Why Is Chest Pain Caused by Stress and Anxiety?

For this article I consulted with Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with SignatureMD, www.signaturemd.com.

First of all, let’s be clear: This article is not about angina. Angina involves heart disease, and typically, stress and anxiety will cause or aggravate chest pain in a person who has angina.

But what about a person who does not have heart disease, or at least, has not been diagnosed with such? Perhaps this individual’s calcium score is zero, which very likely means the absence of heart disease. So what’s going on if they experience chest pain from anxiety or stress?

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What Causes Fast Heartbeat After Eating

Ever experience a fast heartbeat soon after eating? There is a specific reason for this. To find out about this phenomenon, I consulted with Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with SignatureMD, www.signaturemd.com.

Here is what Dr. Davidson says about a fast heart rate after eating: “This is normal, assuming it is not overly fast or occurring with exertion right after eating. The blood volume is shifted to the intestine after eating, and can result in a faster heartbeat, especially if you are somewhat dehydrated. However, it should normally be only slightly faster than normal. If it is a great deal faster, it might be due to an abnormal heart rhythm.”

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Chest Tightness but no Trouble Breathing: Should You Worry?

Have you been experiencing tightness in your chest, but no problem breathing, no shortness of breath–and as a result, you’ve been trying to reassure yourself that there can’t be a problem with your heart? As long as you can breathe just fine, you figure, your heart is okay?

Think again. For this article I consulted with Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with SignatureMD, www.signaturemd.com.

Dr. Davidson says that “absolutely!” you SHOULD be concerned if you have any tightness in your chest, regardless of whether you can breathe just fine or have difficulty breathing.

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Does Back Pain with Chest Pain Mean Heart Problem?

Perhaps you’ve read that back pain can signal an oncoming heart attack, or occur with the actual heart attack. Maybe you’ve heard that both back and chest pain can occur with a heart attack. However, does pain in the back, plus chest, automatically mean that there is something wrong with your heart?

“Not necessarily, but possibly,” says Robert M. Davidson, MD, a cardiologist with  SignatureMD, www.signaturemd.com.  “If it is associated with exertion or stress, it might be heart related. If it is affected by movement or position, it is more likely to be muscular-skeletal.”

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June 29, 2012

Entrepreneurs disrupt health care model

Upstart entrepreneurs are upending the business model for health care, and this morning’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the heart of the reform law won’t change that.

Innovative business leaders are exploring the edges of how health care is delivered, records are kept, and doctors are vetted. The ruling is just one factor in the overall health care changes they’re seeing and pioneering.

Before the surprise ruling came down, one such company announced it had raised $34 million.Practice Fusion, which helps providers keep electronic medical records, had the VC haul.

Lauren Fifield of that San Francisco startupwrote in a blog post.

Other entrepreneurs told me they were watching the court closely, but the justices’ call–as important as it is–wasn’t a make-or-break one for them.

Matt Jacobson, the chief executive of SignatureMD in Santa Monica, California, said the biggest driver for his company is demographic. Signature is one of a new wave of providers of so-called concierge medicine, in which patients pay a flat fee up front to take care of their primary medical needs.

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June 27, 2012

Biophysical receives $4.2M financing

Austin-based Biophysical Corp . has received $4.2 million of a planned $5 million financing.

The local biomarker research company collected the capital from 17 investors, according to a June 15 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .
CEO Mark Chandler couldn’t be reached for comment.

In September 2011, Biophysical announced that it was was teaming with California-based SignatureMD Inc. to market a pre-diabetes biomarker test to SignatureMD’s affiliated medical practices.

More about Signature MD

Original Article

February 27, 2012

Fight to repeal the SGR continues

NEW GLOUCESTER, ME – When lawmakers agreed to another postponement of the Medicare payment rate, physicians both breathed a sigh of relief and clenched their teeth in frustration. There had been so much optimism that this time Congress would repeal the sustainable growth rate formula. Now doctors are looking at continuing the fight instead of moving on to other issues, like payment reform.

“In the past year, more than 848,000 patients and physicians have contacted members of Congress to tell them it is time to eliminate the broken Medicare physician payment formula and protect patients’ access to care,” said Peter Carmel, MD, president of the American Medical Association. “The AMA’s work on this issue continues, but real relief for patients and taxpayers will only come when Congress gets rid of the problem once and for all.”

“… if (Congress) just sort of finger-in-the-dike all of these problems, they’re not really taking care of the bigger picture,” said Glen Stream, MD, president of the Academy of Family Physicians. “They waste their time because they have to come back and deal with this again. I know doctors are tired of talking to members of Congress about it. And members of Congress and their staff are tired. … It just needs to be fixed.”

Lawmakers chose to postpone the latest physician payment cut of 27.4 percent, which would have gone into effect this week, through the end of this year. When doctors face the rate cut again in 2013, it’ll be a cut of more than 30 percent.

In the interim, doctors and medical societies say they will continue to lobby lawmakers, urging them to repeal the SGR once and for all and to do it far in advance of December.

“Our strategy has always been it’s really Congress’ responsibility to find out how to fix this,” said Stream. “Some of the members of Congress feel like since the debt was related to physician payment that the fix has got to come within the healthcare spend specialty versus another. It’s just sort of counter-productive and so our feeling is that they have to come up with the means to fix it.”

But not everyone in the industry thinks a repeal of the SGR is realistic, even if it weren’t a presidential election season, and that doctors need to come up with a solution on their own instead of waiting for Congress.

“Just look at the numbers,” said Matthew Jacobson, CEO and founder of SignatureMD, a provider of concierge medicine. “Numbers don’t lie.”

With the large numbers of people entering Medicare, he said, there is no way, even with healthcare reform and accountable care organizations, costs will go down enough. The way he sees it, that means lawmakers have three options for cutting costs: cutting the pay rate to doctors, raising the Medicare eligibility age and cutting Medicare benefits.

“Do you think any congress person is either going to raise eligibility age or cut benefits? That’d be political suicide. So what can you do? You can cut rates,” he said. “Politicians are hoping that somehow the 2014 reforms are actually going to do something …

but anyone who’s been doing this knows they won’t do anything at all.”

“Until people are willing to swallow some really, really sour medicine,” he added, “it’s not going to get any better.”

Follow HFN associate editor Stephanie Bouchard on Twitter @SBouchardHFN.

More about Signature MD

Original Article

November 8, 2011

Tim Conway Jr. Show 9P 11/3 – KFI AM 640 with Signature MD

August 17, 2011

Concierge medicine coming to blue-collar neighborhood

Another local physician is converting his practice over to a concierge, or retainer-based, style of medicine, but this time the doctor making the switch isn’t located in an affluent neighborhood.Dr. Brian Stein, a private practice family physician in Northeast Philadelphia, serves a largely blue-collar community. Stein decided to change to the concierge model in large part because of concerns he has over health-care reform, which he thinks will result in 35 million new patients “flooding the system” and not enough primary-care doctors to care for them. The result, he said, will be patients receiving care in “five-minute increments” from anonymous providers.
“What I want to do is have a more personalized model of health care,” Stein said.

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