December 21st, 2011 by BarbaraFederOstrov in News, Opinion
Tags: Availability, Emergency Contraception, Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, Morning After Pill, Pharmacies, Plan B, Reproductive Health, Women's Health
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Now that the latest controversial decision over federal “morning after” pill restrictions has faded from the headlines, it’s worth following up on this question: how available is emergency contraception right now in your own community?
To recap: last week, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled her own science advisors in a decision preventing the “morning after” contraceptive pill Plan B from being sold over the counter at drugstores and to girls under 17 without a prescription. The election-season decision, largely regarded as highly political, could be reviewed by a federal judge after a legal challenge by a pro-choice group.
Of course, Plan B has been controversial ever since it was first approved by the FDA in 1999 (you can see Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Reporting on Health - Barbara Feder Ostrov's Health Journalism Blog*
December 21st, 2011 by MotherJonesRN in Opinion
Tags: Advancements, Breakthrough, Changes, Cutting Edge, Digital Age, Future, History, Looking Ahead, Medical Wonder, Nursing, Simpler Time, Standard Procedure, Technology, Throwbacks
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A Little History:
It’s 1958 and Ensign Thomas Eggleston is giving an inservice to US Navy Nurses LT. Frances Hogan, LCDR Magie Ziskovsky, and LCDR Edna Schnips about the Van Der Graaff teletherapy machine. The nurses were participating in the Nuclear Nursing Course at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD. This machine was considered a medical breakthrough in its day. It looks antiquated now doesn’t it? I can only imagine what these Navy nurses were thinking while they stood next to this medical wonder.
Things have changed since I became a nurse. There were no CAT Scans or MRI machines when I graduated from school. There were no IV pumps either. We ran our IVs by counting drops that flowed into a drip chamber, and we monitored the hourly flow rate by glancing at a strip of medical tape that we marked off in CCs and ran down the side of each IV bottle. The nursing text books were different back then, too. There was no mention of AIDS and a diagnosis of Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Nurse Ratched's Place*
December 21st, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in News, Opinion
Tags: Awareness, Breakthroughs, Cancer, Christine Rein, Columbia University, Community, Epidemiology, New York-Presbyterian, Pancreas, Prevention, Questions, Risk, Surgical options, Therapy, Treatment Options
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This year’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day was the largest and most successful yet, says event organizer Christine Rein. One hundred fifty participants attended the event, which was held Saturday, November 12, 2011 at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.
The program provided information about the pancreas and its function, genetics, risk stratification and screening, cancer-therapy breakthroughs, surgical options, cysts, pre-cancerous tumors and more.
Lecture topics included: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
December 20th, 2011 by DrWes in Opinion
Tags: Cardiology, CardioMEMS, Cardiovascular Health, Cost, FDA, Heart Failure, Implantable Heart Monitor, Non-Compliant, Pulmonary Artery Pressure, Readmissions, Saving
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“How are you feeling, Ms. Jones?”
“Fine.”
“Have you been more short of breath lately?”
“Not really, just when I exercise.”
“How much exercise?”
“I dunno. But after I go to the mailbox and walk back up to the house, I’ve got to stop now where before I didn’t.”
Exertional dyspnea. It conjures up a large differential of potential cardiovascular or pulmonary causes. And as the above commonly-encountered doctor-patient conversation demonstrates, the problem is a dynamic one: at rest things are often fine, on exertion or with recumbency less so.
Now imagine that the doctor then sees elevated neck veins, hears rales in the lower lung fields, and sees swollen ankles on their patient. Heart failure, right? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
December 20th, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Challenge, Dr. Michael Caudell, Medical College of Georgia, Medical Wilderness Adventure Race, MedWAR, Scenario-Based Learning, Simulations, Wilderness Medical Society, wilderness medicine
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This is another post derived from a presentation given at the 2011 Annual Summer Meeting of the Wilderness Medical Society. Michael Caudell, M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia gave an excellent talk entitled “Scenario-Based Learning in the Wilderness and the Creation of MedWAR.”
MedWAR (Medical Wilderness Adventure Race) is considered a challenge, and takes preparation and skill to complete. Using simulations, participants have to negotiate a series of medical and wilderness challenges. It involves both individual acumen and group dynamics. The MedWAR model is based on critical actions, all of which begin with scene safety, the “ABCs” (airway, breathing, circulation) of a medical resuscitation, and the particular scenario. Victims may be dressed as victims using moulage to simulate injuries, and scene settings are made as realistic as possible. Wilderness medicine is grounded in realism, and laced with improvisation, stress, creativity, and resourcefulness. The MedWAR concept is Read more »
This post, MedWAR Allows Participants To Negotiate A Series Of Medical And Wilderness Challenges, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
