September 1st, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. 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 Steven Roy Daviss, M.D. 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 Nicholas Genes, M.D., Ph.D. 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*
