Physical Examinations

Physical examinations will replace saliva samples for verifying the gender of athletes at next month's world track and field championships in Tokyo, the sport's governing body said in London.

PHOENIX -- The Dodgers appear to be close to a deal with veteran left-hander Paul Maholm. [UPDATED, 4:06 p.m.: The Dodgers announced they have signed Maholm to a one-year, major-league contract. ] Maholm was among the Dodgers pitchers and catchers to undergo physical examinations Saturday at the team's spring training complex. Maholm declined to speak to reporters and the Dodgers wouldn't confirm they have a deal with him. The contract figures to be a minor-league deal.

In his nine years as a chiropractor, Tim Ursich has performed physical examinations on aspiring athletes, deciding whether the youths are fit to participate in sports at such high schools as Rolling Hills on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Bishop Montgomery in Torrance and Redondo Union in Redondo Beach.

The Dodgers are close to signing former All-Star Dan Haren, who could add depth to the battered back end of their rotation. Haren agreed to a one-year, $10-million contract that includes a vesting option for 2015, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke under the condition of anonymity because the deal is pending a physical examination. The contract could be finalized as early as Monday. Haren is coming off the two worst seasons of his career. He was 12-13 with a 4.33 earned-run average with the Angels in 2012 and 10-14 with a 4.67 ERA with the Washington Nationals this year.

PHOENIX -- The Dodgers appear to be close to a deal with veteran left-hander Paul Maholm. [UPDATED, 4:06 p.m.: The Dodgers announced they have signed Maholm to a one-year, major-league contract. ] Maholm was among the Dodgers pitchers and catchers to undergo physical examinations Saturday at the team's spring training complex. Maholm declined to speak to reporters and the Dodgers wouldn't confirm they have a deal with him. The contract figures to be a minor-league deal.

Amy Joyce received her wake-up call loud and clear the last two weeks after reading countless stories about the football-related deaths of two Southland high school players. So at a cost of $1,500 to her family, Joyce has scheduled her son, Cody, a senior wide receiver and defensive back at Hart High in Newhall, to undergo an extensive physical examination today. Hart is one of the area's top teams, and Cody, a top college prospect, seldom leaves the field during a game.

Facing stiff opposition from area medical doctors, the California Chiropractic Assn. on Monday derailed its own campaign to get the Los Angeles Unified School District to accept sports screening physical examinations by chiropractors. The Board of Education had been scheduled to vote on a proposal to change school district rules to allow chiropractors and some other licensed medical practitioners to perform the exams that are required for all students who participate in athletics.

The Orange County Grand Jury has recommended that school districts bar first-graders from classes if they have not been medically screened. Under state law, children who enter the first grade must undergo a health screening. However, the state law does not have enforcement provisions that would forbid children to attend school if they don't receive the exams. The screenings catch medical problems such as hearing loss that could affect a child's ability to learn.

Nearly 10,000 children in Orange County entered first grade last year without proof of taking a state-mandated physical examination, in many cases because of widespread abuse of a loophole that allows parents to waive the exam for religious or cultural reasons.

Scores of Los Angeles County's poor and the homeless have been unfairly denied welfare benefits after being ordered into work programs that they cannot complete because physical disabilities make the work painful or impossible, advocates for the indigent say.

As boys grow up and become sexually active, they cut back on regular visits to the doctor, sometimes for reasons of cost and lack of health insurance. But a new study cites another factor: boys' beliefs about what it means to be a man. The study of 15- to 19-year-olds, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, suggests that young men view visits to a healthcare provider as a sign of weakness.

The high cost of health care is keeping a "significant minority" of American women from getting the medical care they need, according to a new national survey. About one in four U.S. women skipped or delayed needed health care in the course of a year, while more than one in five couldn't afford to fill at least one prescription during that time. Fewer men reported the same barriers: 16% of men skipped or delayed care and 13% didn't fill a prescription.

In this age of managed care, many of us no longer have easy access to the best and brightest in medicine. Unless, of course, money is no object--or someone else is picking up the tab. If that's the case, you might get to experience something called the "executive physical." For $2,000 and up, you can spend two days getting poked and prodded, undergoing a battery of tests and talking at length to a top-notch doctor about your eating habits, family medical history and exercise routine.

Inside the musty confines of the Oxnard Channel Islands High football office, two doctors and their assistants examine players in assembly-line fashion. The athletes shuffle from station to station getting their height and weight and blood pressure checked before moving on to an exam room, where the doctors listen to their hearts and conduct cursory checks for other ailments.

After criticism from women's and human rights organizations, Turkish Health Minister Osman Durmus denied that he authorized virginity tests for high school nursing students suspected of having sex. Durmus said this month that high school girls studying at government-run nursing schools would be expelled if they had sex and barred from studying at other government institutions. Newspapers reported that he was authorizing virginity tests, an order that nurses' and women's groups vowed to fight.

No one loves a physical exam. Talking to the doctor is one thing, being ogled and probed is something else, right? Patients aren't alone. Doctors also have mixed feelings about physical exams. The reasons? Too little time, of course. Also, with so many diagnostic tests these days, basic physicals sometimes take a back seat. Finally, there's the issue of reticence.

When former president Jimmy Carter's sister, Gloria Carter Spann, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December, a leading oncologist suggested that the whole family undergo tests for that type of cancer. Carter's father, James Earl Carter Sr.; his brother, Billy Carter, and his sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, all died of pancreatic cancer. And after actress Gilda Radner died last year of ovarian cancer, New York cancer researcher H.

For many women, the only obstacle standing between them and a career with the Los Angeles Police Department is a six-foot wooden wall. Scaling "the wall" is one of the Police Academy's pass-fail entrance requirements, part of an intense physical exam designed to weed out the weak from the strong. Fail it and forget a badge. The wall, with its emphasis on upper body strength, is one of the biggest reasons that women are turned away from the department.

It could have been just another boring wait for the doctor. But instead, kids were mesmerized Tuesday as a volunteer read stories and handed out bookmarks, stickers and lollipops. And perhaps the luckiest of all were the young children getting checkups, who were treated to a brand-new book they could take home.

Doctors are said to make lousy patients. Now comes a study indicating that many docs avoid being patients altogether. Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine decided to examine how well doctors took care of their health after previous studies suggested that doctors' bad habits--among them smoking and drinking--influence what they tell patients.