The physician’s guide

The physician’s guide is an indispensible tool to summarize basic medical and clinical knowledge and experiences. It should be concise, easily demonstrable, regularly updated and greatly physician-specified (self made).

Here is a personal view of such important medical tool.

The Hippocratic Oath

Section 1: normal values (pediatrics: growth milestones or curves, caloric and fluid requirements and calculations; CBC; hemoglobin electrophoresis; plasma electrophoresis; liver function; kidney function; urine; stools; semen; hormones; electrolytes; arterial boold gases; and ECG findings).

Section 2: preparation-oriented drug index (topical formulas: skin, eye, ear, and nose; tonics and food supplements; antimicrobials: antiseptic, antibiotic, antifungal, antiprotozoal, and antihelimenthics; analgesics and antipyretics; antihistaminics; corticosteroids; skeletal muscle relaxants; antispasmodics; antihypertensives and cardiac agents; hemostatics, hypoglycemics; neuropsychiatric agents (sedatives and hypnotics, anticonvulsants, brain stimulants, antidepressants, antiparkinsonians); and beauty preparations (shampoos, cosmetics, soaps, etc.).

Sections 3: natural foods and herbs – sorted alphabetically – and their uses (basilica, chamomile, garlic, green tea, onion, thyme, etc.).

Section 4: medicines’ doses and instructions tables (neonate, child, and adult).

Section 5: crude models of medical prescriptions (orthopedic, eye, ear, nasopharyngeal, dermal, gynecologic, oral, cardiac, digestive, liver, renal, respiratory, and neuropsychiatry).

Section 6: medical algorithms (pediatrics: infant of diabetic mother, muconial aspiration, low birth weight, prematurity, neonatal jaundice, respiratory distress, etc.; adults: HTN, DM, bronchial asthma, cardiac asthma, DVT, diabetic ketoacidosis, hypoglycemia, stroke, etc.).

NPO

A considerable challenge in the medical profession is to come up with a large number of standard and non-standard abbreviations. NPO in the medical practice stands for “Nil per os” which means nothing by mouth.

Physicians should not only point to medicines in their different forms but also to life acitivities, including food consumption, as for their relevance to the current illness of their patients. Indeed, in many cases of health problems proper shaping of life style and nutrition rules would save doctors and patients as well much unnecessary and dispensable medical prescriptions (see also: Emotional whirl).

Logically, none of the body systems is functioning in separation of the others. Indeed, body systems have to work in a harmony to best enable a certain performance or function at a given time. A dozen of autonomic reflexes (involuntarily) are set up to ensure this functional harmony. Although the extent and intesity of these involuntary reflexes may vary from one person to another and even in the same person depending on the health state for example, it seems that they present inherent physiological rules.

Generally speaking, it is the personal and professional view of the physician whether to consider NPO for a patient where the decision maybe absolutely needed for one case but too superfluous for the other.