You deserve to work in a place where diversity and inclusion are not mere programs or policies, but part of the DNA. Where you can thrive with others who embrace a wide array of ideas, perspectives, ambitions, backgrounds and talents to achieve a unified mission. Where your voice will be …
Read More »Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is an international leader in health care delivery and has been the site of pioneering breakthroughs that have improved lives around the world. With a hub of a large teaching hospital in Boston affiliated with Harvard Medical School, it is internationally renowned for excellence in …
Read More »TriHealth
TriHealth is physicians, hospitals, and communities working together to help people live better. TriHealth is a large innovative, integrated health system in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consistently ranked among the top employers in the US, TriHealth has been named a “Top 100 Integrated” Health System for more than a decade. We have …
Read More »Are medical schools doing a good enough job of making their incoming student enrollment more diverse?
According to the Association of Medical Colleges, the answer is yes, although the percentage of practicing minority physicians is still historically low compared to the overall population. “We have never seen such an increase within a short amount of time,” said Norma Poll-Hunter, who leads workforce diversity efforts at the Association …
Read More »Medical Professionals Weigh In On The Importance of Diversity in Health Care
To provide the best possible care for all patients and help minimize racial disparities, medical professionals need to acknowledge and recognize differences among varying populations. Diversity among physicians—pertaining to socioeconomic status, race, gender identity, and so on—is key. Many physicians already recognize that a commitment to diversity is critical, yet …
Read More »Beth Israel Lahey Health
Together, we can do more than we ever could on our own. We are a new, integrated system providing patients with better care wherever they are. Care informed by world-class research and education. We are doctors and nurses, technicians and social workers, innovators and educators, and so many others. All …
Read More »Baystate Health System
DIVERSE TEAMS. DIVERSE PROVIDERS. DIVERSE LOCATIONS. Baystate Health is a not-for-profit, integrated healthcare system serving over 800,000 people throughout western New England. With roots dating to the founding of Springfield Hospital in 1883, Baystate Health has been providing high-quality and compassionate healthcare in the Pioneer Valley for more than 140 …
Read More »Diversity In The Medical Field Isn’t Growing Fast Enough
Amid growing racial and ethnic diversity in the United States, the medical profession isn’t growing with it. Between 1978 and 2008, 88 percent of graduates of U.S. medical schools were white or Asian. Blacks, American Indians and Hispanics together made up the remaining 12 percent. According to the Washington Post, On average, black men in America …
Read More »Gene Therapy Aims At Stopping Blindness
Advances in gene therapy are finally yielding new options that are revolutionizing the treatment of inherited retinal degenerations.Kellogg Eye Center has begun treating patients with a new gene therapy for children and adults with inherited forms of vision loss. The therapy is called Luxturna, and was approved by the U.S. Food and …
Read More »Almost Half of Adults in the United States Have Some Type of Cardiovascular Disease
According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke or high blood pressure are some of the cardiovascular diseases that nearly half of U.S adults have. The association’s annual report Heart and Stroke Statistics, showed deaths from cardiovascular disease are on the rise again, with 840,678 deaths recorded in 2016, up from …
Read More »Global Search For Donors Of Rarest Blood
Zainab Mughal is two years old and battling cancer. She has some of the rarest blood and needs transfusions from seven to 10 donors. Only four have been found. According to OneBlood, only people of Pakistani, Indian or Iranian descent who have the same type of blood as Zainab, whose …
Read More »Lewis Katz School of Medicine Event: An Evening with Black Males in Medicine
An Evening with Black Males in Medicine event was intended to provide outreach, networking and mentorship. According to an article by Medium.com, 12 black male Physicians , all either graduates of Temple or in practice there , shared their wisdom with 21 aspiring Physicians at the undergraduate and post-baccalaureate levels whose questions ranged from …
Read More »Experimental Peanut Allergy Drug Ready For FDA Review
An experimental peanut allergy treatment is ready for U.S. Food and Drug Administration review. According to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, A phase three trial included 551 people, most ages 4 to 17 with a history of life-threatening reactions after eating peanuts. Participants were given the experimental drug derived from …
Read More »Deadly Viral Outbreak In New Jersey
According to a Reuters article, A total of 25 young patients with compromised immune systems have been confirmed with adenovirus infections at a New Jersey rehabilitation center, state health officials said. Over the weekend a ninth child was confirmed dead from the virus at Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation. “These children were all largely …
Read More »C-Section Deliveries Have Nearly Doubled
According to a study by The Lancet, the number of births by cesarean section is on the rise, climbing from about 16 million (12.1% of all births) in 2000 to 29.7 million (21.1% of all births) in 2015. The study’s first author, Dr. Ties Boerma, told CNN, “We knew that globally, C-section rates …
Read More »First Spray-On Skin Treatment Approved By The FDA
ReCell, a regenerative skin-cell solution, is the first treatment of its kind approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for growing back skin. “You just spray it on the patient, on the burned area,” said Chris Houchens of the federal government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, which helped …
Read More »U.S. Facing Physician Shortage by 2030
According to new data published by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States could see a shortage of up to 120,000 Physicians by 2030. The report aggregates the shortages in four broad categories: primary care, medical specialties, surgical specialties, and other specialties. By 2030, the study estimates a shortfall …
Read More »MRI Tests May Help Predict MS Progression
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) often live with uncertainty because it’s hard to predict how quickly the disease will progress and how disabling it might become. Magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRIs) have long been used to assist in diagnosing multiple sclerosis (MS). But now these tests are providing information that can …
Read More »Meet The Youngest Face Transplant Recipient In The U.S.
Katie Stubblefield was just 18 when she attempted suicide with a .308-caliber hunting rifle. She survived, but the injury resulted in the loss of her face. Now at the age of 21, Katie has become the youngest person in the world to receive a full face transplant. The complex procedure …
Read More »Diversity In The Medical Field Is Important
Racial, socioeconomic, and international diversity aren’t just nice things to have within America’s Physician workforce. They can be a difference between life and death. According to a study from researchers at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, patients treated by foreign medical graduates had better 30-day survival rates than patients treated by …
Read More »Top 10 Highest Paying Specialties For Doctors
Medscape annually compiles the highest earning areas in medicine, surveying more than 20,000 physicians currently practicing medicine in the United States and comparing the data was against other studies, including one from the American Medical Association. See what areas of medicine earn physicians top dollar below. 1. Plastic Surgery ($501,000) The American Society …
Read More »Microsoft Healthcare Team Wants To Move Doctors To The Cloud
Microsoft has been working on health-related initiatives for years, but is now bringing its efforts together into a new Microsoft Healthcare team. It’s a bigger effort to create cloud-based patient profiles, push doctors to the cloud, and eventually have artificial intelligence analyzing data. The software maker has hired two industry veterans to …
Read More »First Army Physician In Space
Army Lieutenant Colonel and Emergency Physician, Drew Morgan, will be one of two American astronauts heading to the International Space Station next year. He will launch aboard a Russian Soyuz 59S rocket and spacecraft in July 2019 as a member of Expedition 60/61. Morgan, who has ties to various Fort Bragg …
Read More »Artificial Intelligence Computer Can Diagnose Skin Cancer Better Than Doctors
According to researchers, a new A.I computer can diagnose skin cancer more accurately than doctors. The team, from Germany, the U.S. and France, behind the study published in the journal Annals of Oncology calibrated the specially programed device deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) by showing it over 100,000 images of malignant and benign skin cancers, and inputting a diagnosis …
Read More »Doctors Blame Burnout On Tech Tool Interruptions
A survey was conducted by HIMSS Analytics, which is associated with HIMSS, the parent company of Healthcare Finance News and Vocera, an IT company that offers a clinical communications platform. Physicians and nurses report a high level of stress associated with interruptions from texts, alerts, alarms, pages and phone calls, all having …
Read More »Doctors Are Reusing Kidneys To Save Lives
Vertis Boyce had been on the kidney donation wait list for 8 1/2 years. She got the call about a potential life-changing surgery. The donated organ had a backstory that a doctor would need to explain. “The backstory was that this was the second time it had been transplanted. So …
Read More »Test Could Show If Patients Are Taking Their Medication
Many patients don’t take their blood pressure medicine they’ve been prescribed because of the side effects. Those patients also lie to their doctors about taking the medications. There is now a drug test that can tell whether a patient is taking the prescribed medication. NPR reported on the new equipment and what …
Read More »Dye Makes Cancerous Lymph Nodes Glow
Science Daily– Surgeons at Penn Medicine are using a fluorescent dye that makes cancerous cells glow in hopes of identifying suspicious lymph nodes during head and neck cancer procedures. Led by Jason G. Newman, MD, FACS, an associate professor of Otorhinolaryngology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University …
Read More »Healthgrades Reveals 2018 List of America’s Best Hospitals
Healthgrades, the leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals, released America’s 50 and 100 Best Hospitals for 2018. The recipients of the America’s 50 and 100 Best Hospitals Awards™ — which represent the top 1% and 2% of hospitals in the nation, respectively — demonstrate superior clinical outcomes …
Read More »U.S Health Care System Makes Native Americans Feel Invisible
According to NPR, the life expectancy of Native Americans in some states is 20 years shorter than the national average. There are a number of reasons why this is.
Read More »Should Doctors Talk To Patients About Gun Violence?
This article written by Modern Healthcare brings up a tough topic to discuss. According to one of the nation’s leading medical journals, Doctors need to take a more active role in addressing guns and gun violence with their patients. Do you agree? That could mean requiring physicians to learn more …
Read More »The Future of Medicine Will Be Shaped By Physician Leaders
This post was contributed by Jennifer Hanscom, CEO of the Washington State Medical Association and a board member of the Physicians Foundation.
Read More »How Physicians Should Respond To Ethical Dilemmas
As a physician, do you have a responsibility to intervene when the health or wellness of a colleague appears to have become compromised? This and other important questions are covered in an education module from the AMA. Produced by the AMA’s Ethics Group, the module, “Understanding the Code of Medical …
Read More »Think Like a Doctor: Drowning on Dry Land Solved
By Lisa Sanders, M.D. via nytimes.com On Thursday we challenged Well readers to unravel the case of a 67-year-old healthy retiree who suddenly developed knife-like chest pain and a worsening cough. Maybe this case was too easy because more than a quarter of you figured it out. The correct diagnosis is: Eosinophilic pneumonia, caused …
Read More »Scientists Discover A Second Bacterium That Causes Lyme Disease
Rae Ellen Bichell via NPR Until very recently it was thought that just one bacterium was to blame for causing Lyme disease in humans. But it turns out that a second, related bug can cause it too. In 2013, during routine testing of bacterial DNA floating around in the blood …
Read More »Questions Raised About Clinical Trial of Popular Heart Drug
By Mary Brophy Marcus via www.cbsnews.com New questions are being raised about the clinical trial of a widely used heart drug, and critics are calling for an independent investigation, after a medical device used during the study was later found to be faulty and recalled. The clinical trial tested a blood-thinning medication called …
Read More »The Doctor’s Computer Will Email You Now
By Barbara Feder Ostrov via www.npr.org A health care startup made a wild pitch to Cara Waller, CEO of the Newport Orthopedic Institute. The company said it could get patients more engaged with their care by automating physician empathy. It “almost made me nauseous,” she said. How can you automate something …
Read More »US babies should be tested for Zika virus, CDC says
By Franco Ordonez via www.miamiherald.com An obscure mosquito-borne virus that has already prompted warnings in Central America to avoid getting pregnant and is thought responsible for thousands of birth defects in Brazil has now reached the United States, according to health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said U.S. …
Read More »Why Kidney Transplants Are Harder To Get
By Kristen Schorsch via www.modernhealthcare.com Kidneys are by far the most in-demand organ for transplants. Yet Chicago-area hospitals are putting down their scalpels and taking on fewer cases. In 2015, local transplant centers collectively performed nearly two-thirds fewer kidney transplants than they did just five years ago. Meanwhile, the waiting list …
Read More »Pregnant Women Should Consult Doctors On Travel: Brazil’s Health Ministry
Thomson Reuters via www.cbc.ca Brazil’s health ministry said on Monday pregnant women should consult their doctors before travelling to Brazil, but that no other travel restrictions were necessary because of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The ministry said in a statement that a travel warning from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reinforced measures already …
Read More »Do Not Prescribe Antibiotics For Common Cold, Doctors Urge
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD via www.medicalnewstoday.com A patient with a common cold should not be prescribed antibiotics, so say two medical bodies in the US, who – in a bid to reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics – have joined forces to advise about appropriate prescribing of antibiotics for acute respiratory tract …
Read More »Silence Is the Enemy for Doctors Who Have Depression
Aaron E. Carroll via www.nytimes.com In my first year of training as a doctor, I knew something was wrong with me. I had trouble sleeping. I had difficulty feeling joy. I was prone to crying at inopportune times. Even worse, I had trouble connecting with patients. I felt as if I …
Read More »10 Free Cloud-Based Tools for Physicians
By PRACTICE FUSION Say goodbye to the server, the future of health technology lies in the cloud. Thanks to advances in security and reliability, affordable web-based technology is more popular with physicians than ever. A recent Black Book Rankings study found that 7 out 10 small medical practices have now switched to a …
Read More »ISHLT Issues New List Of Criteria To Determine Patient Eligibility For Heart Transplant
www.news-medical.net To determine patient eligibility for heart transplant, the International Society for Heart Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) maintains a list of criteria, first issued in 2006, that acts as a guideline for physicians. A major 10-year update has now been issued and published in The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, which …
Read More »How Can You Improve Your Mental Health And Well-Being In 2016?
Honor Whiteman via www.medicalnewstoday.com The new year is here, and most of us are likely to have made at least one resolution for 2016. But while the majority of our goals for the coming year will incorporate improvements in physical health – such as hitting the gym and losing weight – …
Read More »Formerly Conjoined Twins Visit Doctors 13 Years After Landmark Operation
GILLIAN MOHNEY via http://abcnews.go.com Known as the “Las Dos Marias,” formerly conjoined twin sisters Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Alvarez arrived at the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA to bring cheer to the doctors and nurses who helped separate them more than 13 years ago. The identical twins were a …
Read More »Major Study Links Autism To Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy
Anna Almendrala via www.huffingtonpost.com Women who take antidepressants during the late stages of pregnancy have an 87 percent increased risk of giving birth to a child who will be diagnosed with autism, according to a new study from researchers in Montreal. And for women who take the most common kind of …
Read More »Your New Medical Team: Algorithms and Physicians
Austin Frakt via www.nytimes.com Can machines outperform doctors? Not yet. But in some areas of medicine, they can make the care doctors deliver better. Humans repeatedly fail where computers — or humans behaving a little bit more like computers — can help. Even doctors, some of the smartest and best-trained professionals, …
Read More »Many Doctors Can’t Manage Multiple Chronic Conditions
Dan Mangan via www.cnbc.com Primary care doctors are the first line of defense in the American health-care system. But a new report suggests that many of them feel they aren’t equipped to handle their most challenging patients. Up to one in four U.S. primary care doctors believe their practices aren’t well …
Read More »Long Hours, Grim Tasks: Doctors In Training Face High Risk Of Depression
By Megan Thielking via www.statnews.com Newly minted doctors embarking on the intense clinical training known as residency are at unusually high risk for depression. Nearly 29 percent of residents worldwide will experience depression during their residencies, according to a meta-analysis published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That’s four times higher …
Read More »WHO Suggest New C-section Recommendations
Written by Yvette Brazier via www.medicalnewstoday.com Researchers propose that for optimum safety, 19% of births should be by cesarian section, according to research published in JAMA. The cesarean section (C-section) is the most commonly performed operation worldwide. Rates of cesarean delivery vary widely from country to country, ranging from 0.6% in South Sudan …
Read More »Health Systems Built For The 1% Face Big Population Health Gaps
Dave Chase via www.Forbes.com There is no better place to generate staggeringly high bills than at a hospital. For entirely rational reasons, healthcare providers invested vast sums of money on IT systems optimized to maximize billing opportunities. Unfortunately for hospital-based health systems, this is the polar opposite of what will …
Read More »Lower survival Rates In Women With Breast Cancer Diagnosed With Depression
King’s College London via www.sciencedaily.com Women with breast cancer who subsequently had a recorded diagnosis of depression had a 45% higher risk of death from all causes, according to a study led by King’s College London. The researchers suggest this finding could help to target and support those women most at …
Read More »The Doctor on a Quest to Save Our Medical Devices From Hackers
Kim Zetter via www.wired.com THE INTERNET OF Things has introduced security issues to hundreds of devices that previously were off-limits to hackers, turning innocuous appliances like refrigerators and toasters into gateways for data theft and spying. But most alarmingly, the Internet of Things has created a whole new set of security vulnerabilities with life-threatening …
Read More »When Your Doctor Is on a 30-Hour Shift
Farah Khan via www.thedailybeast.com I cannot even count the number of times that I have been told by medical faculty members that nowadays “residents have it SO easy.” Their tone indicates that they have clearly suffered more terrible work hours and conditions than any resident today, so complaints from our end …
Read More »Scientists find driver of malaria growth in mosquitoes
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD via www.medicalnewstoday.com Scientists have for the first time uncovered the role played by cyclin – a protein important for cell division – in driving the growth of the malaria parasite in mosquitoes. The team, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham in the …
Read More »Injured firefighter gets most extensive face transplant ever
A volunteer firefighter badly burned in a 2001 blaze has received the most extensive face transplant ever, covering his skull and much of his neck, a New York hospital announced Monday. The surgery took place in August at the NYU Langone Medical Center. The patient, 41-year-old Patrick Hardison, is still undergoing physical …
Read More »5 Things to Know About the New HIV Treatment
By Christine Blank via formularyjournal.modernmedicine.com FDA approved Genvoya, marketed by Gilead Sciences, to treat HIV-1 infection. Here are the top 5 things to know about Genvoya: The drug is a fixed-dose combination tablet containing elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF). “Today’s approval of a fixed dose combination containing a new form of tenofovir …
Read More »Turning Skilled Physicians Into Strong Leaders
By Keith L. Martin via medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com Any major change in an industry requires strong leadership. In the U.S., healthcare has undergone a significant transformation in the last decade and the evolution is far from complete. That said, among all the stakeholders involved in the medical field, physicians are the most likely candidates …
Read More »‘Doctors for Diversity’ Moves Toward Equal Health Care
Katie Rice via www.dailytarheel.com Medical students and faculty talked about diversity’s central role in patient care at “Doctors for Diversity,” an event sponsored by the UNC School of Medicine and the Whitehead Medical Society in the Medical Biomolecular Research Building Tuesday. The event was organized by student members of the Resident Diversity Initiative and …
Read More »Giving and Receiving: Physicians Find Fulfillment in Charitable Care
By: Katy Mena-Berkley via www.mdnews.com Religious institutions and organizations such as Doctors Without Borders have long facilitated physicians’ provision of philanthropic medical care and other services in areas impacted by disease, poverty and war. The providers come from myriad backgrounds: They are anesthesiologists, surgeons, OB/GYNs, psychiatrists and practitioners from virtually every …
Read More »Pediatricians’ Group Urges Action on Climate Change
By Robert Preidt via health.usnews.com Dirtier air, heat stress, greater exposure to Lyme disease — these and other threats to children will increase because of climate change, a leading group of U.S. pediatricians warns. Doctors and policy makers must take steps to protect youngsters from the hazardous effects of climate change, …
Read More »WHO: Processed meat can cause cancer; red meat probably can
www.cbsnews.com It’s official: Ham, sausage and other processed meats can lead to colon, stomach and other cancers – and red meat is probably cancer-causing, too. While doctors have long warned against eating too much meat, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency gave the most definitive response yet Monday about its relation to …
Read More »Dramatic change to medical culture
By Merrill Matthews via www.philly.com California has joined four other states allowing physicians to write lethal prescriptions that dying patients can administer to themselves. Oregon was the first, blazing that trail in 1997. But with only five state “victories” in nearly 20 years, you can’t really call physician-assisted suicide legislation a …
Read More »No Amount Of Alcohol In Pregnancy Is Safe, Ever, Pediatricians Group Says
Tara Haelle via www.forbes.com It’s been just over four decades since fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) was first described, yet contradictory advice to women about drinking any alcohol at all during pregnancy continues to confuse and frustrate women. Is one glass a day okay? Or once a week maybe? One a month? …
Read More »Kids More Likely to Get Mental Healthcare from Family Doctor Than Specialists
Written by Brian Krans via www.healthline.com New research shows that primary care providers are the only professionals treating mental health issues for one-third of children. More than a third of children who receive treatment for mental health issues get it from their primary care providers, such as a family doctor or …
Read More »Doctor Practicing ‘Street Medicine’ Named Top Hero Of 2015
via www.sunnyskyz.com Two to three nights a week, Dr. Jim Withers rubbed dirt in his hair and muddied up his clothes before walking the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, searching for the very people he was trying to emulate. For 23 years, Withers has been searching for the homeless – under …
Read More »A New Effort Has Doctors Turn Patients Into Donors
Written by Gina Kolata via www.nytimes.com A well-to-do cancer patient is nearing the end of her treatments. During an office visit, she says to her doctor, “I can’t thank you enough for the care you provided.” Should the doctor simply accept the patient’s gratitude — or gently suggest a way for her to show …
Read More »Children In Foster Care Aren’t Getting To See The Doctor
Patti Neighmond via www.npr.org On any given day, about half a million children are living in foster care. They’ve been removed from violent or abusive households; many suffer physical and mental health problems that have gone untreated. Their need is acute but the response is often dangerously slow, according to a …
Read More »Physicians- Stand Tall Against Sexual Assault
Dr. Rani G. Whitfield via www.huffingtonpost.com A doctor-patient relationship based on trust and effective communication is key to successfully managing the physical and mental health of my clients. Obtaining a thorough health history, narrowing down the possible diagnoses, ordering the correct test, stressing compliance with treatment regimens, and emphasis on follow …
Read More »Five Ways to Increase Physician Engagement
By Jerry Shultz via healthcare-executive-insight.advanceweb.com While a great deal of attention rightfully focuses on patient engagement, many healthcare executives in both provider and payer organizations are also focusing on the impact of provider engagement on the success of effective population health management. When providers do not have access to relevant information, …
Read More »A Social-Media Certification Program For Health-Care Pros
From Mayo Clinic News Network via www.sanluisobispo.com Social media has become a vital communications tool in the health-care industry. More than 40 percent of consumers say that information on social media affects the way they deal with their health, and another 41 percent of people said social media would affect their …
Read More »How To Improve Doctors’ Bedside Manner
By Shefali Luthra via CNN A doctor’s training hasn’t historically focused on sensitivity. And too often, while juggling heavy workloads and high stress, they can be viewed as brusque, condescending or inconsiderate. A 2011 study, for instance, found barely more than half of recently hospitalized patients said they experienced compassion when …
Read More »Doctors Urged To Screen Teens For Major Depression
Liz Szabo via www.usatoday.com Doctors should screen teenagers for major depression, a federal advisory group said Monday, but only if their young patients have access to mental health professionals who can diagnose them, provide treatment and monitor their progress. That’s a big “if.” Mental health services are in short supply for anyone, …
Read More »Will Technology Replace The Physician to Diagnose and Treat Diseases?
Rajeev S Kapoor via www.linkedin.com In the past two weeks, we have delved into why physicians are now leaving their professions and taking their children with them. We have seen the negative, sobering statistics of patient-doctor relationships with healthcare reform regulations. We have noticed the move of doctors from medicine to …
Read More »Physicians Avoid Conversations About Religion in the ICU
Alexandra Sifferlin via TIME Even though it’s important to patients and their families Religion and spirituality are not common topics of discussion in intensive care units (ICUs), and doctors often go out of their way to avoid them—even though religion is often very important to patients and their medical surrogates …
Read More »Special Report: Can We Reduce ED Visits? Should We?
Alissa Katz via Emergency Medicine News: August 2015 – Volume 37 – Issue 8 – p 18–20 You come home from a hard day at work and reach down to feed your cat. Pain suddenly shoots through your lower back, and though it doesn’t radiate to your leg, it hurts. …
Read More »Understanding The Causes Of Sudden Death In Epilepsy: An Interview With Professor Sanjay Sisodiya
Interview conducted by April Cashin-Garbutt via www.news-medical.net What is sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)? Currently, the accepted definition of SUDEP is the sudden unexpected witnessed or unwitnessed, non-traumatic and non-drowning death in people with epilepsy, with or without evidence of a seizure. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the known …
Read More »Helpful Physicians May Be Key To Successful Weight Loss
Written by James McIntosh via Medical News Today When participating in weight-loss programs, a helpful physician can improve the chances of success for people with obesity, according to the findings of researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, MD. Their study, published in Patient Education and Counseling, found that obese people participating in …
Read More »Insulin Pumps Nearly Halve Risk of Heart Disease Death for Type 1 Diabetics
People with type 1 diabetes who use insulin pumps seem to have a much lower risk of dying from heart disease or stroke prematurely than those who rely on multiple daily injections of insulin, new research suggests. “As done in Sweden at the time of this study, insulin pump treatment …
Read More »Will Doctors Soon Be Prescribing Video Games For Mental Health?
April Dembosky via www.npr.org Developers of a new video game for your brain say theirs is more than just another get-smarter-quick scheme. Akili, a Northern California startup, insists on taking the game through a full battery of clinical trials so it can get approval from the Food and Drug Administration — …
Read More »Doctor-rating Websites Offer Helpful But Limited Advice
Written by Julie Corliss originally posted on: www.health.harvard.edu If you’ve ever used the Internet to find a health care provider, chances are you’ve run across doctor rating sites like Healthgrades.com or RateMDs.com. In addition, websites that offer reviews of everything from restaurants to repairmen (such as Yelp and Angie’s List) also feature …
Read More »How Doctors Want To Die Is Different Than Most People
By Stephanie O’Neill via CNN Dr. Kendra Fleagle Gorlitsky recalls the anguish she used to feel performing CPR on elderly, terminally ill patients. “I felt like I was beating up people at the end of their life,” she says. It looks nothing like what people see on TV. In real …
Read More »Printed Pills to Model Hearts: How 3-D Printing Is Changing Health
Gillian Mohney http: abcnews.go.com Quicker and faster 3-D printers have allowed not just amazing objects to be created, seemingly out of nothing, but have started to affect how doctors and medical providers treat patients. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of the first 3-D printed pill. …
Read More »Dr. Forrest Bird, Inventor of Medical Respirators and Ventilators, Dies at 94
By Robert D. McFadden www.nytimes.com Dr. Forrest M. Bird, an eccentric aviator and inventor who studied high-altitude breathing problems of World War II pilots and later created medical devices that saved lives and aided thousands of people with respiratory ailments, died on Sunday at his home in Sagle, Idaho. He was …
Read More »Giving Doctors Grades
Sandeep Jauhar www.nytimes.com ONE summer day 14 years ago, when I was a new cardiology fellow, my colleagues and I were discussing the case of an elderly man with worsening chest pains who had been transferred to our hospital to have coronary bypass surgery. We studied the information in his …
Read More »HIV discoverer: ‘To develop a cure is almost impossible’
Meera Senthilingam CNN She’s the woman who co-discovered HIV in 1983, and won a Nobel Prize for her work. But next month, French scientist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi will retire from her lab. She spoke with CNN at this week’s International AIDS Society Conference, in Vancouver, about activism, the future of HIV and …
Read More »5 Things Your Baby Should Avoid In The NICU
Nancy Shute NPR If you’ve got a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit, your first thought is probably not, “Does my child really need that antireflux medication?” But antireflux meds in for newborns topped the list of five overused tests or treatments released Monday as part of the “Choosing Wisely” program. …
Read More »Doctors Go Online for Medical Information, Too
AMY DOCKSER MARCUS Wall Street Journal Beyond medical literature; families’ experiences with rare conditions Doctors who treat children with rare conditions sometimes seek guidance from online chat groups where families relate their experiences with the disorders. While gleaning medical information from the Internet is often considered unreliable, doctors may find …
Read More »World’s First Mobile APP to Prevent Physician Burnout
Dike Drummond MD www.prnewswire.com “The epidemic of physician burnout must stop. We’ve packed 1547 hours of one-on-one physician coaching experience into the “Burnout Proof” Mobile APP, so the videos, audios and handouts inside are available to any physician 24/7. This is everything we should have learned in residency about stress …
Read More »Despite National Progress, Colorectal Cancer Hot Spots Remain
SCOTT HENSLEY NPR One of the great successes in the war on cancer has been the steep decline in the death rate from colorectal cancer. Since 1970, the colorectal cancer death rate per 100,000 Americans has been cut in half, falling to 15.1 in 2011 from 29.2 in 1970. Increased screening, …
Read More »The 2015 Immunization Schedule for Adults
David K. Kim, MD www.physiciansweekly.com The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently approved the most up-to-date recommendations for adult immunizations. ACIP’s schedule provides a summary of the organization’s key recommendations for using vaccines routinely. Based on three changes in the area of adult immunizations that occurred recently, the CDC’s …
Read More »Caveats About Favored Access Method For Dialysis
NADIA WHITEHEAD NPR When it comes to dialysis, one method of accessing the blood to clean it gets championed above the rest. But quite a few specialists say there’s not enough evidence to universally support the treatment’s superiority or to run down the other options. “When we talk to [dialysis] …
Read More »In Bid For Stricter Vaccine Rules, Officials Grapple With Decades-Old Distrust
APRIL DEMBOSKY www.npr.org California is on the brink of passing a law that would require nearly all children to be vaccinated in order to attend school. The bill has cleared most major hurdles, but public health officials have grappled with a strong, vocal opposition along the way. There’s actually a …
Read More »Blood Test For Early Stage Pancreatic Cancer Looks Promising
Catharine Paddock PhD www.medicalnewstoday.com A study that successfully differentiated patients with pancreatic cancer from those with another pancreatic disease using a new biomarker, could lead to a blood test that detects pancreatic cancer early enough for curative surgery to be feasible. Pancreatic cancer has a very poor survival rate and ranks …
Read More »When Doctors Don’t Talk to Doctors
By ALLISON BOND http://well.blogs.nytimes.com I could tell my patient was dying. In the final stage of liver failure, she lay listlessly in her hospital bed, her skin ashen and her eyes dull. Intractable intestinal bleeding, likely related to her underlying disease, had landed her in the intensive care unit. Although all …
Read More »Physicians Have Responsibility To Help Families Make End-Of-Life Decisions
www.news-medical.net Contributor: Marissa Garey According to the Ambulatory Surgical Center of America (ASCOA), more than 60% of Americans would like their end-of-life preferences to be followed. Yet, granting this wish is difficult when the patient is unresponsive. While this topic is quite controversial, surrogates tend to seek guidance from a …
Read More »Physician, Nurse Practitioner Jobs Lead Healthcare Surge
By Zack Budryk Contributor: Marissa Garey Through the year 2022, employment is predicted to augment, particularly in the healthcare industry. Health-support occupations, such as nurse practitioners and physicians, will be in constant demand, consequently improving job security. The recovery of the country’s labor market brought about 217,000 job opportunities by May …
Read More »Transgender Woman New Physician-General Of Pennsylvania
Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman is now Pennsylvania’s physician-general and says she wants to be defined by her public health priorities. The state Senate unanimously endorsed her in a 49-0 vote. Dr. Levine became the first transgender person to serve as a high-level official in Pennsylvania history. She is …
Read More »Should Old Doctors Be Forced To Retire?
Should old doctors be forced to retire? There is controversy regarding aging practitioners. It is questioned whether or not older physicians are capable of contributing to the overall goal of successfully meeting health demands. Regardless of age, physicians are held to high expectations: impressive education, current knowledge, and competency to …
Read More »Training Doctors To Talk About Vaccines Fails To Sway Parents
LISA ALIFERIS www.npr.org As more and more parents choose to skip vaccinations for their children, public health professionals and researchers have been looking at new ways to ease the concerns of parents who are hesitant. But that turns out to be tough to do. Studies have found that simply educating …
Read More »Surgeons Who Can’t Perform Open Surgery
www.physiciansweekly.com Now I’m really worried about surgical education. Here’s why: A friend told me that a new attending on his staff was having some problems. Although the young surgeon was a graduate of 5 years of general surgery plus 2 years of fellowship, he was unable to do an inguinal …
Read More »Painful Diagnosis: Doctors Must Be Frank, Even When The News Is Bad
www.post-gazette.com A troubling case before the state Supreme Court asks if parents can sue their doctor for not telling them about a fetus’ birth defects. An auxiliary issue is whether doctors have an obligation to disclose to patients the negative outcome of an examination or test. Presumably, ethics would demand …
Read More »How A Claim That A Childhood Vaccine Prevents Leukemia Went Too Far
TARA HAELLE www.npr.org Sometimes a story takes odd turns as you report it. Every once in while it goes off the rails. That’s what happened as I reported on a new study purporting to explain how a childhood vaccine helps prevent leukemia. The experience reaffirmed the lessons I’ve learned in …
Read More »Deaf Doctor Makes Patients Feel Heard
By Philip Zazove www.cnn.com When I was 4 years old, my mother and father received devastating news — I was deaf. It was the 1950s, a time when people with disabilities received few accommodations or support. A time long before any legislation like the Americans with Disabilities Act was conceived, …
Read More »‘Door-To-Balloon’ Time Is Goal For Doctors At Blount Memorial
By Melanie Tucker www.thedailytimes.com How long is 45 minutes? If you’re stuck standing in line at the bank or waiting for your meal at a restaurant, 45 minutes can seem like forever, each moment drawing out like an eternity. But, in the grand scheme of life, 45 minutes is almost …
Read More »The Future Of Cardiology Will Be Shown In 3-D
CHRISTINA FARR www.npr.org How can you tell the difference between a good surgeon and an exceptional one? You could start by looking for the one who has the rare ability to visualize a human organ in three dimensions from little more than a scan. “The handful of the top surgeons …
Read More »Coded Talk About Assisted Suicide Can Leave Families Confused
APRIL DEMBOSKY www.npr.org Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in most states in the U.S. But there are gray areas where doctors can help suffering patients hasten their death. The problem is nobody can talk about it directly. This can lead to bizarre, veiled conversations between medical professionals and overwhelmed families. Doctors …
Read More »Carotid Artery Stenting Outcomes Vary Widely by Hospital
Salynn Boyles www.healthleadersmedia.com In-hospital outcomes among patients undergoing CAS in the US varied fourfold after adjusting for differences in patient risk factors in an analysis of data from a large, nationwide stenting registry. From MedPage Today. In-hospital outcomes among patients undergoing carotid artery stenting (CAS) in the U.S. varied fourfold after …
Read More »U.S. Introduces New DNA Standard for Ensuring Accuracy of Genetic Tests
By ROBERT PEAR www.nytimes.com WASHINGTON — The federal government opened the door to a new era of genetic medicine on Thursday by introducing a standard way to ensure the accuracy of DNA tests used to tailor treatments for individual patients. Scientists have identified hundreds of genetic mutations that appear to increase …
Read More »Here’s A Radical Approach To Big Hospital Bills: Set Your Own Price
JAY HANCOCK NPR In the late 1990s you could have taken what hospitals charged to administer inpatient chemotherapy and bought a Ford Escort econobox. Today, average charges for chemo, not even counting the price of the anti-cancer drugs, are enough to pay for a Lexus GX sport-utility vehicle. Hospital prices …
Read More »Physician Burnout Heavily Influenced by Leadership Behaviors
Alexandra Wilson Pecci http://healthleadersmedia.com Researchers find a “very strong relationship between [physician] satisfaction and burnout and the leadership behaviors of physician supervisors” in large healthcare organizations. Physician burnout is prevalent throughout the U.S. healthcare system—experienced by nearly half (46%) of physicians, according to data published in JAMA last year. But effective leadership …
Read More »Sepsis, A Wily Killer, Stymies Doctors’ Efforts To Tame It
Richard Harris www.npr.org If you ran down the list of ailments that most commonly kill Americans, chances are you wouldn’t think to name sepsis. But this condition, sometimes called blood poisoning, is in fact one of the most common causes of death in the hospital, killing more people than breast …
Read More »Latest Tool For Neurosurgeons: Virtual Reality Headsets
www.cbsnews.com Virtual reality headsets are already revolutionizing the way people experience video games: put on a pair of goggles and you can travel anywhere from outerspace to the battlefield. But gamers aren’t the only ones this technology can transport to new worlds, reports CBS News’ Kara Finnstrom, only on “CBS …
Read More »Long-Term Data on Complications Adds to Criticism of Contraceptive Implant
By RONI CARYN RABIN www.nytimes.com When a new contraceptive implant came on the market over a decade ago, it was considered a breakthrough for women who did not want to have more children, a sterilization procedure that could be done in a doctor’s office in just 10 minutes. Now, 13 years …
Read More »The Reality of Virtual Care
Scott Mace www.healthleadersmedia.com Virtual care is not a new idea. Videoconferencing dates back several decades. Remote monitoring in ICUs began more than a decade ago. Telestroke and remote behavioral health programs have been on the radar in many settings for years. But two major factors have given virtual care a …
Read More »Brain-Dead Woman Kept Alive 54 Days Delivers Baby Boy
www.foxnews.com Doctors in Nebraska prolonged the life of a brain dead woman for 54 days so she could deliver a baby boy named Angel. Karla Perez, 22, died two days after the delivery, the Washington Post reported late Friday. Angel weighed just 2 pounds, 12.6 ounces at birth. The last time a …
Read More »Why The Urologist Is Usually A Man, But Maybe Not For Long
PONCIE RUTSCH www.npr.org If you need to see a urologist, the odds are very good that your doctor will be a man. Only about 8 percent of the practicing urologists are female, according to a poll from WebMD that includes gender distribution among medical specialties. The fact that there are …
Read More »The prognosis for U.S. healthcare? Better than you think.
Erika Fry fortune.com Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and chief executive of Kaiser Permanente—the $56 billion non-profit health insurer and hospital operator—is more optimistic about America’s healthcare system than he’s ever been. That’s saying something, given that the fate of the Affordable Care Act hangs in the balance pending a …
Read More »One Doctor’s Quest to Save the World With Data
DANIELLE VENTON www.wired.com IN RWANDA, PEOPLE have to deal with all kinds of threats to their health: malaria, HIV/AIDS, severe diarrhea. But in late 2012, Agnes Binagwaho, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, realized her country’s key health enemy was something far more innocuous. The thing causing the most harm to her people, the leading …
Read More »New Measles Vaccine is Needle-Free
BY MAGGIE FOX www.nbcnews.com Scientists have formulated a needle-free vaccine against measles and say the little stick-on patch could be the answer to fighting measles — and perhaps other diseases such as polio, too. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the patch a “game-changer” and is helping the team at Georgia …
Read More »Admitted to Your Bedroom: Some Hospitals Try Treating Patients at Home
By DANIELA J. LAMAS, M.D. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com When Martin Fernandez came into Mount Sinai Hospital’s emergency room one recent afternoon, with high fever and excruciating abdominal pain, he and his family were asked an unexpected question. Mr. Fernandez, 82, would have to be officially admitted to receive intravenous antibiotics for his urinary …
Read More »Would Doctors Be Better If They Didn’t Have To Memorize?
JOHN HENNING SCHUMANN www.npr.org Poor old Dr. Krebs. His painstaking Nobel-winning work on cellular metabolism, called the Krebs cycle, has made him the symbol for what’s ailing medical education. “Why do I need to know this stuff?” medical students ask me. “How many times have you used the Krebs Cycle lately?” senior doctors jokingly …
Read More »Doctors Cry Too
Linda Girgis, MD www.physiciansweekly.com Since entering medical school, I wished to be a pediatrician. There was nothing more noble in my mind than curing sick children and babies. That dream changed suddenly one night on my surgery rotation. It was early evening, when a Code-22 rang out over the hospital …
Read More »For The New Doctors We Need, The New MCAT Isn’t Enough
Dan Diamond www.forbes.com Americans want a lot from our doctors. We want caring bedside manner, effective communication, up-to-date knowledge, and finely honed clinical skills. We ideally want more than five minutes to spare in a visit. We want doctors who treat the whole person, not just the illness; doctors who …
Read More »Uber for Doctors: 5 Apps Bring Back House Calls
Marine Cole www.thefiscaltimes.com Silicon Valley is trying to revolutionize the way Americans get medical care by bringing doctors directly to your phone, but another fast-growing trend is also reminiscent of the old-fashioned doctor house calls. Several startups are promising to deliver a doctor to you usually within the next hour …
Read More »Diversity in Medicine
Emily Hause www.medschoolpulse.com Hello my diverse readers! When I applied to medical school, I had this idea in my mind that there was some sort of perfect pre-med applicant prototype that schools had in mind. All I had to do to be accepted was become or fit into that perfect pre-med mold. …
Read More »Do Wearable Devices in Hospitals Pose Security Threats?
By Aleksandr Peterso www.physiciansnews.com Wearable tech has painted itself as the future of innovation for many different industries, but perhaps most notably for healthcare. Even now, wearable devices are seeing increased use at care facilities to track patient status, reduce response times, and improve care coordination. But wearable technology is still …
Read More »FDA Ponders Putting Homeopathy To A Tougher Test
ROB STEIN www.npr.org It’s another busy morning at Dr. Anthony Aurigemma’s homeopathy practice in Bethesda, Md. Wendy Resnick, 58, is here because she’s suffering from a nasty bout of laryngitis. “I don’t feel great,” she says. “I don’t feel myself.” Resnick, who lives in Millersville, Md., has been seeing Aurigemma for years …
Read More »Epic, Other EHR Vendors Agree To Waive Record-Sharing Fees
By Joseph Conn www.modernhealthcare.com After years of saddling their customers and outside firms with substantial fees for interfaces and other costs for interoperability, vendors of electronic health-record systems are now engaged in what looks like an interoperability price war. The federal government probably had something to do with it, after firing …
Read More »When Keeping A Secret Trumps The Need For Care
MAANVI SINGH www.npr.org Dana Lam was insured under her parent’s health plan until the end of 2014, thanks to a provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows young adults to stay on family health insurance until they turn 26. The arrangement worked out well until she needed treatment …
Read More »Doctors See Benefits and Risks in Medicare Changes
By KATIE THOMAS and REED ABELSON www.nytimes.com Dr. Robert Wergin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, made little effort to contain his glee Wednesday over the news that Congress had voted to end a reviled payment system for doctors, simultaneously averting a 21 percent physician pay cut and overhauling the way Medicare will pay doctors in …
Read More »Trauma Surgeons: Lifeguards at the Shallow End?
Bruce Davis, MD www.physiciansweekly.com There was a time, during my training and early in my career when the trauma surgeon was the fighter pilot of the surgical world. We were the Top Knives, the Master Surgeons, of our respective hospitals. Certainly the surgeons who trained me in the craft embodied …
Read More »5 Recruiting Tips To Fight The Looming Physician Shortage
By Sean West www.fiercehealthcare.com Increased demand for services will only exacerbate the problems expected by the shortage of close to 90,000 physicians in the next 10 years, according to a new survey that examines 2015 trends in healthcare recruitment. Despite the factors behind the shortage–including the millions of newly insured consumers under the Affordable …
Read More »Hospital Diversity Improvement Plans, Goals: 16 Things To Know
Written by Shannon Barnet www.beckershospitalreview.com While job areas related to patient care have experienced a long history of diversification, the same cannot be said of healthcare jobs in upper management, according to a report from the NAACP. Some hospitals and health systems have created programs to monitor diversity procurement but, overall, diversity …
Read More »What Could Go Wrong When Doctors Treat Their Own Kids?
JOHN HENNING SCHUMANN www.npr.org Famed doctor and medical educator William Osler once said, “A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient.” What, I wonder, does that say about us doctors who treat our own kids? This past winter, my daughter got the flu. She was miserable: …
Read More »Figure 1 App Is Like an ‘Instagram for Doctors’
By LIZ NEPORENT http://abcnews.go.com Call it socialized medicine for the digital age. Figure 1, a new smart phone app lets doctors and other medical professionals from all over the world swap pictures and info about their cases. The app as has been described as “Instagram for doctors,” a phrase its founder and …
Read More »Time To Announce UV Tanning ‘Causes’ Skin Cancer, Doctors Urge
Written by Catharine Paddock PhD www.medicalnewstoday.com Doctors and researchers writing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine argue it is time to push the message that UV tanning causes – as opposed to merely being associated with – skin cancer. They note that when the US Surgeon General finally announced that smoking causes lung …
Read More »Age and the Trauma Surgeon
Bruce Davis, MD www.physiciansweekly.com I’m on day 5 of an 8-day run of Port-and-Starboard trauma call (Navy talk for every other night) and am feeling my age. There was a time when I could do this for weeks at a time and still have the energy to play or go …
Read More »Will A Transplanted Hand Feel Like His Own? Surgery Raises Questions
ROB STEIN www.npr.org When Kevin Lopez opens the door to his Greenbelt, Md., apartment to greet a visitor he’s never before met, he initially conceals his right hand. “I’m self-conscious, definitely, about my right hand,” he says. But eventually Lopez relaxes. “I was born like this,” he says. “As you …
Read More »The Healing Power of Your Own Medical Records
By STEVE LOHR www.nytimes.com Steven Keating’s doctors and medical experts view him as a citizen of the future. A scan of his brain eight years ago revealed a slight abnormality — nothing to worry about, he was told, but worth monitoring. And monitor he did, reading and studying about brain …
Read More »How Stone-Age Blades Are Still Cutting It In Modern Surgery
By Peter Shadbolt www.cnn.com Ever had a headache so big, you felt like drilling a hole in your head to let the pain out? In Neolithic times trepanation — or drilling a hole into the skull — was thought to be a cure for everything from epilepsy to migraines. It …
Read More »Doctors With Cancer Push California To Allow Aid In Dying
ANNA GORMAN www.npr.org Dan Swangard knows what death looks like. As a physician, he has seen patients die in hospitals, hooked to morphine drips and overcome with anxiety. He has watched death drag on for weeks or months as terrified relatives stand by helplessly. Recently, however, his thoughts about how …
Read More »The Doctor’s Rituals
By MIKKAEL A. SEKERES, M.D. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com Every night when I put my 6-year-old son to sleep, we go through the same routine. At his request, I carry him upstairs, slung over my shoulder like a “sack of potatoes.” Then, I sit on his bed while he changes into his pajamas; …
Read More »Thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon Potion Kills MRSA Superbug
By Nick Thompson and Laura Smith-Spark www.cnn.com It might sound like a really old wives’ tale, but a thousand-year-old Anglo-Saxon potion for eye infections may hold the key to wiping out the modern-day superbug MRSA, according to new research. The 10th-century “eyesalve” remedy was discovered at the British Library in a leather-bound volume of Bald’s Leechbook, widely …
Read More »Oldest Evidence Of Breast Cancer Found In Egyptian Skeleton
Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad; editing by John Stonestreet http://news.yahoo.com A team from a Spanish university has discovered what Egyptian authorities are calling the world’s oldest evidence of breast cancer in the 4,200-year-old skeleton of an adult woman. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said the bones of the woman, who lived at …
Read More »How A Boy Survived 1 Hour, 41 Minutes Without A Pulse
By GILLIAN MOHNEY http://abcnews.go.com A 22-month-old toddler was revived after falling into a frigid creek near his home and undergoing 101 minutes of CPR — a recovery that one doctor said may have been made possible by a type of “suspended animation.” Gardell Martin was pulled from a nearly frozen creek …
Read More »Increasing Use Of Minimally Invasive Surgery ‘Would Avert Thousands Of Post-op Complications’
Written by Honor Whiteman www.medicalnewstoday.com A new study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine claims that health care costs and the number of postoperative complications across the US could be significantly reduced if hospitals were to increase their use of minimally invasive surgery for some common procedures. Lead researcher Dr. …
Read More »Needle Stick-Injured Ebola Doctor Free Of Virus After Vaccination
Markus MacGill www.medicalnewstoday.com After receiving an experimental emergency vaccine, a doctor from the US who had received a needle stick injury, and so put at high risk of infection while working in an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone, has been found clear of the virus. The physician, given the …
Read More »Ancient Egyptians Had State-Supported Health Care
Anne Austin www.theweek.com We might think of state supported health care as an innovation of the 20th century, but it’s a much older tradition than that. In fact, texts from a village dating back to Egypt’s New Kingdom period, about 3,100-3,600 years ago, suggest that in ancient Egypt there was a …
Read More »Physicians, Patients Overestimate Risk of Death From Acute Coronary Syndrome
www.sciencedaily.com Both physicians and patients overestimate the risk of heart attack or death for possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as well as the potential benefit of hospital admission for possible ACS. A survey of patient and physician communication and risk assessment, along with an editorial, were published online last week …
Read More »Doctors as Journalists: Conflict of Interest?
www.physiciansweekly.com On Gary Schwitzer’s website healthnewsreview.org, a debate about the role of physicians who work as journalists took place. It was sparked by an NBC News report on the changing of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to its new name—Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID). The report featured commentary by Dr. Natalie Azar, …
Read More »A Sheriff And A Doctor Team Up To Map Childhood Trauma
LAURA STARECHESKI www.npr.org The University of Florida’s Dr. Nancy Hardt has an unusual double specialty: She’s both a pathologist and an OB-GYN. For the first half of her career, she brought babies into the world. Then she switched — to doing autopsies on people after they die. It makes perfect …
Read More »FDA Approves CPR Devices That May Increase Chance Of Surviving Cardiac Arrest
www.fda.gov The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the ResQCPR System, a system of two devices for first responders to use while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on people whose hearts stop beating (cardiac arrest). The devices may improve the patient’s chances of surviving cardiac arrest. The Centers for Disease Control …
Read More »Dancing In The OR
Bruce Davis, MD www.physiciansweekly.com I was not having a good morning. I had just come off Trauma call—a difficult 24hr shift that was finally behind me. I had finished a long week of rounding on the Trauma Service and had turned the patients over to Sid, who would be the …
Read More »Keeping Your Hair in Chemo
TARA PARKER-POPE http://well.blogs.nytimes.com Hair loss is one of the most obvious side effects of cancer treatment. Now, a growing number of breast cancer patients are freezing their scalps as a way to preserve their hair during chemotherapy. The hair-saving treatment, widely used in Europe, requires a specialized frozen cap worn …
Read More »Psychedelic Drug Use ‘Does Not Increase Risk For Mental Health Problems’
David McNamee www.medicalnewstoday.com An analysis of data provided by 135,000 randomly selected participants – including 19,000 people who had used drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms – finds that use of psychedelics does not increase risk of developing mental health problems. The results are published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. …
Read More »About us
In speaking to employers around the country, it’s clear that nurse recruiters needed a way to reach out to a broader, more diverse group of Nurses. That’s why we’ve developed DiversityNursing.com with the understanding of: the increasing demand for Nurses the move away from print media and toward online marketing/branding …
Read More »CDC Investigates Rise in Opioid-Addicted Newborns
Diana Phillips www.medscape.com Nearly all of the infants with confirmed cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome identified in three Florida hospitals during a 2-year period had documented in utero opioid exposure. Yet only 10% of their mothers received or were referred for drug addiction rehabilitation or counseling at the time of …
Read More »Schools Reconsidering How Med School Applicants Are Evaluated
www.ama-assn.org The medical education overhaul continues—and not just with undergraduate med ed. Changes being launched now in medical schools are touching graduate medical education and pre-medical education, seeking to better prepare doctors for a health care system that is constantly changing. Academic physicians covered these innovations in an online video panel Tuesday …
Read More »A 12-Year-Old Girl Shows Us What It’s Really Like To Face TB
NSIKAN AKPAN www.npr.org How do you turn a contagious disease like tuberculosis from a set of statistics — 9 million cases, 1.5 million deaths a year — into a human story? One way is by making a 4 1/2 minute video. “Thembi Jakiwe: Strength of a Woman” is the story of a …
Read More »On the Case at Mount Sinai, It’s Dr. Data
STEVE LOHR www.nytimes.com Jeffrey Hammerbacher is a number cruncher — a Harvard math major who went from a job as a Wall Street quant to a key role at Facebook to a founder of a successful data start-up. But five years ago, he was given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, …
Read More »Family of Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman Now Fighting to Change State Law
GILLIAN MOHNEY http://abcnews.go.com A family that had to go to court to get a brain-dead woman taken off life support is now fighting to change Texas law so other families won’t have to go through the same ordeal. The family of Marlise Munoz is working with Texas lawmakers to craft a new …
Read More »Childhood Sleep Disorders: How Do They Affect Health And Well-being?
Honor Whiteman www.medicalnewstoday.com Although around 25-40% of children and adolescents in the US experience some form of sleep disorder, such conditions are often overlooked, with a lack of realization of just how important a good night’s sleep is for a child’s present and later-life health. In line with National Sleep …
Read More »Can Patients Chew Gum Immediately Before Surgery?
www.physiciansweekly.com A study presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) meeting in October of last year found that patients who chew gum in the immediate preoperative period may safely undergo surgery. The authors, based at the University of Pennsylvania, found that gum chewing increases saliva production and the volume of …
Read More »Doctors Perceived As More Compassionate When Giving Patients More Optimistic News
Honor Whiteman www.medicalnewstoday.com When receiving information about treatment options and prognosis, advanced cancer patients favor doctors who provide more optimistic information and perceive them to be more compassionate when delivering it. This is according to a new study published in JAMA Oncology. The study was conducted by researchers from the University …
Read More »Alzheimer’s Protein ‘Can Accumulate In Young People’s Brains’
Catharine Paddock PhD www.medicalnewstoday.com Brains of older people with Alzheimer’s disease show characteristic abnormal clusters of faulty protein called amyloid. Now, for the first time, scientists have discovered amyloid can begin to accumulate in the brains of people as young as 20. The finding is surprising because it was thought …
Read More »How A Group Of Lung Cancer Survivors Got Doctors To Listen
KATHERINE HOBSON www.npr.org A group of lung cancer survivors was chatting online last May about what they thought was a big problem: Influential treatment guidelines published by a consortium of prominent cancer centers didn’t reflect an option that several people thought had saved their lives. They wanted to change that. …
Read More »Can Family Secrets Make You Sick?
LAURA STARECHESKI www.npr.org In the 1980s, Dr. Vincent Felitti, now director of the California Institute of Preventive Medicine in San Diego, discovered something potentially revolutionary about the ripple effects of child sexual abuse. He discovered it while trying to solve a very different health problem: helping severely obese people lose weight. Felitti, …
Read More »These Doctors Want To Tell You You’re Stupid If You Don’t Vaccinate Your Kids [VIDEO]
Jonathan Harris whatstrending.com Jimmy Kimmel made a good point. If you don’t believe what a doctor tells you about vaccines, why would you believe him about anything else? If he’s likely to intentionally poison your children so that he can line the pockets of GlaxoSmithKline, why would you go there …
Read More »Woman Becomes Obese After Fecal Transplantation From Overweight Donor
Honor Whiteman www.medicalnewstoday.com A new case report published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases reveals that a woman who was treated for a recurrent Clostridium difficile infection with the gut bacteria of an overweight donor quickly and unexpectedly gained weight herself following the procedure. The authors say the case suggests doctors should avoid …
Read More »Most Doctors Give In to Requests by Parents to Alter Vaccine Schedules
CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS www.nytimes.com A wide majority of pediatricians and family physicians acquiesce to parents who wish to delay vaccinating their children, even though the doctors feel these decisions put children at risk for measles, whooping cough and other ailments, a new survey has found. Physicians who reluctantly agreed said they did so …
Read More »Women are quickly filling the ranks of physician leadership
Don’t act so surprised, Your Highness. You weren’t on any mercy mission this time. Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you. In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. Partially, but it also …
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