I Wish My Doctor Knew …
By NIRAN AL-AGBA, MD
Recently the New York Times published an article What Kids Wish Their Teachers Knew. As a pediatrician, I have spent a good part of my lifetime fighting for the health and welfare of our young people. They are the future. We owe our children a safe, caring, stable childhood whenever possible. Outside of a supportive family, a long-term family physician or pediatrician can be an important role model for impressionable youngsters.
For confidentiality reasons I have altered identifying details, but will give you some of the great things heard over the years and a few tragic ones as well.
I Wish My Doctor ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 4, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized primary care Source Type: blogs
Trump's Trade Deficit Obsession
My previous attempts atasking a Trump trade adviser directly about trade policy failed. I ’m now going to try another approach: Interpreting something surprising two other Trump advisers said.Here ’s what Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarrowrote recently:The saddest fact here is that Hillary Clinton doesn ’t know the difference between a good trade deal and a bad one. Exhibit A is the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).In her economic speech in Detroit, Clinton bragged that she voted against the one multilateral trade deal that came before the Senate while she was there. That was indeed CAFTA-DR, a multilater...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 31, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Simon Lester Source Type: blogs
Health Affairs ’ August Issue: Disparities, Hospital Financing, And More
The August issue of Health Affairs, a variety issue, includes a collection of articles that show the extent of health disparities in the United States and describe approaches designed to address them. There are also articles covering hospital financing, Medicare, and other topics.
Documenting active life expectancy disparities: black and white differences remain
Research previously published, in Health Affairs and elsewhere, has described racial differences in life expectancies. However, very few studies have focused on long-term trends in active life expectancy by race.
Vicki Freedman of the University of Michigan and Br...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 8, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Lucy Larner Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Disparities Health Affairs journal Medicare Advantage Source Type: blogs
Measles Vaccination Rates and Immigration
A recent outbreak of measles at the Eloy Detention Center has raised some concerns over disease and immigration. The disease was carried in by an immigrant who was detained, allowing it to spread among some of the guards who were not vaccinated. The Detention Center has since claimed that it vaccinates all migrants who are there and is working on getting all of its employees vaccinated. Regardless, how much should we worry about measles brought in by unvaccinated immigrants? Very little.
First, measles vaccines are highly effective at containing the disease. There are two primary measles vaccinations. The first...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 11, 2016 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
June Man of the Month: Marc Sommers, PhD
As a child, Marc loved looking at National Geographic magazines, especially at his Uncle’s home on New Year’s Day. That’s where young Marc went with his family to celebrate. Not much for the adult conversation upstairs, Marc would slip away to the basement and lose himself in exotic photos of far-away places. At 12, he decided he was going to go to the Serengeti.
Not only did he get there, but he has dedicated much of his adult life to working with young people, primarily in Africa—19 countries and counting. Marc Sommers, who is fluent in Swahili, is an internationally recognized youth, conflict, education, g...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - June 1, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Global Health Man of the Month Source Type: blogs
Will Zika help or hurt health plans?
Health insurers are starting to think about the impact of the Zika virus, which may arrive in force in the US over the coming months. Actuaries are looking for analogous examples for their models, such as other mosquito born illnesses including dengue fever.
Some insurers aren’t too concerned, according to Healthcare Finance News. Others are looking at reinsurance opportunities and considering premium increases.
Most Zika infections cause only mild illness, so the costs of treatment will be modest or zero much of the time. The real impact is likely to come from the cost of lifelong care for babies born with microc...
Source: Health Business Blog - May 31, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Economics Health plans Uncategorized health insurers Zika Source Type: blogs
Canada is looking better and better
O Canada!
In almost every election cycle people talk about moving to Canada if a presidential candidate they despise takes office. In practice few make the move. Things could be a little different this time around if a certain nationalist strongman comes to power.
There’s something else to fear this year: the Zika virus. According to NIH director Tony Fauci, mosquitoes with Zika are likely to arrive in the US mainland within the next month or two. One species will be all over the South, another will come up the East Coast as far as New England. Already, close to 300 pregnant women in the US are infected.
Congress...
Source: Health Business Blog - May 23, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: dewe67 Tags: Culture International Policy and politics Uncategorized Zika Source Type: blogs
From Peace Corps to SLP in 20 Years
I was definitely not a little girl who knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. My interests varied from becoming an astronaut to writing scripts and performing mini-plays. I was creative, yet practical, and by the time I graduated from high school I was ready to leave Oregon far behind and travel the world!
In college I chose communications, because the department included theater majors. However, my classes morphed into cross-cultural ethnographies and culminated with a six-month internship in Manila, Philippines. While there, I lived among squatter communities and volunteered with a micro-finance loan organizati...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - March 22, 2016 Category: Speech Therapy Authors: Genealle Visagorskis Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder Cultural Diversity Language Disorders Schools Speech Disorders Source Type: blogs
Response to the current Zika virus epidemic
Scientific American has an article that briefly summarizes the link between Zika virus infection during pregnancy and fetal microcephaly. While the circumstantial evidence is strong for a causal link, the article discusses the fact that conclusive evidence will likely only come from retrospective analysis of the current epidemic.Wired magazine has a more speculative article that has some additional interesting facts about the outbreak and the response to it."Most of Brazil's microcephaly cases are in the northeast, and it's unclear why Zika would cause more birth defects there than in other places." Multiple Zika strains o...
Source: Bayblab - February 2, 2016 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Rob Source Type: blogs
Response to the current Zika virus epidemic
Scientific American has an article that briefly summarizes the link between Zika virus infection during pregnancy and fetal microcephaly. While the circumstantial evidence is strong for a causal link, the article discusses the fact that conclusive evidence will likely only come from retrospective analysis of the current epidemic. Wired magazine has a more speculative article that has some additional interesting facts about the outbreak and the response to it."Most of Brazil's microcephaly cases are in the northeast, and it's unclear why Zika would cause more birth defects there than in other places." Multiple Zika strains ...
Source: Bayblab - February 1, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: Rob Source Type: blogs
Where did Zika virus come from and why is it a problem in Brazil?
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. (Source: The A and P Professor)
Source: The A and P Professor - January 27, 2016 Category: Physiology Authors: Kevin Patton Source Type: blogs
Where Do K-1 Visa Holders Come From?
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were killed last week in a gun battle with police after they committed a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. Malik entered the U.S. on a K-1 visa, known as the fiancé visa, accompanied by Farook. Their attack is the first perpetrated by somebody on the K-1 visa - igniting a debate over increasing visa security.
The government issued approximately 262,162 K-1 visas from 2005 to 2013 – 3177 or 1.21 percent of the total to Pakistani citizens.
Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) SECURE Act identifies 34 countries as particularly terror-prone. There were 32,363 K-1 visa, 12.34 pe...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 7, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
We need to provide health insurance for undocumented people. Here’s why.
The cost of medical service provision in the United States is one of the most palpable strains on the health care system, but we must not forget that cost is the sibling of quality and access — without considering the three as such, we will undoubtedly fail to navigate our country’s health care quandary. Low-quality care inevitably results in the need for more care in the form of readmissions, while lack of access to primary care leads to increases in the utilization of expensive, emergency services. Of particular concern in our country, a growing contributor to cost, and driven by low-quality care and even less ac...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 22, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Abraar Karan Tags: Policy Emergency Primary care Source Type: blogs
