Topic: Medical
If you can't join them, beat them, seems to be the approach two hospitals in Tennessee are taking to plans for a new ER facility in their area. Or maybe they're just trying not to lose market share in ... moreThe American Medical Association and American Dental Association are among some of the more secretive medical nonprofits when it comes to disclosing ties to drug and device companies, according to the ... more
The Florida Medical Association sent a letter of "no confidence" to the American Medical Association on Tuesday after the AMA endorsed healthcare reform, but failed to get action on top priorities suc ... more
A New Jersey doctor who duped Medicaid out of nearly $2 million in a fake physician scheme was arrested by federal agents this week and charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and money lau ... more
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford will appeal a California Department of Public Health fine of $250,000 for alleged late reporting of a data security breach, according to a statement rele ... more
Over at The HealthCare Blog (THCB), Michael Millenson, president of Health Quality Advisors and author of the critically acclaimed Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Infor ... more
"Atomic medicine": a phrase to inspire optimism, awe, or uneasy fear, depending on which decades of the 20th century you spent being young. The word "atomic" has a great deal of weight and a long and ... more
Summary: Health care reformers have been promoting access to primary care as the answer to lifting the quality of care. If we had more primary care physicians, patients would be able to see them on a ... more
Independent community hospitals, like Quincy Medical Center in Massachusetts, are struggling to stay separate from corporate ownership despite financial hardships. Because they're not part of a larger ... more
The Massachusetts chapter of National Organization for Women and 1199SEIU are ratcheting up pressure on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy to resign. A joint statement issued by Massac ... more
Most of us ignore the homeless at their own peril. We may drive or stride by them without penalty, writes Ron Shinkman in a guest commentary for FierceHealthFinance. Yet imagine that every time a home ... more
Independent community hospitals, like Quincy Medical Center in Massachusetts, are struggling to stay separate from corporate ownership despite financial hardships. Because they're not part of a larger ... more
Northeast Georgia Medical Center got the go ahead on Wednesday from the Georgia Supreme Court to build a hospital in south Hall County.The decision came after four years of appeals that wended their w ... more
South Shore Hospital will not send letters to alert 800,000 people that their personal, health and/or financial information may have been on computer back-up files that disappeared in July, according ... more
Hospitals are the only large enterprises I know that require their most skilled and frequently highest paid employees, physicians, to act as data entry clerks. This policy made some sense in the case ... more
Since 2006, as part of the research supporting The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness and SharpBrains €™ market reports, we have interviewed dozens of leading-edge scientists and experts. Below are s ... more
Industrial designer Antonio Aguilar #39;s #39;Rescue Station #39; is an efficient, flexible and handy stretcher aimed to reduce underground casualties. Bringing and providing medical assistance to ... more
Researchers have developed a revolutionary, noninvasive way of quickly predicting the future health of premature infants, an innovation that could better target specialized medical intervention and re ... more
Southern-based hospital chain Capella Healthcare eliminated two top executive positions at one of its hospitals last week in an attempt to usher in an era of sharing resources, according to a statemen ... more
Diagnostic errors are the outcasts of the patient safety movement. Patient safety advocates have long neglected them, giving them far less attention than adverse events such as infections and medicati ... more
A federal grand jury indicted a former ER doctor at Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colo., on 655 controlled-substance and conspiracy counts, U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh and Drug Enforcement ... more
For the past several years, policymakers have linked physicians' fear of malpractice suits to the rise in defensive medicine, and assumed these forces were contributing to rising healthcare costs.All ... more
A new study of genetic variants that influence peripheral arterial disease has been made possible by leveraging electronic medical records (EMR). Researchers concluded that EMR-based data, used across ... more
What peak oil? Why an oil glut is ahead FORTUNE -- In May, less than a month after the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, a key milestone was achieved with little notice: ... more
This is a short guest blog by Dr. Bruce Beckwith, Chief of Pathology, North Shore Medical Center, Salem, MA. Dr. Beckwith will be providing more details about DICOM in a talk at Pathology Informatics ... more
Medical robots and simulations are high tech solutions to health care problems and their sheer number and range of application is amazing. From training caregivers to assisting in rehabilitation an ... more
Babies born to mothers with HIV have a much smaller risk of getting the virus themselves if medical personnel administer preventive drugs, such as nevirapine, at birth to the moms and their newborn ... more
An investigation by the British Medical Journal into the top-selling diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) raises concerns about its safety and the whole system by which drugs are evaluated, regulated ... more
Evidence shows that more people are seeking routine care from hospital emergency departments, a trend that may grow under health care reform. A new study shows that about 17 percent of all visits to h ... more
Guest Post by Dr. Chris Johnson See his website (www.chrisjohnsonmd.com) #0160;Summary: Physicians under 40 are not the only ones adapting to EMRS. Veteran physicians also are making the transition. ... more
Summary: Below, a story from Pulse €”Voice from the Heart of Medicine, an online magazine that publishes true first-person stories and poems about the reality of illness and healing. The story below ... more
A great deal of medical research into aging is built upon a foundation of correlation studies: what can we identify as more often occurring for patients who suffer from a particular age-related condit ... more
Girard (Kan.) Medical Center has come up with a novel way to help fund a new $297,000 imaging system: Anyone who donates money to the facility earmarked for the new Picture Archival Communication syst ... more
The New York Times reports on a push in medicine: Age-related muscle loss is as bad as bone loss and should also be labeled and treated as a disease. In addition, geriatric specialists, in particular, ... more
The New York Times reports on a push in medicine: Age-related muscle loss is as bad as bone loss and should also be labeled and treated as a disease. In addition, geriatric specialists, in particular, ... more
Many parents, health care professionals, and educators agree that there is a pressing need to develop effective treatments for ADHD to complement or substitute for traditional medication and behavior ... more
Improving the performance of service organisations and enhancing the well-being of communities are critical challenges in the field of public health. In this paper, we will discuss issues relating to ... more
The study compared changes over time in health expenditures across race and ethnicity, using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Changes from 1996-1997 to 2004-2005 were compared between n ... more
Metformin is one of the known calorie restriction mimetics amongst drugs presently in use by the medical establishment. A calorie restriction mimetic is a drug that can reproduce some of the beneficia ... more
To settle a civil rights complaint, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will pay for extended hours at a clinic and give door-to-door rides for non-emergency care per a voluntary agreement wit ... more
A Maryland doctor who has been performing abortions in the state without a license is being investigated by the Maryland Board of Physicians and police after one of his patients filed a report followi ... more
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering a petition to limit residents' long work hours.The petition, which is the latest salvo in the ongoing debate about residents hours, cal ... more
Although the results of the health-insurance reform passed earlier this year will take years to fully work out, there #8217;s one way your small business might be able to save on health insurance righ ... more
It likely comes as no surprise that many common household chemicals and medical products as well as industrial and agricultural chemicals, may irritate human skin temporarily or, worse, cause perman ... more
Health professionals have a responsibility to respect and support patients who use cannabis for medicinal purposes, but must stay within the law and follow professional guidance at all times. UK resea ... more
A survey of emergency medical services agencies from across the country found wide variation in perceptions of workplace safety culture -- providing a tool that might point to potential patient safety ... more
The existence of chronic Lyme disease is an issue of sharp debate within the medical community. Many doctors are concerned with the potential dangers associated with the prolonged and intensive use of ... more
The full board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) failed to stand up to CEO Paul Levy after complaints first surfaced in 2003-04 about his improper relationship with a subordinate, accord ... more
The SENS Foundation recently teamed up with InnoCentive to spur movement in the development of AGE-breakers for human use. I'd mentioned this over at the Longevity Meme, but the initiative seems worth ... more
'Smart materials' process promises to revolutionize manufacturing of medical devices, other products
Summary: Rick Scott, the former hospital executive who is now a candidate to become Governor of Florida epitomizes the power that concentrated wealth now has to influence American politics €”and, perh ... more
A bona fide morality favours a consistent free market capitalist system of law. If there are dangers and temptations arising from such a society, let the various institutions that can develop among fr ... more
In a controversial decision that is likely to cause a national uproar, Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital has agreed to financially assist dialysis provider Fresenius Medical Services to offer care ... more
A lawsuit filed by J. Michael Mastej, a former hospital executive who was fired in Oct. 2007, accuses Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates (NYSE: HMA) of violating federal laws by bribing d ... more
Some states are taking a two-faced approach to the healthcare overhaul law.Seven states are suing to overturn the healthcare reform law, saying it's unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports. Bu ... more
Most patients who show up at hospital emergency rooms don't want to be treated by just any white coat.Eighty percent of ER patients expect to see a physician, according to an article published August' ... more
Scientists have demonstrated the synthesis of nanosize biological particles with the potential to fight cancer and other illnesses. The research introduces new approaches that are considered "green" n ... more
Baptist Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., laid off 186 people, or 5 percent of a total staff of more than 3,700, over the past week. The cuts were part of an initiative to cut overall spending by at l ... more
In a case that underscores the importance of one of the most basic patient safety requirements--correct patient identification--a male car crash victim allegedly was misidentified as a female cancer p ... more
Hospitals that are private/for-profit, have at least 500 beds, or those in metropolitan areas are more likely to see patients with healthcare-associated infections than other hospitals, according to a ... more
We are facing a major shortage of medical technologists in this country (see: Comments on the Medical Technologist Shortage; The Continuing Shortage of Medical Technologists: a Challenge for Hospital ... more
Scientists have identified a genetic basis for determining the severity of allergic asthma in experimental models of the disease. The study may help in the search for future therapeutic strategies to ... more
A computational tool was developed with the aim of evaluating radiation exposure levels corresponding to patients and other exposed people, such as medical staff or chaperones, during typical nuclear ... more
Eight Baltimore-area nonprofit hospitals gave their top executives hefty seven-figure salaries, club memberships and financial planning as part of pay packages in 2009, reports the Baltimore Sun. The ... more
In the Darwinian world of healthcare today, public hospitals may not be fit enough to survive. As standalone hospitals, they don't have the resources to upgrade and meet new requirements, the Wall Str ... more
The medicinal use of cannabis has been debated by clinicians, researchers, legislators and the public at large for many years as an alternative to standard pharmaceutical treatments for pain, which ma ... more
Over the past few years, venture capitalists have made a lot of investments in the biomedical sector. A recent blog post by CB Insights explained that biomedical deals have grown dramatically since 1 ... more
I previously raised the issue of an ill-conceived project at UC Berkeley whereby incoming freshmen were asked to undergo genetic testing using oral mucosa cells (see: UC Berkeley Offers DNA Testing to ... more
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will add 500 jobs this fiscal year despite a low operating margin, the Associated Press and Becker's Hospital Review report.The announcement came on the hee ... more
Los Angeles County supervisors requested access to two years' worth of peer-reviewed cases at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports.The county officials' interest in digging in ... more
The most recent Health Wonk Review, hosted by Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters, raises provocative questions about making health care reform a reality. You €™ll find Paduda €™s round-up of some of t ... more
Demographic researchers Leonid Gavrilov and Natalia Gavrilova pointed me to a powerpoint of their latest presentation, titled How Long Will We Live in the 21st Century?: We are pleased to share with ... more
This is a presentation by Dr. David Korowicz from Feasta, given at the Oil Drum/ASPO Conference at Alcatraz, Italy in June 2009. It can be downloaded here: Things fall apart: Some thoughts on complexi ... more
The religious beliefs of a doctor can play a part in end-of-life care discussions for terminally ill patients, a British study published this week in the Journal of Medical Ethics determined. Doctors ... more
Marin General Hospital Corp. filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Marin County, Calif., Thursday accusing Sutter Health of illegally siphoning off $120 million of the hospital's money from 2006 on, th ... more
Patients and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. may have been exposed to high levels of radiation, WAMU reports, because two packages of radioactive material sat under a coun ... more
Realistic stem cell therapies to replace diseased or damaged tissue may still be years away, but researchers have uncovered a promising new use for these undifferentiated cells: they can be programmed ... more
The method of processing two algorithms within a single workflow, and hence the combined method, is called as hybrid computing. We propose a data mining framework comprising of two stages, namely clus ... more
This paper offers a critique of the increasing commercialisation of healthcare. It argues for a gift economy in which patients are respected for their knowledge and capacity to help control their own ... more
Summary: When I wrote Money-Driven Medicine, the Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much (Harper Collins, 2006), #0160; Rick Scott stood out as one of the more memorable characters in a #0160; rogues €™ ... more
Five years after Hurricane Katrina barreled its way through New Orleans, flooding hospitals, the healthcare industry has yet to recover, WAPT reports.More than 80,000 residents in eastern New Orleans ... more
Texas Medical Center has gone off the grid with a new clean energy power plant that will save it money and cut carbon dioxide emissions, according to the Houston Business Journal.The new combined heat ... more
This is a presentation by Dr. David Korowicz from Feasta, given at the Oil Drum/ASPO Conference at Alcatraz, Italy in June 2009. It can be downloaded here: Things fall apart: Some thoughts on complexi ... more
I have posted a number of previous notes on the topics of preventive, predictive, personalized, and participatory medicine (see: Preventive and Predictive Medicine as Components of the Healthcare Cont ... more
Cryonics isn't a service you can just sign up for and forget, hoping it works out if you need it. That cryonics requires preparation, thought, and a modest ongoing investment of time in order to work ... more
Use of nicotine can advance the development of breast cancer, a study published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concluded. While lead author Dr. Yuan-Soon Ho said that the re ... more
Researchers have developed extremely small microneedles that can be used to deliver medically-relevant nanoscale dyes called quantum dots into skin -- an advance that opens the door to new techniques ... more
Physicians should not let their frustration over the still-unchanged sustainable growth rate formula distract them from the improvements that healthcare reform delivers to their patients and the prof ... more
Pill bottles look as though they were made to be hidden from sight, yet Medical Glassware changes all of that. Designed to create an aesthetically pleasing encasement that brings routine medication i ... more
Last week I had my first visit with my new primary care doctor. I picked him based on recommendations (plus he €™s one of the few that accepts my insurance), and also because he seemed to be an eager ... more
Consumer advocates, including Democratic lawmakers and a few Republicans, have won the battle over whether the Department of Health and Human Services should tighten up its standard for notifying pati ... more
Smartphones enable patients to upload "observations of daily living" to physicians in order to manage chronic medical conditions, FierceMobileHealthcare reports. But it's clear that the medical commun ... more
Overutilization of medical imaging services exposes patients to unnecessary radiation and adds to health care costs, according to a special report that calls on radiologists to spearhead a collaborati ... more
Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells, tiny organelles churning away to turn food into ATP, the molecule used to transport energy used in cellular processes. Mitochondria were once symbiotic ... more
Roche Holding... said it will buy closely held BioImagene for $100 million, helping the Swiss drug company to extend its diagnostics business (see: Roche to Buy BioImagene, U.S. Diagnostics Firm). As ... more
The California Nurses Associated filed a class-action lawsuit against Sutter Health and California Pacific Medical Center last Wednesday for banning the hiring of Filipino RNs. It also filed a complai ... more
Two employees were fired from an Iowa hospital for allegedly looking through patients' medical records purely for personal interest, reports the Des Moines Register. Krystal Selby, a patient-orders co ... more
Weak federal oversight of tube design makes it all too easy for tubes with different functions to get mixed up in hospitals, harming patients, the New York Times reports. When the wrong connections ar ... more
There is no question is my mind that nearly all corporate and individual email accounts will soon be managed in the cloud, a model that is referred to as cloud mail. This will be a major change for ma ... more
In response to yesterday #39;s note, Infopathic provided us with a key piece of intelligence via a comment -- the status of Epic #39;s LIS:The Epic solution for EMR has has indeed been judged to be su ... more
First of all, let me dismiss the idea that there is much room for debate about whether patients should be allowed to review their own medical records. HIPAA gave them the right to read, and even amend ... more
I raised the topic of Epic #39;s LIS, Beaker, in a recent note (see: Introducing the Epic Laboratory Information System (LIS); It #39;s Called Beaker). Now comes another unverified piece of news about ... more
I came across a recent interview of Dr. Peter Stetson, CMIO, Columbia Doctors, in which he discusses, in part, the "next generation " of electronic health records (EHRs) (see: HIStalk Interviews Pet ... more
The current norm for medical school lectures, and it seems for many undergraduate programs as well, is to make all lectures available on the web in the form of PowerPoint presentations. Frequently, th ... more
I have just discovered PathologyLinks (Eric #39;s Links) by way of a referral to Lab Soft News. It #39;s a compilation of approximately 230 separate links (there were so many that I lost count) with r ... more
Contract research organizations (CROs) such as Covance and Charles River, particularly those with expertise in clinical and anatomic pathology, have been in the forefront of efforts to develop global ... more
Pathology Informatics 2010 will take place on September 19-22, 2010, at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. This conference has been formed from a merger of APIII, held primarily in Pittsburgh fo ... more
Think quickly when I say "innovation " in relation to healthcare. What types of organizations come quickly to your mind. Hospitals? No. The pharmaceutical industry? No. I personally think of sectors ... more
Pharmacies and pharmacists seem to be evolving into neighborhood healthcare centers. I have posted previous notes about this phenomenon (see: Local Pharmacies Emerge as Centers for Care of Diabetics; ... more
Cardio-vascular diseases are the number one killer in the world. As an alternative to common treatment methods the installation of specific-purpose stents into the damaged blood vessel could be used i ... more
Due to the ongoing miniaturisation in industrial sectors like automotive, electronics or medical, the development of new manufacturing processes which are suitable for micro system technologies gains ... more
Twenty million medical scans and treatments are done each year that require radioactive isotopes and scientists today described a global shortage of these life-saving materials that could jeopardize p ... more
Having a problem determining how to deliver your services in a way that consistently satisfies your customers? Maybe the trouble lies in how the solution is framed. A suggestion from Lance Bettencou ... more
Although the medical community has already accepted that colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is cost effective and saves lives, researchers have found that computed tomography colonography (CTC or virtu ... more
A man who allegedly tried to bribe a New York hospital employee into admitting hopeful doctors to her hospital's residency program pleaded not guilty to a slew of charges in a Manhattan courtroom earl ... more
Add MetroWest Medical Center in suburban Boston to the list of hospitals that allow patients to avoid long ER waits by texting in to learn the wait time, the Boston Globe reports.To use the service, p ... more
Researchers report that physicians who use an automated, electronic medical record tracking system to follow up on patients with an abnormal Pap test could increase the number of women who achieved di ... more
Back-office automation and process improvements have rarely been a high priority for U.S. hospitals, writes Jim McDowell, senior director for healthcare insight and industry strategy at Oracle Corp. i ... more
Medical researchers in the UK have made a significant advance in the treatment of cervical cancer. They have demonstrated that the use of a particular drug in collaboration with radiotherapy gives sig ... more
Summary: #0160; Could we bring our nation €™s health care bill down from 17% of GDP to 12%? An intriguing study from Milliman, the independent consulting and actuarial firm, says €ťyes. €ť Looking at ... more
Ketamine--a powerful anesthetic for humans and animals that lists hallucinations among its side effects and therefore is often abused under the name Special K--delivers rapid relief to chronically dep ... more
City commissioners in Tarpon Springs, Fla., voted earlier this week to allow hiring to be based on religion at Helen Ellis Hospital, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The vote, which was 5-0, bri ... more
How much should a "never" event, like a retained foreign object, cost a hospital?In a case a federal judge in Denver is hearing, Richard Kellar, an Army veteran from Aurora, Colo., is seeking compensa ... more
If you were given a free hand to plan how your life will end--your last weeks, days, hours and minutes--what would you choose? Would you, for example, want to remain in great shape right up until the ... more
Death used to be a simple affair: either a person rsquo;s heart was beating, or it was not. That clarity faded years ago when heroic medical technology started to keep hearts beating in shy;definitely ... more
City commissioners in Tarpon Springs, Fla., voted earlier this week to allow hiring to be based on religion at Helen Ellis Hospital, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The vote, which was 5-0, bri ... more
A leaky product development pipeline is hampering the country's ability to ensure a steady output of new medical countermeasures, such as medications, vaccines, equipment and supplies needed for healt ... more
(TrendHunter.com) With increasing the efficiency of medical diagnostics in mind, Brian Perry has designed this Medical Diagnostic Glove to assist medical professionals in treating patients quickly in ... more
(TrendHunter.com) Considering posters for this kind of topic can either be shocking or gory, I'd say that the ad campaign for Organ Donation at the AUB Medical Center is pretty tame. However, that's ... more
In a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine, experts write that medical professionals "must ensure that rapidly evolving and multiplying genomic technologies are responsibly harnessed and ... more
Over at the New Republic, Jon Cohn reports that the Affordable Care Act gives Kathleen Sebelius great latitude in regulating insurers. And Cohn thinks that she is likely to use it. €śIt #39;s not imp ... more
Infectious tropical diseases such as river blindness and trachoma can be compelling targets around which to rally government and community campaigns to combat these scourges . But are these progra ... more
Despite a dramatic decrease in the number of malpractice lawsuits filed in Los Angeles County from 2002 (354) to 2007 (107), supervisors in the county believe health officials can bring that number do ... more
(TrendHunter.com) Intelligent pills, air-purifying phones and nurse robots. Today we hunt DIY HEALTHCARE - Sprint Firsts in Medical Technology. With public health care continuing to be an issue in ... more
What obvious change is causing more teen ear damage? Researchers compared hearing loss evaluated in two national surveys, one conducted in 1988-1994 and the other in 2005-2006. ''In the initial assess ... more
From the Jewish Daily Forward: €śIf you test positive for something and go online and start reading, you have to know what €™s accurate information and what isn €™t, €ť said Rhonda Buyers, executiv ... more
Health care system delay may increase risk of death for heart patients receiving reperfusion therapy
(TrendHunter.com) These Diane Von Furstenberg Hospital Gowns are much more stylish than typical medical scrubs. The fashion guru has designed hospital gowns for the Cleveland Clinic, a hospital in Cl ... more
More than 100 pages of medical records related to a veteran's heart condition and benefit claims went missing, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. George Wincapaw, a 63-year-old Vietnam War vetera ... more
A group of former employees of the now-closed St. Vincent rsquo;s Hospital in New York City and community activists say hospital officials exaggerated the facility rsquo;s debt, while frittering milli ... more
In its final rule for "meaningful use" of EMRs, CMS defined clinical decision support as technology that gives healthcare professionals "general and person-specific information, intelligently filtered ... more
Courtesy of the University of California, Davis, Center for Neuroscience What should everyone learn about the brain? At the national level, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (A ... more
Medical science has known for some time that the direction of a bone fracture depends on how quickly the bone is compressed. If the bone is squeezed slowly, the break proceeds cross-wise. If compress ... more
The University of Michigan's program of full disclosure and compensation for medical errors resulted in a decrease in new claims for compensation (including lawsuits), time to claim resolution and low ... more
Bigger does not always mean better, according to some healthcare reform observers.Some argue that accountable care organizations (ACOs)--those networks of healthcare providers that are designed to cut ... more
The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved plans for a new 12-story, 424-bed university hospital at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas that's slated to open in 2015, according to a ... more
Roughly $300 billion is spent each year on emergency and hospital care for patients who don't take their medications as prescribed. To help keep those patients on the right track, more pharmacies thro ... more
Summary: #0160; Some optimistic liberals have begun to suggest that if conservatives manage to block the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , this #0160; could open the door to better reform legislation.Why th ... more
Fun with cell engineering. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute funds a lot of cool stuff btw. Therapeutic cells, such as those implanted in the body to battle cancer or replenish devastated population ... more
Advocacy for longevty research is a balancing act informed by ongoing developments in raising funds, actual progress in the fields of interest, and the growth of the community of supporters. In an ide ... more
The biological and medical applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) are increasing fast. Therefore, the reduction of toxicity of SPION, by using various surface coatings, has ... more
The development of technology and the internet has created a revolution in the healthcare domain, with regard to the implementation of electronic medical records using web-based applications, such as ... more
Persuading influential medical centers to adopt electronic medical records helps speed adoption by their neighboring hospitals, according to a new article. ... more
The use of antibiotics increased in response to cuts in out-of-pocket prices after Medicare Part D went into effect, according to a study published in the latest edition of the Archives of Internal Me ... more
Medical students would like to use video games in med school, according to findings from a survey published online in BMC Medical Education. Virtually all of the students surveyed (98 percent) like th ... more
As if growing concern about medical identity theft due to the online storage of records wasn't bad enough, thousands of Boston-area patients now apparently need to worry about their paper records fall ... more
A recent h+ Magazine article by Ben Goertzel provides a good outline of a point of view that is quite common in the healthy life extension community. There's a fair overlap between transhumanist group ... more
Poor kidney function is common among injection drug users, particularly those with HIV, according to a new study. The results suggest that clinicians should monitor the kidney function of HIV-infected ... more
After the House voted this week to approve a $26 billion aid package to states €”$16 billion of which will go toward helping keep strained Medicaid programs limping along €”Rep. Joe Barton, of Texas, ... more
An elevated resting heart rate that develops or persists during follow-up is associated with a significantly increased risk of death, whether from heart disease or other causes, researchers from the R ... more
A Chicago-area cardiologist was sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing $13 million from Medicare and more than 30 other public and private healthcare insurance programs over the course ... more
The U.S. has made some progress in fighting Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitals, according to findings from a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medic ... more
While medical tourism continues to rise in popularity, as we've reported several times over the last few years, potential international patients may think twice before booking their next vacation oper ... more
Scientists are reporting development of a substance to enhance the visibility of skin cancer cells during scans with an advanced medical imaging system that combines ultrasound and light. The hybrid s ... more
Emergency departments are increasingly serving as the safety net for medically underserved patients, especially adults with Medicaid, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Associati ... more
Two Texas nurses who were fired and charged for filing a complaint against a doctor whose medical practices they deemed improper will split a $750,000 settlement reached in a lawsuit against the physi ... more
Medical researchers have developed an easy way for people to assess their risk of having diabetes. ... more
On Tuesday, President Obama quickly signed into law a bill that will give $26 billion to struggling states. Although most media reports are focusing on the aid for teachers, nearly two-thirds of the m ... more
Exercise correlates with a reduced risk of suffering dementia in later life, just as excess visceral fat is correlated with an increased risk of later developing dementia. The underlying mechanisms ar ... more
Although some reports have suggested a link between the use of oral bisphosphonates (drugs that prevent the loss of bone mass) and esophageal cancer, analysis of medical data from more than 80,000 pat ... more
A new technology enabling tiny machines called micro electromechanical systems to "self-calibrate" could make possible super-accurate and precise sensors for crime-scene forensics, environmental testi ... more
Church-owned health systems deliver significantly better quality and more efficient care than secular not-for-profit systems, according to a study released yesterday by Thomson Reuters. Investor-owned ... more
(TrendHunter.com) The 'Doctor Web MD' parody video from College Humor is hilariously accurate. The premise of the video is essentially to make fun of all the people who use WebMD to diagnose their me ... more
After two days of deliberation, a federal jury found Arkansas doctor Randeep Mann guilty of planning a bomb attack that nearly killed the state medical board's chairman, Associated Press reports. Mann ... more
Atlantic Hotter Than Before Katrina, Boosting Storm Forecasts William Gray, who pioneered seasonal hurricane forecasting at Colorado State University 26 years ago, rings a bell each Aug. 20 and tells ... more
As hospitals struggle to integrate electronic medical records , some have already instituted electronic drug ordering systems to help reduce prescription errors . But not all so-called computerized ... more
I can #8217;t help but wonder if these guys are forced to blog about the FDA as some kind of punishment. That said, they are doing a brilliant job so far. Today #8217;s post features an extended riff ... more
After reportedly allowing an unlicensed medical assistant to inject patients with unnecessary pain injections that were billed to Medicare as more expensive nerve blocks, Dr. Robert Ritchea of Phenix ... more
Instead of treating a 60-year-old stabbing victim after his initial arrival at St. Mary Medical Center's ER, nurses and other staff took photos of the man and posted them on Facebook, the Los Angeles ... more
The number of emergency department visits in the U.S. increased by 23 percent from 1997 to 2007, topping off at 117 million visits in 2007 according to a new National Health Statistics report. The dat ... more
The power of search engines is applied to health-care data. ... more
Ambulatory investigations have become more and more important as many medical or physiological investigations that can be performed under the real situations of daily life. To perform complex physiolo ... more
Yesterday, a commenter wrote: If you only had 20 minutes, what would you do to convince an intelligent (college educated or professional) audience of the significance of life extension beyond 120 yea ... more
Using deep brain stimulation on patients with early signs of Alzheimer's disease is safe and may help improve memory, medical researchers say. ... more
With increasing numbers of patients presenting to the ED, it seems inevitable that staff could miss something critical. Such was the case with Jean Law, a nurse at Florida's Baptist Medical Center Sou ... more
A small but growing number of emergency physicians and nurses are emphasizing the importance of integrating palliative care into the ED to create a more patient-centered approach, Slate.com reports. A ... more
It's been a little over six months since Apple's iPad debuted to much fanfare. Not long after its debut, speculation about what the gadget could do for healthcare was rampant. In February, Dr. Ben Ale ... more
For the first half of 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights has reported 119 instances of medical record breaches which have put at risk some 5 million patient ... more
The wealth or poverty of kidney disease patients' communities impacts the quality of care patients receive before starting dialysis, according to a new study. The results suggest that medical professi ... more
Health Wonk Review offers a summary of some of the most provocative health care posts of the preceding two weeks. The newest edition went up today, and it €™s hosted by the €śDisease Management Care ... more
Software Services Outsourcing (SSO) industry has grown rapidly in the last few decades in undertaking software projects. Projects are grouped with several other projects according to some similarity, ... more
> After Jerry Douthett of Rockford, Ill. passed out drunk and his dog chewed part of his big toe off, he learned he had diabetes. The dog, Kiko, was probably drawn to the sweet smell of decaying flesh ... more
The number of cyberchondriacs--people who use the Internet to look up health-related topics--has more than tripled (50 million vs. 175 million) since 1998 and 2010, according to a new Harris Poll. The ... more
Cash-strapped governors can expect another $16.1 billion to help pay Medicaid bills next year, Politico reports.The extension funds are part of a $26 billion aid package the Senate okayed for state an ... more
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a probe of CareCredit, a division of General Electric Co.'s GE consumer finance unit for misleading users on the terms of its healthcare credit card, th ... more
Florida has warned Floridians not to by bogus health insurance plans sold by the Association of Independent Managers (AIM). As many as 1,800 consumers may have already purchased the fake health plans, ... more
Computer scientists and biochemists two years ago launched an ambitious project harnessing the brainpower of computer gamers to solve medical problems. Results now show more than 55,000 players have p ... more
As the medical community searches for better vaccines and ways to deliver them, one scientist believes he has discovered a new approach to boosting the body's response to vaccinations. He found that t ... more
Chronic pain is a serious medical problem, afflicting approximately 20 percent of adults. Some individuals are more susceptible than others, and the basis for this remains largely unknown. In a new st ... more
In a ruling against the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia issued a procedural decision to allow a suit filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cucinelli against the Affordable Care ... more
Two more California hospitals have confirmed that they overexposed patients to radiation during CT perfusion scans, reports the Los Angeles Times. Although Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and Ba ... more