When my daughter was diagnosed with PFAPA (Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Adenitis) syndrome, I wasn’t surprised. I myself had suffered from a mysterious recurrent fever in my childhood, and at some point in medical school, I pinpointed PFAPA as the most likely cause.
But I was surprised to discover just how common it actually is. Did you know that PFAPA is the most common type of recurrent fever syndrome in children?
As primary care clinicians, we play a crucial role in helping our patients make healthier food choices. But with all the contradicting information out there, sifting through nutrition evidence can be daunting.
One diet that has evidence for helping prevent disease and promote better health is a whole-food, plant-based diet.
This diet focuses on eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables that have undergone minimal processing. Studies have shown that this approach is associated with health promotion and disease prevention, and that a plant-based diet is a cost-effective, low-risk intervention that may lower BMI, BP, HgbA1c and cholesterol levels.
As Michael Pollan says in his book In Defense of Food: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
PA Students, the clinical rotation year is an exciting and challenging time, as you’re finally able to apply all that you’ve learned in the didactic year to real-world patients. On the other hand, this year is also stressful and can feel overwhelming with all the changes and newness.
For over a decade I’ve been on PA faculty, and every year, the start of the clinical year brings up the same emotion in all of my students. I think the proper word for this emotion is “scited,” which was coined by author Glennon Doyle and is the combination of “scared” and “excited.”
All of my students ask the same questions… “What are my rotations going to be like?” “How do I not look like a doofus on the first day?” “What kind of questions are preceptors going to ask me?” And then, of course, the classic question, “What is going to be on the test?”
My Hippo PA team understands what it is like to feel “scited” about this year, because we’ve lived that experience, and walked hundreds of students through it.
Here’s my advice:
Hippo has been a longtime partner of the Urgent Care Association (UCA), the trade association that represents Urgent Care clinicians and business professionals. We’ve worked together on several projects over the years, and this year we worked on two new projects: Urgent Care MA Bootcamp, a video-based onboarding program for MAs, and “Hippo Live at UCA”, a dedicated clinical track during UCA’s annual convention. While we are pros when it comes to creating video content, this was the Urgent Care team’s first time putting on a live event. And while it was a lot of work, it was a fantastic experience! If you weren’t able to attend live, here is a brief recap:
Cancer screening is a critical part of primary care practice, and most of us can recite guidelines in our sleep. That said, cancer screening can feel a little tricky in our transgender population, especially when we are still learning to navigate this sensitive topic as a general part of our practice.
When helping primary care patients navigate heart disease prevention, we all know the big interventions to cover: quitting smoking, exercising, and eating a healthy diet with more plant-based foods. But are you also covering these less prominent risk factors?
