September 3rd, 2010 by Felasfa Wodajo, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: 24-Hour Security Monitoring Service, 911, Accelerometer, Android Smartphones, Automatic GPS localization, Emergency Medicine, Fall Detection, Florida State University, General Medicine, iPhone App, iTunes, Medical Alert Bracelet, Medical Apps, OnCall Defender Medical Alert, OnCall Defender Panic Alert, Wireless EMT Alert Service
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OnCall Defender Medical Alert (available via iTunes) is an iPhone app that features 3G connection to a 24-hour security monitoring service. Via a subscription service, you can use your iPhone to send an emergency notification to the service after which local law enforcement or EMT services, depending on the type of alarm, will be dispatched.
The advantage over using 911 is that the monitoring service automatically receives GPS localization of your whereabouts and that you can cancel the emergency call within 15 seconds. The service costs $16.99 a month or $9.99 with a one-year subscription. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
September 3rd, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Association Vs. Causation, Cause-And-Effect, Evidence-Based Health Media, Fail To Educate Readers, Health Benefits of Coffee Consumption, Health Journalism, Inaccurate Health Reporting, Java, Media Inaccuracy, Misleading Patients, Observational Studies, Prevention Magazine, Science Journalism, Science-Based Evidence, Statistical Association, Super Foods
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The September issue of Prevention magazine inaccurately headlines the story “4 Ways Coffee Cures.” There’s no solid proof that coffee cures anything — unless some of you cure bacon with java, which I don’t want to know about.
What the story (below) did was to try to present a cute little graphic summary of observational studies that show a statistical association between increasing coffee consumption and fewer early deaths, fewer deaths from heart attack, fewer cases of dementia, and fewer cases of type 2 diabetes.
But such observational studies (they actually never cite the source — I’m just giving them the benefit of the doubt that they’re citing observational studies) CAN’T establish cause and effect, therefore it’s inaccurate for the story to use terms like “cure,” “protective,” and “lowers (or reduces or slashes) your risk.” Besides being inaccurate, such stories fail to educate readers. They mislead.
We ask the editors of Prevention to read and understand our guide “Does the Language Fit the Evidence? Association versus Causation.”
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
September 2nd, 2010 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Alcohol-Impaired Driving, Car & Driver, Cellphone Use While Driving, Cellphones And Driving, Divided Attention, Driver Safety, Drunk Drivers, General Medicine, Legal Alcohol Limit While Driving, Primary Care, Public Safety, Safe Cellphone Use, Texting While Driving, Using Handheld Devices While Driving
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A mentor recently mentioned in passing that he stopped riding motorcycle when cellphones came out, as he noticed the average driver distraction level had gone way up. He said, “It’s like everybody’s drunk.”
There’s lots of ways to be an impaired driver: Physical or mental fatigue, chemicals (legal and not), emotional extremes, etc. (This is not an exhaustive list). What I want to focus on here is a very controllable risk factor: Divided attention.
A quick Internet search turned up some original research from Car and Driver on the subject of texting while driving compared with actual alcohol-impaired driving, and the results are shockingly worse than I would have thought. From their (admittedly limited but well done) study, texting is way worse than being at the legal alcohol limit when it comes to both reading and writing. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
September 2nd, 2010 by Joseph Albietz, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, True Stories
Tags: A Patient's Death, Anti-Vaccine Movement, Anti-Vaccine Propaganda, Anti-Vaccine Quackery, Dangers of Not Vaccinating, Family Medicine, immunizations, Immunology, Infant Death, Pediatrics, Pertussis Vaccine, Premature Death, Preventable Child Death, Public Awareness, Public Health Initiative, Public Safety, SBM, Science Based Medicine, Tdap Vaccine, Unvaccinated, Vaccine Advocacy, Whooping Cough Epidemic
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I lost a patient this season, an infant, to whooping cough (pertussis). After falling ill, he lived for nearly a month in the intensive care unit on a ventilator, three weeks of which was spent on a heart/lung bypass machine (ECMO) due to the extent of the damage to his lungs. But all our efforts were in vain. The most aggressive and advanced care medicine has to offer couldn’t save his life. The only thing that could have saved him would have been to prevent him from contracting pertussis in the first place.
He was unvaccinated, but that was because of his age. He was part of the population that is fully dependent on herd immunity for protection, and that is exquisitely prone to a life-threatening course once infected. This is a topic we’ve covered ad nauseum, and I’m not inclined to go into greater depth in this post. Suffice it to say his death is a failure at every level. We, both as medical professionals and as a society at large, need to do a better job of protecting our children from preventable diseases. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 2nd, 2010 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Android OS, Apple, BlackBerry, Blue Light Therapy Apps, Bradley Merrill Thompson, Cellphone Technology, Diagnostic Imaging, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, Force Out An App, General Medicine, Health Canada, Healthcare Apps, iMedicalApps, iPhone, Medical Apps, Medical Imaging App, Medicine and Smartphones, Monitoring Medical Apps, Regulating Medical Devices, Resolution MD Mobile, Surveillance of Healthcare-Related Apps, Technology and Medicine, Transmitting Images to a Medical Facility, Web OS
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Bradley Merrill Thompson, an attorney with expertise in the FDA approval process for medical devices, is stating that the FDA is actively monitoring app stores on various platforms. Regulating medical devices and health care-related applications falls under the FDA’s jurisdiction.
James Kendrick from JkOnTheRun spoke with Thompson, where he stated the following:
The FDA is actively engaged in surveillance of various app stores to see if apps should trigger their involvement. Applications where a smartphone is connected in any way to imaging are under scrutiny, in particular. Any app that is used to transmit images to a medical facility requires FDA approval.
By “various app stores,” Thompson is likely referring to the App store [Apple], Palm App Catalog [Web OS], App World [BlackBerry], and the Android Marketplace [Android OS]. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
