EYEMATE Implant That Measures Intraocular Pressure Now Cleared in Europe
Patients with certain eye conditions, particularly glaucoma, need regular testing of their intraocular pressure (IOP), which involves an in-office procedure during which a clinician uses a tonometer to take readings. The IOP can vary significantly throughout the day, and similar to blood pressure, events far outside the normal range can be frequently missed.
Implandata, a company out of Hannover, Germany, just won European approval to introduce its EYEMATE system for continous monitoring of intraocular pressure, even when the patient is comfortably at home. The product consists of a sensor that is implanted into the eye as...
Source: Medgadget - May 31, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Ophthalmology Source Type: blogs
Revamp health regulations to reduce cost and improve patient safety
Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist Oliver Schein has found a simple way to save a half a billion dollars a year from our country’s health care bill, with no negative effect on patient health. The only thing standing in the way is a stubborn government requirement.
Seventeen years ago, Dr. Schein and colleagues published a study finding that cataract surgery patients who underwent routine preoperative testing — such as an electrocardiogram, blood tests, and imaging studies — had no fewer complications than those with zero testing. The risks of this surgery are so small that they can typically be identified and ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 17, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/peter-pronovost" rel="tag" > Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD < /a > Tags: Policy Health reform Source Type: blogs
Midnight cramps
He is losing his sense of taste.He is losing weight as he is not eating.Last night he had severe cramps in his feet and legs. He could not get out of bed. His cell phone had fallen to the floor and he could not call me. Then he had a sugar crash - due to anxiety? He said that he finally managed to get up, take some glucose tabs, walk around and started getting better. But he didn't sleep at all.So today, he is exhausted, scared, frustrated, upset and hurting. I suggested a call to his doctor and he declined. So I'm keeping busy outside with gardening (tis the season!) and trying to keep t...
Source: Wife of a Diabetic - May 5, 2017 Category: Endocrinology Source Type: blogs
I ’ ll let you in on an industry secret
The unspoken secret is that healthcare providers prefer treatment over prevention, expensive over inexpensive, patent-protectable over non-patent-protectable, billable procedure over nonbillable procedure, BMW over Toyota Prius.
Spiraling healthcare costs are the expected result because greater revenues are built into the basic principles that drive the system. The endless year-over-year increase in your health insurance premiums should therefore come as no surprise because this system is designed to take more and more of your money.
Health care is a business, a big business (the biggest business of all in the United Stat...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - April 18, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates Source Type: blogs
A Million Jobs in Healthcare ’ s Future
By PRAVEEN SUTHRUM
“The Future is Here. It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed.”
It’s true.
Science fiction writer William Gibson said that right. We simply have to look around enough – now – to find out what the future holds.
The future may never be evenly distributed. But it’s surely becoming the present faster.
What would you do when…
Here are a series of what-would-you-do-when questions to think about. Each of these are a reality today, somewhere.
There’s more medical data than insight
Kaiser Permanente presently manages 30 petabytes of data. Images. Lab tests. EHRs. Pat...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 21, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Tech Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The way forward
Royal College of Opthamologists (RCOpth) - These reports were commissioned by RCOpth to identify current methods of working and schemes devised by ophthalmology departments in the UK to help meet the increasing demand in ophthalmic services. The work found that increasing demand for hospital eye services is not being met and continues to grow – currently seeing nearly ten per cent of all outpatient appointments and performing six per cent of the surgery in the UK. Each report focuses on an area of high volume within opthalmic care: cataracts, glaucoma, emergency eye care, and age-related macular degeneration and di...
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - February 5, 2017 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Local authorities, public health and health inequalities NHS measurement and performance Source Type: blogs
The Technological Future of Surgery
The future of surgery offers an amazing cooperation between humans and technology, which could elevate the level of precision and efficiency of surgeries so high we have never seen before.
Will we have Matrix-like small surgical robots? Will they pull in and out organs from patients’ bodies?
The scene is not impossible. It looks like we have come a long way from ancient Egypt, where doctors performed invasive surgeries as far back as 3,500 years ago. Only two years ago, Nasa teamed up with American medical company Virtual Incision to develop a robot that can be placed inside a patient’s body and then controlled rem...
Source: The Medical Futurist - January 17, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Medical Augmented Reality Medical Robotics Virtual Reality in Medicine 3d printing AI artificial intelligence diagnostics gc4 Surgery surgical robot technology Source Type: blogs
Is Our Youth-Obsessed Culture Making You Old Before Your Time?
Look young! Feel young! Think young! The constant barrage of information about how being forever young is the only desirable way to live is enough to make even a young person feel old. Now researchers have shown that this ageism is potentially harmful to one's cognitive abilities over the long term.
Read more on HealthCentral about how ageism can make you age more quickly:
Purchase Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories – paperback or ebook
“I hold onto your book as a life preserver and am reading it slowly on purpose...I don't want it to end.” Craig William Dayton, Film Composer
Related a...
Source: Minding Our Elders - January 11, 2017 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
CMS Contractors ’ Survey Research Illustrates Four Health Care Transparency Paradoxes
This article identifies what might be called four health care transparency paradoxes — aspects of HHS transparency communications in which assumptions are contradicted by what consumers have told researchers.
Assumptions of HHS Health Care Transparency Tools
The goal of health care transparency is to drive consumers to providers with high quality and efficiency, thereby improving outcomes and reducing resource use. For instance, when a patient is diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, the assumption is that the patient will visit the Dialysis Facility Compare website, look at quality indicators, and choose a clinic ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - December 28, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Jackson Williams Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Payment Policy CMS HHS Price Transparency shoppable services Source Type: blogs
Disadvantages of perioperative heparin bridging – Cardiology MCQ
Disadvantages of perioperative heparin bridging:
a) Risk of thromboembolism due to subtherapeutic dose
b) More prolonged total hospital stay
c) Cost and inconvenience of heparin therapy
d) All of the above
Correct answer: d) All of the above
In addition to this, there can be excessive bleeding during re-initiation of warfarin with heparin overlap. Hence continuing warfarin through the procedure is becoming standard of care in certain special instances. This is more applicable to procedures with relatively bleeding risk in those with high risk of thromboembolism. Cataract surgery under topical anaesthesia in one such potent...
Source: Cardiophile MD - December 24, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiology Cardiology MCQ DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance Source Type: blogs
Axsis, a New Robot for Precision Surgical Applications
Cambridge Consultants, a UK-based product design firm, is showing off a highly dextrous robotic surgical system that it developed. The Axsis robot was created to overcome the limitations of existing surgical robots, such as their large size and inability to work with highly detailed and fragile tissues.
The Axsis does not use long and rigid instruments, such as those found on the popular da Vinci systems from Intuitive Surgical. It instead relies on flexible components that result in a smaller overall size of the robot. Moreover, the components outside the patient that control the tools that are inside don’t have to ...
Source: Medgadget - December 1, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery ENT Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
Visiting Plans for Loved One with Alzheimer's Must be Adjustable
Dear Carol: Mom has had dementia for several years. I moved her to my house for about six months but she was extremely unhappy living there. I then moved her back to her home and hired help. That was worse. She wouldn’t get out of bed, she fought the caregivers and she wouldn’t eat. Finally, I gave up and moved her into the memory unit of a nearby assisted living center. Now, she’s up and around every day. She eats well and she is reasonably happy. The problem is that when I visit her she begs me to take her home. The staff has told me that she is doing well and this is just a normal reaction for someone with A...
Source: Minding Our Elders - November 26, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Health Affairs ’ October Issue: Insurance, The ACA, Care In India & More
The October issue of Health Affairs, a variety issue, includes several reports detailing aspects of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at a time when the latest census data shows the smallest-ever share of the US population without health insurance. The issue also includes a cluster of articles about the quality of health care in India.
Marketplace premiums lower with narrower physician networks
The introduction of health insurance Marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been linked to the growth of restricted provider networks. While researchers have identified a correlation between narrower ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 4, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Lucy Larner Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Health Affairs journal India narrow networks Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 12th 2016
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more.
This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 11, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Is It Alzheimer's, Another Type of Dementia, or a Different Health Problem?
Is it Alzheimer's disease? As people age, the rapid mental recall of youth often fades. Yet most aging adults have wisdom and life experience to share and are cognitively sound. With increased awareness of Alzheimer’s disease, however, has come an increased fear that every mental glitch we experience as we age is a sign of AD. So, what is Alzheimer's disease and what could these disturbing symptoms be if they are not AD?
Read more on HealthCentral about how the symptoms may indicate Alzheimer's - or not:
Purchase Minding Our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories – paperback or ebook
“I hold onto your ...
Source: Minding Our Elders - September 5, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
