UK cardiac death database launched

Database to record sudden cardiac death and Post-Mortem results, will help Doctors to understand inheritable heart disease, looking into causes, prevalence and incidence of death. Program will also offer support & advice to close family members who may also be susceptible to sudden cardiac failure.

From England, Nick Harrington, our Publisher and local correspondent, I first thought of the research potential stored in the EMR of an entire country – how could we help but learn from such a huge database?

Another UK Health Data-Loss

Last week a Govt. contracted Atos Origin employee lost a USB stick (on a pub car-park) containing secure login details. This week a Leicester Council run nursery loses another USB stick containing children’s details. The council stated that encryption software was made available to staff, including training. Wonder whether that process was really adhered to?

Did you know that a USB drive or stick can hold an entire EMR? We have discussed it in the EMR Forum. BTW, please email a news story to me and I’ll feature it at the top of Gleeman’s Daily News. This one’s also from Nick, thanks Nick, we can only hope encryption was used.

Some Privileged UK patients beat the waiting list

Is this an indictment of UK Healthcare? Some patients wait 6-months for a hip-op, others are treated in under 3-weeks.

Before I read this story from Mostly Safe for Work, I thought to myself that truly, this is America’s biggest fear of Government involvement in medicine: long waiting times, or even worse, unfair waiting periods—that we will not stand for. Then I read the article and got a chuckle.

Any sufficiently advanced EMR should be indistinguishable from magic?

Massive adoption will not be found in the ubiquity of digitial records, but in the fidelity of the experience regardless of what is behind the monitors. Paraphrasing Clarke’s Third Law—should sufficiently advanced health records be indistinguishable?

If you love sci-fi, you will love this short blog on interoperability. Superbly written.

Democrats in Congress start working on a health system

With Obama at the helm, Democratic leaders in Congress already have set policy sights much higher. They want to cover as many of the nation's uninsured as possible.

My main personal hope in this regard is that children under 18 will all be covered as a matter of humane policy. Didn’t I hear somewhere that the Humane Society was originally formed to protect children?

Buyers of luxury condo units offered in-home medical care as a perk

MD on Call, an Atlanta-based, self-described "boutique practice," entered into a partnership with City Centre Properties LLC of Atlanta to provide residents of The Mansion on Peachtree hotel and residence with a basic services package that includes much of what a family medicine physician would do in the office, from a throat culture to wellness care to an ECG.

I like it, one can stay home almost indefinitely, ordering in food and medicine. Isolation here we come!

Intelligent “iPill” releases medication at the right time and place

The new pill, developed by the Dutch group Philips, is an intelligent pill. Using the microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and drug reservoir contained inside, the pill can determine when it is in the correct portion of the digestive tract to release its medication.

Sounds like a great idea, a new way to lower the effective dose.

CDC calls Burlington, VT the healthiest city in the U.S.

In the report, Burlington was one of the top cities with people who exercised regularly. Many of the city’s residents participate in skiing, bicycling, hiking, and many other exercises that help them to stay fit and active.

The city also rates high in education, 40% of the people have college degrees. Poorest health rating was the city of Huntington, W.VA.

Study: Women need sleep as well as exercise to avoid cancer risks

Those who slept less than seven hours nightly had a 47 percent higher risk of cancer than those who got more sleep among the physically active women, the researchers reported at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Just as I feared, there doesn’t seem to be any substitute for either sleep and exercise, and most people don’t seem to get enough of either one.

Statins as a possible treatment for ED

But no one should venture to start taking statins for that possible effort because of the efficacy and safety issues.  Still, there are many things men can do to improve their performance.   Physical exercise, vitamin C, peanuts or arginine supplements, omega 3 fatty acids and garlic are some foods that men can eat to boost their performance in bedroom.

Recent news suggests that statins may reduce heart attacks and strokes, and now could help with ED.

Study indicates that your belly girth is linked to death by all causes

They found men and women who had largest waists were twice as likely to die prematurely as those who had the smallest waists. Specifically, for each 2-inch increase in waist circumference, the death risk was increased by 17 percent in men and 13 percent in women.

I like this kind of news, having recently lost 36 pounds, but I find lots of news every day that says fat is bad, bad, bad, and just to be clear, bad.

Covering the story of how lack of health insurance impacts lives

The Inquirer reports on the difficulties she faced after the surgery attempting to receive a full-body PET scan to rule out more cancer…

I hate to read these stories but I feel a duty to do so, how about you? It is quite a real problem that some people have NEVER had health insurance, never in their whole life.