September 2nd, 2010 by DrJosephAlbietz in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, True Stories
Tags: A Patient's Death, Anti-Vaccine Movement, Anti-Vaccine Propaganda, Anti-Vaccine Quackery, Dangers of Not Vaccinating, Family Medicine, immunizations, Immunology, Infant Death, Pediatrics, Pertussis Vaccine, Premature Death, Preventable Child Death, Public Awareness, Public Health Initiative, Public Safety, SBM, Science Based Medicine, Tdap Vaccine, Unvaccinated, Vaccine Advocacy, Whooping Cough Epidemic
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I lost a patient this season, an infant, to whooping cough (pertussis). After falling ill, he lived for nearly a month in the intensive care unit on a ventilator, three weeks of which was spent on a heart/lung bypass machine (ECMO) due to the extent of the damage to his lungs. But all our efforts were in vain. The most aggressive and advanced care medicine has to offer couldn’t save his life. The only thing that could have saved him would have been to prevent him from contracting pertussis in the first place.
He was unvaccinated, but that was because of his age. He was part of the population that is fully dependent on herd immunity for protection, and that is exquisitely prone to a life-threatening course once infected. This is a topic we’ve covered ad nauseum, and I’m not inclined to go into greater depth in this post. Suffice it to say his death is a failure at every level. We, both as medical professionals and as a society at large, need to do a better job of protecting our children from preventable diseases. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 2nd, 2010 by IltifatHusain in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Android OS, Apple, BlackBerry, Blue Light Therapy Apps, Bradley Merrill Thompson, Cellphone Technology, Diagnostic Imaging, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, Force Out An App, General Medicine, Health Canada, Healthcare Apps, iMedicalApps, iPhone, Medical Apps, Medical Imaging App, Medicine and Smartphones, Monitoring Medical Apps, Regulating Medical Devices, Resolution MD Mobile, Surveillance of Healthcare-Related Apps, Technology and Medicine, Transmitting Images to a Medical Facility, Web OS
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Bradley Merrill Thompson, an attorney with expertise in the FDA approval process for medical devices, is stating that the FDA is actively monitoring app stores on various platforms. Regulating medical devices and health care-related applications falls under the FDA’s jurisdiction.
James Kendrick from JkOnTheRun spoke with Thompson, where he stated the following:
The FDA is actively engaged in surveillance of various app stores to see if apps should trigger their involvement. Applications where a smartphone is connected in any way to imaging are under scrutiny, in particular. Any app that is used to transmit images to a medical facility requires FDA approval.
By “various app stores,” Thompson is likely referring to the App store [Apple], Palm App Catalog [Web OS], App World [BlackBerry], and the Android Marketplace [Android OS]. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
September 1st, 2010 by DrToniBrayer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Archives of Internal Medicine, Communication Disconnect, Communication Gap, Compromising Patient Care, Doctor-Patient Communication, General Medicine, Healthcare Improvement, Influencing Patient Care, Lack of Communication, Primary Care, Quality Improvement, Waterbury Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine
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In a surprising report from the Archives of Internal Medicine, we learn that most hospitalized patients (82 percent) could not accurately name the physician responsible for their care and almost half of the patients did not even know their diagnosis or why they were admitted.
If that isn’t enough, when the researchers queried the physicians, 67 percent thought the patients knew their name and 77 percent of doctors thought the patients “understood their diagnoses at least somewhat well.” I would call that a pretty significant communication gap.
Ninety percent of the patients said they received a new medication and didn’t know the side effects. Although 98 percent of physicians thought they discussed their patients’ fears and anxieties with them, only 54 percent of patients thought they did. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
August 31st, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Clot-Dissolving Drugs, Coronary Stent, Fibrinolytics, Lund University, Magnet-Guided Medicine, Magnetic Nanoparticles, Magnetically-Guided Drugs, Nanotechnology, Sweden, Thrombus
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Researchers at Lund University in Sweden successfully used magnets to guide clot-dissolving drugs (fibrinolytics) directly to the site of a thrombus stuck within a coronary stent. They did this by attaching the drugs to magnetic nanoparticles and using external magnets to move them to the right spot.
From the press release:
Guiding drug-loaded magnetic particles using a magnet outside the body is not a new idea. However, previous attempts have failed for various reasons: It has only been possible to reach the body’s superficial tissue, and the particles have often obstructed the smallest blood vessels.
The Lund researchers’ attempt has succeeded partly because nanotechnology has made the particles tiny enough to pass through the smallest arteries and partly because the target has been a metallic stent. When the stent is placed in a magnetic field, the magnetic force becomes sufficiently strong to attract the magnetic nanoparticles. For the method to work the patient therefore has to have an implant containing a magnetic metal.
Press release: Medicine reaches the target with the help of magnets…
Abstract in Biomaterials: The use of magnetite nanoparticles for implant-assisted magnetic drug targeting in thrombolytic therapy.
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
August 30th, 2010 by DrStevenDaviss in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Last week’s article in the journal Science looked at the effects of the anesthetic/dissociative drug ketamine (Vitamin K or “Special K” on the street) on brain cell function in rats, concluding that “ketamine might be useful in treating depression because it increases brain activity instantly — so there is no need to wait weeks or months for the drug to take effect.”
Another article from the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience reviewed the state-of-the-art in psychedelic science and found that “countless studies show that hallucinogens promote healthy neural activity in the brain. The researchers also created a chart to show what test subjects’ states of mind are, according to studies, when under the influence of various substances.”
IMAGE: “Assessing altered states of consciousness” (click to enlarge)
Source: “Psychedelics May Be Good For Our Mental Health” (Lanny-Yap)
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
August 30th, 2010 by DrNicholasGenes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Doctors Who Blog, ED, ED Length Of Stay, Electronic Medical Records, Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Room, EMR, ER, Facebook, Health IT, HIT Industry, Medical Blogosphere, Michael Furakawa PhD, Physician Bloggers, Wall Street Journal, WSJ
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Here’s a confession: Despite my steadfast advocacy of medical blogging as a means to promote understanding and education, I continue worry a lot about professional liability. Not just whether the things I write could hurt my career, but, in terms of academic output, is blogging a waste of time? What view does my department’s leadership take on blogging?
Still, I’ve continued to support medical blogging as a useful academic endeavor, hoping that someday this support would be borne out. When sites like Sermo and Facebook came along, I despaired that more physician opinions were going to be hidden behind walled gardens, available only to select colleagues or friends.
Then, last week, some revelations — I discovered a member of my department’s leadership was blogging, or at least, had commented on a blog. How about that! The other revelation? Facebook may be the last great hope for academic discussions to flourish on blogs.
This all arose from a pretty academic question about emergency department implementation of electronic medical records. Does the degree of implementation (full, partial, or none) impact patient wait times in the emergency department? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Blogborygmi*
August 30th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed
Tags: American Society of News Editors, Conflicts of Interest, Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, Gary Schwitzer, Health and Medicine Media, Health Journalism, HealthNewsReview.org, Infuse, John Fauber, Medical Device Companies, Medical Device Safety, Medicine and Patients, Medtronic, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Money, Orthopedic Surgery, Patient Safety, Public Health Alert, Revolutionary Medical Advance, Spinal Fusion Product, Treatment for Low Back Pain
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There are many stories journalists could report on about conflicts of interest and questions about evidence in the treatment of low back pain, perhaps especially with spinal fusion. We talked about many of these with journalists from the American Society of News Editors in a workshop at the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making in Boston in May.
John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel hammers one of these issues, looking at how Medtronic’s Infuse product “went from revolutionary advance to public health alert.”
Here’s his story on MedPageToday: “Spinal Fusion Device: A Bone of Contention for FDA.”
His entire series entitled “Side Effects: Money, Medicine and Patients” is indexed on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website. The image below is from the Journal-Sentinel’s online story:
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
August 30th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News
Tags: ACP Internist, Care for the Poor, Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services, Charitable Hospitals, Community Care, For-Profit Hospitals, For-Profit Medical Groups, For-Profit Medical Institutions, General Medicine, Hospital Medicine, Inpatient Services in Rural Areas, Medicare Reimbursement, Modern Healthcare, Rising Healthcare Costs, Robotic Surgery, Uninsured Patients, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
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More than one-fifth of hospitals are government-owned, but states and counties are out of cash to keep them open. So, charitable hospitals are being sold to for-profit groups or facing closures. Rising costs and more uninsured patients run smack into falling Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. When bonds come due, there’s little chance of states and counties paying them back. And the facilities are often standalones, and they can’t fall back on corporate backing. This year, 53 hospitals have been sold in 25 arrangements. While the deals often stipulate that care for the poor continues, no one is certain exactly how or even whether such services will continue.
That said, other charitable hospitals are making big profits. What are they doing differently? First, they’re competing for patients, so they’re increasing room sizes, offering amenities and even investing in high-end procedures such as robotic surgery. They continue to offer community care, but they’re acting more like for-profit institutions to cover their charitable missions. But this conflicts with an old-fashioned view of what charitable care is supposed to be.
Stepping into the breach is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is offering one solution, by increasing reimbursement for inpatient services in rural areas. The agency is expanding a pilot program by increasing reimbursement for inpatient services. Facilities are eligible if they offer care to rural areas in the 20 states with the lowest population densities, have fewer than 51 beds, provide emergency-care services and are not a critical-access hospital. (Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Modern Healthcare)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
August 30th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion
Tags: Empowered Patients, General Medicine, Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Politics, Modern Healthcare, Most Powerful People In Healthcare, Patient Empowerment, Rankings in Healthcare, Taking Control of Your Health, Your Doctor, Your Healthcare
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In case you haven’t seen it, a list of the 100 Most Powerful People in Health Care was [recently] published. In thinking about this list I realized that, in reality, these people had little to do with my patients’ health care delivery. So how did they became the most powerful people in health care?
Quite simply, they are not the 100 most powerful people in health care, but rather they are the 100 most powerful people overseeing the funding of health care — at least for the moment. In as little as 11 months, many of the people on this list will be gone or have moved on to their next money-making venture.
So who are the most powerful people in health care? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
August 30th, 2010 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Alexander Everest, Elite American Medical Systems, FMGs, Foreign Medical Graduates, General Medicine, Harlem Hospital, Hospital Bribe, IMGs, International Medical Graduates, Medical School, Medical Students, National Resident Matching Program, New Doctors, Residency Applicants, U.S. Medical Residencies, Wall Street Journal, Young Doctors
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In another one of the things I had no idea about, there’s a market to assist FMGs [foreign medical graduates] in getting U.S. residencies, which makes sense. Allegedly, this guy was willing to go the extra mile for his clients.
Full marks for creativity, but…
Mr. Everest allegedly provided an employee at the hospital with forged letters from a California hospital to show that the applicants had been accepted into a second-year program. And he gave her a check for $4,000, followed by another check for $2,000. She reported him to hospital officials, and later told him she knew the letters were forged. He then allegedly gave her $6,000 for time to get a letter from a different hospital—which was also forged—and gave her $3,000 more before he was arrested.
Geez.
- Via Hospital Bribe Alleged – WSJ.com
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
