Something you can sink your teeth into

Only a bar a week?  

Consuming one serving of chocolate every week may reduce stroke risk.

USA Today (2/12, Marcus) reports, "A new analysis, which involved a review of three prior studies, suggests eating about a bar of chocolate a week can help cut the risk of stroke and lower the risk of death after a stroke." Researchers in Canada explained that "one study they looked at found that 44,489 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22% less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate," while another showed that "1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46% less likely to die following a stroke."

        The third study, however, "found no association between chocolate consumption and risk of death from stroke," WebMD(2/11, Warner) reported. Nevertheless, investigators say "more research is needed to determine whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk, or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others." Moreover, the study participants "did not identify what kind of chocolate they had eaten," the Canadian Press (2/11, Tobin) reported. HealthDay (2/11, Dotinga) also covered the study.

Becky Wartman, OD Strikes Again

Our own Rebecca Wartman, OD created this presentation of the AOA.  Thanks, Becky!




PQRI 2010 Webinar, code chart now available

The new 2010 editions of the AOA PQRI Webinar and AOA PQRI Eye Care Measures chart are both now available on the AOA Web site PQRI page (www.aoa.org/pqri).  The AOA PQRI Webinar, an online PowerPoint presentation and audio lecture, outlines how optometrists can obtain 2 percent Medicare payment bonuses for properly reporting specified quality care measures on claims.

The AOA PQRI Eye Care Measures chart conveniently lists most quality measures applicable to optometric practice, along with measure specifications and the codes to be used in reporting.  The Web site also provides convenient access to Medicare's 2010 PQRI Implementation Guide, with instructions for the establishing of a quality reporting program in a practice, as well as more than a dozen other helpful government guidance documents. Medicare's 2010 PQRI reporting period began Jan. 1. Practitioners need not register in advance to take part in the program.

Even when change isn't easy, it's often worth making.

Providing excellent patient eye care is easy.  Being the leader in your practice is hard.  I wish I had learned more about this 25 years ago.

From Time Magazine.  

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

By Chip Heath and Dan Heath; Broadway Books; 305 pages

Whether you're a manager, a parent or a civic leader, getting people to change can be tricky business. In Switch, brothers Chip and Dan Heath--authors of the best-selling Made to Stick--survey efforts to shape human behavior in search of what works.

Lesson No. 1: tell people what you want them to do in a way that will make intuitive sense to them. The U.S. government's Food Guide Pyramid says adults should eat 5 to 7 tsp. of oil a day. Know how many teaspoonfuls of oil you ate yesterday or why you should care?

The Heaths find a better example of a public-health campaign in West Virginia. The message used there: drink 1% milk because a glass of whole milk has as much fat as five strips of bacon. That's specific, vivid and easy to remember when you're in the grocery aisle.

Next, engage with emotions, not just brains. Consider the ironfisted accountant at the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services who wreaked havoc on nonprofit partners by withholding funds unless forms were filed perfectly. When his boss forced him to visit some of the group homes the department funded, he saw the specific kids being helped--not to mention the pandemonium that often ruled--and started figuring out ways to work with the nonprofits instead of antagonizing them.

Or, in an example that may hit closer to home, think about how you would go about paying off a series of credit cards. Mathematically, it makes the most sense to start with the bill with the highest interest rate. Yet the Heaths argue that beginning with the one with the smallest rate is the better approach. Why? You're more likely to successfully pay it off, feel good about yourself and keep going with plan.

Finally, remember that environment helps lead people to act the way they do. When a hospital administrator in San Francisco wanted to reduce the number of mistakes nurses make in administering medication, she realized the main culprit wasn't carelessness but constant interruption. The solution: a bright-orange medication vest that told everyone, including doctors, to leave nurses alone so they could focus. At first, nurses hated the tacky vest--until medication errors dropped 47%.

Even when change isn't easy, it's often worth making.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1960268,00.html#ixzz0f2p01A49

First Impressions Matter

A post shared with me from Ric Munz, OD.  Since 1976 Contacts have become somewhat more mundane but the lesson persists.

As a student, I visited Dr. Bob Morrison in his Harrisburg office in 1976.   I think his reputation as an innovator is well known, but not perhaps as a master of presentation.  

To introduce the first soft lenses to his patient, he had them brought into the exam room on an engraved silver tray in baccarat crystal shot glasses.

   

He held a lens up on his finger and said to the patient: "Isn't this amazing"....and let them admire the lens.

He placed it on each eye and had the patient shut both lids before saying:  "And when you open your eyes,you will be able to see without glasses."

His style was far from my own, but his immensely successful practice, being composed of movie stars & royalty, taught the value of presentation.

---He sold the sizzle.

And from Ted Watson, OD:  Words Matter, Regarding Digital Retinal Imaging.

Regardless of the wording the procedure of imaging the retina regardless of "routine" or "medical" is a very important one.

I know they are only words but how words are used have been known to start a war.

I would suggest that we start trying to change our wording of this procedure from "Routine Photos" to "Digital Retinal Imaging" instead of something like:

"Getting pictures of the back of your eye."  "We recommend getting photos of he back of your eye."  etc.
We are not Olin Mills Studios.

I would suggest that we start using terms that very specifically describe what we are doing.  I don't think it gets beyond the patient's ability to understand what we are doing but in my opinion it does seem to make a difference.  We have been using these terms in the GBlvd DVC for a few weeks, working hard to get away from the use of pictures and photos and moving more to retinal imaging, digital retinal imaging, high resolution imaging of the retina.

Small thing...but can and may make a difference.

To that end, all offices should be using the Digital Imaging Explanation.

CMS Coding Pocket Reference

I came across this handy tool while looking for something else on the Trailblazers Site.

Try it, you'll like it.

Of course to use it you will either need to understand and use either the 1995 E/M or 1997 E/M Coding Guidelines.

Every Worker Should be the CEO of Something

An article from the New York Sunday Times today that resonated with me.

If you ask your employees to state what their responsibilities are -- and what you expect of them -- and they can answer you without hesitation  I believe that you are 75% of the way toward leading them, and yourself to success.

A major problem with many companies is that employees don't really understand what, exactly, is expected of them.  If a staff member can't answer "What are you the CEO of?" its time to get to work.

Stem Cell Transplant Restores Sight

Stem cell treatment restores sight to damaged eye.

BBC News (12/22) reported that a UK man, Russell Turnbull, who "lost the sight in one eye in 1994 when he was squirted with ammonia" and "was left with Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency...a painful condition which requires constant treatment," has had sight restored in his damaged eye.

        The UK's Telegraph (12/22, Alleyne) reported that surgeons removed "a millimetre-squared section of" Turnbull's "left eye, complete with stem cells," then grew "it to 400 times that size in the laboratory." Next, they stitched "the new outer skin of the eye...onto the badly damaged cornea in place of the damaged membrane." To date, this "technique, developed by scientists and eye surgeons at the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI), has been used on eight patients," nearly "completely" restoring vision for most of those patients.

        The "procedure has so far been carried out only on those who have lost their sight in one eye," the UK's Daily Mail (12/23, Sims, Hope) reports. However, "trials are already under way on patients who have damage to both their eyes -- and millions could one day benefit from the treatment," particularly those "whose eyes have been damaged by contact lenses, in industrial accidents involving thermal or chemical injuries, and by diseases." Details of the procedure are published in the US journal Stem Cells.

        According to the UK's Guardian (12/22, Sample), researchers said "25 more patients will be treated before the results are submitted to Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), which could approve the procedure for use in the NHS next year." The UK's Press Association (12/22) also covered the story.