A Blunt Discussion About Marijuana: Drug Has Risks, Benefits

A family physician and a patient provided their perspectives on the risks and benefits of medical marijuana during the 2015 Family Medicine Experience in Denver.

Source: A Blunt Discussion About Marijuana: Drug Has Risks, Benefits

According to a 2013 survey(www.samhsa.gov) by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 5.7 million Americans use marijuana daily, up from 3.1 million in 2006. Nineteen percent of Americans ages 18-25 indicated in the same poll that they had used marijuana in the past month. The drug is linked to nearly 500,000 ER visits annually.

Alternative Dementia Screening Tests | Physician’s Weekly

Alternative Dementia Screening Tests | News Brief

  

Chinese investigators suggest that there are multiples alternatives to the Mini-Mental State Examination that have comparable diagnostic capabilities for detecting dementia. The Mini-Cog test and the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised were deemed the most effective alternative screening tests for dementia. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment was determined to be the optimal alternative for detecting mild cognitive impairment.

Source: JAMA Internal Medicine, September 2015.

Source: Alternative Dementia Screening Tests | Physician’s Weekly

Funny ICD-10 Codes | HealthWorks Collective

There are some new ICD-10 codes that will make anyone laugh. Here are some that may be particularly humorous to orthopedists and radiologists.

Source: Funny ICD-10 Codes | HealthWorks Collective

What you have all been waiting for.  You now have three specific billing codes to identify how patients were injured by a turtle. Bitten by a turtle?  Use one code.  Struck by a turtle? Try a different code.  If the treatment was due to just the basic injurious contact with a turtle, there is yet another code for that.  See codes W59.21XA, W59.21XA and W59.219XA.

There are separate codes for encounters with dolphins (W56.09XA) or getting struck by a sea lion (W56.12XA).  Name the animal or bird, and there is a separate code for each encounter.