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4A – Daily News – Monday, April 4, 2011 Vitality & health Nutrition Quiz: Cheesecake factor (MCT) — We're not above going for the cheesecake factor here at the Quiz. There's nothing we love more than cheesecake in all its forms. Take our caloric quiz. 1. According to the USDA, one slice (80 grams) of commercially prepared cheesecake will set you back how many calories? a) 176 b) 257 c) 399 2. The biggest problem with cheesecake? It's high in saturated fat. What per- centage of the daily value of saturated fat lurks in that cheesecake sliver? a) 25 percent b) 40 percent c) 62 percent 3. OK, there's got to be something healthful about cheesecake, right? Wait, here's something: It's rea- sonably high in vitamin A. Which benefit does vitamin A provide? a) stimulates the diges- tive tract b) stimulates the pro- duction and activity of white blood cells c) helps prevent heart disease 4. It's no surprise that the chain restaurant the Cheesecake Factory gives a larger portion size to its slice of cheesecake than what the USDA recom- mends. How many calo- ries are in a slice of the "original" cheesecake? a) 577 b) 707 c) 1,077 5. Really want to indulge? Order a slice of the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake, which weighs in at how many calories? a) 945 b) 1,109 c) 1,699 DETROIT (MCT) — Almost a year ago, Kristen Cullen's husband broke out in hives from head to toe. She suspected he was hav- ing an adverse reaction to medication. But she wasn't sure what to do. It was late on a Sunday evening. Not typical doctor hours. But Cullen didn't panic. She turned to one of the trusted tools she has come to rely on since Niall Cullen was diagnosed with colon cancer: her cell phone. She called his oncologist, Dr. Philip A. Philip of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. Philip immediately arranged for Niall Cullen to be admitted to the Kar- manos wing at Harper Hospital in Detroit. Once there, the attending physi- cian used his cell phone to e-mail a photo of Niall to Philip and other physicians handling his case. Increasingly, caregivers like Cullen and patients are texting, e-mailing, even using Skype to reach health care providers. Many doctors and patients find that newer technolo- gies help strengthen their communication. "Certainly the explo- sion in the use of smart phones will mean more and more patients will be communicating with their health care providers using either e-mail or text mes- saging," says Philip. "I feel that with improved com- munication options for patients and families, bet- ter care can be provided, and patient or family con- cerns addressed in a more timely fashion or in real time." In Niall Cullen's case, doctors quickly developed a treatment plan that elimi- nated the hives and got him back to work as a software salesman within a couple of days. "I fear what could have happened had I not been able to get hold of Dr. Philip," says Kristen Cullen, 40. "They told me that on a scale of 1 to 10 for adverse reactions; he was at Level 9. It was life- threatening if he hadn't Asian Massage $ 30 min. massage reg. $40 GRAND OPENING 5.00 off 1 hr. massage reg. $60 $10.00 off Offer good thru April 30th 333 S. Main St. Suite G Red Bluff • 530-710-5940 St. Elizabeth Auxiliary A member of CHW Community Hospital ★ Come Get a FREE MASSAGE ★ April 6 9am-3pm Candle Fair St. Elizabeth Health & Candle Shop In the hall across from Café Raymond 2550 Sister Mary Columba Dr., Red Bluff, CA 96080 530.529.8002 Health & fitness The doctor is always in people in the room. Dr. Marc Sakwa, chief MCT photo Kristen Cullen uses her laptop and smart phone to keep in communication with her husband Niall's doctors at the Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit. Cullen has been her husband's caregiver since he was diagnosed with colon cancer three years ago. been seen and treated as quickly as he was. "My phone is my life- line to his doctors," Cullen says. While many patients find such technology extremely useful, some doctors remain reluctant to use it even though the demand is pushing more and more doctors to com- municate electronically. A national poll of 1,612 parents showed that more than half of them would find electronic communi- cation with their children's health care providers very helpful, but fewer than 15 percent of those parents were actually able to com- municate electronically with their child's pediatri- cian or other health care providers. "The study found a big gap between what parents can currently do and what parents feel would be help- ful," said Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan. Davis, a pedia- trician, says he is comfort- able with electronic com- munication. "My e-mail address is on my card," he says. But Davis said he recognizes that some doc- tors are concerned about medical liability, privacy and compensation. While there are no uni- versal guidelines for elec- tronic communication between physicians and patients, most doctors use it only with patients with whom they have already established a relationship. "We need to see electronic messaging as a replace- ment for a phone call," Davis says, "not as a sub- stitution for a visit." Davis and others expect electronic communication to increase due to demand. "I think it's inevitable that physicians will move more toward it, if only because society expects and insists on it as the pro- gressively dominant form of communication today," Davis said. Last October, Beau- mont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., began using consultation centers in its cardiovascular center. They are outfitted with a system called WebEx that allows video chats for doc- tors to communicate with patients and/or caregivers who cannot be present at the facility. An access code and password allows peo- ple out of town, or even out of the country, to talk with of cardiovascular surgery, says he has found the sys- tem especially helpful for talking with the adult chil- dren of elderly patients when those children live out of town. "Very often, especially in metro Detroit, you have kids who have moved away to New York or Cali- fornia or wherever, and the kids want to know what's going on. The patient tells their children what's going on, but a lot of things get lost in the translation," Sakwa says. "Now, we can set the room up in advance. Everybody's together and everybody understands what's going on. I think it's the wave of the future. "I think it makes the patient and the family more comfortable," he says. "Say the mother is going to have a surgery. The daughter can't be there for all the pre operative consultation. But the mother doesn't understand all the nuances of what's going on or she forgets to ask a question that the daughter asked. If we're all there in the same room, it relieves a lot of stress for everyone." Dr. Philip of Karmanos expects e-communication to increase and agrees it's a good thing. He e-mails patients regularly. He has also put out-of-town rela- tives on speaker phone during consultations with patients. "In addition to offering an additional communica- tion option e-mails are eas- ier to handle because unlike a telephone page that needs immediate attention I can reply to the e-mail without having to interrupt something that I am doing," the doctor said. "I can also reply to e-mail even if I am out of state or the country." Philip says technology also allows some exams to take place without an office visit. "Patients who start on a new treatment that is expected to cause some major side effects can have their condition monitored in real time using the Inter- net, including the upload- ing of digital pho- tographs," he says. Dr. Tsveti Markova, a family medicine physician with the Wayne State Uni- versity Physicians Group, says the health system's movement toward becom- ing more patient-centered demands e-communication and in some ways it's easi- er for doctors. "Most of us would rather intervene sooner than later," Markova says. "E-mailing and texting is fine as long as the commu- nication is secure." Kristen Cullen believes technology saved her hus- band's life. She keeps her phone with her constantly, and sometimes has her laptop at her side. When there's a new development, she e-mails his doctors doctor with an update. Doctors usually respond shortly thereafter with a text, an e-mail or phone call. Niall Cullen used his smartphone only once to communicate with his doc- tors. On Father's Day a cou- ple of years ago, he e- mailed a photo he took of one of his son s at Little League championship game in Cooperstown, N.Y. "Thanks for giving me another Father's Day," his message read. ANSWERS: 1: b; 2: b; 3: b; 4: b; 5: b