Warning about MRIs and pain patches

Kevin Cho, MD, whose blog is listed in the bottom right here, has posted a warning about fires and burns in medical settings. One caution caught my eye as I think some here may want to take care. It turns out that any skin patch, like the ones used for pain meds and to stop smoking, can cause a burn on your skin while you're getting an MRI. To avoid this, simply remove patches before having an MRI. For more information, check his post and the Wall Street Journal article Dr Cho mentions in his post.

Dr Rob on Narcotics

Dr Rob posted on his blog about narcotics -- how it's defined and how different doctors approach prescribing narcotics and other pain killers. He has some interesting insights.

Drug interaction site

Most of you know, I probably take fewer drugs than anyone else in the room! (I get to deal with cpap machine instead.) And so I don't know as much about prescription drugs as many of you do, but I came upon a site some of you might find helpful. Medscape now has a Drug Interaction Checker. You can tell it up to 20 different drugs (over the counter as well as prescription), and it looks up interactions after entering each new drug.

As always, check with your doctor about any concerns you might have.