Physician Body Mass Index and Bias Toward Obesity Documentation Patterns.

BACKGROUND: Many healthcare professionals consider obese individuals to be unmotivated and to lack the willpower to follow through with weight-loss plans. This attitude may result in less effort put into diagnosing, documenting, and treating obesity. Our aim was to assess documentation patterns of obesity and hypertension overall, by primary care specialty, and in relation to provider body mass index (BMI). METHODS: Twenty-two physicians from one outpatient community practice were included: 10 internal medicine and 12 family practice practitioners. We conducted a retrospective review of medical records from a 1-year period to determine provider documentation of obesity and hypertension. RESULTS: A total of 3,275 obese patients were under the care of 6 physicians with normal BMI, yielding an obesity documentation rate of 23.2%. The 10 overweight physicians had 6,218 obese patients and a documentation rate of 33.5%. The 6 obese physicians had 4,014 patients with obesity and a documentation rate of 21.7%. Obesity documentation rates differed between nonobese physicians (BMI 20-29.9 kg/m2) (30.0%) and obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) physicians (21.7%) (P<0.001). We found no difference (P=0.132) between documentation rates of normal-weight BMI physicians and obese physicians. The overall documentation rate of obesity (27.5%) was significantly different than the overall documentation rate of hypertension (83.3%) (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: In our study, nonobese physicians were more likely to document obesity, and documentation of obesity lagged significantly in comparison to hypertension. Addressing weight loss in obese patients starts at the provider level. Steps include documenting obesity on the problem list and providing weight-loss advice during each patient encounter.

Effects of Immunomodulators and Biologic Agents on Sexual Health in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

BACKGROUND: Although much knowledge has been gained regarding the medical and surgical management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a paucity of information is available on the psychosexual issues related to IBD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sexual health of patients with IBD who were taking immunomodulators and/or biologic agents vs patients with IBD who were not on that medication regimen. METHODS: All study participants completed a validated sexual health questionnaire, the Female Sexual Function Index or the International Index of Erectile Function, to assess their subjective perception of the effect of IBD on the different domains of sexual function during the prior 1-month time period. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences in any baseline demographic variables were found for either sex between the group taking immunomodulators/biologic agents and the nontreatment group. Among females and males, individual question responses, domain scores, and total scores showed no statistically significant differences between the 2 treatment groups. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the use of immunomodulators or biologic agents does not affect female or male sexual health. However, treatment of patients with IBD must be individualized based on the aggressive nature of the disease, treatment goals, and the tolerability of various medications.

Active hyperspectral imaging using a quantum cascade laser (QCL) array and digital-pixel focal plane array (DFPA) camera.

We demonstrate active hyperspectral imaging using a quantum-cascade laser (QCL) array as the illumination source and a digital-pixel focal-plane-array (DFPA) camera as the receiver. The multi-wavelength QCL array used in this work comprises 15 individually addressable QCLs in which the beams from all lasers are spatially overlapped using wavelength beam combining (WBC). The DFPA camera was configured to integrate the laser light reflected from the sample and to perform on-chip subtraction of the passive thermal background. A 27-frame hyperspectral image was acquired of a liquid contaminant on a diffuse gold surface at a range of 5 meters. The measured spectral reflectance closely matches the calculated reflectance. Furthermore, the high-speed capabilities of the system were demonstrated by capturing differential reflectance images of sand and KClO3 particles that were moving at speeds of up to 10 m/s.