January 6th, 2012 by RyanDuBosar in News
Tags: Antibiotic Resistance, Antibiotics, Drug Resistance, Farming, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, Livestock, Microbes, Microbiology, New Strains
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Cephalosporins will be used in livestock only for very specific exceptions, after years of debate about the role of antibiotic resistance in farming and how it leads to new strains of microbes with the potential to shift into humans.
The FDA took this step to preserve the effectiveness of cephalosporin drugs for treating disease in humans, the agency announced in a press release.
In 2008, the FDA issued and then revoked an order that prohibited cephalosporins in food-producing animals with no exceptions. Three years later, the agency’s ban includes several exceptions:
–It doesn’t limit cephapirin, which the FDA doesn’t think contributes to antimicrobial resistance;
–Veterinarians will still be able to Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
January 4th, 2012 by BarbaraFederOstrov in News
Tags: BioMed Jobs, Biomedical Research, Ethical Guidelines, Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, Health Reform, Medical Ethics, Medicare, uninsured
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Health Costs: In an unusual stance, a leading doctor’s group has issued ethical guidelines that include taking cost into account when recommending medical treatments for patients, Rob Stein reports for NPR’s Shots blog.
BioMed Jobs: A Texas biomedical research center that was supposed to create 5,000 jobs with a $50 million state grant has fallen far short of those goals, and the private company that received 70 percent of the money has pulled out of the project, Matthew Watkins reports for The Eagle.
Health Reform: What’s happening in health reform this year? Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post lays out some key dates for 2012.
Medicare: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - The Reporting on Health Daily Briefing*
January 4th, 2012 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in News
Tags: BlueHR, Bluetooth, Emergency Medicine, Hospitalist, Internal Medicine, iPhone, iPhone 4S, Patient, Qualcomm Life, Rock Health, Smartphone, Technology, Wahoo Fitness
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The start of January has some exciting new technologies on the horizon. Recently, Wahoo Fitness announced their new product, BlueHR — a fitness heart rate monitor — can sync to your iPhone 4s via bluetooth and without the need for addition adaptors.
All users have to do with the BlueHR device is to strap it around their sternum, and they will be able to monitor stats such as their heart rate and the number of calories they are burning via their smartphone. It currently uses Bluetooth 4.0 technology, and as such, the only smartphone that currently has that capability is the iPhone 4S.
We wrote an in-depth article about Bluetooth 4.0 when the iPhone 4s was released, commenting on how it could be a boom for mobile health devices due to the following features of the protocol: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
January 4th, 2012 by RyanDuBosar in News
Tags: Ashland Health Center, Doctors, Kansas, Lifestyle, Medical Education, Missionary Work, Physicians, Recruitment, Residency Training, Shortage, Via Christi medical residency program, Wichita
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A rural hospital on the verge of closing because of problems retaining its rotating door of physicians offered two months of leave for missionary work to keep a more stable roster. It worked, according to a profile written by the Associated Press.
All employees at Ashland Health Center in Kansas, from maintenance staff to the doctors, get two months off to do missionary work in other countries or other volunteering duties for the community. The move has attracted socially minded physicians and their families, many of whom had backgrounds in missionary work already and wanted an environment to keep doing it. The recruitment was developed with support of the Via Christi medical residency program in Wichita, which is sponsored in turn by the University of Kansas School of Medicine.
It’s not the only effort underway in Kansas. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
January 2nd, 2012 by Michael Kirsch, M.D. in News, Opinion
Tags: $100, Biopsy, Cancer, Cleveland, CT Scans, Detection, Incidentalomas, Insurance, Lung Cancer, Marketing, Smokers, spiral computed tomography, Spiral CT Scan, Surgery, The Plain Dealer, University Hospital
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A hundred bucks doesn’t buy much these days. A crisp Ben Franklin can be exchanged for
- 50 Big Macs
- A Broadway show ticket
- A night in a New York City hotel (just joking)
- A college textbook (paperback)
- Your life
Your life? Yes, 5 crumpled Andy Jacksons can save your life, as was reported earlier this year in a front page article in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s only daily newspaper. University Hospital is now offering a $99 spiral computed tomography (CT scans) of the chest in individuals who are at increased risk of developing lung cancer. The rationale is that if cancers can be detected early, then the cure rate for surgical removal is very high.
Gary Schwitzer, medical blogger and press watchdog, tries to bring some balance to the distorted media coverage of CT lung cancer reportage.
The test is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*
