April 6th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: American Journal of Infection Control, Antibiotics, Dissemination, E-Medicine, E-Tools, Evidence-Based Social Media, General Medicine, Misunderstanding, Misuse, Positive Behavior Change, Primary Care, Real-Time Health Data, Social Health Media, Social Media Sites, Social Networks, Twitter, Valid Health Information
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This is the era of evidence-based social media as more and more papers focusing on medicine and social media are coming out. An interesting paper was published a few days ago in the American Journal of Infection Control. Scanfeld et al. tried to reveal the rate of misunderstanding or misuse of antibiotics in Twitter messages in their study: Dissemination of health information through social networks: Twitter and antibiotics.
BACKGROUND: This study reviewed Twitter status updates mentioning “antibiotic(s)” to determine overarching categories and explore evidence of misunderstanding or misuse of antibiotics.
METHODS: One thousand Twitter status updates mentioning antibiotic(s) were randomly selected for content analysis and categorization. To explore cases of potential misunderstanding or misuse, these status updates were mined for co-occurrence of the following terms: “cold + antibiotic(s),” “extra + antibiotic(s),” “flu + antibiotic(s),” “leftover + antibiotic(s),” and “share + antibiotic(s)” and reviewed to confirm evidence of misuse or misunderstanding.
RESULTS: Of the 1000 status updates, 971 were categorized into 11 groups. Cases of misunderstanding or abuse were identified for the following combinations: “flu + antibiotic(s)” (n = 345), “cold + antibiotic(s)” (n = 302), “leftover + antibiotic(s)” (n = 23), “share + antibiotic(s)” (n = 10), and “extra + antibiotic(s)” (n = 7).
CONCLUSION: Social media sites offer means of health information sharing. Further study is warranted to explore how such networks may provide a venue to identify misuse or misunderstanding of antibiotics, promote positive behavior change, disseminate valid information, and explore how such tools can be used to gather real-time health data. 
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
April 6th, 2010 by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Expert Interviews, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: 60 Minutes, Addiction Therapy, CBS, Chew, Cigarettes, Dissolvable Products, Documentary, Dr, Dr. Karl Fagerstrom, Dual Use, Dual User, General Medicine, Indiana University, Lung Cancer, Nicotine Addition, Nicotine Delivery, Pancreatic Cancer, Primary Care, Quit Smoking, Smokeless Tobacco, smoking cessation, Snus, Spit Tobacco, Spitless Tobacco, Stephen Jay, Sweden, Tobacco Companies, Use By Youth
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This week the respected CBS documentary news show “60 Minutes” included a feature on smokeless tobacco, focusing on the recent launch of snus in the United States. The show was relatively balanced in focusing on the main potential risks and benefits of snus.
It started by featuring a young man who enjoys using snus in places where he cannot smoke, while continuing with a pack-a-day smoking addiction. The interviewer gave him the bad news: “You are a dual user.”
It then had a segment with the widely respected Swedish nicotine addiction expert, Dr Karl Fagerstrom, who stated that snus is 90-99% less harmful than smoking (while admitting some risks, including of pancreatic cancer). Read more »
This post, Smokeless Tobacco And The U.S. Launch Of Snus, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
April 5th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Research
Tags: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Cardiology, Defibrillators, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Functionality, Implantable Medical Devices, Internal Medicine, Medical Device Safety Institute, Medical Technology, NEJM, New England Journal of Medicine, Pacemakers, Primary Care, Privacy, Regulations, Security, University of Washington in Seattle, Wireless Hacking
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Researchers from the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle have published an article in the latest New England Journal of Medicine suggesting technological and regulatory actions that they hope will increase the security and privacy of implantable medical devices.
As has been reported earlier, implantable pacemakers, defibrillators, and similar devices are subject to wireless hacking that may influence their functionality. Although a lip-smacking target for devious hackers, an actual incident where a person’s implant has been interfered with is yet to be reported.
NEJM: Improving the Security and Privacy of Implantable Medical Devices…
Flashback: Implant Hacking Possible, Not Probable…Yet
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
April 5th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Deficit Reduction, Doc Fix, General Medicine, Health System, Healthcare Consumers, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Medical Services, Medicare, Newsweek, Patient Responsibility, Primary Care, Sharon Begley, Unnecessary Medical Care
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One of the points of contention in healthcare reform is whether it will do enough to control costs. Forget about the Congressional Budget Office’s optimistic outlook, as it discounts the Medicare “doc fix,” which, when factored in, will erase any supposed deficit reduction.
Reform doesn’t do very much to change the underlying structure of our health system, which continues to pay more for quantity of medical services, rather than shift the focus to value and quality.
Sharon Begley, writing in Newsweek, offers some sensible suggestions on what we can do control costs. Better incorporating the best clinical evidence into their medical decisions would help. She cites the continued, and possibly unnecessary, use of back surgery, knee surgery, vertebroplasties, and angioplasties, despite mounting evidence that they’re being overused. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
April 5th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Announcements, Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: 100000 Lives Campaign, Aging, Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services, CMS, Dr. Don Berwick, Healthcare Law, Healthcare Legislation, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, IHI, Institute For Healthcare Improvement, medicaid, Medicare, Pediatrics, Seniors
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President Obama likes to shake things up. He has named Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Medicare and Medicaid Agency known as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This is a huge government agency with a budget of over $800 BILLION a year. That is more than most countries in the world have. Dr. Berwick would be a major force in implementing the new health laws and changing Medicare to be more efficient and cost effective.
The average person probably doesn’t know who Dr. Don Berwick is, but he is a big name in the healthcare industry. A pediatrician by training, he is the president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and is a national leader on quality and patient safety. By telling stories that people can relate to, he is a transformational leader for reducing hospital errors and reducing variability in care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
