Senior Health Older Trauma Patients Would Benefit from Palliative Care By Jane Farrell article Half of older adults who sustain injuries severe enough that they could die in the hospital or become unable to … Read More→
Five Steps to Avoid Being Misdiagnosed By Jane Farrell article 1. DonΓÇÖt be shy. Be curious, and insistent. Ask your doctor questions about your diagnosis and treatment. Ask things like, … Read More→
_ Medical Research A Major Effort Needed to Fight Sepsis By Jane Farrell article Sepsis ΓÇô a blood infection that can lead to organ failure and death ΓÇô is just as important a research … Read More→
Sepsis A Novel Therapy for Sepsis By Jane Farrell article A University of Tokyo research group has discovered that pentatraxin 3 (PTX3), a protein that helps the innate immune system … Read More→
Medical Care Reducing Wait Time in DoctorsΓÇÖ Offices By Jane Farrell article Using a pain clinic as a testing ground, researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that a management process first popularized … Read More→
_ Congress and A Failure to Address Health-Care Costs By article Although the U.S. Senate has killed a bill that would have changed the way Medicare pays doctors, that issue remains … Read More→
_ Some Doctors Not Up to Date on Genetic Testing By article Although genetic testing is becoming increasingly important, many primary care providers face challenges in making that part of a patientΓÇÖs … Read More→
_ Health System Not Meeting End-of-Life Needs By article The U.S. health care system is not properly designed to meet the needs of patients nearing the end of life … Read More→
_ New Guideline for Sickle Cell Disease By article An expert panel has created a new evidence-based guideline for managing sickle cell disease (SCD), with a strong recommendation for … Read More→
_ CPR YouTube CPR Videos Not Reliable By Sondra Forsyth article If you want to learn CPR, better not trust a YouTube video to be your teacher. According to Turkish researchers, only a handful of CPR and basic life support (BLS) videos available on YouTube provide instructions that are consistent with recent health guidelines. The study was published in August 2014 in Emergency Medicine Australasia, the journal for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM).
_ Healthy Diet & Nutrition Medical Care Change in Tube Feeding Boosts Nutrition By Sondra Forsyth article While the importance of enteral nutrition (EN), or feeding patients through a tube, in an intensive care unit is well understood, underfeeding is still common. A practice of a certain amount of feeding per hour can be interrupted by tests, procedures, or emergencies. Changing to a volume-based system, which calls for a certain nutrition volume per day, could reduce underfeeding, according to a quality improvement audit published in the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition's (A.S.P.E.N.) Nutrition in Clinical Practice journal on August 26th 2014.
_ Medical Care Second Opinions: Necessary or Not? By Sondra Forsyth article How important is that second opinion? For some medical insurance companies, second opinions are so important they are required before treatment. Are second opinions as valuable as our insurance companies make them seem? Neurosurgeon Jack Maniscalco M.D. clears up the inconsistency. ΓÇ£Second opinions are important for a number of reasons. If you, as a patient, do not feel as though your doctor is comprehensively addressing your questions or concerns, seek out another physician. If you feel uncomfortable with your diagnosis or suggested treatment, find a doctor who will listen and understand your apprehension with the previous recommendation.ΓÇ¥
_ Medical Care Outpatient Urology Surgery Ups Deaths Risk By Sondra Forsyth article As hospitals have shifted an array of common urological surgeries from inpatient procedures to outpatient, potentially preventable deaths have increased following complications. Those were the primary findings of a study led by Henry Ford Hospital researchers in Detroit. The paper was published online in August 2014 by BJUI, the official journal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons. The investigators initially expected that improved mortality rates recently documented for surgery overall would also translate to commonly performed urologic surgeries.
_ Medical Care Doctors & Patients Making Decisions Together By Sondra Forsyth article Shared decision-making is a concept thatΓÇÖs gaining traction in medicine, particularly in areas of health care, where patients are presented with more than one reasonable treatment option. The programs, which feature patient-education tools such as online surveys and videos, have several goals. One is to help people thoroughly understand their choices and assure them that they are making informed decisions.
_ 5 Food-Drug Interactions You Want to Avoid By Sondra Forsyth article By Leah Shainhouse You have heard it again and again: Adapt to a healthy lifestyle. If you make sure to eat well, a plethora of diseases can be prevented or managed. However, there are times when you walk into your doctorΓÇÖs office, either for a routine check-up or for some sort of ache or pain and you have no choice. You walk out with another prescription, whether it is to help lower your cholesterol, control your blood pressure or fight off an infection.
_ Pneumonia Respiratory Rate in Pneumonia Often Overlooked By Sondra Forsyth article Pneumonia, a severe lung infection, is the most common disease calling for hospital admission. More than one out of ten pneumonia patients die of the disease. Thus it is vital to predict accurately and to closely monitor the clinical course. Measuring the respiratory rate – the number of breaths a person takes in a minute – provides valuable information. However, far too little use is still being made of this vital sign in clinical practice, according to Richard Strauß and co-authors a study published in August 2014 in Deutsches Ärzteblatt.
_ Medical Care Many Hospitals Missed E-health Deadline By Sondra Forsyth article Many of the nation's hospitals struggled to meet a federally mandated electronic health records deadline, and as a result could collectively face millions of dollars in reduced Medicare payments, according to a study done at the University of Michigan published online August 7th 2014 and slated to be published in the September print issue of the journal Health Affairs.
_ Medical Care For-Profit Home Care: Higher Costs, Lower Quality By Sondra Forsyth article For-profit home health agencies are far costlier for Medicare than nonprofit agencies, according to a nationwide study done at the City University of New York School of Public Health and published Monday, August 4th 2014 in the August issue of the journal Health Affairs. Overall cost per patient was $1,215 higher at for-profits, with operating costs accounting for $752 of the difference and excess profits for $463. Yet the quality of care was actually worse at for-profit agencies than at non-profits, and more of the patients required repeat hospitalizations.