December 16th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News
Tags: Berci, Dr. Bertalan Mesko, Dutch UMC Ultrecht, Infant Incubators, mHealth, Mobile Health, Neonatal Health, Neonatal Intensive Care, New Parents, Newborn Care, Parents Of Newborns, Premature Birth, Science Roll, Telebaby, Telemedicine, Video Cameras
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There are more and more premature babies, and the situation for their parents is dramatic. They would love to be with their newborn 24 hours a day, but in most cases they obviously can’t.
At the Dutch UMC Ultrecht, they’ve launched a project under the name Telebaby, in which cameras were installed at the incubators and parents can watch their child live 24 hours a day — even through a mobile device.
The system is password protected, of course, so only the parents can access the specific video channels. Isn’t it great? A very human but not that expensive idea — a really Dutch approach.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
December 16th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: Athlete's Health, Bluetooth, Cambridge Consultants, Drinking Frequency, Drinking Quantity, External Temperature, Health and Smartphones, Health Apps, Hydration Levels, i-dration, Medgadget, Real-Time Hydration, Sports Medicine, Water Bottle
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Imagine a water bottle that knows how hard and how far you are running, how much you’re drinking, what’s the outside temperature, and, based on all these variables, the device calculates when you need to have a drink. Cambridge Consultants have developed the i-dration bottle that does just that.
From the press release:
Intelligent sensors in the i-dration bottle can be used to monitor the external temperature, drinking frequency and quantity, and this data is then sent via Bluetooth to its user’s smartphone. The phone’s inbuilt accelerometer and gyroscope can measure exercise levels, and by “fusing” the data from a heart rate chest-band and information pre-entered using the smartphone interface (such as height, age and weight), the application can perform an assessment of a user’s hydration levels. The i-dration bottle then responds accordingly by flashing a blue light if the athlete needs to drink more. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
December 15th, 2010 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: Associated Professional Sleep Societies, Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway, Dr. Louise O'Brien, Fetal Health, Gestational Diabetes, Glucose Screening, Habitual Snorers, Healthy Pregnancy, Heart Attack Risk, High Blood Pressure, High Risk Pregnancy, Hypertension, Maternal-Fetal Specialist, Neurology, Nonsnorers, OB/GYN, Obesity, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Patient Education, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Pregnant Women, Sleep Apnea, Snoring, Stroke Risk, TAPSS, University of Michigan
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A recent medical study reported a fairly unique finding: Pregnant women who snore frequently are at an increased risk for developing gestational diabetes.
The Associated Professional Sleep Societies (TAPSS) reported that 24 percent of habitual snorers had an official diagnosis of gestational diabetes as opposed to 17 percent of nonsnorers. As gestational diabetes affects 4 to 6 percent of all pregnant women, this study is significant according to Louise O’Brien, Ph.D. who is associated with the department of neurology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Snoring is nothing new among women but it becomes more pronounced with the onset of menopause or weight gain. Approximately one-third of all women in the U.S. are obese and at risk for snoring and sleep apnea. Being overweight can cause bulky throat tissue which then physically blocks air flow.
Up until the publication of the University of Michigan study, the health risks associated with snoring included greater than ten seconds of interruptions of breathing, frequent waking from sleep, potential strain on the heart which then results in hypertension, increased risk of heart attacks, and stroke. Now the tide has changed. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
December 15th, 2010 by Michael Sevilla, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Accountable Care Organizations, ACO, Active Healthcare Participant, Defensive Medicine, Doctor Anonymous, Dr. Michael Sevilla, Empowering Patients, General Medicine, Global Payment Plan, Good Medicine, Healthcare Delivery, Healthcare reform, Healthcare Reform: Putting Patients First, Lowering Healthcare Costs, Malpractice Reform, Massachusetts Medical Society, Medical Liability Reform, New U.S. Healthcare System, Ohio Health Care Coverage and Quality Council, Patient Accountability, Patient Empowerment, Patient-Centered Medical Home, Patients' Role In Healthcare, Physician Payment System, Primary Care, Team-Based Patient Care, Teamwork In Medicine, Tort Reform
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My professional organization recently asked me to participate in an interesting meeting at the state capitol talking about healthcare payment reform and how to improve the healthcare delivery system. This was sponsored by the state of Ohio and their Health Care Coverage and Quality Council.
It was the first meeting that I’ve been to where there were physicians, hospitals, insurance companies, and patients — all trying to put our heads together — present our points of view and try to come to consensus. Did we come to consensus on solutions? Not really, only that we will continue the conversation. There is no perfect solution that will make everyone happy, but we will strive to try to get to that best imperfect solution.
When is comes to healthcare delivery and healthcare payment, there was a lot of discussion on physicians and hospitals — meaning healthcare providers. The motivating factor in these cases uses terms like payment, lack of payment, incentives, bonuses, and penalties. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Doctor Anonymous*
December 15th, 2010 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: ACE, Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme, Cardiology, Cardiovascular Health, Cardiovascular Pharmacology, Chocolate, Dietetics, Dr. Glenn Laffel, European Heart Journal, Fluid Regulation, Food and Nutrition, Heart Attack Risk, Heart Health, In Moderation, Ingrid Persson, Linkoping University, Lowers Blood Pressure, Pizaazz, Reduces Hypertension, Salt Metabolism, Stroke Risk
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It’s beginning to look like chocolate, especially dark chocolate, really and truly is a heart healthy snack, though only if it’s consumed in small quantities.
A delectable taste of this news came last spring, in the form of a study by German scientists which appeared in the European Heart Journal. It was a retrospective study of nearly 20,000 people, and it showed that folks in the highest quartile for chocolate consumption (meaning they consumed 7.5 grams of chocolate per day — the equivalent of 2 to 3 small squares of a Hershey bar), had lower blood pressure, a 27 percent lower risk of heart attack, and a 48 percent lower risk of stroke than those in the lowest quartile (about 1.7 grams per day).
Now, a new study in the journal Cardiovascular Pharmacology has lent credence to those findings by suggesting a mechanism through which chocolate reduces blood pressure. In the study, Ingrid Persson and colleagues at Linkoping University showed that dark chocolate inhibits the activity of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). This enzyme helps regulate fluids and salt metabolism in the body. It is the target of many well-known antihypertensive drugs including captopril, lisinopril and enalopril. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
