Source: Chief Healthcare Executive By Ron Southwick March 6, 2023–Ankoor Shah of Accenture talks with Chief Healthcare Executive about the need for better data, and why technology is a key element in closing disparities. For Ankoor Shah, health equity is deeply personal. Shah, a principal director and health equity lead …
Read More »Rural Communities Address Health Care Crisis
Source: ABC News By Peter Charalambous March 18, 2023–More than 40,000 graduating medical students learned Friday where they will spend the next three to seven years of their medical training. With the United States grappling with a simultaneous shortage of primary care physicians and a rural health care crisis, many …
Read More »The Young Physicians Initiative An Innovative Pre-Pipeline Program
Source: Young Physicians Initiative Less than 15% of American doctors come from underserved backgrounds and communities. Getting into medical school can be a long and difficult process, especially for these individuals, due to lack of access to medical mentorship and network. The Young Physicians Initiative (YPI) was created to address this …
Read More »Modern Healthcare’s Top Women Leaders in Healthcare
Source: Advisory Board Modern Healthcare on Tuesday released its 2023 list of the “Top Women Leaders in Healthcare,” honoring female executives from all sectors of the industry who are developing policy, leading change, and improving healthcare delivery across the country. About the list To create the list, Modern Healthcare accepted nominations for …
Read More »Celebrating a Decade of Health Justice Scholars at Tufts University School of Medicine
Source: TuftsNow Written by Kim Thurler February 16, 2023–Anita Mathews, M17, recalls her excitement a decade ago when, as an incoming MD/MPH student at Tufts University School of Medicine, she learned of a new program to develop physician leaders dedicated to providing healthcare to marginalized groups and transforming care in partnership with …
Read More »ICU Patients Overcoming PTSD With VR Therapy
Source: UCFToday Written By Chad Binette ’06MPA February 16, 2023–Exceptional medical care from first responders, nurses and doctors routinely saves the lives of patients with critical illnesses. But many of those patients will suffer from anxiety, depression and PTSD after they return home. A team of UCF researchers is confident …
Read More »March of Dimes Research Center Will Tackle Racial Disparities in Maternal Health
Source: Penn Medicine News Written by Christina Hernandez Sherwood February 14, 2023–The disparities are stark. Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women in the United States, which has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country. For years, the University of …
Read More »The Future of ChatGPT And Other AI In Healthcare
Source: Forbes Written by Sahil Gupta February 6, 2023– The process of becoming a physician is notoriously arduous, requiring years of specialized study and training. Before applying for a medical license in the U.S., aspiring physicians must pass the three-step United States Medical Licensing Examination, which covers topics including basic sciences, …
Read More »Black Female Physician Leaders On Improving Diversity In Medicine
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer Written by Sarah Gantz January 24, 2023–Jasmine Brown’s class of medical students at the University of Pennsylvania has about 170 students — 23 of whom are Black. Of those, she is one of 10 women. In her new book, Twice as Hard, Brown unearthed the stories …
Read More »OB-GYN Clinical Trials Lack Racial, Ethnic Inclusivity
Source: Northwestern Written By Kristin Samuelson December 21, 2022–All non-white racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented in OB-GYN clinical trials, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. Since clinical trials and scientific publications inform clinical care, failing to report the race and ethnicity of study participants and conducting homogenous, non-representative research …
Read More »AAMC Specialty Report Explores The Choices of America’s Doctors
Source: AAMCNEWS Written By: Patrick Boyle, Senior Staff Writer More women are becoming doctors, doctors of different racial backgrounds are drawn to different areas of practice, and sports medicine continues to grow fastest of all specialties, according to a new report from the AAMC. Interest is booming in sports medicine and interventional …
Read More »New Report Discusses Lack of Medical Worker Diversity And How To Fix It
Source: American Heart Association News Written By: Michael Merschel Racial and ethnic diversity among medical workers is critical to Americans’ health, but more needs to be done to recruit, train and support those professionals, a new report says. The report, published Thursday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular …
Read More »Diversity Outcomes for Physician Assistant Programs
Source: Insight Into Diversity Written By: Lisa O’Malley Lack of workforce diversity is an acknowledged problem across nearly all medical disciplines, but a team of researchers recently took a deep dive into physician assistant (PA) training programs. They analyzed individual program outcomes to see which are the most successful in …
Read More »ACP Updates Guidelines on Osteoporosis Treatment
Source: HealthDay Written By: Ernie Mundell TUESDAY, Jan. 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) — As millions of Americans born in the baby boomer generation are already finding out, bone loss is a common sign of aging. And now experts at the American College of Physicians (ACP) — one of the leading …
Read More »IU School of Medicine Has Plans For The $400 Million IU Health Gift
Source: Indiana Daily Student Written By: Meghana Rachamadugu December 11, 2022– Last year IU Health donated $400 million to the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Jay L. Hess, the dean of the school of medicine, said the funds will be dispensed over three years and over multiple projects including support for …
Read More »Decorate Safely This Holiday Season
Ladder and electrical safety is key to avoiding an emergency room visit Source: Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) Written By: Joe Nixon Winter holidays are a time for decorating – safe decorating. At Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), we want you to avoid an emergency room visit by putting safety first …
Read More »Some Doctors May Be At Higher Risk For Burnout Studies Show
Source: American Medical Association Written By: Sara Berg, MS November 30, 2022–During her career, AMA member Kim Templeton, MD, has seen the issues that physicians are facing at all stages of their careers. More specifically, Dr. Templeton has conducted research on the issues that women physicians face in terms of …
Read More »UVA Developed New Tool To Help Doctors Detect Cancer Cells
Source: UVA Today Written By: Josh Barney November 22, 2023– UVA Health researchers have developed an important new tool to help scientists sort signal from noise as they probe the genetic causes of cancer and other diseases. The tool also could help improve cancer diagnosis by making it easier for doctors …
Read More »Pediatricians Warn The Tripledemic Is Real
Source: Columbia University Irving Medical Center Pediatricians are familiar with the usual fall uptick in viral infections. But this year is a little different, says Rachel Lewis, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Cases of COVID, influenza, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) are …
Read More »Physicians Leveraging Telehealth
Source: American Medical Association Written By: Tanya Albert Henry With physician burnout at all all-time high, physicians are searching for ways to provide high-quality patient care while easing some of the burdens prevalent in medicine today. “Never before has there been a greater need to be able to leverage digital …
Read More »Parexel Introduces Discussions on Diversity Research to Promote Diversity in Clinical Trials
Source: Parexel News Release BOSTON and Durham, N.C. May 20, 2021 — Parexel, a leading global clinical research organization (CRO), today announced the release of “Discussions on Diversity,” an in-depth research report and interactive microsite featuring patient, academic and physician voices highlighting the importance of diversity in clinical trials. The report, issued in …
Read More »Why So Many Doctors Are Leaving The Workforce
Source: advisory.com Oct. 25, 2022 (Advisory Board) — A report published Thursday by Definitive Healthcare found that nearly 334,000 health care providers—including 117,000 physicians—left the workforce in 2021, with many citing burnout and pandemic-related stressors, Mari Devereaux writes for Modern Healthcare. Report findings and key details In the report, commercial …
Read More »Study Shows Link Between Longer Work Hours and Depression in New Doctors
By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter Oct. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Training to become a doctor can be grueling, and now a new study finds a direct correlation between longer work hours and depression symptoms in first-year residents. Medical residency — the training that new doctors undergo at hospitals or …
Read More »Women Doctors More Likely To Be Addressed By First Name Study Shows
By Jayne Williamson-Lee for STAT News In her inbox on the Mayo Clinic patient portal, the dermatologist Jamison Harvey receives some messages from patients that read more like a casual text to a friend than a request for medical expertise: “Hey Jamison, can you look at this spot?” She introduces herself …
Read More »Doctors Discuss Healthcare Architecture
By: Lauren Volker for Metropolis METROPOLIS–Public health and the built environment have a long-intertwined history—one that was catapulted into the limelight amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The global crisis made us all acutely aware of how design, whether for dedicated medical buildings or other building types, can affect our ability to …
Read More »Telehealth Fills Care Gaps for Patients
New athenahealth Research Finds that Telehealth Fills Care Gaps for Patients WATERTOWN, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Use of telehealth, which increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, not only remains substantially above pre-pandemic levels but has also emerged as both a key diagnostic tool and treatment vehicle, according to new research from athenahealth. The …
Read More »U.S. Task Force Recommends Doctors Screen Adult Patients For Anxiety
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) Bulletin WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 20, 2022 – The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) today posted draft recommendation statements on screening for depression and suicide risk in adults and screening for anxiety in adults. For the first time, the Task Force is …
Read More »Hispanic Doctors Who Advanced Medicine
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we are recognizing the outstanding work of those who advanced the medical field. Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías Dr. Helen Rodríguez Trías was a public health expert and women’s rights activist. She served as the first Latina director of the American Public Health Association. Her understanding of how social and economic inequality shapes …
Read More »Violet, The First Cultural Competence Credentialing Platform For Clinicians
PRESS RELEASE PR Newswire NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Violet, the first-ever cultural competence credentialing and upskilling platform for clinicians, announced today that it has raised $4.1M in seed financing, bringing their total raised amount to $5.3M. The round was led by SemperVirens along with industry-leading investors including Northwell …
Read More »NIH Awards $23M to Four Universities For Cancer Telehealth Research
The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $23 million to four academic institutions to establish centers of excellence that will conduct research on the role of telehealth in delivering cancer-related health care. There has been growing interest in how to enhance patient care …
Read More »Doctor Proves It’s Never Too Late To Achieve Your Dreams
By Micaela Marshall Spectrum News 1 CLEVELAND — After 25 years as an auto shop owner, an east Cleveland native headed to medical school and become a Doctor. At age 51, Dr. Carl Allamby is now an attending Physician at the Cleveland Clinic. “I’ve been working on things my whole life,” …
Read More »Medical Associations Pushing For Disability Training Programs
Medical organizations across the nation are calling for better training initiatives for future and current Doctors treating those with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). Presidents of the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Dental Association (ADA) said they would work to expand disability training for medical and dental students during …
Read More »What You Should Know About Monkeypox
Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. With the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, monkeypox has emerged as the most important …
Read More »Impressive 13-Year-Old Accepted to UAB Medical School
At age 13, Alena Wicker made history as the youngest Black person to be accepted into medical school. She’s a nominee for TIME’s Top Kid of the Year and founder of The Brown STEM Girl foundation. Alena has been accepted to UAB’s Heersink School of Medicine under its Burroughs Wellcome Scholars Early Assurance Program in May. Admitted …
Read More »Art Programs Help With Healing in Hospitals
By Renee Phillips There is a growing number of Hospitals offering art programs that serve to benefit patients and their families. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA) offers free programs in a group setting or bedside in patients’ rooms. The MFA currently provides off-site workshops at Boston Children’s …
Read More »2022 AMA Excellence in Medicine Awards Physician Honorees
Post by: Brendan Murphy, AMA The American Medical Association honored six Physicians for their altruism, advocacy and professional skill. They received Excellence in Medicine Awards at the AMA Annual Meeting last weekend. The honorees are: Jerry Abraham, MD, MPH, CMQ Dr. Abraham was given the Dr. Debasish Mridha Spirit of …
Read More »Check Out This Summer Reading List By Doctors
Post from Sara Berg, MS on AMA The physician’s day rises and falls with the written word: an unexpected laboratory result, a practice-changing medical journal publication or a news story about a trend affecting patients’ access to care. But as the weather warms up and physicians tap into their hard-earned …
Read More »Twins Become Doctors and Match for Same Residency
Post from KZRG Since elementary school, twin sisters Alexis and Morgan Clare, now 27, have wanted to become doctors. They attended the University of Florida together for their undergraduate education and went on to Tulane University in New Orleans for their master’s degrees. The Clare twins graduated from KCU-Joplin. Now, …
Read More »Some Physicians Are Uneasy as Colorado Collects Providers’ Diversity Data
Written By: Markian Hawryluk From KHN Shaunti Meyer, a certified nurse-midwife and medical director at STRIDE Community Health Center in Colorado, doesn’t usually disclose her sexual orientation to patients. But at times it feels appropriate. After telling a transgender patient that she is a lesbian, Meyer learned the woman had …
Read More »US Medical Schools Need More Diverse Faculty
Written By: Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter (HealthDay News) There is a dire need to improve Diversity in Medical Schools across the United States. Dr. Sophia Kamran, an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and a Radiation Oncologist at Massachusetts General Cancer Center is the lead author on …
Read More »Black Patients Still Underrepresented In Clinical Trials Despite FDA Action Plan
In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched a five-year action plan, aiming to improve diversity in clinical trials for newly approved drugs. According to HealthDay, Angela K. Green, M.D., from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and colleagues analyzed Snapshots data to examine whether …
Read More »Mental Health A Priority In Medical Schools
The harmful effects of medical education on student well-being are concerning with higher rates of burnout, depression, and even suicide. About one in three medical students report symptoms of depression, and one in nine experiences suicidal ideation, according to the American Medical Association. Medical students encounter barriers to seeking help, …
Read More »Medical schools are reporting record increase in first-year Black students
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, medical schools are reporting a record increase in first-year Black students. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, Black medical student enrollment has increased by 21% in the past year. Currently, African-Americans account for just 5% of the entire physician population nationally, though about 14% …
Read More »Major Strides For Xenotransplantation
Currently, 17 patients die each day in the United States while on the waiting list to receive lifesaving vital organ transplants. according to the Health Resources & Services Administration. Xenotransplantation gives hope for the possibility of an unlimited supply of organs that could relieve the supply shortage and save countless …
Read More »Medical Schools Advancing DEI Initiatives
Many medical schools and academic institutions recognize the importance of diversifying the Physician workforce and reducing health disparities. More organizations are establishing strong Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) cultures by implementing DEI committees, curriculum, and more. Most institutions create a Diversity and Inclusion committee/office with appointed officers who oversee and …
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 »2022 Healthcare Tech Trends
Healthcare systems are increasingly relying on technology and Artificial Intelligence to improve patient care and workplace efficiency. According to the 2021 Future of Healthcare Report, almost 80% of Healthcare systems are planning to increase their investment in digital healthcare trends over the next five years. Some of the top emerging …
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 »Doctor’s Advice For a Safe Holiday Season
With the holiday season upon us, health experts are promoting the importance of vaccination for all eligible people. Being fully immunized against the coronavirus protects against contracting the virus, and significantly lowers the risk of severe illness or death. Many experts said that if people are fully vaccinated, they can …
Read More »Black Female Physicians Celebrate Achievement At Inaugural Brunch
St. Louis American — Black girl health magic was the order of the day, when about 30 Black female Physicians representing various specialties gathered for an inaugural brunch. Drs. Jade James-Halbert, Carolyn Pryor, and Ebonee Carter at Cardinal Ritter College Prep hosted the brunch. The Doctors came from every major …
Read More »Chief Wellness Officers Battle Physician Burnout
Research from the National Academy of Medicine shows that burnout is mainly caused by policies of an organization that are outside of an individual clinician’s control. Physician burnout involves three main components: emotional exhaustion, a lack of sense of personal accomplishment and depersonalization. Burnout is often accompanied by a lack …
Read More »Pandemic Leads To Increase In Plastic Surgery
More people working from home spend hours on video calls, inevitably looking at themselves for long periods of time and not liking what they see. This has led to an increase in cosmetic surgeries, Doctors calling it the Zoom Boom. Dr. Michael Wojtanowski, a surgeon at the Ohio Clinic for …
Read More »Hospitals Seeing Earlier Cases Of RSV
Doctors are noticing an earlier season of Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms. Most people recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and older adults. RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis …
Read More »Physicians in 4 states expected to face most competition
Becker’s Hospital Review— Physicians in four Northeastern states are projected to face the most competition by 2028, according to an analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance website. Projected competition was one of 19 metrics analysts compared to determine the best and worst states in which to practice medicine in 2021. …
Read More »Stress Management Techniques For Doctors
Working as a healthcare professional under the extreme circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic can lead to stress, anxiety, fear, and other strong emotions. How you cope with these emotions can affect your well-being, the care you give to others while doing your job, and the well-being of the people you …
Read More »U.S Seeing Increase In Child And Teen Shooting Victims
2021 is on pace to be America’s deadliest year of gun violence in the last two decades. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed this year alone, according to CBS News. With an increase in gun violence comes an increase in child and teen shooting victims. According to TIME, experts attribute …
Read More »CDC Recommending Unvaccinated People Don’t Travel Labor Day Weekend
The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is asking unvaccinated Americans not to travel during the Labor Day holiday weekend. “First and foremost, if you are unvaccinated, we would recommend not traveling,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 Response Team …
Read More »Healthcare Needs More Hispanic Doctors
There is a lack of diversity among healthcare professionals in the United States. Healthcare organizations must improve diversity to ensure that all people are represented in the healthcare workforce. Doing so has a positive impact not only on the organization but also on patients and surrounding communities. According to the …
Read More »Qualities of a Successful Physician Leader
Physician leadership is critical for better patient outcomes, clinical performance and professional satisfaction. A successful leader is someone who has goals and is able to motivate those around them to work toward achieving those goals. In order to achieve these goals, Doctors must possess key qualities that are essential for …
Read More »Health Equity Needs Diversity
American Medical Association— Patients of color often seek care from doctors who look like them, but they may have to wait a long time for that opportunity. According to William McDade, MD, PhD., Medical schools need to aggressively recruit a more diverse community of medical students—beginning as early as high …
Read More »Study Shows Clear Masks Improve Doctor Patient Communication
JAMA Surgery — During the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing masks has become necessary, especially within health care. However, to our knowledge, the consequences of mask wearing on communication between surgeons and patients have not been studied. Patients reported improved communication when surgeons donned a clear mask, suggesting that not seeing the …
Read More »The Delta Variant And What You Should Know
Yale Medicine experts discuss the highly contagious (and possibly more severe) SARS-CoV-2 virus strain, Delta. Here are five things you need to know about the Delta variant. 1. Delta is more contagious than the other virus strains. Delta is the name for the B.1.617.2. variant, a SARS-CoV-2 mutation that originally surfaced …
Read More »AMA adopts new policy to increase diversity in physician workforce
CHICAGO – Furthering the American Medical Association’s (AMA) commitment to racial justice and equity within the medical profession and society as a whole, and building on the recent release of its strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity, the AMA adopted policy during the Special Meeting of …
Read More »Hospitals Launching Men’s Health Initiatives
June is men’s health month and hospitals are taking this opportunity to raise awareness about preventative care. One hundred years ago, men lived longer than women by an average of one year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But today, the average woman lives six years longer …
Read More »Healthcare Equality Index Report
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation developed the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) to meet a deep and urgent need on the part of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans: the need for equitable, knowledgeable, sensitive and welcoming health care, free from discrimination. Many healthcare institutions are embracing and adopting LGBTQ+ …
Read More »The Future of Doctor Waiting Rooms
Healthcare providers throughout the nation are making big changes to the waiting-room experience. Redesigning waiting areas is a way to attract patients back into offices and keep them safe. Dak Kopec, Ph.D., an environmental psychologist and an associate professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas envisions “pods,” which would effectively …
Read More »Health Systems Supporting Frontline Workers Mental Health
Before the pandemic, mental health initiatives for medical staff were put on the back burner. Many studies reported high Physician burnout rates and experiences of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a feeling of low personal accomplishment. COVID-19 has had a major impact on an already stressed field. So now more than …
Read More »Doctors With Disabilities
A growing movement of current and future Doctors with disabilities is changing the culture of medicine. Lisa Meeks, a Psychologist and Researcher at Michigan Medicine specializing in disabilities in medicine and medical education co-authored a report which found that many Doctors still conceal their disabilities out of fear of stigma …
Read More »Medical Schools Seeing An Increase In Applicants
The United States is facing a shortage of Physicians. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), there could be a shortage of between 54,100 and 139,000 Physicians by 2033. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the heroic care Doctors provide on the frontlines. More people want to make a …
Read More »More Hospitals Are Using Music Therapy
More hospitals are recognizing the power of music in healing and comfort. Many organizations are hiring music Therapists that offer individual and group sessions, along with art and movement therapy to ease pain, expand social connections, and bring peace and comfort to patients. The profession is growing. There are now …
Read More »COVID-19 Vaccine Data Lacking Race and Ethnicity
The data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows more than 15% of the total U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. It is also reported more than 143 million doses have been administered, over 93 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and …
Read More »Gender Discrimination In The Medical Field
Women have made great strides in advancing their careers in medicine, but many experience sexual discrimination in this field. Several women are speaking out and raising awareness about this ongoing issue. Under federal law gender discrimination in which an employee is treated differently or unfairly based on their gender is …
Read More »Heart Warming Doctor’s Note
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new guidelines for those who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love,” said CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, …
Read More »Historical African American Doctors
In honor of Black History Month, we are celebrating African American Doctors who pioneered and significantly improved medicine in America. Dr. James McCune Smith was the first African-American to obtain a medical degree. He was also the first black person to own and operate a pharmacy in the United States …
Read More »Low Vaccination Rates For Black Americans
Preliminary COVID vaccine data indicates Black Americans have been vaccinated at rates significantly lower than white Americans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released information on the demographic characteristics of vaccinated people. According to the CDC data, only 5.9% of those vaccinated are Black vs. 62.8% of those vaccinated …
Read More »Mother and Daughter Both Match At LSU Health in Louisiana
Dr. Cynthia Kudji, originally from Ghana, West Africa was a senior at Tulane University when she became pregnant with her daughter Jasmine. She paused her dreams of becoming a Doctor and started her healthcare career working in a nursing home as a nursing assistant. Cynthia then went to nursing school …
Read More »America’s Medical Resident Report of race, gender, specialties, and other demographics.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released a report of America’s Doctors in training. The report discusses, race, gender, specialties, and other demographics. According to the report, in 2020, nearly 140,000 medical residents worked in health care systems across the United States. The number of active residents covered in …
Read More »Rural Hospitals Struggling In The Fight Against COVID-19
Coronavirus hospitalizations are increasing in many rural and less populated areas that were previously relatively unaffected. Doctors and health officials worry that infections will overwhelm small communities that have a short supply of medical resources. “The 20% of the U.S. population that lives in rural areas consists of generally older …
Read More »Lawmakers Drafting Bill Requiring Cultural Awareness Training For Health Professionals
A prominent lawmaker in Indiana is drafting a bill that would require cultural awareness training for the state’s health care professionals. This call for action comes after Dr. Susan Moore died of complications from COVID-19 in late December, after alleging racial bias in her care at IU Health North Hospital. …
Read More »What Doctors Are Saying About Holiday Gatherings
Many people are trying to figure out how to celebrate Thanksgiving safely. This holiday could become a national superspreader event since COVID-19 is transmitted by droplets sprayed while talking or breathing heavily in close proximity. Traveling from one hot spot to another, eating with multigenerational family and friends in close …
Read More »Doctors Researching Connections In COVID-19 And Diabetes
The U.S. National Institutes of Health is financing research into how the Coronavirus may cause high blood sugars and diabetes. More research is needed to prove, beyond the increasing evidence, that COVID-19 is triggering diabetes on a large scale. Dr. Robert Eckel, President of medicine and science at the American …
Read More »Increased Unconscious Bias In HealthCare During COVID-19
Implicit or unconscious bias operates outside of the person’s awareness and can be in direct contradiction to a person’s espoused beliefs and values. What is so dangerous about implicit bias is that it automatically seeps into a person’s affect or behavior and is outside of the full awareness of that …
Read More »Doctors Propose New Climate Change Curriculum
Doctors are urging medical residency programs to include content about health impacts of climate change in curricula. Climate change increases risks of heat-related illness, infections, asthma, mental health disorders, poor perinatal outcomes, adverse experiences from trauma and displacement, and other harms. More numerous and increasingly dangerous natural disasters caused by …
Read More »More Patients Seeking Transgender Physicians
Approximately 1.4 million Americans identify as transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB). A GLAAD survey from 2017 showed that nearly 12% of millennials identified as TGNB. And a 2020 survey from the Trevor Project found that 1 in 4 LGBTQ youth use pronouns or pronoun combinations that fall outside of the …
Read More »The U.S. Needs More Black Female Doctors
In the United States, just 5 percent of active Physicians are Black and only 2 percent are Black women. Research shows patient-provider racial and gender concordance has many benefits. A Black female patient receiving care from a Black female Doctor has more trust, better communication and shared medical decision-making. In …
Read More »New Study Addressing Racial Health Disparities in Infant Mortality
The infant mortality rate in the United States is more than twice as high for Black infants as it is for white infants. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 10.8 deaths per 1,000 live births compared with 4.6 per 1,000 as of 2018. Studies are beginning to …
Read More »26 States At Risk Of Having An ICU Doctor Shortage
According to a George Washington University study, researchers found that a majority of states in the U.S. will soon face a shortage of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Doctors as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. According to ABC News, the most recent update finds that 26 states will soon face shortages in ICU Doctors, up from …
Read More »Researchers Concerned COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trials Aren’t Diverse Enough
COVID-19 vaccine trials have moved into phase three. Two trials were launched in the United States and researchers are looking to enroll 30,000 people for each trial. They are working to ensure that a significant percentage of volunteers come from the places hit hardest. Dr. Sam Oh, Director of Epidemiology for …
Read More »Health Systems and Hospitals Asking Congress For $100 Billion In Relief
Last week the American Medical Association, American Nurses Association and American Hospital Association, wrote a letter to Senate leaders asking for Congress to allocate as part of the next COVID-19 relief package at least an additional $100 billion to the emergency relief fund to provide direct funding to front line …
Read More »Medical Schools Are Now Interviewing Candidates Online
Many medical schools are making the decision for residency and fellowship interviews to be done online. Quickly adapting to a virtual interview process, during a pandemic, is going to present challenges. The change to virtual interviewing creates challenges for programs and their applicants but, some experts and participants believe if done …
Read More »Doctors Call On Health Systems To Take Action To Reduce Racial Inequity
Doctors are calling on healthcare systems to take the lead advocating against police brutality, to diversify their work forces to better reflect their patient population, and to incorporate addressing racial health disparities as part of Physician training. Physicians writing in the New England Journal of Medicine discuss how systemic racism …
Read More »Medicine Needs a Workforce That Better Represents the Population
The Diversity in Medicine report by the Association of American Medical Colleges said, 5.8% of Physicians in 2018 identified themselves as Hispanic and 5% identified as African American. These proportions are an underrepresentation of the national makeup of the U.S., since in 2019 Hispanics/Latinx and African Americans made up an …
Read More »TED Talks To Help Battle Burnout
Doctors are at high risk for burnout. According to the American Medical Association, Physician burnout is a long‑term stress reaction characterized by depersonalization. This can include: Cynical or negative attitudes toward patients. Emotional exhaustion. A feeling of decreased personal achievement. Lack of empathy for patients. Here are some TED talks that …
Read More »Mother And Daughter Graduate Medical School At Same Time And Match At Same Hospital
Dr. Cynthia Kudji and daughter, Dr. Jasmine Kudji are making history together as the first-ever mother-daughter duo to graduate from medical school at the same time and match at the same hospital. According to The University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS), Cynthia and Jasmine, both matched at LSU Health in Louisiana …
Read More »Doctors Give Advice For Staying Safe During Tick Season
Many people are home during the COVID-19 pandemic and are using their time to safely enjoy the warmer weather and venture outdoors to parks, reservations and hiking trails. But with the arrival of warmer temperatures that means tick season is here. According to Dr. Romandine Kratz, deer ticks caused more than …
Read More »Doctors Are Preparing To Resume Performing Elective Surgeries
Hospitals are preparing to start performing elective surgeries again since the Coronavirus outbreak began. Doctors are starting to perform elective surgeries again but it doesn’t mean everything is back to normal inside hospitals. Lifebridge Health chief clinical officer Dr. Matthew Poffenroth said, “We’re gradually going towards that direction but we’re …
Read More »Coronavirus HealthCare Workers Face Mental Health Crisis
Under normal circumstances a career in Medicine is stressful. The physical demands, psychological strain and ineffective work processes can lead to burnout, a condition that affects up to 50% of Physicians in the U.S. Burnout cannot describe what Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics and others are experiencing as COVID-19 overwhelms the health …
Read More »Doctors Are Innovative In The Fight Against COVID-19
Doctors are channeling their inventive side to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Ben Pettigrove, a Tulsa Physician, heard about Doctors and Nurses dying after becoming infected during the process of intubation so he designed a plexiglass box that would contain the virus. After you intubate somebody you would leave it on …
Read More »Hospitals Are Using Virtual Reality Simulations To Train Thousands of Doctors And Nurses
Some hospitals are implementing virtual reality simulations to train Doctors and Nurses with expertise in other areas such as knee surgery or neurology and retired professionals reentering the medical field. At Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, more than 300 doctors have learned skills, such as how to assess a patient’s …
Read More »FDA Grants Emergency Clearance To The First In-Home Test For The Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency clearance to the first in-home test for the coronavirus. The test is a nasal swab kit sold by LabCorp. According to the FDA, LabCorp had submitted data showing the home test is as safe and accurate as a sample collection at a doctor’s …
Read More »Non-coronavirus Patients Are Avoiding Hospitals As ER Visits Drop
According to data shared with CNBC, emergency room visits are down by about 50% across New York City Health, Providence St. Joseph Health, and other locations. Trending across the U.S. people are staying clear of hospitals for sometimes necessary and emergency care, even for mild heart attacks. Physicians worry that patients …
Read More »People Lending HealthCare Workers Their RV’s For A Place To Stay
Emily Phillips, a mother of three from Celina, Texas, posted on her Facebook asking if anybody had an RV her family could borrow. Her husband is a Doctor and needs to be quarantined from the rest of the family when he is off duty during the coronavirus crisis. Emily Phillips told …
Read More »Medical Students Coming Together To Help Support Health Care Workers
Health care workers nationwide have found themselves on the frontline of an unpredictable battle against the Coronavirus. Many Physicians families need help with child care now that day cares have closed or they need help with getting their children’s school work done since schools are also closed. Some have found …
Read More »First Responders: Tips For Taking Care of Yourself During a Crisis
Being a first responder during a crisis is challenging but rewarding work. To take care of their patients, healthcare providers must be feeling well and thinking clearly. Responders experience high rates of stress during a crisis. According to the CDC, when stress builds up it can cause: Burnout – feelings of …
Read More »Doctors using TV and Social Media To Ask For More Supplies
Covid-19 hospitalizations are increasing, as expected. Doctors, Nurses and health care experts are using television, radio and social media to sound alarms about supply shortages and other serious problems. ER Doctor Stephen Anderson in Auburn, Washington, said on ABC’s “World News Tonight”, “We need ventilators. I have ventilators this morning, …
Read More »Medical Schools Increasing LGBTQ+ Education and Enrollment
Medical schools are increasing education on LGBTQ health issues and pushing to recruit more LGBTQ medical students. Patients often get better care when treated by Doctors more like them. People who identify as other than heterosexual can feel marginalized and will be less likely to seek medical care, contributing to …
Read More »Top U.S. Cities At Risk Of An OB-GYN Shortage
The U.S. healthcare system is facing a shortage of Physicians in many medical specialties and practice areas. But the problem is especially severe in obstetrics and gynecology. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) projects a shortage of up to 8,800 Obstetricians and Gynecologists (OB-GYNs) by 2020, and a …
Read More »Mindfulness Techniques To Help Physicians With Stress
Ronald M. Epstein, M.D., Professor of medicine at the University of Rochester in New York, and a family and palliative care Physician, believes mindfulness is a powerful tool for medical professionals in dealing with personal stress, being more compassionate, and reducing clinical errors. “Anyone whose work involves immense human suffering …
Read More »Specialties With the Highest and Lowest Rates of Burnout
Burnout is a major obstacle for Physicians that affects their happiness, relationships, career, and the care they provide. It has been described as long-term, unresolvable job-related stress that leads to exhaustion, cynicism, feelings of detachment from one’s job responsibilities, and lack of a sense of personal accomplishment. A new triennial …
Read More »What Doctors Need To Know About The Coronavirus
A JAMA Viewpoint says, Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have long been considered inconsequential pathogens, causing the “common cold” in otherwise healthy people. However, in the 21st century, 2 highly pathogenic HCoVs—severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)—emerged from animal reservoirs to cause global epidemics with alarming …
Read More »The Growing Psychiatrist Shortage
The United States is suffering from a growing shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health providers. It is particularly dire in rural regions. 1 in 5 US adults and kids have a mental health or substance abuse issue according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical …
Read More »Electronic Health Records May Be Getting More Time With Doctors Than Patients
A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at about 100 million patient visits to 155,000 U.S. physicians and found they spend an average of 16 minutes and 14 seconds per patient encounter using EHRs, with chart review (33%), documentation (24%) and ordering (17%) accounting for most of the …
Read More »Improving Access To Rural Health Care
Rural communities face many obstacles to accessing quality healthcare. Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational shortcomings, and the isolation of living in remote areas all conspire to create health care disparities and struggles for rural Americans to lead normal, healthy lives. According to the National Rural Health Association, rural …
Read More »U.S. Physician Employment Report Findings
A national research study by Doximity, on the 2019 labor market for Doctors, showed a 5 percent increase in job opportunities for Physicians in the U.S. since 2018. Additional findings from the study include: The top 5 metros where Doctors are most in demand: El Paso, Texas Miami, Florida Cleveland, …
Read More »Medical Students Less Likely To Fill Primary Care Physician Roles
According to new data published by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States will see a shortage of up to nearly 122,000 Physicians by 2032 as demand for Physicians continues to grow faster than supply. An estimated 44,000 of those Doctors are primary care Physicians (PCP). Even …
Read More »This Growing Organization Guides Hispanic Medical Students To A Future In Medicine
Hispanics make up the largest minority group in the U.S. with between 17% and 20% of the total population. But they make up only about 5% of the physician workforce, according to the American Medical Association. In the past 30 years, the number of Hispanic/Latino U.S. physicians per 100,000 people …
Read More »Empathetic Doctors Are More Trusted
Clinical empathy was once dismissively known as “good bedside manner” and traditionally regarded as far less important than technical ability. But as the healthcare industry continues to focus on better patient experiences and higher satisfaction, Physicians work to improve their communication skills and empathy is a key factor of good …
Read More »Practicing As A Correctional Medicine Physician
Becoming a correctional medicine Physician is an interesting option that many are considering. It is ultimately the same as other Physician positions with excellent salaries, good job growth, and great benefits, except you are providing care to patients in a different and unique setting. By working in a correctional facility, …
Read More »More Doctors Getting Medical Licenses In All 50 States To Treat Remote Patients
A small but growing number of Physicians are getting their medical licenses in all 50 states. Telemedicine will allow these Doctors to treat patients in the most remote areas. Telemedicine means Doctors provide medical consultation through the web, smartphone applications, and video conferences. But this practice requires Physicians to have …
Read More »Black Men In White Coats Seeks To Increase The Number of Black Men In Medicine
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the number of African American men enrolled in U.S. medical schools declined from 1978 to 2014, from 542 to 515. Medical schools like the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, are using a video outreach campaign to help inspire underrepresented minority …
Read More »Many Physicians Have A Tough Time Retiring
Most people look forward to the day when they can retire. But surveys show Physicians aren’t too excited about leaving the profession. The average retirement age in the United States is 63. According to a CompHealth survey, on average, respondents intend to retire at 68 years old. The U.S. Census …
Read More »Medical Students With Disabilities Face Barriers in Medical Schools
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine (UCSF) released a publication that explores the current state of medical education for medical students and physicians with disabilities. This report is designed to increase awareness and understanding of the challenges and opportunities …
Read More »Minorities Remain Underrepresented in Medical Schools
Black, Hispanic, and American Indian students remain underrepresented in medical schools, despite increasing efforts to create a diverse physician workforce, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “Recent studies have shown a steady increase in the enrollment of nonwhite …
Read More »States Investigating Severe Pulmonary Disease Linked to Vaping
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently investigating 193 cases of the lung disease reported in 22 states. (CA, CT, IL, IN, IA, MN, MI, NC, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, UT, WI, and additional states pending verification). These were reported between June 28th and August 20th of …
Read More »Doctors Perform First Voice Box Reconstruction
A team of doctors at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, successfully created the world’s first voice box reconstruction. Cooper has breathed through a tracheostomy, a hole in his throat that extends into his windpipe since he was born because he was diagnosed with congenital high airway obstruction syndrome, …
Read More »Mothers in Medicine
Physician mothers feel significant pressure in balancing careers and family especially since many institutions don’t have a culture that is ideal for Doctors who have personal care-giving and parenting responsibilities. “When women take time off for maternity leave, which they absolutely should, … because institutions don’t have sound policies about …
Read More »Improving Doctor Nurse Partnership
In order to provide the best possible patient care, all members of the healthcare team must work in a collaborative manner. Physicians and Nurses are at the forefront of providing care, so their partnership is imperative. Nurses and Physicians can both improve their partnership by trying a few of these …
Read More »Social Media Is Changing Patient Care
Social media in healthcare has exploded. It is transforming patient care as it spreads through many facets of healthcare delivery. A paper by JMIR said that nearly 90 percent of older adults have used social media to seek and share health information. Most hospitals, physicians and even insurance companies now …
Read More »Traits Every Great Physician Has
Physicians have a highly respected career and it takes a huge commitment and hard work to achieve a future in medicine. Besides IQ, what qualities are needed to be a great Doctor? Compassion Doctors need heart, they aren’t robots. Patients respond better to Physicians who are empathetic and engaged. Compassion …
Read More »Diverse Physicians Needed To Improve Health Outcomes
There have been efforts to try and increase the number of minority ethnic groups in science and medicine but, the amount of African American men pursuing and obtaining degrees in such fields has reached a historic low. According to NBC news, in 1986 57 percent of black medical school graduates …
Read More »Small Cars Making A Big Difference For Young Patients
Hospitals are raising spirits and decreasing anxiety in their younger patients by having them drive their own mini car to surgery. Some of the mini cars are equipped with a stereo, which has a variety of preloaded music and an MP3 player, as well as functioning headlights, taillights and dashboard …
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 »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 …
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