September 4th, 2011 by Medgadget in News, Research
Tags: AeroForm, AirXpanders, Bolus Saline Injections, Breast Cancer, Breast Reconstruction, FDA, Implantation, Investigational Device Exemption, Mastectomy, Open-label study, Palo Alto, Saline Solution, Surgery, Tissue Expansion, XPAND
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Though mastectomies are often a necessary and even welcome intervention to save the lives of women suffering from breast cancer, they also may contribute to the overall physical and emotional trauma facing the patients. In order to alleviate some of these problems, surgeons have developed breast reconstruction procedures that usually entail restoring the mound by implanting a silicone sac filled with salt solution (saline) or gel under the skin and pectoral muscles. The traditional process to prepare for implantation of the sac may be long and sometimes painful because it involves weekly bolus saline injections (sometimes up to 22 weeks) in order to create a pocket of sufficient size.
A potential alternative solution is being developed by AirXpanders, a med tech start-up in Palo Alto that focuses on tissue expansion for breast reconstruction following cancer. Their system, known as AeroForm, just recently Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 4th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Opinion, Research
Tags: Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMS, Discharge, Hospital Stay, Medicare, Out-patient care, Quality Care, Re-admissions, Research, Study, Waste
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Hospitals across the country are working on quality initiatives to reduce re-admissions to hospitals. There are consultants, conferences, forums, meetings, physicians, nurses and administrators who are spending hours upon hours (and lots of $$$) to find ways to keep patients who have been discharged from being readmitted within 30 days. Why all of this activity? It is one of the quality measures that is being tracked by Medicare and Medical (CMS) and decreased reimbursement will be next if a patient is readmitted to any hospital within 30 days of a discharge. The diagnosis doesn’t matter.
A new study shows all of this focus and cost may not be worth it. Readmission after a hospital discharge may not be an indication of poor care.
The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal looked at 4,812 patients and had medical experts review the cases of the 649 who needed urgent readmission within 6 months. (Not one month as we are measuring). They found that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
September 3rd, 2011 by ChristopherChangMD in Research
Tags: Biodegradable Liquid, Blood, Blood Vessels, Dermabond, Glue, Halogen Lamp, Hand-sew, Microvascular Surgery, Poloxamer, Stanford, Stitches, Time-consuming
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Gluing blood vessels together, just like gluing a cut garden hose together, does not seem like a great idea at first, but Stanford researchers just might have figured out how to do this safely and effectively.
Over the past century and still currently used today is to hand-sew the cut ends of the blood vessel together using stitches. This method of reattaching blood vessels is time-consuming and tedious, especially when the blood vessels are tiny.
In this new glue method which is FIVE times faster, a special substance is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Fauquier ENT Blog*
September 2nd, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Research
Tags: Herpes Zoster, Hung Fu Tseng, Immune System, JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, Older Adults, ophthalmic, Research, shingles, Study, Vaccine
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I am often asked by elder persons whether or not they should take the herpes zoster (“shingles”) vaccine. Up until this point, I have been answering “yes” based on my own experience, but now there is some data to support this recommendation.
In the article, “Herpes Zoster Vaccine in Older Adults and the Risk of Subsequent Herpes Zoster Disease,” Hung Fu Tseng and his colleagues reported their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2011;305[2]:160-161). They evaluated the risk of herpes zoster after persons received the vaccine in a general practice setting.
In a retrospective (looking back at a cohort of patients from medical records) study, the researchers compared Read more »
This post, Article Recommends Herpes Zoster Vaccine For Adults Over 60, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
September 2nd, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
Tags: Authenticity, Costs, Counterfeit Drugs, Drug Manufacturer, Drug Shortage, Drugs, Ethics, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, Gray Market, Illegal, Institute For Safe Medication Practices, Medications, Pharmaceutical Companies, Pharmacy, Price Gouging, Price mark-ups
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Severe shortages for life-saving medications have driven a “gray market” in the wholesale drug supply industry, a watchdog group reports.
And the mark-up on gray market drugs is a budget-buster, reports the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization devoted entirely to medication error prevention and safe medication use. Purchasing agents and pharmacists at 549 hospitals responded to a survey on gray market activities associated with drug shortages.
The report includes chilling anecdotes from the respondents about pressure from physicians and administrators to ensure drugs are available, and drastic price gouging from the gray market suppliers. Price mark-ups of 10 times or more than the contract price were reported by about a third of respondents from critical access hospitals and community hospitals, and more than half of university hospitals. Examples include a box of calcium gluconate that cost $750 instead of the contract price of $50 (1,400% mark-up), and a supply of propofol that cost $25,000 instead of $1,500 (1,567% mark-up). Oh, and there’s exorbitant shipping and handling fees, too. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
