What does Annual Physical Examination include?

Annual physical examination includes basic eye check, heart exam, Ear nose throat exam, lung exam, abdomen exam, muscle strength exam, limb exam, skin exam, and anthropometry testing such as height, weight, BMI calculation.

Is it important for me?

The data on routine screening for healthy patient is not conclusive that it suggest mandatory annual physical examination. But our team is open to discuss who needs annual physical examination and who does not need after collecting the required clinical information from the patient.

Who should get Annual Physical Examination?

Not every patient needs annual examination. Patient of certain age group should get annual physical examination if they have:

• Current chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease
• Certain disease that runs in the family need regular screening and appropriate testing referral.

Time frame regarding physical examination if it is needs to be done annually or 6 months or at shorter interval depend upon personal medical history of patient and family history.

These concerns will be discussed during the first visit and age-appropriate screening tests will be generated based on current guidelines.

Also, there are certain employer who would require an annual screening certificate from the physician. So, such examination will be more meaningful in those cases. Our team will arrange for employer mandated annual physical examination after reading the employer specific information. We recommend such person or patient to send us the details of the requirements prior making an appointment or have those employers’ specific information available during Nibbana Healthcare provider visit.

Do I need physical examination when I do not have any symptoms?

Periodic tests especially annual physical examination can help find the medical health problems in their initial stages so that a proper plan can be made to modify the risk factors and medication adjustment can be made to prevent future complications if diagnosed earlier.

It plays an important role in diabetes patient where patient need certain annual screening tests. These screening tests will be discussed with diabetes patient separately while generating their treatment plan.

As we know hypertension is one of the major risk factors for the heart disease and most of the times it causes slow damage over time without causing any symptoms. Many patients might not know that they have high blood pressure for years without symptoms. It becomes important to screen certain patient population who is at high risk for these common health condition during annual physical examination.

Similarly, our team will add diabetes screening for high-risk patient in the coming months. As most of the disease are age specific, therefore guidance to patient for age-appropriate tests will be provided and customizable plan will be created so that they can keep in their health journal or diary for easy reminder. Appropriate referral for sleep study for obese patient, EKG screening for diabetes patient and hemoglobin screening for old patient to check for anemia will be provided.