A Good Death; the Youth Suicide Crisis; Not Just a Bump

— Also, reading a doctor's notes may inspire patients to take their health more seriously

by Fred Pelzman, MD June 22, 2019

Fred Pelzman is an associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell, and has been a practicing internist for nearly 30 years. He is medical director of Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Associates.

Cynthia Miller-Idris provides a framework for tackling a difficult question: Deciding how you want to die ~ What is a good death? How my mother planned hers is a good road map for me. (The Washington Post)
Why are suicide rates in young people increasing? Oren Miron, MA, and colleagues discuss this issue and try to understand if the trend will continue ~ Suicide Rates Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States, 2000-2017 (JAMA)
Chloe Y. Li, BA, reveals the unusual way she discovered she had cancer ~ Girl Meets Tumor (Annals of Internal Medicine)
Research shows that "reading your doctor's notes can improve your health," Victoria Knight writes ~ Why You Should Take A Peek At Your Doctor's Notes On Your Health (Kaiser Health News)
How can patients receive the care they need when healthcare services are too far away? Maggie Mullen explores what is happening in some rural areas to improve patient care ~ When There's No Doctor Nearby, Volunteers Help Rural Patients Manage Chronic Illness (NPR)
Susan Gubar describes efforts to match cancer patients to research studies that could improve their care ~ The Need for Clinical Trial Navigators (The New York Times)
Deborah Dowell, MD, MPH, Tamara Haegerich, PhD, and Roger Chou, MD, evaluate the need for more robust evidence to delineate best practices for opioid prescribing ~ No Shortcuts to Safer Opioid Prescribing (New England Journal of Medicine)

Fred N. Pelzman, MD, of Weill Cornell Internal Medicine Associates and weekly blogger for MedPage Today, follows what's going on in the world of primary care medicine. Pelzman's Picks is a compilation of links to blogs, articles, tweets, journal studies, opinion pieces, and news briefs related to primary care that caught his eye.