstein has channeled Edgar Allan Poe and his glowing review of Hawthorne’s “Twice-Told Tales.’’ Here is Poe, theorizing: “A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out he then . . . combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect.

A new method of performing virtual colonoscopy using a CT scan - which does not involve the dreaded laxative preparation to clear the colon the night before - may be about as effective as a standard colonoscopy at identifying the large polyps most likely to become cancerous, according to research conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and elsewhere. If larger studies confirm the finding, the technique could eventually serve as a first-line screening tool for colon cancer, especially for the many people who avoid...

Over the next few days, millions of Americans will put themselves at risk of infection, dehydration, fatigue, and even blood clots -- by flying on one of the busiest travel days of the year. "There is no way you can not get sick if you are sitting next to somebody who is sick, or traveling with someone who is sick, whether it is on a plane or a bus or just out in public," says Mary Jean Olsen, a spokesperson for aircraft maker Boeing Corp. The most serious in-flight condition -- "coach class syndrome" -- happens when passengers get cramped legs from sitting for a long time without moving, "then...