Welcome to 2008

2008 promises to be a big year. With the Presidential and Congressional elections heating up, the new year should bring some interesting developments in the world of healthcare—in both insurance coverage and reimbursement updates.

But it should be an interesting year closer to home, too—EndoNurse is looking at its second annual MVP supplement, scheduled for May 2008. Nominations will be closing at the beginning of March, so this is your chance to get a nomination in.

Last year’s Most Valuable Professionals were an impressive crop, and we’re expecting no less from the second harvest of MVPs. Don’t wait to go online and nominate your own MVP at www.endonurse.com/valuableprofessional.html

We want to hear about exceptional nurses, technicians, physicians, and other healthcare support staff who make your job more pleasant and who make your patients come back. Do you have a fantastic receptionist? Or do you want to sing the praises of a particularly astute billing and coding expert? Most of our 2007 nominations were nurses, but that doesn’t mean you can’t nominate another job role.

Other big news this year is that constipation is running rampant in our youth—children frequently suffer from constipation but parents don’t always pick up on their discomfort. Many children who complain of abdominal pain are often found to be constipated when they eventually see a physician.

Kids aren’t the only ones who are going undiagnosed; women are, too. A news story from the fall of 2007 discussed the fact that women never talk about constipation, although many of them are affected chronically. In the news article, "Women Talk About Everything ... Except Constipation," the makers of Dulcolax® revealed that this is the most taboo of topics—even in this era of public plastic surgery and court cases. Women don’t talk about this topic to their friends or to their healthcare providers, either.

Impairment from common functional gastrointestinal disorders like constipation causes sufferers to lose approximately one day of work in a 40-hour work week, because of work productivity losses and impairments in daily activity. That study was presented at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology last October.

My colleague, Jennifer Schraag, the editor of our sister publication, Today’s Surgicenter, recently blogged about abdominal issues in the "Many Facets of Poop" blog, which you can read at www.germstop.net/blogs/mothertoanother/blogdefault.aspx/a/78h2792461328.html/m/art. As she says, any mother is subjected to discussions of poop on a regular basis.

In this issue, we are happy to talk about these taboo issues—check out our feature on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and what pharmaceutical treatments are currently approved to treat Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

We also feature a follow-up on our last issue’s article on methemoglobinemia (MHB)—read about one nurse’s personal experience with benzocaine-induced MHB. We’d also like to hear about your own experiences with this uncommon drug reaction.

Here’s looking at another great year for endoscopy!

Kathy Dix
Editor

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