As I was in Florida I took the opportunity to spend a few days with Kirk Voelker and his wife Chris (not forgetting the muts Sara, Toby and Vito).Kirk Voelker started emrupdate.com in 2002 while researching an EMR for his own practice Lung Associates of Sarasota, FL. This started as a simple message board and links using Microsoft Frontpage and the basics of web-site publishing. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Kirk Voelker, MD.

In exchange for my interview for his QuitDoc Smoking Treatment Network to be published this month, Kirk agreed to give me an update on what he's been doing since we last met. I also had a cunning plan to have Kirk commit to more posting at EMR/u. Let's see how I get on.

Laser Treatment investigations 

Kirk mentioned in our interview his investigation of the Laser treatments (FDA reports here) being used for Smoking Cessation. I originally thought, ok, something complementary for helping folks to quit smoking. (in the same vein as Alan Carrs The Easy Way to Stop Smoking which didn't do me any harm -- some of its messages probably helped)

After our interview Kirk explained that because no actual trials have been completed into this treatment, these operations can continue operation still claiming they have some scientific benefit for Smoking Cessation. With the aim to prove and publish his trial findings -- that Laser Treatment is a sham -- he's currently running a double blind placebo/sham with 60 QuitDoc patients.

The "Laser treatment" uses one of two different laser frequencies aimed at around 40 "points" around the body from fingers, ears, scalp, etc. The two frequency lasers and the dummy LED light (looks identical) are color coded and used blind to "treat" different patients. Kirk recounted one female patient who had described an epiphany -- a golden aura and feeling of intense happiness -- when the laser had been applied to her scalp. She claimed that she knew she would never smoke again. After the patient's departure her name / color was checked and found to be a "treatment" using the sham LED light.

Dr. Voelker is on his way to removing this scam from Smoking Cessation treatments. I'm also interested in his Stop Smoking Foundation mentioned during the interview. Maybe we should invest in the future of America's children.

Our Site Statistics 

We we're trying for a one-hit recording, and clearly I didn't do enough preparation for the interview.
I completely failed to answer Kirk's question accurately detailing our site hits or pageviews;
I did quote between 1,000 and 2,000 Visitors per day, but should have included the following:

Pageviews for all visitors

105,099 Pageviews

February 1, 2008 to February 29, 2008 Daily

30,284 Visits

Av. 976.90 Visits / Day

Our thanks to Kirk Voelker, MD for taking the time to be interviewed again for our web-site.

Thanks -- Nick Harrington