*What doctors are reading this week and why it matters*

Dr. Cindy Haines reviews the literature on IBS, diabetes and weight loss, vitamin D and air pollution.

For Iraq War veteran Brad Seitz, the color purple symbolizes five years of life after near-death.

Purple balloons will direct guests to a party this weekend noting the fifth anniversary of the day he earned a Purple Heart in service to his country. He will hang out with family and friends in the recreation center of the Jefferson Barracks VA Medical Center. Setz, 31, has a fondness for the place. On Thursdays, it's open to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a place to find people who understand him.

Here, too, Seitz has found help to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Olympics are in full swing. Our athletes are bringing home the gold. Still, all is not well in Beijing. Concerns have been swirling around Beijing's air quality for months. China's weather exacerbates the effects of the pollution. And if Mother Nature has any consistency at all, it's in being inconsistent. It will be largely a matter of luck whether the best - or worst - air quality corresponds with the outdoor Olympic events.

*What doctors are reading this week and why it matters*

Dr. Cindy Haines reviews the literature on drinking and metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, how video diagnoses can help stroke victims, exercise, and prostate cancer screening for men over 75.

Psychiatrists are engaging in less psychotherapy than they once did and may be more likely to specialize in drug therapy, according to a report in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

If you are looking for a primary care physician, you'll need some good luck and a lot of perseverance, particularly if you are on Medicare. There's a nationwide shortage of such generalists as medical school graduates move into higher paid specialties. "I think internists aren't very fashionable," says one physician. "It's viewed as a not very exciting field."

*What doctors are reading this week and why it matters*

Dr. Cindy Haines reviews the literature on diet and diabetes, exercise and weight loss, eating fish and atherosclerosis, antibiotics and infective endocarditis, genes and Alzheimer's. 

Dr. Cindy Haines is a family physician in St. Louis, managing editor of HealthDay-Physician's Briefing and president of Haines Medical Communications Inc. 

*What doctors are reading this week and why it matters*

Anesthetic accidents, hidden heart disease, how much a doctor's bad handwriting can hurt and unforeseen consequences of genetic nondiscrimination are all topics that Dr. Cindy Haines discusses.

It has taken some time, but local hospitals are finally adopting high-tech approaches to prevent medical errors. Changes include bar codes on medicines and computerized physician order entry, IV "smart pumps" and computerized adverse drug event monitoring. This is the second of two parts. The first was Hospital errors: What the patient doesn't know might hurt . (illustration from sxc.hu)