Patients and smoking are unsightly mix
Have you seen this disturbing sight in Boston's Longwood medical area? Patients wearing hospital johnnies, sitting in wheelchairs, towing IV poles, and puffing on cigarettes, right outside some of the nation's best hospitals. Two weeks ago, Brigham and Women's Hospital decided to put a stop to this visual dissonance, and painted a thick blue line along the outside edge of the sidewalk in front of the main building on Francis Street and the words ''no smoking" every few feet.
But the city said no way. A public works inspector called Brigham executives last week and told them to erase the line, saying people are not allowed to paint public sidewalks.
The Brigham agreed and made plans to move the blue line to a wall that marks the perimeter of the hospital's property and where smokers often sit. Then, Mayor Thomas M. Menino asked the city's Public Health Commission to develop regulations that would prohibit smoking in front of hospitals.
Whether anything short of a security patrol will work is another matter. One sunny day last week, several Brigham employees blissfully ignored the blue ''NO SMOKING" right at their feet and enjoyed their cigarettes on the sidewalk.
Outdoor smoking is a growing issue in Longwood. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center employees this year became so concerned -- both about patients harming their health and about them doing so outside a premier Harvard Medical School teaching hospital -- that executives decided to extend the inside smoking ban outdoors.
When employees returned to work last Monday, they found a thick yellow line painted along the perimeter of the hospital's property, declaring it off-limits to smoking. (Beth Israel Deaconess steered clear of painting on the sidewalks.) ''This is a health-care organization, and there were people out there under doctors' care doing things that are not good for themselves," said one staffer. ''It didn't look good."
Two-thirds of doctors take their own advice
Does your doctor practice what he or she preaches? According to a questionnaire e-mailed to 15,229 Harvard Medical School physicians and researchers, most claim they do. But they're far from perfect. (About one-third of the doctors reported that they are overweight or obese.) The window into doctors' health habits comes from the Harvard Health Letter, which surveyed medical school faculty in 1982 and 1992, and decided to revive the practice. About 14 percent, or 2,115 doctors, responded.
Top of their class: The physicians' exercise habits were impressive. More than 58 percent said they exercise at least three times per week, and more than half said their workouts last 30 to 60 minutes. Walking and jogging are the most popular sports.
Surprises: While many Americans respond to a scratchy throat by downing massive amounts of Vitamin C, 74 percent of the Harvard doctors said they do not take Vitamin C when they have a cold. In terms of sleep, just 12.8 percent said they get less than 6 hours of sleep per night.
Worst results: The doctors don't eat enough fish or whole grains. And 119 doctors and researchers exercise less than once per week, while 42 confessed to eating at fast food restaurants several times a week.
How reliable are the results? That's uncertain, as people often exaggerate positive behavior in surveys.
Brigham's Meir Stampfer most cited doctor in country
Dr. Meir Stampfer, well-known head of Brigham and Women's Hospital's Nurses' Health Study, is the country's most frequently cited researcher. Other researchers, referring to his published work, cited Stampfer, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, more than any other researcher in clinical medicine, according to ISI Essential Science Indicators, a company that tracks the impact of research.
Between 1995 and 2005, Stampfer was cited 30,739 times by other researchers. Researchers referred to 376 papers that he wrote or co-wrote. Two other Harvard School of Public Health physicians made the top 10 list: Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at No. 2; and Graham Colditz, professor of epidemiology, at No. 7.
ISI Essential Science Indicators sells its rankings to medical schools, universities, and countries that want to track how they and their researchers stack up against the competition.
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