You’ve probably heard a lot of “rules” for losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle: You have to be active for 60 minutes a day. You have to eat five vegetables and fruits a day. You have to get at least 8 1/2 hours of sleep a night. But we believe that in reality, if you try to change too many things at once, the chances are you’re going to fail, and then you’re not going to try at all. So take it slow, you can’t change your whole life at once, but you can surely change 1 small part of it.

You have the power to decide what that first step will be. You can cut out soda for a week, or avoid bagel for a week.  There are many ways that are practical and doable. It’s a matter of being patient with yourself.

If you go on a crash diet such as orange juice/Vegetable juice diet to get into a pair of skinny jeans by a certain date, you won’t be building healthy eating habits, your body stresses out, so you’re likely to give up and gain back the weight. If your goal instead is to get healthier and reach a healthy weight for you, you’re more likely to stick with it.

So be patient, give yourself time and commit to doable short-term goals, such as walking three times a week or cutting out junk food for a week or take up gardening, as it will give you pleasure as well as burn 162 calories per half hr. If you set attainable goals, you’re more likely to achieve them — and that will fuel future successes.

You’ll feel better.

You’ll actually be happier if your goal is to eat healthy and exercise regularly, not to starve yourself. You’ll have more stamina, more strength. Your mood will be better. It’s about feeling good from the inside out, rather than the outside in.  You should do it not for other people, but for yourself.

Few easy exercising tips:

• While cooking, do calf raise stretch while waiting for your pot to boil
• During TV commercials, jog in place
• Put on music and dance as if you are teen again.
• If you’re pressed for time and waiting for something either at work or home, do ab exercises. Contract the muscles around your belly button. Then elevate your upper torso, and release. Finally, contract your buttocks for a few seconds.

You should always consult your doctor before starting any diet or workout plan.

The New Year is a good time to make a fresh start at lifestyle changes, such as eating better, exercising more, or giving up smoking. Like any other goal you set, making a resolution that is (SMART) specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely — can help keep you focused and motivated. For example, instead of saying, “I want to lose weight,” you might say, “I want to lose 10 pounds in six months by eating fewer prepared foods and sweets and adding more servings of vegetables every day.” Or “I want to commit to exercising at the gym for one hour three times a week so that I have more energy to play with my kids.”

After creating your “smart” resolution, based on your unique health status and health risks, follow these tips to further improve your chance of keeping your resolution:

• Go public- Announce your resolution among family and friends and seek their support.  Sometimes creating a resolution pact with a friend helps, even if you don’t have the same resolution, you can touch base with each other every few weeks to check progress and provide encouragement.
• Expect unexpected and be prepared- Even people who are ultimately successful in their resolutions make mistakes along the way. What separates those who succeed in their resolutions from those who break them is how well they recover from mistakes. To be successful, you need to view mistakes as momentary lapses instead of failures and then promptly refocus on your goals.
• Patience…my friend- Remember that change doesn’t happen overnight, so resist the temptation to push yourself too hard. Consider keeping a journal to chart your progress, and congratulate yourself on your steps forward and forgive yourself for any steps backward. Then, if you find yourself doubting your progress, review your journal to recommit to your resolution.  Remember all that starts well will end well may be sooner or later…just keep trying.
• Prevention is better than cure- In addition to your “smart” resolution, routine physical exams and immunizations are important steps you should take to practice prevention. Measures like these can help you and your doctor identify potential health risks so that you can work together to prevent disease, illness, and injury.  The screenings that are appropriate for you may depend on your age and gender. For example:
  • The American Heart Association recommends blood pressure screenings every two years and cholesterol screenings every five years for adults beginning at age 20.
  • The American Diabetes Association recommends that adults have their fasting blood glucose checked every three years, beginning at age 45, to determine their risk for diabetes.
  • The American Cancer Society recommends annual mammograms for women starting at age 40 and colorectal cancer screenings, such as a colonoscopy, every 10 years for both men and women beginning at age 50. The organization also recommends that starting at age 50, men talk to their doctor about the pros and cons of prostate cancer screening, such as a PSA blood test, and whether it’s appropriate for them.

Keep in mind that you might need to be screened earlier or more frequently than these recommendations suggest, depending on individual risk factors such as your family history. Talk to your doctor to learn which screenings might be appropriate for you and when you should schedule them. Similarly, your family’s pediatrician can help you better understand preventive care services for your children.

How many of us actually understand the meaning of “Board Certification” and how many of us actually care whether our doctor is board certified or not.

Board certified officially means that the physician is an exceptional expert in a particular specialty and/or subspecialty of medical practice and has gone through the required training to practice medicine.  It also means that the physician is committed and is consistently achieving superior clinical outcomes in patient-focused setting.

It is believed that for patient like us the board certification is the best measure of a physician’s knowledge, experience and skills to provide quality healthcare within a given specialty. Is it really true?

Does this board certification actually make any difference in patient outcome? May be it does but nobody is sure. We believe that general public never cared where their doctor went for medical school.  People care for quality health outcomes and timeliness. Most of us even don’t know the difference between Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) and Doctors of Medicine (MDs). They both go by Primary Care Physician (PCP); the DO is an Osteopathic physician, while MD is Allopathic physicians.  Many don’t even care if they get timely care from a Physician Assistant (PA) or a Nurse practitioner.

So we tried to dig little more into this at American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS); a nationally recognized organization certifying doctors. After a tedious search process, we got something very interesting

“The physician certification information in the ABMS database is updated periodically with data provided by its Member Boards. Due to the possibility of reporting and processing delays, the accuracy and completeness of records cannot be guaranteed. ABMS shall not be liable to you or others for any decision made or action taken by you in reliance on the information obtained from this service.  It is the user’s responsibility to determine that the physician record obtained is that of the physician whose information is sought”

So… what now…ABMS is telling us that it’s OUR responsibility to determine… so guess we are left with our gut feel while choosing a doctor.

We are not saying that board certification or doctor credential doesn’t mean anything, Doing a background check into your doctor’s credentials is important to be sure they are appropriate and current. But there are other things in addition to credentials that patient needs to think about before choosing the right doctor, such as does the doctor communicate well and believe in building relationship? What is his methodology; prevention or just treatment? Whether he listens to his patient’s concern or just jump on the prescription?  Can doctor relate with the patient?

One’s health is his own and his doctor’s business, nobody wants to disclose health issues to public.  So please take time and research, ask your friends and family when it comes to making right choice for your right doctor…advocate of YOUR health.  We have tried to compile doctor information including reviews from the real patients on DocAsap.com for your convenience, our doctors would love to hear your concerns and they are all Board Certified…J

Eating Right and Staying Active is no rocket science

So here we are in 2012…hopefully you are beginning this New Year with lot of resolutions such as more partying, working hard, letting go, more adventures etc.  Don’t forget that nothing is possible without health.  We believe that staying healthy and fit is the greatest achievement of one’s life.  Frankly speaking, it’s not a rocket science; just eating right and staying active would do the job for you. Don’t need to spend hours in the gym, just dance, jump, go up and down the stairs anything for 15-20 minutes each day will do magic.

As a New Year resolution, some of our friends are doing extremes by quitting sweets (in any form) or grains or dairy. Being committed is good, but healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, and keeping yourself as healthy as possible– all of which can be achieved by learning some nutrition basics and using them in a way that works for you.

Healthy eating begins with learning how to “eat smart”—it’s not just what you eat, but how you eat. Your food choices can reduce your risk of illnesses such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, as well as defend against depression. Additionally, learning the habits of healthy eating can boost your energy, sharpen your memory and stabilize your mood. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying, healthy diet.

Trust us…your body deserves the best.  If you have any concerns please visit one of our doctors to find out what is best for your health.

With beginning of 2012, DocAsap proudly announces the launch of fully revamped website at DocAsap.com.  The new website is designed to be more users friendly while continuing to help patients get timely doctor or dentist appointments.

The streamlined site structure and navigation ensures that all information is just one or two clicks away. By enabling patients to quickly research medical practitioners and reserve appointments instantly online, DocAsap seeks to radically expedite and simplify the process of seeing a doctor or dentist.

New components of the website include:

• Differentiated UI experience with enhanced usability and navigation flow
• Enhanced search and filtering capabilities to enable finding the right doctor in the easiest way
• Comprehensive , dedicated web pages for Doctors and Practices to enable easy single point access to all required information

DocAsap.com has always focused on helping patients get timely care. Users can quickly search doctors and dentists, review provider’s bios and validated patient reviews, filter appointments that best match visit reason, insurance, schedule and location requirements and book instantly using a robust and intuitive website. DocAsap.com then manages all email and phone reminders as well.

The average wait time for core specialties in Philadelphia is 25 days surveyed by the firm Merritt Hawkins & Associates. And for some specialties such as dermatologists and obstetrician-gynecologists the wait time is around 45 days.  With DocAsap, patients are able to get timely appointments, majority of DocAsap users’ book appointment within one or two day.

For Medical practices DocAsap’s helps getting new patients. It reduces improves patient experience through 24X7 convenience of appointment scheduling. Additionally, DocAsap greatly reduces manual scheduling work done by the practitioners and their administrative assistants.

Currently, DocAsap is offering timely appointment with primary care physicians, obstetrician-gynecologists, psychiatrist, Pediatrician and dentists in Greater Philadelphia area and provides access to top doctors including University of Pennsylvania Health System.

We are super excited to begin this new year with much hope and success.

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Health care in the United States costs around $2 trillion annually, or 16 percent of GDP. So there’s a lot of concern about what will happen as those costs increase. That has led to three seismic shifts in health care; prevention, transparency and quality care.

We all know that prevention is better than cure, but are we practicing it? We all know that, to reduce health care costs, while still improving quality we need to reduce the burden of disease on the system.  Forty percent of the premature deaths in the United States are caused by obesity, inactivity, and smoking, all of which ought to be preventable. So a natural starting point is to help people stop smoking and help them lose weight.  There are many companies who don’t hire smokers; some good examples are set by Disney CEO Bob Iger who decided that there would no longer be people smoking in films made by Disney. He can easily get other producers to do the same.  As far as inactivity is concerned, people have to understand that they need to get up and move around more or their whole body will start to deteriorate…there is no other option.

Many health systems are taking initiatives to bring in transparency through patient portals as they understand that patient’s information belong to the patient and he has right to have that information. myPennMedicine was launched by Penn Medicine recently to increase patient’s accessibility. In addition to that, Penn Medicine is moving towards open access scheduling, and have already started utilizing online scheduling to offer convenience of online booking and same day appointments to its patients as well as to bring operational efficiency into the system.

Now an informed patient wants same experience from the health care provider as he gets in a restaurant or a spa.  He forms his opinions and talks to people about that experience.  And if patient volume is the concern than we think that it can be solved by addressing the aforementioned seismic shifts.

We all say that “exercise for health”, but why it is so painful?

There are many intense home fitness program such as Insanity, p90 and P90X, sometimes people get super excited and wants to get in shape overnight.  One of our friends did the same thing and instead of taking it slow, she jumped on the most intense level of p90x.  She gave her best to sustain those grueling 60 minutes for 3-4 days in a row.  Than as expected she found herself in extreme pain…generally when we subject our muscles to intense training, we tear the fibers. So what exactly happened with her?

Interestingly, there are two types of muscle soreness; one which happens during the workouts as the fibers experience more and more trauma, to prevent us from seriously damaging the tissue beyond repair the body begins to produce some serious byproducts, mainly lactic acid.

The other muscle soreness happens after working out called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).  It begins 24 to 48 hours after exercise and peaks at 48 to 72 hours So what is likely happening is when you contract the muscle hard the body tells it to do so but when you stop the signal to relax is a little slow getting there. During this point in time the muscle stays contracted, cramped, and you experience the pain of a hard contraction and the burn from the waste products on the damaged fibers.

So things that can be done to prevent muscle soreness are: adequate hydration as body lose electrolyte during intense workouts so it is important to stay hydrated.  Stretching exercises help to lengthen the muscle fibers and is especially useful for muscles which are prone to cramp up, and eating right is most important if you want to reduce muscle cramps, add milk, fresh fruits, and oats in your daily diet.

All in all, we think it is healthy and good for muscle growth to experience muscle cramps every now and then, just as long as the involuntary cramps are not ruining your workouts.  So keep on doing it, may be take slow when your body demands.

An insured patient checking out form the physician’s office paid $100 for just 10 minutes with the doctor.  What exactly this $100 covers? Why patients get shocked seeing this type of bill? Here is what that $100 is covering…

• First, doctor office schedules an appointment. It took several people to take the message, pull the medical record (paper charts), call the patient to assess the problem, determine the need for the appointment and schedule it.
• When the patient arrives, staff double checks the patient’s contact info and insurance details to make sure that it is updated on the file.  The nurse gets notification of the patient’s arrival.
• The nurse called the patient from the waiting area, measures blood pressure and weight.  And then patient goes into the exam room where nurse again takes vitals, make notes around the visit reason, medication, last visit, etc.
• The physician came in to see the patient, asked about any changes since last been seen, reviews history of present illness and examines the patient. He talks about the illness and the treatment plan and prescribed a medication. He updates patient’s medication list and makes a copy of the diagnosis form and hand it out to the patient for the records.  The patient goes to the check out desk.
• The physician refiled the medication reconciliation in the chart, finished documenting the visit, and placed the chart in the bin to be refiled.  The chart was filed, and the encounter form was sent to the billing office.
• At the billing office the charges and any payment gets posted and the claim was filed.  If there is no problem with the claim, it electronically gets processed.
• If payment was not denied, the payment arrives at the billing office and would be posted.
• If patient did not pay at the check-out desk, the patient-responsible balance is billed to the patient.  If the patient pays on the first statement, it has taken 45 to 60 days to receive complete payment.

The 10 minute office visit involved the work of the phone operator, the medical records clerk, the triage nurse, the check-in person, the nurse, the doctor, the check-out person and the biller.  It took 8 people, and at least 45 minutes of work to make that appointment happen.  In addition, that visit paid the expenses for the rent, the utilities, malpractice insurance, medical supplies, computers, phones and janitorial services.  We all want efficient and quality health care but it is not cheap.

Thanks to KevinMd for giving this useful insight.

The new survey by Wolters Kluwer Health shows that 46 percent of doctors frequently use sites like Google and Yahoo for treating, diagnosing or caring for their patients; 68 percent of doctors dig through professional journals and 60 percent of doctors seek their colleagues advice, 42 percent get their information from conferences and events,  and 42 percent say they use online health sites like the Mayo Clinic and WebMD and 46% use general browser such as Google and Yahoo as a frequent source of information.  Nearly 9 in 10 physicians feel that improved access to online medical information and resources has improved the quality of care at their practice

The survey findings also note that “63 [percent] of physicians report changing an initial diagnosis based on new information accessed via online resources/support tools,” researchers wrote in the survey report.  The survey involved responses from more than 300 doctors who are members of the American Medical Association; about half of the respondents were primary care doctors, and the other half were specialists.

In 2006, the British Medical Journal published a study showing that Google is a useful tool in doctors’ toolkits, especially when it comes to difficult-to-diagnose illnesses. In that study, doctors plugged three to five search terms into Google of 26 diseases that are notoriously hard to diagnose (including Cushing’s syndrome and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).

Researchers found that Google was right 58 percent of the time in diagnosing the diseases, though they acknowledged that the person doing the Googling needs to also have a wide knowledge base in order to know what to search for.  As the Wall Street Journal points out with regard to the most recent survey:  No one says Google and Yahoo don’t lead people to tons of useful info — just that it can be tough to sort the wheat from the chaff. Physicians, presumably, can assess the quality of the health information they dig up better than the average consumer.

Doctors aren’t the only ones Googling health info — a Pew study shows that 61 percent of Americans go online for information related to health. This new disruptive technology which is offering autonomy and access to information can help both patient and the physicians in achieving better clinical outcome. It would improve doctor-patient relationship as well as patients would get more if they show up at the doctor practice with little more planning and information.