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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi highlights the health care reform plan at the Capitol on Thursday.
Washington (CNN) -- Democratic congressional leaders unveiled their long-awaited $940 billion compromise health care plan Thursday, setting the stage for a vote Sunday.
Here are highlights:
• New health insurance subsidies would be provided to families of four making up to $88,000 annually, or 400 percent of the federal poverty level.
• Health insurance exchanges would be created to make it easier for small businesses, the self-employed and the unemployed to pool resources and purchase less expensive coverage.
The scope of this bill is huge, it is a complete overhaul, not of our medical system, but of the way we think about health care, treating care as a human right, rather than a fortunate circumstance.
A store owner sells cigarettes to a customer in San Francisco in this file photo. New FDA rules will ban the sale of cigarettes to children under 18 and will require an ID check for sales. Also off limits will be free samples, advertising near schools, tobacco company logos on clothing, and sponsorship of sports or entertainment events.
(Getty Images)
The Obama administration is primed to begin enforcing the first nationwide tobacco restrictions, broad new rules that, in just a few weeks, will make once-common marketing practices a federal offense.
The Food and Drug Administration's regulations will, for the first time, impose a uniform nationwide ban on the sale of cigarettes to children under 18 and will require an ID check for sales. Also off limits will be free samples, advertising near schools, tobacco company logos on clothing and sponsorship of sports or entertainment events.
If we can just keep kids from smoking until they learn how bad it is for their health, we are ahead of the game, and these new measures will certainly help keep children away from this addicting drug.
A nurse prepares a H1N1 flu vaccine shot at a hospital in Budapest November 20, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Karoly Arvai
(Reuters) - China's Health Ministry is probing a report in a domestic newspaper that faulty vaccines in northern Shanxi province were responsible for killing four children and making dozens of others sick.
China has been beset by a series of product safety scandals over the past few years. At least six children died in 2008 after drinking milk contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine.
In 2003 and 2005, three Chinese children suffered severe brain damage after being vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis. Their parents blamed a substandard vaccine, something the government denied.
In the latest case, the China Economic Times reported four children died and at least 74 others became sick in the poor inland province of Shanxi, after getting vaccinated against illnesses including encephalitis, hepatitis B and rabies.
At the very end of the article, we learn what happened to the Chinese version of the FDA chief: “In 2007, China executed former drug and food safety chief Zheng Xiaoyu. His misdeeds led to approval of many medicines that should have been blocked or taken off the market, including six fake drugs, a court found.”
Patients rest at a TB hospital in Gauhati, India. India and China accounted for almost half of all drug-resistant TB cases in 2008. Photograph: Anupam Nath/AP
Strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to the normal drug treatments are spreading across the globe, according to the latest report from the World Health Organisation.
The report shows that one in four cases in parts of Russia are drug-resistant. The WHO estimates that 440,000 people worldwide had multi-drug-resistant forms of the disease (MDR-TB) in 2008, the last year for which there are complete figures, and that a third of them died. MDR-TB is defined as cases in which the two most commonly used and most effective drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin, do not kill the bacteria causing the disease.
Where are we on the search for a TB vaccine? This is a very old disease and getting worse, perhaps it is time to step up the work on a vaccine. Do kids still get tested for TB exposure in school?
This undated photo provided March 18, 2010 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission shows a high chair made by Graco Children's Products, Inc. The government on Thursday announced a voluntary recall of some 1.2 million Graco high chairs, saying they pose a fall hazard to children. The regulatory agency said "screws holding the front legs of the high chair can loosen and fall out" and said cracking plastic brackets can cause the high chair to "tip over unexpectedly." (AP Photo//Consumer Product Safety Commission)
WASHINGTON—The government is announcing a recall of 1.2 million high chairs it says pose a fall hazard to children.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall Thursday involving the product made by Graco Children's Products Inc., of Atlanta.
As usual, the manufacturer is acting good about the recall, saying they have a fix for the problem. What can we do about better testing for baby products, we need to reduce the risks to our most defenseless members of society.
A GlaxoSmithKline laboratory in Dresden, Germany. With government contracts already signed, worldwide, with pharmaceutical firms like GSK, the WHO’s “pandemic” declaration triggered massive sales of the H1N1 vaccine.
Swine flu kept the world in suspense for almost a year. A massive vaccination campaign was mounted to put a stop to the anticipated pandemic. Here, students receive H1N1 vaccinations at a hospital in Suining, China, near the end of 2009.
Swine flu kept the world in suspense for almost a year. A massive vaccination campaign was mounted to put a stop to the anticipated pandemic. But, as it turned out, it was a relatively harmless strain of the flu virus. How, and why, did the world overreact? A reconstruction. By SPIEGEL staff.
At first things did not look good for Edgar. The five-year-old boy had a high fever. He’d lost his appetite, his throat was burning and his entire body ached.
The people in the Mexican village of La Gloria were quick to blame the pigs. They had long been convinced that the animals were a curse. In the nearby town of Perote, half a million hogs were being fattened for slaughter. The wind carried the stench through the narrow streets of the surrounding villages. No one was very surprised when Edgar Hernandez fell ill.
But then, after only four days, the boy recovered. His illness disappeared as quickly as it had started. It turned out to be nothing more than the flu, and the people of La Gloria soon forgot about it.
A detailed look at how the pandemic that never was actually played out across the world, a somewhat skeptical look in my opinion. Isn’t it just remotely possible that the vaccine did the job and gave us herd immunity?
BARACK OBAMA and allied supporters of Democratic health-care plans say that one reason the system needs change is that the uninsured find care anyway—via the emergency room—driving costs up. But is it true? A recently released study by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation found that when demographic factors (including people's reports of their own health) are controlled for, the uninsured visit the ER no more than those with private insurance. Robert Samuelson says Mr Obama has been peddling a bogus argument.
I would not hesitate to use the ER, insurance or no insurance, but I think services there often go unpaid. If one can’t afford premiums, what makes you think they pay any medical bills?
(KeylimeSteve)
Perhaps feeling a bit bloated, Kraft Foods Inc. announced earlier today that they're cutting down on the amount of salt used in a number of its most popular products.
Kraft says it wants to reduce its overall average sodium content by about 10% over the next two years. They figure that amount equates to around 750 million teaspoons of salt.
Among the Kraft products up for major reductions in sodium is Oscar Mayer Bologna. The company wants to cut the s-o-d-i-u-m from everyone's favorite meat-like product by 17%.
Another big target of Kraft's sodium shrink ray is its Easy Mac Cups product. They say some flavors of the instant mac-and-cheese product will see sodium reductions of 20%.
"We are reducing sodium because it's good for consumers, and, if done properly, it's good for business," said Rhonda Jordan, President, Health & Wellness, Kraft Foods. "A growing number of consumers are concerned about their sodium intake and we want to help them translate their intentions into actions."
She adds that the short-term sodium cuts will impact more than 1,000 separate Kraft products and that the company's long-term goal is an even greater reduction of its total sodium usage.
I think this is good marketing, you can always add more salt with a salt-shaker if you really have to have it. Perhaps our First Lady is having an effect with her appeal to food manufacturers, eh?
Insurance companies usually scrutinize policyholders who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illnesses. From a strict cost perspective, that's just good business: the company needs to make sure its most expensive patients are making fair claims.
But sometimes, that's just a ruse to unfairly cut costs.
A new report from Reuters says that Assurant Health targeted patients recently diagnosed with HIV, sometimes denying them coverage based on technicalities or for no reason at all.
Reuters: Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell's case reveal that Fortis [now Assurant Health] had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy.
As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators.
Stories such as this one cause me to distrust insurance companies, and it makes me wonder if medicine might get better without them. What do they add to the general picture of health care? Data processing? Isn’t that what EMR/EHR is supposed to do?
Raffle: Hundreds of women tried to win the chance of fertility treatment - and the choice of egg donor
An IVF clinic is accused of 'cheapening life' after holding a controversial raffle with free egg donor treatment as the top prize.
More than 240 people packed a London hotel last night to try and win the chance to select their ideal egg donor before flying to the US to have the fertility treatment.
It allows the winner to sidestep tough UK fertility regulations which currently ban payments to donors and strip them of their anonymity. The strict rules have led to a shortage of eggs.
The successful woman will have the opportunity to select their ideal US donor egg based on its mother's profession, ethnic background, hair colour, qualifications and upbringing. She can even browse childhood pictures.
This one is a strange story, and I am surprised it could even happen. Are we trading in human eggs across the sea? I think Nick might have to explain this one from the English side of things. Bad laws?
While physicians have a lower tendency to treat elderly colon cancer sufferers with chemotherapy, the treatment is associated with fewer serious side-effects in this population. Previous studies had reported that a combination of surgery and chemotherapy is more effective in cancer sufferers than surgery alone; as for the elderly, however, chemotherapy is not frequently prescribed. "One of the main reasons people shy away from giving these drugs to older patients is that they might have more adverse events and we saw no evidence ... that there was an increase in those adverse events," said lead researcher Robert Fletcher.
I did not realize that age has so much to do with medical treatment options, here we see a situation where age may be used as a chemotherapy measure, and that appears to be wrong. No ageism.
Despite efforts to inform the public about the risk of sun exposure, the rate of non-melanoma skin cancer in the U.S. is reaching epidemic proportions, with more than 2 million people affected in 2006, researchers said.
In that year, an estimated 3.5 million cases of non-melanoma skin cancer were treated, affecting 2.1 million people according to Dr. Howard Rogers of Advanced Dermatology in Norwich, Conn., and colleagues.
The finding is based on analysis of such cases among Medicare beneficiaries, where the number of procedures for non-melanoma skin cancer increased 16 percent from 2002 through 2006, Rogers and colleagues reported in the March issue of Archives of Dermatology.
The article is one of two in the journal sounding an alarm over the rising incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer -- the most common form of the disease.
Melanoma, though less common, is considered far more dangerous because it can easily spread to other parts of the body.
As the warmer weather approaches, I hope this reminder will stick in your mind, and that you will protect your skin from too much sun. I get most of my sun walking from the car to the doctor’s office to hear about why I need to exercise out in the sun more often.
Doctors say it can take weeks of blood tests and dose adjustments to determine the right Warfarin dose for patients
The clinical study led by two leading medical researchers -- Medco Research Institute specializing in pharmacy care, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota -- found that hospital stays can be reduced by one-third by undertaking genetic testing to determine the sensitivity of patients to the widely-used drug warfarin.
Warfarin, the world's most widely-prescribed blood thinner and which has been in use for half a century, is used to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke after a patient has had a heart attack.
It also is used to prevent blood clots, pulmonary embolism, and other complications following atrial fibrillation or heart valve replacement surgery. About two million people begin warfarin therapy every year in the United States.
Another brilliant application of genetic testing, this could really save lives. I didn’t realize so many patients are faced with a tricky dose determination when taking this drug, hope this is available soon.
Alex Wong/Getty Images House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, with Liz Draper and her 6-month-old son, John, during a news conference with children’s advocates on Monday in Washington.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a news conference with children’s advocates at the Capitol on Monday to push for the Democrats’ sweeping health care legislation.
“For America’s families, nothing comes before the future — or the health of their children,” Ms. Pelosi said. “Our kids cannot wait another moment for us to act. American parents cannot wait another moment. Our country deserves reform to — this is — when we’re talking about health care reform, we’re talking about the health of our children; we’re talking about diet, not diabetes; we’re talking about prevention and wellness. But we’re also talking about reducing the deficit. It is our responsibility to future generations that we not heap mountains of debt onto future generations.”
I have always thought we should start with universal health care for children as their right—no matter what. Otherwise we will usher in a generation of sickly, toothless Americans who have no faith in anyone or anything.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaks at the American Health Insurance Plans 2010 National Policy Forum in Washington, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
CHICAGO -- U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that she's confident the House will have the votes to pass President Barack Obama's health care legislation, possibly as early as Friday.
"I think we're on track for a vote sometime this weekend. I don't think (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) has decided exactly when, but Friday or Saturday seem to be the likely timetables," Sebelius told reporters in Chicago before a speech at a conference on aging.
As the White House made a final efforts to get a health care overhaul passed this week, Sebelius looked back critically at the legislation's long path. She said supporters could have done a better job correcting misinformation on "death panels" and cuts to Medicare. She said foes of health care overhaul worked a strategy designed to scare older Americans, but supporters could have been more aggressive at telling seniors what the package included for them.
We can all understand why this legislation is so important, I hope working on health care reform is a never-ending process, just like improving EMR. And EMR Update will keep reporting no matter what.
First Lady Michelle Obama continues her campaign to improve fitness and combat obesity in children as she speaks at the Grocery Manufacturers Association Science Forum meeting in Washington, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
WASHINGTON -- Michelle Obama is urging the nation's largest food companies to speed up efforts to make healthier foods and reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children.
Mrs. Obama asked the companies, gathered at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, to "step it up" and put less fat, salt and sugar in foods.
"We need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering, the information that you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children," she said.
The intentions are good, but there will always be unhealthy food around to eat, and I don’t trust food manufacturers to even know what is healthy for me. Teach kids how to eat in school? I used to love those school lunches.
Cetta for News
Starting in July, eateries will be required to prominently post letter grades that are based on health inspections.
Finding a clean restaurant will be as easy as A,B,C under a Health Department rule passed Tuesday.
Starting in July, eateries will be required to prominently post letter grades that are based on health inspections, according to a policy approved by the Board of Health in 6 to 2 vote.
"New York City restaurants are among the world's best and these simple reforms will make them even better," said Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.
I hope this idea catches on all over the country. What good is a health inspection if no one ever knows the score? I think it would be great fun to see how every eatery “tests out” every year.
Breast cancer cells: These can be destroyed using super-cold gas
A method of destroying breast tumours by surrounding them with ice could offer hope of a safe non-surgical cure for the disease, research suggests.
The technique called cryotherapy is already used to treat prostate cancer.
It involves inserting several needle-like 'cryoprobes' into the tumour and passing super-cold gas through them.
The ice ball rapidly created around each site kills off the cancerous cells.
Freezing therapy has been tried before for breast cancer - but this is the first time a minimally invasive version, which requires no surgery, has been developed.
But last night cancer experts warned it may take many years for the technique to become common.
I am always interested by treatments which do not require drastic surgery, this seems like an expansion of the many uses for cryotherapy which is already used like a bladeless knife.
Steve Miller, CIRES
A new technique developed at CU‑Boulder to identify individuals by the unique communities of hand bacteria they leave behind on objects they have handled may prove to be a valuable forensic tool in the future.
CSIs may one day be able to use more than DNA and fingerprints to catch criminals, as a new study finds that the bacteria that live on our hands are just as unique to each of us as our DNA. And traces of this "personal" DNA left behind on the surfaces we touch can be matched to the person who left it.
The human body—inside and out—plays host to billions of bacteria and other microbes; there are more bacteria in the human body than there are human body cells.
The science of medicine crosses over into every field, including law enforcement, as we are seeing an advanced look at forensics in this article. I didn’t know we all had such a unique zoo of germs.
More than seven million people suffer from atrial fibrillation -- an irregular or rapid heart rhythm
ATLANTA, Georgia — An experimental ablation therapy system that freezes heart tissue with a balloon catheter to treat a common heart rhythm disorder is far more effective than drug therapy, a study found Monday.
Researchers compared the safety and efficacy of the Arctic Front CryoAblation Catheter System produced by US firm Medtronic to drug therapy over at least one year in 245 patients in the United States and Canada.
A year after the non-surgical procedure, nearly 70 percent of patients treated by the system no longer suffered from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
Seems strange that freezing heart tissue would ever help any condition, but the tests show it works. We saw another product yesterday, a clip, which replaces open heart surgery, also installed with a catheter.
Karen Ignagni, president of the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., on "Face the Nation," Sunday, March 14, 2010. (CBS)
(CBS) Last week in a speech about health care reform, President Obama said, "Every year insurance companies deny more people coverage because they've got pre-existing conditions. Every year, they drop more people's coverage when they get sick right when they need it most. Every year they raise premiums higher and higher and higher."
That statement set the tone for a debate on Sunday's "Face the Nation" between Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, a political advocacy and trade association group that represents health insurance companies. In response to Mr. Obama's statement, Ms. Ignagni said, "We believe that now is the time for health reform," adding that AHIP has been a big player in getting health care reforms off the ground.
I think too many good points have already been published for health care reform to just go away, and in this debate, we see the insurance representative admit that some changes are truly needed.
The US Food and Drug Authority (FDA) denied the approval of a once a week drug made by two companies for the treatment of diabetes
Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Co received a response letter from the FDA asking for clarification on how the once a week version of the drug Byetta was manufactured, finalization of the product labeling, risk evaluation and mitigation strategy.
The companies think that the approval was not given after the agency found some problems in Amylin’s manufacturing plant last December. However, all shortcomings were already addressed.
I seem to remember one of our doctors in the Medical Forum did not like this drug, feeling that older and cheaper drugs were actually better than byetta. Is that why it is having so much trouble getting FDA approval?
Some will go to great lengths for the perfect pout
Forget the collagen, for the perfect pout plump for a lip graft using muscle from your neck, according to US cosmetic surgeons.
A team at the Aesthetic Surgery Centre in Naples, Florida, claim they have achieved good results in 25 patients.
They say the surgery, which can be done at the same time as a facelift, helps defy signs of ageing by making the lips appear fuller and less puckered.
Their findings are published in Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.
I used to openly oppose plastic surgery until my own girlfriend had “work done”. It looked horrible at first, like a class-A beating, but it soon healed into a nice happy face. She was very happy about it.
USA Today
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, surveyed 1,036 tweens and teens about the cigarette ads. Alongside the ads were promotional giveaways of such items as berry-flavored lip balm, cellphone jewelry, purses and wristbands.
Even though tobacco company reps say the ads were aimed at adults, anti-smoking advocates weren't buying it. Cheryl Healton, president of the anti-smoking group the American Legacy Foundation, says the ads were clearly noticed by teenagers. In 2008, a year after the ads debuted, 22% of teen girls said Camel had their favorite cigarette ads -- twice the number of those who answered Camel in other interviews. Study authors say that clearly shows the campaign -- not the brand -- captured the teens' attention.
I haven’t seen a cigarette ad in ages, but that is only because I don’t read many magazines. Here they are trying to get teen girls hooked on their addictive drug—I thought we had a war on drugs?
Graphic shows a procedure that clamps a leaking heart valve
This undated illustration made available by Abbott Laboratories shows the MitraClip extending into the left ventricle. The clip, a fabric-covered clothespin, inserted through a blood vessel in the groin, that clips the two flaps of the mitral valve together and keeps in the heart's main pumping chamber from backing up into the smaller upper chamber. The result is a bow-tie-shaped opening that permits blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle during relaxation of the heart, and enables the valve to close more effectively during contraction, rather than allowing leakage of blood backward into the left atrium. (AP Photo/Abbott Laboratories)
This undated photo illustration made available by Abbott Laboratories shows the MitraClip mounted on the end of a catheter. The clip, a fabric-covered clothespin, inserted through a blood vessel in the groin, clips the two flaps of the mitral valve together and keeps in the heart's main pumping chamber from backing up into the smaller upper chamber. (AP Photo/Abbott Laboratories)
ATLANTA — Many Americans with leaky heart valves soon might be able to get them fixed without open-heart surgery. A study showed that a tiny clip implanted through an artery was safer and nearly as effective as surgery, doctors reported Sunday.
The device is already on sale in Europe, and its maker, Abbott Laboratories, hopes to win approval to sell it in the United States next year. Elizabeth Taylor reportedly got one last fall — the 77-year-old actress told fans about it on Twitter.
About 8 million people in the U.S. and Europe have leaky mitral valves — the valve between the heart's left upper and lower chambers. Not all are so bad they need treatment, but the worst cases can lead to heart failure over time.
In the study, six times more people who had surgery suffered complications during the next month than those who got Abbott's MitraClip. Deaths, strokes and blood transfusions were less common with the device. The clip was not dramatically less effective than surgery after one year.
Doctors called the study a watershed — the first big test of repairing or replacing heart valves through arteries rather than drastic surgery.
If it’s good enough for Elizabeth Taylor, who are we to argue with it? Actually, you can argue with it all you want, this clip is new and may not stand up to the test of time, you’ll hear about it more this year when they go for FDA approval in the US.
The FDA said it will conduct a full review of findings from a study which concluded that neither aggressive lipid-lowering therapy nor tight blood pressure control reduced cardiovascular events in persons with diabetes. Both Trilipix and TriCor are marketed by Abbott, and Trilipix is "the active metabolite of TriCor," according to Marshall Elam, MD, PhD, of the Memphis VA Medical Center.
(JB Reed/Bloomberg News/Getty Images)
Results from the highly anticipated Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) trial proved once again that when it comes to traditional measurements of heart disease risk, lower isn't always better.
Using a blood pressure target of 120 mm Hg rather than the general population standard of 140 did not reduce nonfatal heart attacks, nonfatal strokes or death from cardiovascular causes, reported Dr. William Cushman of the VA Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn.
Likewise, adding the cholesterol-busting drug fenofibrate to standard statin therapy did not reduce the chances of major adverse cardiovascular events, according to Dr. Henry Ginsberg of Columbia University in New York City.
As a doctor, will this study change how you prescribe to diabetics? And what about that aspirin every day? Is that out, too? It will be interesting to see what our friends at the FDA say about the study.
Marueen FitzGerald, left, and Meghan FitzGerald stand praying the rosary across from the Hillcrest Women's Medical Center of Harrisburg on Front Street in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 9, 2010, as part of the 40 Days For Life Campaign. Both are from Lancaster, Pa. According to the 40 Days For Life website, 40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion in America. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON—A group representing Catholic hospitals Saturday rallied behind President Barack Obama's health care bill ahead of a House vote in which anti-abortion lawmakers could play a decisive role.
The chief executive of the Catholic Health Association, Carol Keehan, wrote on the group's Web site that although the legislation isn't perfect, it represents a "major first step" toward covering all Americans and would make "great improvements" for millions of people. The more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country do not provide abortions as a matter of conscience.
The association's support widens a split among abortion foes on whether the bill goes far enough to prevent taxpayer funding for the procedure. House Democratic leaders are trying to turn that debate to their advantage as they press for a vote on Obama's bill as early as this coming week. Winning over even a handful of anti-abortion Democrats could help Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., find a clear path to the 216 votes she needs for passage.
I’m not afraid to talk about the abortion issue, but it seems like the fight to keep abortion a legal medical operation—for the poor, the rich can always fly to France for abortions—goes on forever. Do you remember illegal abortions and how they killed women?
About half of adults in the UK are affected by high blood pressure
People with occasionally high blood pressure are more at risk of stroke than those with consistently high readings, research suggests.
Current guidelines focus on measuring average blood pressure levels to spot and prevent the chance of a stroke.
But research suggests doctors should no longer ignore variation in test results and give drugs that produce the most steady blood pressure levels.
The Stroke Association called for national guidelines to be overhauled.
In the first of the series of studies published in The Lancet, UK and Swedish researchers looked at the variability in blood pressure readings at doctors' checks.
My BP readings are always higher at the doctor’s office, and this can lead to a slightly higher dosage of BP meds. Although I can’t feel any symptoms of high blood pressure, low BP is very weird feeling.
The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court ruled Friday in a long-running battle by parents convinced there is a connection.
WASHINGTON - The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court ruled Friday in a long-running battle by parents convinced there is a connection.
While expressing sympathy for the parents involved in the emotionally charged cases, the court concluded they had failed to show a connection between the mercury-containing preservative and autism.
"Such families must cope every day with tremendous challenges in caring for their autistic children, and all are deserving of sympathy and admiration," special master George Hastings Jr. wrote.
But, he added, Congress designed the victim compensation program only for families whose injuries or deaths can be shown to be linked to a vaccine and that has not been done in this case.
The ruling came in the so-called vaccine court, a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims established to handle claims of injury from vaccines.
It can be appealed in federal court.
We recently saw a story that reported a high number of parents still believe there is a connection between thimerosal and autism, yet most have their kids vaccinated anyway.
If you have just had a knee replacement surgery and your doctor has advised you not to engage in any sports activity then read more. A recent study has stated that sport participation post knee replacement is not only safe but may lead to better knee function.
Dr Sebastien Parratte, a research collaborator at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and an assistant professor at the Aix-Marseille University Center for Arthritis Surgery at Hospital Sainte-Marguerite in Marseille, France, said, ''Initially, we though high-impact sports were terrible for the prosthesis. Our eight-year results have shown it is not the case."
Interesting article about a study where lots of people did not do as the doctor suggested, they went in for high-impact sports, and not only did the knees work better, they also got the benefit of the exercise. That must be quite a device, that artificial knee.
Pool photo by Stan Honda
Firefighters worked at the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York in Oct. 2001.
A settlement of up to $657.5 million has been reached in the cases of thousands of rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero who sued the city over damage to their health, according to city officials and lawyers for the plaintiffs.
They said that the settlement would compensate about 10,000 plaintiffs according to the severity of their illnesses and the level of their exposure to contaminants at the World Trade Center site.
I did not know the extent of the illnesses from 9/11, but looking at the photo, it is easy to see how this massive exposure could and did cause physical harm to the people who worked at the scene.
A panel constituting of medical experts from various institutes on Wednesday recommended steps to reverse the old trend--“once a cesarean, always a cesarean”.
Eliminating the difficulty of finding doctors who can help women, who have had a cesarean section before, deliver normally was the main agenda of the panel.
The panel met at a conference held in Bethesda, Md., U.S. by the National Institutes of Health and discussed the reasons behind the constant decline in the rate of VBAC, vaginal deliveries after a cesarean section in the past.
Wouldn’t the doctor decide on this issue? I get the feeling there is a reason for the custom of staying with cesarean, but if you ever watched one, it is quite a drastic surgical procedure.
(CBS/AP)
(CBS) More 12-year-olds in the U.S. get high by sniffing inhalants than by using marijuana, cocaine or hallucinogens combined, a new government report finds. A survey released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds that lifetime use of potentially deadly inhalants among 12-year-olds was 6.9 percent in 2008, compared with 5.1 percent for illegal prescription drugs, 1.4 percent for marijuana, 0.7 percent for hallucinogens and 0.1 percent for cocaine.
No 12-year-old should be doing any kind of drug, least of all inhalants that destroy the brain. What would a doctor do if he or she suspected that a child was doing this kind of activity?
The FDA has issued approval for Boston Scientific's Express LD Iliac Premounted Stent System, granting it an indication for the treatment of peripheral artery disease in iliac arteries. It is the same balloon expandable stent that has FDA indication for palliation of malignant neoplasms in the biliary tree, and already has the European CE Mark of approval for PAD in iliac procedures.
This is a company known for their stent products and doing very well. We recently saw a story about their stents for carotid artery doing as well as the normal surgery for this condition.
An estimated 5.7 mln of 48 mln South Africans are HIV positive
CAPE TOWN — The South African government on Thursday announced a ramped up AIDS plan that aims to test 15 million residents for HIV in the world's worst affected country by next June.
President Jacob Zuma's cabinet, which approved the scaled up programme on Wednesday, will lead a voluntary and public testing campaign with the goal of a 50 percent drop in the rate of infection by 2011.
"The target of the HCT (HIV counselling and testing) campaign is to test up to 15 million people by June 2011," cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko told journalists.
"All public health facilities, fixed and mobile, will be equipped to offer HIV testing and to provide ART's (antiretroviral therapy)."
I’m glad to see the country take the problem seriously for a change, they are even planning to provide the antiretroviral therapy, and that should always go along with increased testing. Otherwise, what’s the point of testing?
While most of those were empty threats, there are notable exceptions: Film director Robert Altman moved to France after George W. Bush's victory in 2000; Law & Order star Michael Moriarty shipped off to Canada well before that.
But now the decidedly non-liberal Rush Limbaugh has made a similar move, telling his audience he will move to Costa Rica if health care reform becomes law. And now the only question that remains is whether Limbaugh will make good on his word, or join the ranks of the empty-promisers.
I hope the bill passes and he moves to another country, so many of his opinions are against the “common man”, you have to own a corporation to receive any good words from good old Rush.
The new pill is expected to do the same job as statins but without giving patients unpleasant side effects
A cholesterol-busting pill that could cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes without the unpleasant side-effects of statins has been developed by scientists.
Eprotirome tablets rapidly lowered cholesterol and other dangerous blood fats in men and women for whom statins were not working well.
Levels of artery-clogging cholesterol fell by up to a third - an effect equal to doubling the amount of statins, the respected New England Journal of Medicine reports.
This is a drug that is years away from being available, but if approved, it may replace the popular statins which we have discussed in the Medical Forum. I hope this is good news.
Dr. Richard Gibbs (L) and Dr. James Lupski in a photo courtesy of the Baylor College of Medicine.
Credit: Reuters/Handout
(Reuters) - Two studies published on Wednesday show it is possible to sequence the entire gene maps of families with inherited diseases and pinpoint the offending bit of DNA.
The studies, which would not have been possible a year or two ago, are the first real delivery of the promised transformation of medical science from the Human Genome Project's mapping of the human genetic code.
One was also made possible by some of the $5 billion that U.S. President Barack Obama directed to the National Institutes of Health in September from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
And in that study, the genetic researcher was himself one of the patients.
Always looking for signs of progress in medicine, this is a very positive look at how gene maps might be someday used to spot illness and head it off at the pass. Maybe one day, we will all get customized vaccinations against the diseases lurking in our particular genes. Might be a real lifespan booster.
Widely used osteoporosis drugs maybe doing more harm than good as they have been shown to weaken bones
This is the finding of a study conducted by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center featuring 111 post-menopausal women.
These drugs are comprised of bisphosphonates which in the short term do indeed preserve bone, but over a prolonged period of use may actually weaken bones.
Osteoporosis is a condition characterized by weak and brittle bones, and bisphosphonates are commonly prescribed to women diagnosed with the condition.
Researchers indicate that after 4 years of use, patients may actually begin to experience the negative side effects of the drugs, and should consult their doctor about alternative forms of treatment.
What are the alternative forms of treatment? Is this a medical Catch 22 situation facing women? I believe we will hear more about this study in the future, perhaps the study will be refuted.
Keep that fire burning: A study has found that ageing couples who still keep fit enjoy a far better sex life than their unfit counterparts
If you are hoping to keep the flames of passion burning into your 80s then a regime of regular exercise may pay dividends.
Those who keep themselves fit and healthy are still interested in sex in their eighth decade, a study has found.
But their unfit counterparts give up on lovemaking up to 20 years earlier.
Where do you sign up for studies like this one? In the photo, that old guy looks like he could die any time, but at least he will die happy. I thought we proved in the 60’s that old people like sex?
A deep brain stimulation device from Medtronic is seen in a file photo.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday a nerve stimulating implant from Medtronic failed to significantly reduce seizures in epilepsy patients. Medtronic Inc., the world's largest medical device maker, has asked the FDA to approve its Deep Brain Stimulation implant for epilepsy, a neurological disease that causes seizures. The device is already used to treat other movement disorders, including Parkinson's Disease, and more than 6,000 people in the U.S. have had the device implanted in the past decade.
As I see it, this device works for the primary purpose of movement disorders, but it did not reduce seizures. I think they are on the right track, however, and that implants will eventually help seizure patients.
Getty
Baby slings may put infants at risk for smothering, as well as falls, consumer agencies have said.
Baby slings - those cuddly carriers that allow parents to keep their infants strapped close to their chest - may not be as safe as they look.
In fact, they’ll soon be the subject of a government safety warning because infants carried in this way can potentially be suffocated, and several have, according to the Associated Press.
Now the Consumer Product Safety Commission is preparing to issue a warning about the slings that may go public before the end of the week.
“We know of too many deaths in these slings, and we now know the hazard scenarios for very small babies,” Inez Tenenbaum, head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said, according to the AP. “So, the time has come to alert parents and caregivers.”
Hard to believe something so simple and universal as a sling would pose a threat to infants, but we have to listen to the facts of life, these things are apparently dangerous. But what else is there?
Vaccinating children against flu reduces influenza transmission in the wider community, a study carried out in Hutterite colonies in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba found. (Chuck Stoody/Canadian Press)
Vaccinating children against seasonal flu helps protect others in their community, a new Canadian study suggests.
Public health researchers had hoped that immunizing enough young people would pay off in protecting others who are not immunized, a concept known as herd immunity, but it hasn't been demonstrated in a randomized trial until now.
The trial was carried out in 49 Hutterite colonies in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba by Dr. Mark Loeb of McMaster University in Hamilton and his colleagues. Children in the communities between the age of three and 15 were randomly assigned to receive standard influenza vaccine or hepatitis A vaccine, which served as a control. Neither the subjects nor the researchers knew who received which vaccine.
Using isolated communities for disease studies may be effective, but is it ethical? Also, I looked up the meaning of the word “Hutterite” out of curiosity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite
London: Live kidney donors do not have higher risk of dying later: This Tuesday the US researchers said live kidney donors do not have a higher risk of dying after donation.
Dr Dorry Segev stated “Surgical mortality did not change during the 15-year period (between 1994 and 2009), despite differences in surgical practice and donor selection.”
Kidney donors had higher chances of mortality rate following the first 90 days of their surgery. But recently it is found that donors have less mortality rate compared to non-donors.
It was also found that male donors had higher mortality rate within one year of their surgery than female donors.
That is nice to know, you can donate a kidney without shortening your life, assuming you start out with two healthy ones and don’t die from complications of the surgery.
New York City held a contest to design the wrapper for condoms distributed free in city bars, clinics and gyms
NEW YORK — An electric power button symbol inched past other entries to win New York's condom wrapper design contest, the city said Tuesday.
The winning design shows the familiar "on" symbol found on computers and other electronic devices.
It defeated nearly 600 other hopefuls before coming out on top of the five finalists, which included a top hat, a suggestive train tunnel and even a municipal manhole cover.
"I hope my package design reminds people that they're in control. We all have the power to protect ourselves from sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies," said winning designer Luis Acosta.
This design winner hopes that his condom design will be a powerful reminder that we are all in control over our own impulses, and if you ever need a condom, I hope one is readily available to you.
Mr. Pringles hands out free snacks in New York City in this Nov. 25, 2009 file photo. Pringles's parent company, Proctor and Gamble, announced Tuesday that two flavors of the popular chip have been recalled due to possible salmonella contamination.
Stuart Ramson/Pringles/PRNewsFoto/File
If you were about to pop the top on a can of taco- or cheeseburger-flavored Pringles, you might want to hold that thought.
The meat-inspired chips are the latest products added to a recall stretching back to Feb. 26. Pringles's parent company Proctor & Gamble announced the voluntary recall Tuesday.
The chips contain hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), a common “flavor-enhancer,” made by Basic Food Flavors, Inc., that has been found to be contaminated with salmonella.
Products from 26 other brands have already been recalled (See here for complete list of products affected). That list could continue to grow, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is still investigating.
This is a recall list that is bound to grow as more and more products check in, and if anything, should encourage people to eat fresh food whenever possible, and skip the chemicals if you can.
TUESDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- Comparative effectiveness (CE) studies currently are underutilized and should be increased to better guide physicians in the effective everyday use of current therapies, according to a review in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Michael Hochman, M.D., and a colleague from Harvard Medical School in Boston reviewed the six leading general and internal medicine journals during 2008 to 2009 and identified 328 randomized trials, observational studies, and meta-analyses on medications, including 104 (32 percent) CE studies comparing current active treatments, and 224 (68 percent) non-CE studies of novel treatments or with an inactive control design. The reviewers characterized and identified funding of the CE studies and compared them to the non-CE studies.
Years ago, our Forum had an active discussion on CE, and I wondered why it did not continue. Do any doctors wish to take a stand on this issue? Do we have any big fans of CE in the house?
An annual survey released Tuesday by a plastic surgeons' association has revealed that the number of cosmetic-surgery procedures in the U. S. plunged for the second year in a row in 2009.
The figures claim 10 million surgical and nonsurgical procedures last year, outlining a 2% fall from 2008, according to a survey of 928 board-certified physicians by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, a Garden Grove, Calif., group of plastic surgeons specializing in cosmetic surgery.
"People just couldn't go for the big items", said Renato Saltz, the association's president.
It seems only like a small decline, I think looks will always guide some people to the surgeon’s table, but can you see anything wrong with the patient in the photo? Looks pretty darn fit to me.
David Silverman, Getty Images
A new study published in the March 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine found that drinking alcohol in moderation may help women stay thin. Here, an Israeli woman tastes a red wine at an exhibition in Tel Aviv, Israel, last year.
Women around the world are lifting their glasses to the news: Moderate drinking may help keep the pounds off. That finding comes from a new study published in the March 8 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers followed 22,000 women ages 39 or older for 13 years, tracking their weight gain and alcohol consumption. While all of the women chosen for the study were slim to begin with, as they aged, the women who did not drink alcohol were more likely to put on more weight than those who drank light to moderate amounts.
I don’t think a study like this will cause any women to start drinking, but I would like to know why light to moderate drinking should help keep the pounds off—it almost doesn’t seem fair.
A new malaria vaccine has been tested on 100 children in a rural part of the west African country of Mali
JOHANNESBURG — Within five years, the world could shield all newborns from HIV, while making strides in reducing deaths from malaria and tuberculosis, the Global Fund to fight the three diseases said Monday.
But those gains depend on the world continuing to ramp up health spending to maintain the current rate of progress, the Global Fund said in its annual report, released ahead of a funding meeting in the Netherlands later this month.
"A world where no children are born with HIV is truly possible by 2015," said Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund, launching the group's annual report.
I guess it’s no secret that I look for positive stories, and here’s a story about some positive thinkers who want to wipe out some diseases. What have you heard in the past about the Global Fund? Good outfit?
A doctor is pictured preparing a vaccine. The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the parents of a child who suffered serious health problems after being vaccinated can sue a pharmaceutical company for compensation.
AFP - The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the parents of a child who suffered serious health problems after being vaccinated can sue a pharmaceutical company for compensation.
The case, which the highest US court will hear in autumn, will serve as a focal point in a years-long debate in the United States over the effectiveness of preventive vaccines and whether they have caused health problems.
It involves Hannah Bruesewitz, who was left developmentally impaired after receiving a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccination.
We are all so different genetically, it would not surprise me to learn that some children are harmed by some vaccines, just as one aspirin is enough to kill some people. We all share the risk of vaccination, and we all share the many benefits.
Former President Bill Clinton, right, is joined by Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association, as he holds up a hand held device used by soft drink delivery drivers programmed to only allow orders of products permitted to be sold in schools during a news conference, Monday, March 8, 2010 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
NEW YORK — The U.S. beverage industry has largely stopped delivering sugary drinks to schools and has replaced them with lower-calorie options, the head of the industry's trade association said Monday.
"It's a brand new day in America's schools when it comes to beverages," said Susan Neely, president and CEO of the American Beverage Association, which represents Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and other major soft drink companies.
The association released a report showing a a 95 percent decline in sales of full-calorie soft drinks to schools between fall 2004 and fall 2009.
She attributed the decline to voluntary guidelines adopted by the industry in 2006 under an agreement with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of former President Bill Clinton's foundation and the American Heart Association.
Clinton, who hosted a news conference at his Harlem office, said he was "stunned" by the results.
I really believe we have targeted a major cause of diabetes and obesity with sugary soft drinks, I used to drink them all the time and I paid the price for it. Where did we learn to ingest all that sugar?
Stuart Bradford
For decades, advocates have fought to protect women from disfiguring breast cancer surgery, arguing that it was just as effective to remove only the cancerous tissue rather than the whole breast.
But today, a growing number of women with breast cancer are pushing surgeons in a startling new direction. Not only do they want the cancerous breast removed, but they also want the healthy breast cut off.
“I just didn’t want to worry about it,” explained Liliana Holtzman, 50, an art director in Ann Arbor, Mich., who had both breasts removed after a cancer diagnosis five years ago. “It was for my own peace of mind. I wanted to do everything I could.”
We just saw an article that suggested men need more information about prostate cancer, and this article suggests women need more information before having a healthy breast removed—it doesn’t help survival rates. It never gets easier being a doctor, does it?
Metronaps CEO Arshad Chowdhury (R) and another employee demonstrate sleeping "pods" in a darkened room
WASHINGTON — Most African-Americans like to pray just before they do it, white Americans like to do it with their pets, Asians tend to do it best and Hispanics fret about work just beforehand.
It is sleep and the 2010 Sleep in America poll released Monday by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) shows that sleep habits differ depending on what ethnic group you belong to.
African-Americans have the busiest bedtime routine: three-quarters said they watched television in the hour before going to bed, and only slightly fewer - 71 percent - said they prayed.
Only 18 percent of Asians, one third of whites and just under half of Hispanics said they prayed before going to bed.
You may have noticed that I do my writing and posting at night when the world is a more quiet and serene place, and I don’t sleep well under pressure, I would rather stay up than wake up early.
How to conduct EMR Vendor Demos: Mark Anderson of the AC Group, Inc. offers his advice on how to get the best out of your EMR Vendor Demos. Start with Patient Check-in. Do some sample Patients. More …
7 Costly Mistakes when Purchasing EMR: Mike Uretz introduces one of the Costly Mistakes made when purchasing an EMR; not planning for the worst case scenario. More …
Which add-ons for EMR and EHR: Which add-ons do you really need for your EHR or EMR? Mark Anderson talks about the 30+ Add-ons available for EMR. Are they worth it? More …
Recommend a useful EMR & EHR resource. Email your link to Nick Harrington or Robert Gleeman.
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