February 5th, 2011 by Felasfa Wodajo, M.D. in Opinion, Research
Tags: Behavior Modifications, Blood Sugar Control, CDC, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, Chronic Conditions, Diabetes Epidemic, Diabetes Mine, Diabetology, Dr. Bruce Bode, Dr. Felasfa Wodajo, Endocrinology, Health and Smartphones, Health Apps, Healthcare and Internet Technology, Healthcare Cost Drivers, iBG Star, iMedicalApps, iPhone Glucometer App, Living With Diabetes, Managing Diabetes, Medical Technology, mHealth, Mobile Health Technology, On-The-Go Chronic Disease Management, Potential Healthcare Cost Savings, Real-Time Disease Management, Reducing Negative Health Effects, Research2Guidance
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The cost of managing chronic diseases is the largest portion of healthcare expenditures in developed countries. For example, the prevalence of adult acquired diabetes has been rising in the United States, in concert with increasing rates obesity. The CDC has termed it an “epidemic,” especially in light of the massive costs incurred by the healthcare system due to diabetes.
The deleterious health effects of many chronic conditions can be diminished by behavior modifications. While few would underestimate the difficulty of having patients lose weight or exercise more, good management of blood sugar in diabetes is both objectively measurable and strongly correlated with reduced end-organ damage.
This is among the reasons why Research2Guidance has recently nominated diabetes as the condition most likely to be most targeted by mobile medical software and devices (mHealth). This finding is part of their recently published Global Mobile Health Market Report 2010-2015. This is the same report that also predicted that, in the future, medical apps are likely to be distributed by physicians and healthcare institutions.
This time Research2Guidance is highlighting the portion of the survey where they looked into where mobile devices have the most potential to affect health outcomes. While other chronic conditions such as hypertension and obesity have larger populations, the market researchers felt diabetes had the largest market potential due to the huge cost saving potential, the demographic and geographic overlap between smartphone users and people with diabetes, and the real potential to improve blood sugar management using mobile devices. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
February 4th, 2011 by Glenn Laffel, M.D., Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Research
Tags: AAM, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, American Beverage Institute, Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, BAC, Blood Alcohol Level, Car Starter Button, Consumer Dissatisfaction, Dr. Glenn Laffel, Driver Safety, Drunk Driver Sensing Device For Cars, Drunk Driving, Drunk Driving Deaths, Infrared Technology, Killed By Drunk Driving, Motor Vehicle Safety Technology, Pizaazz, Public Opposition, Public Safety, Robert Strassburger, Sarah Longwell, Solid-State Electronics, Touch-Sensitive Sensors on Car Key Fobs, Washington Post
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Drunk driving continues to be a serious problem. In 2009 for example, alcohol was a factor in more than 10,000 highway deaths. The same year, a stunning 10 percent of respondents to a survey of U.S. adults said they had operated an automobile while drunk during the previous year. Nearly 6 percent said they had done it more than once.
So how would you feel about a car that can instantly detect whether a driver is drunk and prevent that person from starting the car? You better make up your mind quickly, because scientists are close to perfecting this technology.
“We’re five to seven years away from being able to integrate this into cars,” Robert Strassburger, the VP for safety at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) told the Washington Post. The AAM, an automotive trade group, is on the development team for the new technology which is being spearheaded by the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The anticipated sensing device will look nothing like the breathalyzer machines currently used by police in the field. Instead it will be comprised of tiny, passive, touch-sensitive sensors that are permanently affixed to a key fob or a starter button. The sensors can determine blood alcohol levels in seconds. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Pizaazz*
February 4th, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Allergy And Immunology, Allergy Desensitization, Bamba Peanut Snack, Childhood Allergies and Geographical Regions, Children's Health, Complex Protein Breakdown, Desensitize Children to Food Allergies, Dr. Hugh Sampson, Dr. Jerome Groopman, Food Allergies, Israel, Jae Food Allergy Institute, LEAP Study, Learning Early About Peanut Allergy, Medical Science, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Pediatrics, Preventing Food Allergies In Infants, Preventive Health, Preventive Medicine, Science and Medicine, The New Yorker Magazine
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The current New Yorker unfolds an engaging story on childhood food allergies. As related by Dr. Jerome Groopman, there’s a shift in how some doctors think about how these conditions are best managed and, even better — might be prevented. The article feeds into recent discussion that medical science, and even dogma, too-often turns out to be incorrect.
Groopman interviews Dr. Hugh Sampson, director of the Jae Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York:
…“This increase in the incidence of food allergy is real,” Sampson said when we spoke recently. He cannot say what is causing the increase, but he now thinks the conventional approach to preventing food allergies is misconceived. For most of his career, he believed, like most allergists, that children are far less likely to become allergic to problematic foods if they are not exposed to them as infants. But now Sampson and other specialists believe that early exposure may actually help prevent food allergies.”
I recommend the full read if you can get it: Groopman probes potential causes of discordant food allergy rates in children of different geographic regions. I learned a number of details on how some doctors in the U.S. use protein-breakdown methods to desensitize children to food allergies, how in Israel newly-speaking infants are said to ask eagerly for Bamba, a manufactured, peanut-containing snack (which, for the record, I don’t particularly endorse), and how in some cultures parents chew their young children’s food in a manner that might that might facilitate breakdown of complex proteins by enzymes in saliva.
All interesting. Of course it’s hard to know exactly what’s true in this, and the causes of allergies are likely to vary among children. There’s a randomized LEAP study (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) in the U.K. that may provide some hard evidence on this, one way or another.
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
February 3rd, 2011 by ChristopherChangMD in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Alcohol Use, Dr. Christopher Chang, Ear Nose and Throat, Fauquier ENT, Gardasil, Head and Neck Cancer, HPV, HPV Infection, HPV Vaccine, Human Papillomavirus, New England Journal of Medicine, Number of Sex Partners, Oncology, Oral Sex, Oropharyngeal Cancer, Otolaryngology, Safe Sex, Sexual Activity, Sexual Health, Sexual History, sexually transmitted diseases, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Smokers, STDs, STIs, Tobacco Use, Tonsil and Tongue Cancer, USA Today
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USA Today published a pretty accurate article regarding the rise of certain head and neck cancers with the increased popularity of oral sex and number of sexual partners.
The factor that creates this link is the human papillomavirus (HPV) which is associated with tonsil and tongue cancer. Alcohol and tobacco use is more highly linked with such oral cancers, but HPV does appear to be an independent risk factor.
A 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that younger people with head and neck cancers who tested positive for oral HPV infection were more likely to have had multiple vaginal and oral sex partners in their lifetime. Having six or more oral sex partners over a lifetime was associated with a 3.4 times higher risk for oropharyngeal cancer — cancers of the base of the tongue, back of the throat, or tonsils. Having 26 or more vaginal-sex partners tripled the risk. The association continued to increase as the number of partners in either category increased.
Of greater concern is that “French” kissing may also potentially be a mode of transmission.
The good news (if you’re a young non-smoker diagnosed with HPV-positive tumors) is that about 85 percent of non-smoking people with HPV-positive tumors survive. That number drops to 45 or 50 percent in people who smoke and are HPV-negative. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Fauquier ENT Blog*
February 1st, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in News, Research
Tags: ACP Internist, American College Of Physicians, American Heart Association, Cardiology, Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiovascular Risk, Coronary Heart Disease, CVD, Diminished Care, Heart Failure, High Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Life Expectancy, Medical Cost Projections, Obesity Epidemic, Preventive Health, Preventive Medicine, Primary Care Shortage, Public Awareness, Public Health, Ryan DuBosar, Stroke, U.S. Healthcare Costs
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Real total direct medical costs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) could triple, from $273 billion to $818 billion (in 2008 dollars) by 2030. Real indirect costs, such as lost productivity among the employed and unpaid household work, could increase 61 percent, from $172 billion in 2010 to $276 billion.
Results appeared in a policy statement of the American Heart Association.
CVD is the leading cause of mortality and accounts for 17 percent of national health expenditures, according to the statement. How much so? U.S. medical expenditures rose from 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in 1985 to 15 percent in 2008. In the past decade, the medical costs of CVD have grown at an average annual rate of 6 percent and have accounted for about 15 percent of the increase in medical spending.
The spending is associated with greater life expectancy, “suggesting that this spending was of value,” the authors wrote. But as the population ages, direct treatment costs are expected to increase substantially, even though lost productivity won’t, since seniors are employed at lower rates.
If current prevention and treatment rates remain steady, CVD prevalence will increase by about 10 percent over the next 20 years. The estimate reflects an aging population, and one that is increasingly Hispanic. To prepare for future cardiovascular care needs, the American Heart Association projected future costs. By 2030, 40.5 percent (116 million) of the population is projected to have some form of CVD. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
