Mike (John's brother) posted this (and more) on another blog today. I found it interesting, and I thought that there might be readers of this blog that would find it interesting too and maybe have their own thoughts. Again, this is just a portion of the original post:
Lately I have been using a new tool with my patients to try and bring home to them why I care about their blood pressure, cigarette use, cholesterol, etc. The title of this post is that tool. Here is a representative site that allows you to use that tool.
hp2010.nhlbihin.net/atpiii/calculator.asp?usertype=prof
Most of you know I hate cigarettes. A big part of why I went into medicine, family medicine particularly, was to help people stop smoking. I see about 3200 people a year, and have done so over the past eight years in my medical practice. My life is in some sense a compilation of my life combined with the lives of the people that I see. As a result, I have more experience with addictive behaviors than anyone else in the family, including my other doctor brothers.
Cigarettes kill people. Whether you acknowledge that or not, every cigarette a person consumes is a small portion of their life that is destroyed beyond what normal would have happened. The risk calculator shows this. It is based on a long term study performed on an entire town in Massachusetts. They have been following these people for decades, and the risk calculator is derived from the data obtained from this town.
Whoa MIke-Framingham Risk Factor Calculation? You probably do
ReplyDeleteknow more than your other brother physicians on this topic. I am with you although am not a "brother". I use the FRC every day and sometimes I do get through to a patient. It will be interesting to see if any family bloggers look at how risk is calculated.
Go Framingham! It works!
Barb
Yeah, no comments on the risk calculator, but I thought it was interesting!
ReplyDeleteWhat, Cheese? Worried about those three pounds of Halloween candy (that you ate in three days) clogging the old arteries?
ReplyDelete