Interview with Marten Smith of Microchip Technology Inc. ’s Medical Products Group
Microchip Technology Inc. is a provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, and analog semiconductors that are designed to offer low-risk product development at lower total system costs and a faster time to market for thousands of diverse applications. Those in the electrical engineering world are very familiar with their PIC microcontrollers, digital signal controllers, and other microprocessors. However, in the medtech prototyping world, knowledge that Microchip has a special group dedicated to medical solutions may be less common.
Microchip cultivates an elite group of Medical Design Partner Specialists, which consists of...
Source: Medgadget - December 13, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Exclusive Source Type: blogs
Second Constitutional Challenge to Texas Advance Directives Act
Chris Dunn's constitutional challenge to the Texas Advance Directives Act is on appeal to the Texas First District Court of Appeals. An opening brief has not yet been filed.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit another case raising similar issues has now been fully briefed. (Emily-Jean Aguocha-Ohakweh v. Harris County Hospital Dist.)
Aphaeus Ohakweh was admitted to Ben Taub Hospital on March 4, 2015, in need of treatment for AML – acute myeloid leukemia – a potentially fatal cancer that interferes with the production of normal red blood cells.
On March 6, 2015, while b...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - December 12, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
No advantage of Sodium Bicarbonate and Acetyl cysteine in Preventing Contrast Nephropathy
Steven D. Weisbord et al in NEJM published the results of Prevention of Serious Adverse Events Following Angiography(PRESERVE) trial which was done compare intravenous sodium bicarbonate with intravenous sodium chloride and oral acetylcysteine with oral placebo for the prevention of major adverse outcomes and acute kidney injury in a large population of high-risk patients undergoing coronary or noncoronary angiography.Among patients at high risk for renal complications who were undergoing angiography, there wasno benefit of intravenous sodium bicarbonate over intravenous sodium chloride or of oral acetylcysteine over ...
Source: Sumer's Radiology Site - November 27, 2017 Category: Radiology Authors: Sumer Sethi Source Type: blogs
Health Care Needs Its Rosa Parks Moment
BY SHANNON BROWNLEE
On Wednesday, October 25, 2017 I was at the inaugural Society for Participatory Medicine conference. It was a fantastic day and the ending keynote was the superb Shannon Brownlee. It was great to catch up with her and I’m grateful that she agreed to let THCB publish her speech. Settle back with a cup of coffee (or as it’s Thanksgiving, perhaps something stronger), and enjoy–Matthew Holt
George Burns once said, the secret to a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending—and to have the two as close together as possible. I think the same is true of final keynotes after a...
Source: The Health Care Blog - November 22, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Matthew Holt Tags: OP-ED Patients Physicians Lown Institute Overtreatment Right Choice Alliance Shannon Brownlee Society for Participatory Medicine Source Type: blogs
Medical Advance Directive: An Emphatic " NO! " to Dementia
Norman Cantor, a lawyer and Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law wrote a thoughtful article about the medical Advance Directive in the Harvard Law School "Bill of Health" blog http://blogs.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2017/04/20/changing-the-paradigm-of-advance-directives/and explaining why he is revising his own medical Advance Directive to instruct his physicians and caretakers to allow him to die if he had developed a dementia "upon reaching a degree of permanent mental dysfunction that I deem to be intolerably demeaning. For me, this means mental deterioration to a point when I can no longer read and ...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - November 12, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Maurice Bernstein, M.D. Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
Medical Advance Directive: An Emphatic " NO! " to Dementia
Discussion Blog)
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - November 12, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs
Medical Advance Directive: An Emphatic " NO! " to Dementia
Norman Cantor, a lawyer and Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law wrote a thoughtful article about the medical Advance Directive in the Harvard Law School "Bill of Health" blog http://blogs.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2017/04/20/changing-the-paradigm-of-advance-directives/and explaining why he is revising his own medical Advance Directive to instruct his physicians and caretakers to allow him to die if he had developed a dementia "upon reaching a degree of permanent mental dysfunction that I deem to be intolerably demeaning. For me, this means mental deterioration to a point when I can no longer read and ...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - November 12, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Maurice Bernstein, M.D. Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
Reprogrammed Patient-Specific Pig Organs for Human Transplants: Interview with Dr. Jeff Ross, CEO of Miromatrix
The waiting lists for organ transplants are long, and people die daily waiting for transplants that never become available. For those that get a transplant, there is a risk that their immune system could reject it. Using organs from pigs is an alternative to human organs since many are a similar size. However, there is a major risk of rejection, so pig organs aren’t suitable for transplantation into humans in an unmodified state. Miromatrix, a company based in Minnesota, is working hard to find ways to make pig organs more suited to individual human patients. They have developed a “reprogramming” process, in which mi...
Source: Medgadget - October 30, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Genetics Materials Surgery Source Type: blogs
House Passes Medicare Part B Improvement Bill
Earlier this year the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill, the Medicare Part B Improvement Act of 2017. The bill would amend the Stark Law (Section 1877(h)(1) of the Social Security Act) and impact other provisions governing Medicare Part B. It is now in the hands of the Senate for further action.
The bill would codify Stark Law changes previously made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule that took effect on January 1, 2016.
Additionally, the bill would:
provide that the writing requirement for certain compensation arrangements may be satisfi...
Source: Policy and Medicine - October 26, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Test almost all of your most important ECG rhythm interpretation skills with this case.
Sent by Anonymous, written by Meyers, edits by Smith:A female in her 70s with history of HTN woke up around 2am with severe shortness of breath. EMS found the patient in moderate respiratory distress, hypoxemic on room air, with diffuse rales. CPAP was initiated. The prehospital ECG is unavailable but reportedly showed a wide complex regular tachycardia at around 150 bpm. 150mg amiodarone was given for presumed VT with no obvious effect.She arrived at the ED at 2:52 AM. She had normal mental status, and was in moderate respiratory distress with diffuse rales, with respiratory rate 30/min, and initial blood pressure 129/60....
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - October 26, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs
Professionalism And Choosing Wisely
The US health care system is plagued by the use of services that provide little clinical benefit. Estimates of expenditures on overuse of medical services range from 10–30 percent of total health care spending. These estimates are typically based on analyses of the geographic variation in patterns of care. For example, researchers at the Dartmouth Institute focused on differences in care use between high-spending and low-spending regions with no corresponding reductions in quality or outcomes. An analysis by the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (formerly known as the New England Healthcare Institute) ident...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 24, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Michael Chernew and Daniel Wolfson Tags: Costs and Spending Quality Choosing Wisely inefficiency overuse of medical services Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 16th 2017
In this study, we have shown that the lipid chaperones FABP4/FABP5 are critical intermediate factors in the deterioration of metabolic systems during aging. Consistent with their roles in chronic inflammation and insulin resistance in young prediabetic mice, we found that FABPs promote the deterioration of glucose homeostasis; metabolic tissue pathologies, particularly in white and brown adipose tissue and liver; and local and systemic inflammation associated with aging. A systematic approach, including lipidomics and pathway-focused transcript analysis, revealed that calorie restriction (CR) and Fabp4/5 deficiency result ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 15, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Cellular Senescence in Chronic Kidney Disease
There is good evidence for the growing number of senescent cells present in old tissues to be an important root cause of fibrosis, the breakdown of normal regenerative processes that results in scar-like structures in place of functional tissue. Chronic kidney disease is one of a number of age-related condition driven by fibrosis, all of which presently lack effective forms of treatment, capable of significantly turning back the progression of fibrosis. Fortunately, change is coming: researchers are exploring the link between fibrotic diseases and cellular senescence with an eye to producing new classes of treatment. Numer...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 11, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
The CHRONIC Care Act Passes Senate, Obstacles Remain
Late last Tuesday night, only hours after Republican leaders announced they were pulling the Graham-Cassidy repeal and replace bill from Senate consideration, the body unanimously passed the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017 (the Act).
Aiming to improve care for seniors with chronic conditions, the Act first passed the Senate Finance Committee in May of this year. A Health Affairs blog post by former Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, along with in-depth analysis from the Bipartisan Policy Committee, helpfully outline the need for a bipartisan effort to add...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 5, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Billy Wynne Tags: Costs and Spending Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare Organization and Delivery ACA ACO bipartisanship chronic CHRONIC Care Act dual eligibles Long-Term Care Medicare Advantage Telehealth Source Type: blogs
Fresenius to the U.S. Government: When It Comes to the FCA, You Snooze You Lose
In a nearly decade long lawsuit involving the dialysis company Fresenius, and allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act by conducting and then billing the government for medically unnecessary hepatitis B tests, Fresenius is now seeking to challenge that the government is time-barred because the government took too long to intervene in this case. Although the Court has yet to decide the challenge by Fresenius, the outcome of that decision will likely have a significant impact on future government decisions to intervene in False Claim Act cases.
Everyone...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 25, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
