Category: HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL

Environmentally friendly inhalers double the cost for people with asthma

  • May 11, 2015
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Environmentally friendly asthma inhalers may be good for the atmosphere, but they have nearly doubled what people with asthma pay out of pocket for inhalers. That’s the take-home message from a study led by Dr. Anupam Jena, an assistant professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital. The findings were published online today in JAMA Internal Medicine. In 2008, the FDA banned a class of asthma inhalers that contained ozone-depleting propellants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Depletion of the earth’s ozone layer causes serious risks for humans, including an increased danger of skin cancer. The replacement propellants are more expensive than CFCs. Because more than 25 million people in the U.S. rely on inhalers for quick

A Look at the Impact of IT in Nursing

  • May 11, 2015
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The infographic below was created by Adventist University of Health Sciences. It outlines how technology is being used to raise efficacy in nursing and health industries. As more hospitals implement IT nurses will be able to synchronize information between practices and pharmacies, transferring life-saving prescriptions and data in a matter of seconds. ADU Online RN to BSN Program

Tribal warfare

  • May 11, 2015
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A comment on my post below about unnecessary testing before cataract surgery presents a striking example of one problem in medicine–the inability of specialists from different disciplines to agree on and incorporate best practices in patient care:In my experience this process (pre-op testing prior to cataract surgery) is completely driven by anesthesiology. At my institution we have fought to change this process to no avail so recently we started having topical days without any anesthesia staff present. We give the patient a mild oral anti-anxiety medication (if needed) and do the short case under topical conditions. Without anesthesia monitoring the cost is even lower.

Health Spending Unscathed In Shrinking Economy

  • May 11, 2015
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This morning’s terrible revision to first quarter GDP – from an initial estimate of 0.2 percent real growth to a real loss of 0.7 percent – confirms that health spending stands over our weak economy like a colossus. In the initial estimate, personal consumption spending on health services increased by $23 billion (chained 2009 dollars). Today’s second estimate reports $24.2 billion (Table 3, line 17). So, we can be pretty confident that the folks at the Bureau of Economic Analysis who do this good work have mastered how to measure spending on health services. This emphasizes how much of our prosperity is being devoured by a health system that is still driving everyone crazy, post-Obamacare. The real drop in GDP was a loss of $30.6 billion. Quarter over quarter figures

Fixing problems with cell lines

  • May 11, 2015
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Dr. Collins and NIGMS Director Dr. Jon Lorsch author an article in Science Magazine addressing cell line misidentification in research and suggesting best practices for authentication and verification. Science Magazine. December 19, 2014.