2016

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 – …