I get over 200 hours of continuing medical education annually. Most of this comes from researching subjects online. It doesn’t include hours spent reading The New England Journal of Medicine, The Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, The Medical Letter or Journal Watch. Twice a year I attend medical courses, usually the ones put on by my medical club, The Texas Club of Internists, a 100+ year old organization dedicated to continuing medical information. This past year it rebranded itself as The Texas Society of Medicine. It is rewarding to sit in lectures with colleagues from around the state and be able to ask questions of medical experts.
While some of you were celebrating Fiesta, I was attending our Spring meeting. Here is the schedule of lectures:
I’m always interested in new information to apply to patient care. Here are a couple of tips on blood pressure: You need to be seated in a hard-backed chair when taking you blood pressure. Slouching on the couch won’t do. MAKE SURE YOUR ARM IS AT HEART LEVEL. THAT IS THE MIDDLE OF YOUR STERNUM OR BREASTBONE. RESTING IT ON A TABLE PROBABLY WON’T ACHIEVE THAT. YOU MAKE NEED TO PROP IT ON A PILLOW. A PHONE BOOK WOULD DO IF YOU STILL HAD ONE OF THOSE. Also, air pollution can cause blood pressure to be elevated. Using a HEPA filter in the bedroom at night can lower your systolic blood pressure by about 3 mm. This is a link to the article in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2025.06.037
I’ve already signed up for our fall meeting in Santa Fe.
