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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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 »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, …
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