October 4th, 2011 by GruntDoc in News
Tags: Albuterol, Asthma, CFCs, Cost, Environment, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Epinephrine, FDA, Inhaler, Inhaler Manufacturers, Medical, Obama, OTC, Over-The-Counter, Ozone, Policy, Prescription
2 Comments »
This underestimates the increased cost by a huge factor…
Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer:
Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the federal government’s latest attempt to protect the Earth’s atmosphere.
…But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more. Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
October 3rd, 2011 by Medgadget in News
Tags: Android, Cell Phone, Deep Sleep, iOS, Light Sleep, Medical Technology, Mobile Device, REM, Sleep Management, Sleep Metrics, Sleep Monitoring, Sleep Patterns, Sleep Tracking, Zeo
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Sleep tracking company Zeo has announced today that they’ll soon be selling a mobile version of their product, compatible with both iOS and Android. The company previously only offered what amounted to a base-station clock with a sleep monitoring headband. Together they tracked your sleep patterns, including Light, Deep, and REM, but in the process the data got a bit trapped in their clock. To upload sleep data to the web for easier analysis, users had to pull an SD card out of the clock, plug it to a computer, and complete the upload. This step presented a pretty high barrier to learning about your personal sleep.
The mobile version solves this Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
October 3rd, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in News
Tags: accreditation, Competency, Complications, Death, Doctors, Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway, Ethics, Fatal, healthcare, Hospitals, Liposuction, Medical Errors, Medical Mistakes, Mothers, Patient Care, Plastic Surgery, Primary Care, Surgery, Training, USA Today, Women
1 Comment »
Three young mothers under the age of 40 are dead because they wanted to be beautiful. Kellee Lee-Howard wanted a slimmer body. Ditto Maria Shortall and Rohie Kah-Orukatan. Shortall worked as a housekeeper; Lee-Howard was the mother of six kids and Kah-Orukotan died at the same place where she received manicures. What do these women have in common besides being minorities? They had liposuction procedures performed by men who offered a discounted price for an elective surgical procedure. These men professed to be competent in performing the procedures but never had accredited training.
I knew this day was coming. I saw the storm long before the clouds emerged. As the insurance payments for professional medical services decreased and declined, physicians began to look for alternative ways to earn money. But was it ethical? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
October 2nd, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in News
Tags: Benefits, Blood Clot, CentriMag, Children, ECMO, Health News, Heart Health, Heart Transplant, Jonathan M. Chen, kids, Medical Technology, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York, PediMag, Pump, Risks, Stroke, VAD, Ventricular Assist Device, Youth
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Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) are small pumps that take over the work of the heart in pumping the blood through the body. Patients who need a heart transplant, but for whom there is no donor heart available, might be given a VAD for what’s called a bridge-to-transplant while they wait for a donor.
PediMag, the pediatric version of the adult device, CentriMag, is an external device designed for short-term use in infants with heart failure. PediMag can also be used to support children after heart transplant surgery if they experience organ rejection and need time for their hearts to rest and heal, according to Jonathan M. Chen, MD, Surgical Director of Pediatric Heart Transplantation at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York. Dr. Chen has extensive experience treating children with heart failure and has recently authored an account of his first successful use of the PediMag as a biventricular bridge-to-transplant in an infant.
The PediMag ventricular assist device is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
October 1st, 2011 by PreparedPatient in News, Opinion
Tags: Ad Campaign, Affordability, Brand Equity, Cigna, Customers, Encouragement, Facebook, Go You, Health Insurance, Health Reform, Mandate, Obamacare, Penalties, Policies, Social Media
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Cigna launched a $25 million “GO YOU” national branding campaign last week signaling that they are gearing up for tons of new customers as health reform rolls towards 2014. That new business will come from the millions of Americans now uninsured who will start getting government subsidies as an encouragement to buy health insurance coverage. If those uninsured folks don’t get coverage, they will have tax penalties to pay.
No insurer wants to be left behind in this expanding marketplace, so Cigna, by being first out of the gate, hopes to build brand awareness that will ring bells in 2014 when consumers must buy insurance. It’s a smart strategy. One industry consultant says “most insurers have not built enough brand equity with consumers.”
Cigna’s ad campaign positions health insurance as Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Prepared Patient Forum: What It Takes Blog*
