August 10th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News
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RN Tara Summers was inspired to make an iPhone app after a frightening episode where she saw her infant child choking. Because she was a nurse, she sprang into action and gave the Heimlich maneuver, but worried about parents (or babysitters) without the same training.
So, along with her emergency medicine physician husband, she created MedBasics — a readily-accessible information packet for the home about things to do in an emergency. Now they’re announcing an iPhone app called BabyMedBasics for emergencies when you’re not at home.
More from MedBasics…
iTunes link to the iOS app…
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
August 10th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
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Nearly 450 people die each day of sudden cardiac arrest. Many times the bystanders who witness a person collapse don’t know what to do. They are afraid they will hurt the victim or they feel nervous about doing traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with mouth-to-mouth breathing and chest compressions.
New information published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) shows that hands-only CPR is potentially a lifesaving option to be used and it can improve the chance of survival equally as well as traditional CPR. This study confirms other reports that bystanders can save lives by doing chest compressions in adults and children who are not breathing. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
August 9th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, True Stories
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This is my column in [the August 3rd] Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently produced an interesting public service announcement. In it, she stated that every worker deserves to be paid fairly for his or her labor (whether the worker is documented or not), and offered both a website and telephone hot-line which workers could use to report unfair payment by employers. (Incidentally, here’s the link: www.dol.gov/wecanhelp.) In the video, she stated succinctly, “You work hard, and you deserve to be paid fairly.”
Those of us who practice medicine completely agree. So we might reasonably ask if this announcement also applies to physicians who are undercompensated for their work. This routinely happens when patients are covered by Medicare and Medicaid, or by large insurance companies like Blue Cross/Blue Shield, which routinely negotiate unfair physician fees using their collective weight in bargaining. (Even as their executives bring home tidy bonuses that are clearly padded by denials). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
August 6th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion, True Stories
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I have a new “smartphone.” It’s a Droid from Verizon. Pretty cool. I like what it can do, though it tends to enable me tendency to chronically check my email. I like the features, between ease of texting, voice dialing, etc. But it’s big, compared to me dear departed flipphone, whose corpse lies in state in my pickup truck.
But I noticed one day, as I reached around my side, that the large phone now on my hip felt remarkably like my revolver. Odd feeling that. I was in public and I remember panicking, wondering if I had forgotten to conceal my concealed weapon for some reason.
And as I pondered this, I realized that both represent fundamental differences in the way we view individuality. Maybe it’s a stretch, but I’m a writer so I’m supposed to stretch. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
August 6th, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Humor
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Ever wonder how ICU nurses get through their daily grind? Why, with ICU Bingo, of course.
How does ICU Bingo work? It works just like regular bingo. Every nurse receives their own Bingo card with different ICU diagnoses. And every time they take care of one of these conditions, they get to “x” it out. Fill out a line or any other predetermined design pattern, and you are the ICU Bingo winner, and you win a prize.
This is quite similar to my 2010 March Madness Hospitalist Bracket, only in this case the game is Bingo. As you can see, this nurse has already cared for a GI bleed, a homeless man, a drug overdose, chest pain, DKA, alcohol withrawal, subdural hematoma, a prisoner, and someone with super-morbid obesity. That’s ICU medicine for you.
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
