The Flu Vaccine. It’s Time to Get Yours
Flu vaccines began shipping in August. Your internist, pediatrician and some local health departments and pharmacies will offer flu vaccines this season. There is also a handy tool by the government at Flu.gov to help you locate community providers in your area.
The flu vaccine is appropriate for those patients 6-months or older.
Continue reading “The Flu Vaccine. It’s Time to Get Yours” »
Eyecare and Skincare Boutique
Currently, our office sells VIVITÉ® and Latisse Eye products. We will soon enable our patients to refill their contact lenses via our site.
Please visit the KulikMD Boutique.
Ask Dr. Kulik
We encourage our readers to ask questions on any topic affecting your health, your life or the business of health. Write to askdrkulik@kulikmd.com. If your question is answered, we will post it here and send an e-mail reply.
“What do you suggest for someone who does not have health insurance?”
This is a difficult question that more and more Americans are facing. The United States Census Bureau reports that 46.2 million people were living in poverty in 2010, “up from 43.6 million in 2009″. Another 46 million do not have any health insurance. The issue of health insurance and poverty in the U.S. is a topic that frustrates me, angers me and leaves me and many other physicians and hospitals on the front line in terms of having to determine how to get health-care to those without insurance coverage. Continue reading “Ask Dr. Kulik” »
In the Media
Dr. Alfred Kulik began working with media after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. It was during these appearances that he realized the powerful tool media has offered to reach more patients with information about the who/what/when and how of medicine.
I believe that media and medicine work well together. The power of media and its relationship to medicine is that it is a vehicle to reach more than one patient at a time.
Dr. Kulik is currently working on a book Why Grandma Was Right about the practical advice our grandparents and parents can offer us to stay healthy, fit and wise. Over the next coming months, KulikMD.com will begin to offer video segments highlighting various medical topics. We hope that if you have a medical question for which you would like a more detailed explanation, you will write to our site at askdrkulik@drkulikmd.com.
Following are some of the media outlets for whom Dr. Kulik has offered opinion and medical insight. KulikMD.com will post the video clips in the coming weeks.
Media
Doctors, Payment and the Difficult Patient
There comes a time in every doctor’s life when he or she meets the one…the one patient that makes us question why we entered medicine. I know, we doctors are not supposed to think this way. But we all know it happens. In fact, there is an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine and Kramer work to steal her medical chart because she thinks the doctor has written “difficult” in her files to describe her personality. When that episode aired, every doctor in America realized they needed a new short hand. Continue reading “Doctors, Payment and the Difficult Patient” »
Getting the Red Out
We live in a modern world. How we function in our daily lives puts an enormous stress on the our body’s ability to produce tears. Our computers, Blackberrys, Androids and iPhones are great…they bring the world to us. But they also can lead to itchy, irritated and dry eyes. Most of my patients want the quick fix for dry eyes, such as the bottle of Visine that “gets the red out”, but this is a temporary solution that can actually exacerbate the problem of dry, irritated and itchy eyes. Continue reading “Getting the Red Out” »
Medical Philosophy
Good medicine is about trust; it’s about loyalty and relationships. My patients know that whatever it takes, my job is to be an advocate for them. Sometimes, this means listening for an hour (and at times, listening about a medical issue that has nothing to do with the eyes because everything affects our health); sometimes it means visiting them in their home; and, sometimes it means getting on a telephone and fighting for a procedure (and, if that doesn’t work, it often means eating the Baked Ziti for a week that was my payment for the procedure). In a sentence, I suppose I am a hometown doctor practicing modern medicine in a very busy world.
Some changes have been good, such as advances in early screening for diseases; surgical advances that allow us to perform life-changing procedures with lower adverse risk; and, an ability to get and deliver information faster. But what physicians like me, those doctors who entered medicine shortly before HMO’s and PPO’s, didn’t anticipate and what we rail against is how the business side of medicine takes us away from our patients. I fight hard against it and I think most of my patients who have benefited from hour long exams will attest to this fact, but is difficult attempting to shift my understanding of what I entered medicine to do and what I find I must do to continue practicing medicine.
I want to know what causes them stress; I need to know what kinds of foods they eat; I want to know if they are happy, sad or content. All information is relevant when working to ensure my patients get healthy and stay the healthiest they can be. And truth be told, my patients give me an enormous amount of advice and information that I utilize in my own life and in rendering care to other patients.
I hope you’ll spend some time on this site. If you have a question, please e-mail to askdrkulik@kulikmd.com. My hope is that we learn together and we stay well together.
Best regards,
Alfred D. Kulik, M.D.
Lisa, Working Mother of Three. Botox for TMJ.
Botox Injections for TMJ and Migraine Pain
I have suffered from TMJ longer than I can remember. When the pain and the clicking got really bad, I began to notice how the bite of my teeth was off. I was also clenching my teeth and my jaw more than ever. So much so that I always had constant pain in my jaw. I’ve probably spent over five years in constant pain. Continue reading “Lisa, Working Mother of Three. Botox for TMJ.” »