DEAR DR. ROACH: My husband has a pacemaker. We have an induction stove, and his cardiologist was uncertain if it was safe for him to use it. So, he does not cook on the stovetop and stays clear when I am cooking.

Is it safe for him to use at least the back burners? When I am out of town or just not home, he is afraid to use the cooktop. I feel like at least the back burners should be at a sufficient distance to be safe. Do you know if it would be safe for him to use? He is 5 feet, 5 inches tall. Thank you.

• V.S.

ANSWER: Induction cooking stoves use powerful electromagnets to create a magnetic field. Inside the metal of your cookware, this creates electronic currents, which dissipate heat through electric resistance. However, this powerful magnetic field can also “tell” your pacemaker to turn itself off or change its mode of activity. This is why it’s important to avoid strong magnetic fields when one has a pacemaker.

For an induction stovetop, the recommendation is to stay 60 centimeters (2 feet) away from the device while it’s turned on. This doesn’t mean that he can’t use it at all, just that he shouldn’t be touching the pot continuously and should be using the back burners, which will likely keep him the requisite distance away.

DEAR DR. ROACH: My oncologist tries to type out his own notes from my office visit, but I think that he does copy and paste info from old notes. My history with him is very long and detailed.

After my last office visit, he scheduled an MRI for September but made no mention of any change in medication. I read his notes on the app, and I noticed that there was an order for a new medication that was sent over to my pharmacy. It was for procarbazine, which I took as part of my chemotherapy in early 2024.

It was a mistake, but it was very upsetting. I had to make several phone calls to get it straightened out. So, if people have access to online notes, please make sure that you are looking at the most recent information.

• M.D.

ANSWER: Having the ability to read your physician’s notes is, in my opinion, a very good thing. Correcting mistakes is probably the most important reason why. One study found that 25% of doctors picked up an important mistake in their record based on patient feedback.

Procarbazine, by the way, is an extremely powerful chemotherapy drug and would never have been dispensed by the pharmacy without confirmation from your doctor. In the hospital, there are multiple layers of protection to make sure that the right person gets the right dose of the right medicine.