The hardly hidden costs
Chronic/persistent pain management is not sexy. No-one gets a magic cure. Lives are not saved – at least not in a way that mortality statistics show. Chronic pain management is under-funded.
And now: buried in a list of other proposed service cuts in the local health board’s plan to save millions of dollars, is a proposal to “save” $650,000 from the pain clinic. You’ll note also reductions in community services, GP support for vulnerable, and healthy lifestyles programmes.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/122558278/hundreds-of-staff-nurses-and-services-may-be-axed-at-canterbury-d...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - August 30, 2020 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Chronic pain Interdisciplinary teams News Pain conditions Research Science in practice Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Conservative Industrial Policy and the “China Threat”
Scott LincicomeThe Washington Postreports that many conservatives are ditching their “free market orthodoxy” due in large part to Chinese industrial subsidies that allegedly threaten critical parts of the American industrial base:Since the Reagan years, Republicans have taken the opposite view — that government should stay small and out of the way and not engage in what has been derisively referred to as picking winners and losers. But China’s rise is forcing them to rethink that.China ’s central and regional governments are investing heavily in high‐tech fields such as aircraft and electric‐car manufac...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 28, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Scott Lincicome Source Type: blogs
The Last Federal “Stimulus” Didn’t Stimulate
Alan ReynoldsIn a recent piece at AIER, I argue that the last stimulus didn’t stimulate:Mailing $1,200 checks to 159 million people, adding $600 to weekly unemployment benefits and rationing forgivable 1% loans for five years did, of course, raise personal income. Relatively small tax credits lifted after ‐tax (disposable) income slightly more. “Disposable personal income increased $1.53 trillion, or42.1 percent, in the second quarter, ” reports the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Yet contrary to stimulus promises, consumer demand fell even more than income increased: ‘Personal outlays decreased $1.57 t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 13, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
Does public long-term care expenditure improve care-related quality of life in England?
This study employed an instrumental variable approach using conditionally exogenous elements of the public funding system to estimate the effect of public adults social care (ASC) expenditure on users ’ care-related quality of life (CRQoL). The findings show that increasing public ASC expenditure by £1,000 per user generates 0.0031 additional CRQoL. These results suggest that public ASC is effective in increasing users’ quality of life but only to a relatively small extent.ReportMore detail (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - July 29, 2020 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Library Tags: Social care Source Type: blogs
Amwell ’s Roy Schoenberg: Telehealth Post-Pandemic is “Entrenched Inside” Traditional Health Care
By JESSICA DaMASSA
There are few better positioned to speculate on what’s next for telehealth than Roy Schoenberg, co-CEO & President, of Amwell. After 15 years, more than $710M in total funding, and probably the best analogies out there for describing telehealth’s potential as a disruptive technology, Roy weighs in on just how unprecedented COVID19 has been for the uptake and evolution of virtual care.
“Historically, people thought, could telehealth be as good as a physical visit? The reality of COVID,” says Roy, “has literally opened the door to the question, can telehealth be better?”
From the...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 22, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Zoya Khan Tags: Health Tech Jessica DaMassa WTF Health AmWell covid19 Future of Healthcare health care Roy Schoenberg Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 20th 2020
This study was the first to demonstrate a causal relationship between glial senescence and neurodegeneration. In this study, accumulations of senescent astrocytes and microglia were found in tau-associated neurodegenerative disease model mice. Elimination of these senescent cells via a genetic approach can reduce tau deposition and prevent the degeneration of cortical and hippocampal neurons.
Most recently, it was shown that clearance of senescent oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in AD model mice with senolytic agents could lessen the Aβ plaque load, reduce neuroinflammation, and ameliorate cognitive deficits. This...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 19, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Gain and Loss of Flight as a Tool to Search for Import Factors in Longevity
The capacity for flight is frequently associated with greater species longevity, such as in bats, for example. The present consensus suggests that the cellular adaptations needed to support the greater metabolic capacity required for flight also resist some forms of molecular damage important in aging. This is particularly the case for adaptations in mitochondria, the power plants of cells, where damage and loss of function is known to be important in aging. The membrane pacemaker hypothesis is one way of looking at this; species that evolve cell membranes that are more resilient to oxidative damage will live longer as a r...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 17, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
We Are in Store for the Greatest Change to Our Healthcare System Since the Affordable Care Act. Here ’ s Why.
By LOGAN CHO
The COVID-19 pandemic has been harsher and lasted longer than many of us would have predicted. While our media has been inundated with updates on death tolls and economic depression, there has been little conversation of healthcare beyond the era of COVID-19. The first question that we ask when we hear of deaths: was it COVID? We have grown to expect the primary cause of death to be of coronavirus. But the impact of COVID-19 will extend beyond the individual, effecting fundamental and long-lasting change to our healthcare system.
By this point, it is clear that the public health ramifications are rea...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Medicaid Medicare Public Health logan cho Source Type: blogs
We Are in Store for the Greatest Change to Our Health Care System Since the Affordable Care Act. Here ’ s Why.
By LOGAN CHO
The COVID-19 pandemic has been harsher and lasted longer than many of us would have predicted. While our media has been inundated with updates on death tolls and economic depression, there has been little conversation of healthcare beyond the era of COVID-19. The first question that we ask when we hear of deaths: was it COVID? We have grown to expect the primary cause of death to be of coronavirus. But the impact of COVID-19 will extend beyond the individual, effecting fundamental and long-lasting change to our healthcare system.
By this point, it is clear that the public health ramifications are rea...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 10, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Medicaid Medicare Public Health logan cho Source Type: blogs
Property Tax Exemptions for Nonprofit Hospitals: What are They Worth? Do They Earn Them? Evidence from New York City
This study estimates the property tax expenditure for nonprofit... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - July 8, 2020 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
NHS capital expenditure and financial management
This report expresses concerns about widely reported shortages of personal protective equipment for clinical and care workers during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and says Government is still not treating this with sufficient urgency. It argues that the NHS needs a coherent plan for how it will function after the peak of the Covid-19 crisis with regard to issues such as workforce shortages, capital investment strategies, and tackling trust deficits.ReportHouse of Commons Public Accounts Committee - news (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - July 7, 2020 Category: UK Health Authors: The King ' s Fund Library Tags: NHS finances and productivity Source Type: blogs
Drug Companies Can ’t Be Forced to Give False Product Info
Timothy SandefurFederal appellate judges have ruled that the Trump administration violated the law by trying to force pharmaceutical companies to tell consumers false information about their products. The case involved a rule that compelled drug companies to include in their advertisements what their products cost —which sounds nice, except that, as the Goldwater Institute explained in itsbrief in the case, and asCato explained, there is no such number. Drug prices are decided through a process so complicated and subject to so many different factors, that the administration had tried instead to force compa...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 17, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Timothy Sandefur Source Type: blogs
Your Smartphone As The Swiss Knife Of Digital Health
7:39 a.m. That’s the time that your smartphone’s sonar deems as optimal for you to wake up today. With its gentle vibration from your bedside table, you pick it up to turn off the smart alarm. As you do so, your phone asks for your permission to use the built-in sensors and camera to run your routine morning scan. It analyzes your voice; evaluates your stress level based on a facial scan; checks your vital signs; and notifies you to take a picture of that mole on your forearm in order to detect any anomalies.
Thereafter, it outputs a comprehensible report with recommendations which you can send over to your ph...
Source: The Medical Futurist - June 16, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Artificial Intelligence E-Patients Health Sensors & Trackers Telemedicine & Smartphones stress health trackers Huntington's Alzheimer's disease covid19 camera apple health google fit WHO hemoglobin SpO2 Samsung oximetry F Source Type: blogs
Using a Helpful Cognitive Tool During the Pandemic
The adjustments and changes we have made during the days of the pandemic have been a testimony to our collective ability to adapt and persist. We’ve been tested in deep ways from our disconnection from the greater community, to performing at a distance, roles so grounding to our sense of self.
We’ve also had the structures that keep us in rhythm challenged and this imbalance has increased stress in unsuspecting ways. For this, we need to draw on one of our most meaningful psychological tools. Cognitive Override enables us to take the “high road” and align with values at times when we are tempted to resign to less...
Source: World of Psychology - June 15, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John C. Panepinto, PsyD, LPCS, NCC Tags: Motivation and Inspiration Boredom coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic Self Care social distancing Source Type: blogs
Escaping COVID-19
By RAGHAV GUPTA, MD
“In seeking absolute truth, we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.” William Osler
A colleague shared an experience with me about testing one of his patients for the novel coronavirus and it left me a bit puzzled. An elderly gentleman with past medical history of severe COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and heart failure came to the ER with shortness of breath, edema and fatigue. Chest x-day suggested pulmonary edema. He wanted to test him for SARS-CoV2 but hesitated. Eventually he was able to order it ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 4, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
