Updates about psychiatry and our practice.
For the past two weeks we have been collecting stories from our patients. Some of them are doing well in the face of the turbulence caused by coronavirus and some of them are struggling. We decided to collect stories from those who are doing well in order to identify ways of coping with this stress and perhaps have some suggestions …
Here I’m going to show you that you can make an appointment with me, Dr. Forster, in a minute using the online office tools. This example applies only to appointments made in April 2020. During April, because of coronavirus, all of our appointments will be telehealth and you can make a telehealth appointment in any available time slot. First go …
We are happy to report that at least one of the services that we use for genetic testing, as part of our comprehensive evaluation for patients who had trouble finding an appropriate medication, is modifying the procedure for their tests so that we can order the test online and the test kit will be shipped directly to your home. Genomind …
Several people recently requested medications to have on hand in case an emergency disrupts the supply. Here are some guidelines for these requests. This is from a useful post written by a doctor after a local emergency… “Ask your doctor for an additional prescription, explain what you’re doing and tell your doctor the meds will be going into storage,” says …
Inflammation and C Reactive Protein Inflammation is often seen in people with depression. And there is evidence to suggest that it predicts treatment response. The most widely accepted standard test to measure inflammation is the C-reactive protein, or CRP. This is a protein that is produced by the liver in inflammatory states. The American Heart Association and the Centers for …
California Governor Signs New Telehealth Insurance Law On October 11, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law requiring commercial health insurance coverage and payment parity for telehealth services, unfortunately the law won’t take effect until 2021. However, in consideration of the State of Emergency declared by the Governor and the Secretary for Health and Human Services, an industry trade group, America’s …
I will be seeing my patients via webcam for at least the next two weeks. Your appointment will be at the same time, but to join the meeting you will need a smartphone or computer with Chrome, Safari or Firefox and a camera. Most smartphones and computers (except for work computers that block video conferencing) should work. You can find out …
I am proud to say that I have been selected as one of the Best Doctors in America again. The Best Doctors poll was set up in 1989 by doctors from Harvard’s School of Medicine and is one of the largest ongoing peer-to-peer physician polls in healthcare. Because a physician cannot apply or pay to become a Best Doctors physician …
“Why do you only give me a month’s supply of medication when you approve refills?” This is a pretty common question and this blog post explains why “automatic refills” are no necessarily the magic solution to the problem of getting your medications. A refill is a quick thing to handle, right? You call a number and press a few numbers, …
Passive tracking of vocal and behavioral indicators of symptoms via a smartphone app can be an effective way to treat depression in a time-sensitive and accurate fashion. A recent randomized clinical trial compared the use of an app to track indicators with “usual care” for depression, and, although the sample size is small, the results are very promising. For the …
