Category Archives: Articles From Our Experts

By: AMFS Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist When it comes right down to it, the most important question in any neuropsychological evaluation is whether you can trust the scores:  Are these findings a valid representation of the claimant’s true abilities? In fact, validity accounts for more of the variation in neuropsychological findings than moderate to severe […]

By: AMFS Board Certified Clinical Pathologist  The pathologist daily engages in deductive arguments in which the truths of conclusions (diagnoses) are the logical consequences of their premises. In medical-legal cases meticulous examination of the premises will establish the truth/untruth of the diagnosis and the place to start is the pathology report and the medical record. […]

By: AMFS Internal Medicine & Medical Ethics Specialists POLST stands for Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment and is a document that stipulates portable orders for resuscitation, relative aggressiveness of treatment and/or artificial nutrition for patients with serious, but not necessarily terminal, illness. POLST paradigm programs exist in 47 or the 50 states – at this […]

By: AMFS OBGYN/Gynecologic Surgeon The biggest paradigm shift in surgery these days lies in the mechanical hands of the DaVinci robot. This multi-armed technological breakthrough was used in nearly 400,000 surgeries nationwide last year. This device was created by Intuitive surgical, Inc of Sunnyvale, California. Its origins come from the development of medical robots for […]

By: AMFS Board Certified Neurologist Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) is often described as one of the most painful disorders to experience, on par, some would say, with childbirth, bone pain, and trigeminal neuralgia. However, unlike other pain syndromes there are no effective treatments for RSD. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy is actually a condition within a larger […]

By: Board Certified Otolaryngologist – Head and Neck Surgeon Every time a patient undergoes general anesthesia, there is risk to the teeth. General anesthesia involves intubation, a process where the anesthesiologist must manipulate the mouth to expose the vocal cords. Surgeries in or around the mouth carry additional risk of tooth injury. These surgeries include […]

Compartment syndrome (CS) is a condition in which the perfusion pressure of the blood vessels falls below the tissue pressure in a closed anatomic space with subsequent compromise of circulation and function of tissues. Each muscle or muscle group is enclosed in a compartment bound by relatively rigid walls of bone and fascia. Therefore, this […]

Neonatal emergencies are not uncommon problems. They appear either at the time of birth, during the in-hospital post-birth period, or at home within several weeks of discharge. In all instances they present significant diagnostic and treatment challenges to the clinician, and must be taken seriously. A classic pneumonic used by Neonatologists and Pediatric Emergency Physicians […]

By:  AMFS Orthopedic Surgeon Wikipedia defines a “clinical protocol” as a document with the aim of guiding decisions and criteria regarding diagnosis, management, and treatment of specific areas of healthcare. The definition further states that “such documents have been in use for thousands of years, during the entire history of medicine”.  Previous approaches were often […]

By: AMFS Nursing Expert Nurses need to know the difference, as it can be life or death. Did the patient aspirate because they are over sedated and the nurse doesn’t properly evaluate a patient who is on Dilauded? Arguments have be made that there is no sedation scale for nurses on a medical unit because […]