COVID-19 vaccines: Safety, side effects –– and coincidence
As the pandemic rages on, it’s increasingly clear that widespread vaccination is essential to help contain it. Physical distancing, universal face coverings, and frequent handwashing are effective, but not foolproof. And of course, these measures don’t work if they are not followed.
So, the rapid development of mRNA vaccines and other vaccines to prevent COVID-19 is welcome — some say miraculous — news. But while many people are scrambling to get a vaccine, others are hesitating.
Start here: Are these vaccines safe and effective?
It’s natural to wonder if brand new vaccines against a novel coronavirus, developed ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 8, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Vaccines Source Type: blogs
Food allergies are not funny [PODCAST]
“If we do not raise objections to this kind of comedy, we are teaching those around us that food allergies can be funny. It is no that surprise that data indicates kids and adults are anxious, embarrassed, and bullied due to food allergies. When we make light of anaphylaxis, we perpetuate the misleading stigma regarding […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 28, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/the-podcast-by-kevinmd" rel="tag" > The Podcast by KevinMD < /a > < /span > Tags: Podcast Allergies & Immunology Source Type: blogs
The Future Of Food And Eating
I do not have to stress how important a role food and eating play in our lives. Food is at the base in Maslow’s hierarchy of our needs; it is essential for our survival. It shows perfectly the creativity of humankind: food exists in the richest variety of ingredients, forms, shapes, tastes and colors all over the world from the Greenlandic kiviak (dozens of small birds stuffed into a seal fermented under a rock) through the Liquid Pea Sphere of molecular gastronomy to the tagliatelle with hand-cut meat ragout from the world’s best restaurant, Osteria Francescana.
The advent of novel digital health tools will radicalise...
Source: The Medical Futurist - August 11, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: berci.mesko Tags: Future of Food 3d printing genomics Innovation technology GC1 sensors nutrigenomics food sensors Source Type: blogs
How can I know if my penicillin allergy is real?
People with a penicillin allergy on their medical record are not given penicillins (or often their relatives the cephalosporins) when they have infections. Instead, the antibiotics prescribed may be broader-spectrum, less effective, and/or more toxic.
Penicillin alternatives may be less effective or more toxic
One recent national study from more than 100 US hospitals with almost 11,000 patients demonstrated that if you have a reported penicillin allergy, you are five times more likely to be prescribed clindamycin than if you do not have that label. Clindamycin is an antibiotic that is highly associated with the potentially...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc Tags: Allergies Drugs and Supplements Source Type: blogs
Everyone has a role to play: Reducing your child ’s risk of developing food allergies
By RUCHI GUPTA, MD, MPH
The average American elementary school class includes two students living with one or multiple food allergies. That’s nearly six million children in the United States alone. And these numbers are climbing. There was a staggering 377 percent increase in medical claims with diagnoses of anaphylactic food reactions between 2007 and 2016, two-thirds of these were children.
As parents, we want the absolute best for our children. For many years, guidance around food introduction was unclear. Parents were told that babies, and especially those considered at risk for food allergies, should avoid...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 17, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Public Health allergies Food Allergies Pediatrics Ruchi Gupta Source Type: blogs
Epinephrine is the only effective treatment for anaphylaxis
Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that can potentially lead to death if not promptly treated. Allergic reactions typically begin suddenly after exposure to an allergen, which may be a food, medication, insect sting, or another trigger. Anaphylaxis can occur in anyone at any time; it can sometimes be triggered by allergens that a person has only had mild reactions to in the past — or to which they have never reacted to before.
Recognizing anaphylaxis
A mild allergic reaction may consist of hives, itching, flushing, swelling of the lips or tongue, or some combination of these.
However, throat swelling or tightening...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - July 9, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Parul Kothari, MD Tags: Allergies Emergency Planning Source Type: blogs
Peanut allergy: A new medicine for children may offer protection
Of all food allergies, which affect between 5% and 8% of US children, peanut allergy is the one most likely to cause anaphylaxis, a serious type of allergic reaction. For a child with a peanut allergy, eating one peanut can literally be fatal.
“When you have an allergy,” says Andrew MacGinnitie, MD, PhD, clinical director of the division of immunology at Boston Children’s Hospital, “your body sees the thing you are allergic to as dangerous. So your immune system tries to protect you by causing hives, vomiting, and other symptoms.”
The body does this by releasing histamine and other chemicals that are designed to ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - March 11, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Allergies Children's Health Parenting Source Type: blogs
Medical Records in Primary Care: Keeping the Story of Phone Calls and Medication Changes with Less than Perfect Tools
By HANS DUVEFELT, MD
I need the right information at the right time (and in a place that makes sense to me) to make safe medical decisions.
Here’s another Metamedicine story:
In learning my third EMR, I am again a little disappointed. I am again, still, finding it hard to document and retrieve the thread of my patient’s life and disease story. I think many EMRs were created for episodic, rather than continued medical care.
One thing that can make working with an EMR difficult is finding the chronology in office visits (seen for sore throat and started on an antibiotic), phone c...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 3, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Hospitals Medical Practice Patients Physicians Primary Care EHR EMR Hans Duvefelt Medical Records medication list medication reconciliation Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 303
Dr Joe Rotella Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 303
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 303 - Just when you thought your brain could unwind The medical trivia FFFF. (Source: Life in the Fast Lane)
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - January 31, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Dr Joe Rotella Tags: FFFF anaphylaxis Bluebottle Box Jellyfish bufo marinus cane toad diet pills digoxin drug misadventures irukanji Nicotine Opioids Paediatrics pediatrics phentermine sympathomimetics toad eggs Toxicology vape Source Type: blogs
9 Healthcare Companies Who Changed the 2010s
By ANDY MYCHKOVSKY
In order to celebrate the next decade (although the internet is confused whether its actually the end of the decade…), we’re taking a step back and listing our picks for the 9 most influential healthcare companies of the 2010s. If your company is left off, there’s always next decade… But honestly, we tried our best to compile a unique listing that spanned the gamut of redefining healthcare for a variety of good and bad reasons. Bon appétit!
1. Epic Systems Corporation
The center of the U.S. electronic medical record (EMR) universe resides in Verona, Wisconsin. Population of 13,166. The ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 7, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Tech Health Technology Start-Ups Andy Mychkovsky Healthcare Pizza Innovation Startups Source Type: blogs
A Sting, then Blisters and Pain
A 25-year-old woman presented with a rash, and reported that she was in South Carolina when she felt a stinging sensation. That was followed by blisters on her foot.She noticed swelling of her foot, and had continued pain. She took pictures of the bite on days two and six. (Below.) She reported that she had a similar sting the previous summer. She said she had no fever, shortness of breath, or dizziness. Her vital signs were a temperature of 98.6°F, a heart rate of 80 bpm, a blood pressure of 100/60 mm Hg, a respiratory rate of 16 bpm, and an SPO2 of 100% on room air.She was alert and in no distress. Her oropharynx was...
Source: The Tox Cave - September 3, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Device for Opioid Overdoses Releases Naloxone Automatically
Opioids can bind to brain receptors that are responsible for breathing, causing hypoventilation, and all too frequently leading to death in those that overdose. Naloxone (aka Narcan) is an antidote that prevents opioids from binding to brain receptors, but when a person does overdose it’s often too late for them to administer the life-saving drug themselves, as they may be incapacitated.
Now, researchers at Purdue University have developed a smart system, which includes an implantable naloxone-releasing device, that can automatically halt an overdose without anyone’s intervention.
“The antidote is alway...
Source: Medgadget - July 26, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine Source Type: blogs
Wearable Epinephrine Injector to Stop Allergic Reactions
People susceptible to acute allergic reactions, particularly children, can find it difficult to keep an epinephrine injector (think EpiPen) on hand. Adrenaline, the common name of epinephrine, has to be delivered quickly before anaphylactic shock sets in, so a team at Rice University have developed a wearable injector that can be used at any time.
“The idea came from me, because I suffer peanut allergies,” in a Rice release said Justin Tang, who worked on the device at the Brown School of Engineering’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen with adviser and Rice lecturer Deirdre Hunter. “I’m very self-aware and worrie...
Source: Medgadget - April 22, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
How To Go Beyond The Airline Medical Kit To Keep Passengers Healthy In The Future?
Humanity has come a long way from treating patients who have fallen off cliffs after having tried to fly, dressed like birds: parallel to the development of flying, the practice of how to keep people alive during flights has also greatly evolved. How can digital health add to the practice of aviation medicine in the future and make sure that passengers step off the plane as healthy as they got in?
From Icarus through hot air balloons to mid-air
meditation
The human desire to conquer the sky is a
thousand-year-old story, with tales such as the Greek myth about Daedalus and
Icarus. The duo wanted to escape from Crete,...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 21, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Health Sensors & Trackers aero aeronautics aviation emergency emergency medicine flight flight medicine Healthcare portable portable diagnostics predictive prevention technology wearables Source Type: blogs
Do you really have a penicillin allergy?
Chances are, you or someone you know is one of the 10% of Americans with a documented penicillin allergy. But just because you were told you had a penicillin allergy, or had one in the past, does not mean you have one now. People with a penicillin allergy history have their allergy disproved with allergy testing more than 90% of the time.
Penicillin: a primer
Penicillin is part of a larger drug class called beta-lactam antibiotics, which include the common penicillins and cephalosporins.
Common penicillins include ampicillin, amoxicillin, and Augmentin. Among other uses, penicillins are often used to treat ear infections, ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 26, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc Tags: Allergies Health Tests and procedures Source Type: blogs
