Hello! Welcome back to The Friday Sign Out - a newsletter for primary care physicians and advanced practice providers.

Happy 2024! I can’t believe it’s already almost mid-January! I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m just now recovered from the holidays. Whew. All good stuff, but it can be ALOT. Kudos and THANK YOU to all of you who worked tirelessly throughout the Christmas and New Years weeks. Time to take a breath.

Here’s what I’m reading and thinking about this week.

In the News

As a PCP, I examine a lot of dizzy people! I’m sure you can all relate - it’s such a common chief complaint. It’s also a difficult one. The differential diagnosis is broad and varies from benign to life-threatening. Luckily, one of the most common culprits, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, is very treatable! As a doctor, having a great effective treatment such as the Epley maneuver, is such a gift - for the patients and us!

This study in BMC Primary Care discusses the effectiveness of the Epley maneuver in primary care offices. The Epley maneuver reduced subjective symptoms throughout the 27 RCTs systematically reviewed.

If you need a refresher, here is a quick video. Warning, it’s about 16 years old but the content is evergreen 😀 

In Your Practice

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be making its way into our clinical world soon, if it hasn’t already! Check out Doximity GPT below. Pretty amazing. I’ve heard rumors our health system is piloting a program to help with notes (like an AI scribe). I would love to hear if you are using AI in your practice and what that looks like (you can just reply to this email). Changes, they are coming!

In Your Heart

As physicians and providers, we often feel pressure to “fix” all of our patients’ problems. This can be overwhelming and feel frankly impossible, especially when parts of medicine and the human body still are such a mystery. This is difficult to convey to our patients. In this article, a physician talks about how she was able to eventually stop holding herself accountable for patient outcomes and instead focused on giving the best and most excellent care and support. It’s a good read.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ashley