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Am I the only person spooked by the way automation is taking over our public bathrooms? I appreciate some of this touch-free, infrared technology; I won’t always be nimble enough to push the flush lever with my right toe. But then I get that stall where Niagara Falls goes off every time I shift my weight. What is this, a bathroom or the Bellagio Fountains?
And darnit, people, if you're going to make the faucets automatic, can you please do the soap dispenser and paper towel roll, too? I feel like an idiot waving my hands around by the bathroom wall while the guy next to me walks up and yanks a towel off the roll. Then I smack my forehead with my wet hand, and I can't dry it without bending down under that motion-sensing ramjet thing that I should have used in the first place. The day I always feared has finally arrived: My bathroom is smarter than I am.
Playing by ear
I'm often frustrated but rarely surprised when the emergency department (ED) docs at our local hospital fail to follow basic pediatric treatment guidelines. Sore throat? Here’s some antibiotics. Runny nose? Antibiotics are good for that. Ankle sprain? Snake bite? Azithromycin for everyone! “If only,” I think, “we had a pediatric emergency department...at an academic medical center...in a more advanced country...with a public health system. ..."
But now, thanks to a new study from Sweden, my dreams are dashed. Apparently, even at an academic medical center with a pediatric ED in a country with public health care and that is capable of manufacturing affordable, sleek modern furniture that fits in the back of a station wagon and assembles in 5 minutes with a simple Allen wrench, even in freaking Sweden the ED docs overtreat acute otitis media (AOM) with antibiotics. And, according to author Jimmy Célind and his colleagues from the University of Gothenburg, they can't be stopped.
The investigators reviewed charts before and after a simple intervention to see if educating providers on evidence-based AOM guidelines would improve their compliance with those guidelines. The results? Not one outcome measure – use of drugs as opposed to nondrug management, choice of drug, drug dosage, or duration of drug treatment – improved.
The authors had several theories about why their intervention failed. The campaign consisted of one lecture and some fliers, without any ongoing monitoring and feedback. Providers were educated, but the patients were not. Patients were also in an ED, where people waited a long time to be seen and weren't keen to return in 2 days for follow-up. I have a different theory, however: They just forgot to include the Allen wrench.
The dark side of light
Here in North Carolina, a bill restricting teens' use of tanning beds appears to have stalled out in the legislature for a second year in a row, despite the success of such measures in states as diverse as Louisiana and Indiana (they both end with “ana,” but otherwise, they're diverse). I get it: Just because we keep teens from drinking, smoking, and driving, and just because tanning beds are a major cause of deadly cancer, there are also great reasons not to limit kids’ right to tan, like, um, where else can they wear those little dark eye cup things?
We've known for a while that using tanning beds increases kids' risk of developing deadly malignant melanoma, but a new study in Pediatrics adds basal cell carcinoma to the list, which is, to be fair, merely disfiguring. The study came from New Hampshire, a state which balances a paucity of intense sunlight with a rich supply of people who sunburn easily. Sunlamps, tanning beds, and tanning booths all increased the risk of cancer; kids who started tanning younger suffered more carcinoma.
None of these data are likely to impress opponents of laws limiting kids' use of tanning beds. “North Carolina shouldn't be a nanny state!”they'll shout. But when it comes to cancer, I disagree, at least when some of the people we're talking about still have an actual nanny.
My yellow stars!
Is it just me, or have sugary breakfast cereals become the latest punching bag of nutritionists and doctors? Only soft drinks and potato chips seem to draw as much blame for the obesity epidemic, although I had a slice of chocolate cake last night that I’d like to nominate for some serious scorn. Even the cereal makers didn’t see this next one coming, however. According the Environmental Working Group (EWG), this “nutritious part of a complete breakfast, fortified with vitamins and minerals” is too fortified with vitamins and minerals! Take that, you crispy flakes of morning goodness!
When it comes to vitamins and minerals, you really can have too much of a good thing, and the folks at the EWG make a compelling argument (strongly disputed by cereal manufacturers) that the levels of vitamin A, zinc, and niacin in many breakfast cereals actually pose a potential danger to kids’ health. Now, of course, I’m looking at the cereal boxes in my pantry and wondering what to do with them. I think I’ll go to a public restroom and ask the toilet.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP, is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
Am I the only person spooked by the way automation is taking over our public bathrooms? I appreciate some of this touch-free, infrared technology; I won’t always be nimble enough to push the flush lever with my right toe. But then I get that stall where Niagara Falls goes off every time I shift my weight. What is this, a bathroom or the Bellagio Fountains?
And darnit, people, if you're going to make the faucets automatic, can you please do the soap dispenser and paper towel roll, too? I feel like an idiot waving my hands around by the bathroom wall while the guy next to me walks up and yanks a towel off the roll. Then I smack my forehead with my wet hand, and I can't dry it without bending down under that motion-sensing ramjet thing that I should have used in the first place. The day I always feared has finally arrived: My bathroom is smarter than I am.
Playing by ear
I'm often frustrated but rarely surprised when the emergency department (ED) docs at our local hospital fail to follow basic pediatric treatment guidelines. Sore throat? Here’s some antibiotics. Runny nose? Antibiotics are good for that. Ankle sprain? Snake bite? Azithromycin for everyone! “If only,” I think, “we had a pediatric emergency department...at an academic medical center...in a more advanced country...with a public health system. ..."
But now, thanks to a new study from Sweden, my dreams are dashed. Apparently, even at an academic medical center with a pediatric ED in a country with public health care and that is capable of manufacturing affordable, sleek modern furniture that fits in the back of a station wagon and assembles in 5 minutes with a simple Allen wrench, even in freaking Sweden the ED docs overtreat acute otitis media (AOM) with antibiotics. And, according to author Jimmy Célind and his colleagues from the University of Gothenburg, they can't be stopped.
The investigators reviewed charts before and after a simple intervention to see if educating providers on evidence-based AOM guidelines would improve their compliance with those guidelines. The results? Not one outcome measure – use of drugs as opposed to nondrug management, choice of drug, drug dosage, or duration of drug treatment – improved.
The authors had several theories about why their intervention failed. The campaign consisted of one lecture and some fliers, without any ongoing monitoring and feedback. Providers were educated, but the patients were not. Patients were also in an ED, where people waited a long time to be seen and weren't keen to return in 2 days for follow-up. I have a different theory, however: They just forgot to include the Allen wrench.
The dark side of light
Here in North Carolina, a bill restricting teens' use of tanning beds appears to have stalled out in the legislature for a second year in a row, despite the success of such measures in states as diverse as Louisiana and Indiana (they both end with “ana,” but otherwise, they're diverse). I get it: Just because we keep teens from drinking, smoking, and driving, and just because tanning beds are a major cause of deadly cancer, there are also great reasons not to limit kids’ right to tan, like, um, where else can they wear those little dark eye cup things?
We've known for a while that using tanning beds increases kids' risk of developing deadly malignant melanoma, but a new study in Pediatrics adds basal cell carcinoma to the list, which is, to be fair, merely disfiguring. The study came from New Hampshire, a state which balances a paucity of intense sunlight with a rich supply of people who sunburn easily. Sunlamps, tanning beds, and tanning booths all increased the risk of cancer; kids who started tanning younger suffered more carcinoma.
None of these data are likely to impress opponents of laws limiting kids' use of tanning beds. “North Carolina shouldn't be a nanny state!”they'll shout. But when it comes to cancer, I disagree, at least when some of the people we're talking about still have an actual nanny.
My yellow stars!
Is it just me, or have sugary breakfast cereals become the latest punching bag of nutritionists and doctors? Only soft drinks and potato chips seem to draw as much blame for the obesity epidemic, although I had a slice of chocolate cake last night that I’d like to nominate for some serious scorn. Even the cereal makers didn’t see this next one coming, however. According the Environmental Working Group (EWG), this “nutritious part of a complete breakfast, fortified with vitamins and minerals” is too fortified with vitamins and minerals! Take that, you crispy flakes of morning goodness!
When it comes to vitamins and minerals, you really can have too much of a good thing, and the folks at the EWG make a compelling argument (strongly disputed by cereal manufacturers) that the levels of vitamin A, zinc, and niacin in many breakfast cereals actually pose a potential danger to kids’ health. Now, of course, I’m looking at the cereal boxes in my pantry and wondering what to do with them. I think I’ll go to a public restroom and ask the toilet.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP, is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
Am I the only person spooked by the way automation is taking over our public bathrooms? I appreciate some of this touch-free, infrared technology; I won’t always be nimble enough to push the flush lever with my right toe. But then I get that stall where Niagara Falls goes off every time I shift my weight. What is this, a bathroom or the Bellagio Fountains?
And darnit, people, if you're going to make the faucets automatic, can you please do the soap dispenser and paper towel roll, too? I feel like an idiot waving my hands around by the bathroom wall while the guy next to me walks up and yanks a towel off the roll. Then I smack my forehead with my wet hand, and I can't dry it without bending down under that motion-sensing ramjet thing that I should have used in the first place. The day I always feared has finally arrived: My bathroom is smarter than I am.
Playing by ear
I'm often frustrated but rarely surprised when the emergency department (ED) docs at our local hospital fail to follow basic pediatric treatment guidelines. Sore throat? Here’s some antibiotics. Runny nose? Antibiotics are good for that. Ankle sprain? Snake bite? Azithromycin for everyone! “If only,” I think, “we had a pediatric emergency department...at an academic medical center...in a more advanced country...with a public health system. ..."
But now, thanks to a new study from Sweden, my dreams are dashed. Apparently, even at an academic medical center with a pediatric ED in a country with public health care and that is capable of manufacturing affordable, sleek modern furniture that fits in the back of a station wagon and assembles in 5 minutes with a simple Allen wrench, even in freaking Sweden the ED docs overtreat acute otitis media (AOM) with antibiotics. And, according to author Jimmy Célind and his colleagues from the University of Gothenburg, they can't be stopped.
The investigators reviewed charts before and after a simple intervention to see if educating providers on evidence-based AOM guidelines would improve their compliance with those guidelines. The results? Not one outcome measure – use of drugs as opposed to nondrug management, choice of drug, drug dosage, or duration of drug treatment – improved.
The authors had several theories about why their intervention failed. The campaign consisted of one lecture and some fliers, without any ongoing monitoring and feedback. Providers were educated, but the patients were not. Patients were also in an ED, where people waited a long time to be seen and weren't keen to return in 2 days for follow-up. I have a different theory, however: They just forgot to include the Allen wrench.
The dark side of light
Here in North Carolina, a bill restricting teens' use of tanning beds appears to have stalled out in the legislature for a second year in a row, despite the success of such measures in states as diverse as Louisiana and Indiana (they both end with “ana,” but otherwise, they're diverse). I get it: Just because we keep teens from drinking, smoking, and driving, and just because tanning beds are a major cause of deadly cancer, there are also great reasons not to limit kids’ right to tan, like, um, where else can they wear those little dark eye cup things?
We've known for a while that using tanning beds increases kids' risk of developing deadly malignant melanoma, but a new study in Pediatrics adds basal cell carcinoma to the list, which is, to be fair, merely disfiguring. The study came from New Hampshire, a state which balances a paucity of intense sunlight with a rich supply of people who sunburn easily. Sunlamps, tanning beds, and tanning booths all increased the risk of cancer; kids who started tanning younger suffered more carcinoma.
None of these data are likely to impress opponents of laws limiting kids' use of tanning beds. “North Carolina shouldn't be a nanny state!”they'll shout. But when it comes to cancer, I disagree, at least when some of the people we're talking about still have an actual nanny.
My yellow stars!
Is it just me, or have sugary breakfast cereals become the latest punching bag of nutritionists and doctors? Only soft drinks and potato chips seem to draw as much blame for the obesity epidemic, although I had a slice of chocolate cake last night that I’d like to nominate for some serious scorn. Even the cereal makers didn’t see this next one coming, however. According the Environmental Working Group (EWG), this “nutritious part of a complete breakfast, fortified with vitamins and minerals” is too fortified with vitamins and minerals! Take that, you crispy flakes of morning goodness!
When it comes to vitamins and minerals, you really can have too much of a good thing, and the folks at the EWG make a compelling argument (strongly disputed by cereal manufacturers) that the levels of vitamin A, zinc, and niacin in many breakfast cereals actually pose a potential danger to kids’ health. Now, of course, I’m looking at the cereal boxes in my pantry and wondering what to do with them. I think I’ll go to a public restroom and ask the toilet.
David L. Hill, M.D., FAAP, is the author of Dad to Dad: Parenting Like a Pro (AAP Publishing, 2012). He is also vice president of Cape Fear Pediatrics in Wilmington, N.C., and adjunct assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as Program Director for the AAP Council on Communications and Media and as an executive committee member of the North Carolina Pediatric Society. He has recorded commentaries for NPR's All Things Considered and provided content for various print, television, and Internet outlets.
