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Resident Tips: Private and academic practitioners offer career advice

For residents embarking on their professional careers or physicians changing a career, navigating the many issues involved in making a decision that will significantly affect both their professional and personal lives can be daunting and challenging. To provide some guidance, practicing physicians with many years of experience in their respective careers discussed these issues during a session held here Sept. 13 at the 2011 American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Annual Meeting.

Corticosteroid Confusion: Evidence lacking for most conditions, panelists say

Although steroids are widely used to treat a variety of otolaryngologic conditions, the short- and long-term side effects remain a concern and fuel the need to better understand their proper role. Contributing to the ongoing controversy over their use are gaps in the evidence, panelists said here Sept. 12 at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Annual Meeting.

Payment Shifts: Expect reimbursement structure changes ahead, policy experts say

Although the new U.S. health care law does not specifically alter the current fee-for-service payment structure, changes to how physicians and hospitals will be reimbursed for services are under construction. These changes are reflected by the growing focus on the development and implementation of quality improvement and physician and institutional performance measures on which reimbursement will increasingly be made, panelists said here on Sept. 11 at the 2011 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Annual Meeting.

A Blessing and a Curse: Health care reform comes at a steep price

There is a Chinese proverb that is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is, “May you live in interesting times,” and the curse is, “May you live in interesting times.” All of us would like things to stabilize into a constant, comfortable and predictable environment for us to live our lives, raise our families and care for our patients. We are entering the most complex and challenging period that medicine has experienced since the 1960s when Medicare was introduced. From now on, everything we have come to know and are comfortable with in our professional lives will change.

A Boost for Research: The Triological Society’s grants help physician-scientists launch investigative careers

It can be difficult to launch a career as a physician–scientist, especially when budget cuts are making research funding harder to find—and this is doubly true for a small specialty like otolaryngology. That challenge is the reasoning behind the Triological Society’s grant programs. The society, which has awarded more than $2.5 million in grants since 1994, promotes research into the causes and treatments of ear, nose and throat diseases.

Personalized Care: Study highlights which patients would benefit from a second round of chemoradiation

Balancing the risks and benefits of concurrent reirradiation and chemotherapy for recurrent head and neck cancers is difficult for physicians at even the most experienced centers. Research recently published in Cancer, however, suggests that selection of patients who may benefit from this therapy should be based on the patient’s previous treatment and the amount of time that has elapsed since initial treatment…

Repair Revolution: Surgeons use fat grafts to address extensive facial deformities

Fat grafts have been used to repair the aging face for about two decades, but recently, surgeons have been using grafts to repair more extensive facial deformities caused by injury, illness or congenital abnormalities. Success, they said in interviews with ENT Today, depends on proper patient selection, matching the fat graft to defects that are most amenable to repair with fat injections and an understanding of the biology of the graft and how it reacts with surrounding facial structures.

Rent the Right Way: Medical offices require unique leases

As tenants of medical office spaces, physicians often create special leasing issues. Medical tenants use hazardous materials, generate biomedical waste, demand confidentiality of patient records and require compliance with occupational safety standards—all unique aspects of the medical profession. Yet, often, physicians will sign “form” medical office lease agreements provided by the landlord without the benefit of legal counsel. Typically, the landlord provides a standard fill-in-the-blank lease form with the tenant’s name and the general business terms (including the term of lease, rental rate and commencement date). Tenants may gloss over the legal boilerplate provisions included in the lease agreement, assuming that these terms are standard to all leases and are not subject to negotiation.