July 22nd, 2011 by JenniferKearneyStrouse in News, Opinion
Tags: Bariatric Surgery, Boston, Children’s Hospital, David S. Ludwig, Epidemic, Foster Care, Harvard School of Public Health, Life-threatening obesity, Lindsey Murtagh, Mass, Obesity, Optimal Weight for Life Program, Overweight, Social Services
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A report released recently by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health issued some grim warnings about the current and future state of the U.S.’s obesity epidemic.
Bluntly titled “F is for fat: How obesity threatens America’s future 2011,” the report found that obesity rates rose in 16 states since 2010 and that more than 30% of people are obese in 12 states, compared with one state just four years ago. The South is still the worst-faring region—nine out of 10 states with the highest obesity rates are located there.
The report compared today’s data with data from 20 years ago, when no state’s obesity rate exceeded 15%. Now, only one state—Colorado—has a rate below 20%. The report also points out that despite the increased attention paid to obesity by government (not to mention the media), no states posted a decrease in rates over the past year. Diabetes and hypertension rates have also risen sharply over the past two decades, the report said.
Recommendations to address the problem include preserving and in some cases restoring federal funding for obesity prevention and implementing legislation to improve nutrition in schools, among others.
Meanwhile, two researchers are making headlines for proposing a more extreme solution: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
July 21st, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in News, Research
Tags: Bazian.com, Behind the Headlines, Breast Cancer Screening Program, Cancer, Cancer Research, NHS, Office of National Statistics, ONS, PSA Test for Prostate Cancer, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, United Kingdom
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Several newspapers in the UK reported this week that cancer rates have risen over the past two decades. That set into motion an analysis by the excellent “Behind the Headlines” service offered by the NHS Choices website. They found this in newspapers:
“Cancer rates in the middle-aged “have jumped by almost a fifth in a generation”, according to The Daily Telegraph, which says that the increase “is thought to be mainly due to better detection of cancers rather than people adopting more unhealthy lifestyles”. The Sun takes the alternate view, saying that doctors are “blaming the rise on obesity and home boozing”. The Daily Mail similarly suggests that lifestyle changes are to blame.”
You don’t have to live in the UK to learn from their analysis.
They wrote:
“One factor contributing to these increases is likely to be higher rates of detection due to the NHS breast cancer screening programme and the PSA test for prostate cancer. The raw data behind these stats also needs to be placed into context: these particular cancer diagnosis rates are drawn from the datasets for England from the Office of National Statistics and similar datasets from registries in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The ONS urges caution when interpreting its data, particularly when looking at trends across time, or differences across regions.
For example, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
July 21st, 2011 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in News, Opinion
Tags: ADVANTAGE trial, Chronic Nerve Pain, Deception, Drug Efficacy, Drug Marketing, Ethics, Institutional Review Board, IRB, Merck, Neurontin, Off-Label Use, Parke-Davis, Pfizer, Research Results, Seeding Trial, STEPS, Study of Neurontin: Titrate to Effect Profile of Safety, Vioxx
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I thought I read the final chapter in the tale of Pfizer’s shady marketing practices for Neurontin years ago. Sadly, there’s at least one more chapter to go.
Recall that in 2008, leaked documents from a US District Court revealed that Pfizer had covered-up the results of a clinical trial which showed the drug didn’t work for chronic nerve pain, even as it promoted off-label use of the anti-seizure drug for that purpose. The next year, it was revealed that Parke-Davis (now a subsidiary of Pfizer) took advantage of lax disclosure policies by certain medical journals to publish 13 articles promoting off-label use of Neurontin that were ghostwritten and funded by the company without disclosing such arrangements.
Now, it has come to light that Parke Davis’ marketing department sponsored a Seeding Trial of Neurontin back in the day—that is, a trial portrayed deceptively as a patient study but whose real aim was to encourage prescribers to use the drug.
The trial was STEPS, the ‘Study of Neurontin: Titrate to Effect, Profile of Safety’ trial. More than 772 physician ‘investigators’ and 2800 patients participated in STEPS.
The stated objective of STEPS was to study the safety, efficacy and tolerability of Neurontin. However, after reviewing documents compiled for a pair of lawsuits against Pfizer and its subsidiaries, Joseph Ross and colleagues concluded that the actual objective was to increase prescribing rates by ‘investigators’ in the study. Neither the ‘investigators’ nor their patients were informed about the real purpose of STEPS.
The trial worked, from Parke-Davis’ point of view. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
July 21st, 2011 by iMedicalApps in News
Tags: Abe Balsamo, App, App Store, Arrhythmia, Asystole, Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), Atrial Flutter (AFlutter), Atrioventricular Nodal Reenty Tachycardia (AVNRT), Cardiac Arrhythmia, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, EMS, First Degree AV Block, Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia (MAT), Nursing, Premature Atrial Contractions (PACs), Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs), Second Degree AV Blocks (Wenckebach/Mobitz II), Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT), Third Degree AV Block, Torsades de Pointes (Torsades), Ventricular Fibrillation (VFib), Ventricular Tachycardia (VTach), Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome (WPW)
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The recognition and management of cardiac arrhythmias is a must-have clinical skill for residents and physicians, and one that is often not well-taught at some institutions.
For example, deciding whether a patient is in a shockable rhythm, realizing what medications should or should not be given in a particular situation, or assessing the degree of atrioventricular block, can all be important considerations in patient care.
The Arrhythmias app, designed by Abe Balsamo, recently cracked the Top 10 list of most-downloaded medical apps in the app store. This app represents Mr. Balsamo’s first foray into the app world, though he has several other apps in development, according to his website AppsByAbe.com. The app’s growing popularity has been driven by its point-of-care abilities that appeal to healthcare professionals, especially emergency medical personnel.
Read below the jump to see how the Arrhythmias app can assist healthcare professionals with the recognition of different arrhythmias. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
July 18th, 2011 by Berci in News
Tags: Blood Pressure Monitoring, Body Temperature Monitoring, Built-in Navigator, Digital Cane, Egle Ugintaite, Fujitsu 2011 Design Award, Health 2.0, LCD Screen, Lithuania, Pulse Monitoring, Technology, the Aid
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I’ve recently come across this digital cane designed by a Lithuanian designer Egle Ugintaite for the Fujitsu 2011 design award in which he won the grand prize. Great idea!
The cane, which is known as the Aid, has a built-in navigator that provides the user directions to a certain location. So if you get lost, this cane will point the way home.
Additional features include monitors for the user’s pulse, blood pressure, as well as body temperature. These important numbers are displayed on the LCD screen on the cane’s clasp. It even has a button for sending out an SOS in case of emergency.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
