The Other Opioid Crisis: Hospital Shortages Lead To Patient Pain, Medical Error
I came across this public-accesss story, and wanted to share the perspective:
Pauline Bartolone, Kaiser Health News
Even as opioids flood American communities and fuel widespread addiction, hospitals are facing a dangerous shortage of the powerful painkillers needed by patients in acute pain, according to doctors, pharmacists and a coalition of health groups.
The shortage, though more significant in some places than others, has left many hospitals and surgical centers scrambling to find enough injectable morphine, Dilaudid and fentanyl — drugs given to patients undergoing surgery, fighting cancer or suffering traumatic i...
Source: Suboxone Talk Zone - March 26, 2018 Category: Addiction Authors: Jeffrey Junig MD PhD Tags: Acute Pain Anesthesia Public policy surgery Chronic pain opioid addiction Source Type: blogs
Hospitalized Patients Are Civilian Casualties in the Government's War on Opioids
A recentstory by Pauline Bartolone in the Los Angeles Times draws attention to some under-reported civilian casualties in the government ’s war on opioids: hospitalized patients in severe pain, in need of painkillers. Hospitals across the country are facing shortages of injectable morphine, fentanyl, and Dilaudid (hydromorphone). As a result, trauma patients, post-surgical patients, and hospitalized cancer patients frequently go un dertreated for excruciating pain.Hospitals, including the ones in which I practice general surgery, are working hard to ameliorate the situation by asking medical staff to use prescription opi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 18, 2018 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 19th 2018
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! - February 18, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Doctors As Patients
I think doctor ' s make the worst patients. A friend ' s father, she told me, was a doctor but ignored his own cancer symptoms and said he was fine until he wasn ' t. I have never met a doctor who rushed to be a patient....But I think the best training for a doctor is to be a patient - particularly a patient of the disease or ailment they treat. This would provide so much more understanding for them.Here is the story ofa British breast cancer surgeon who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and finally returned to work in 2017. She never expected to face this diagnosis. I don ' t anyone ever does." Doctors face particu...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 14, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient breast cancer treatment doctors surgery Source Type: blogs
NYTimes: The Growing Toll of Our Ever-Expanding Waistlines
The Growing Toll of Our Ever-Expanding WaistlinesBy JANE E. BRODY NOV. 13, 2017Paul Rogers I hope you ’re not chomping on a bagel or, worse, a doughnut while you read about what is probably the most serious public health irony of the last half century in this country: As one major killer — smoking — declined, another rose precipitously to take its place: obesity.Many cancer deaths were averted after millions quit lighting up, but they are now rising because even greater numbers are unable to keep their waistlines in check.Today, obesity and smoking remain the two leading causes of preventable dea...
Source: Dr Portnay - November 13, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr Portnay Source Type: blogs
One Last Story on How Life Sucks After Breast Cancer
Okay, maybe I have been in a rut because I have been stuck at home after knee surgery because I can ' t drive. Or maybe because I have a cold that I am obsessing on crappy lives after cancer. Or maybe the internet gods had their stars align and all these stories ended up on my laptop in the same time period. But I hope this will be the last one for a while.Here ' s the story of a young woman who lost both her husband and her sister because of her lengthy cancer treatment." “The reality is that probably four out of seven days I’m in bed,” explains the 39-year-old, who lives with her mother at Bundall.“I’ve had my ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 6, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient breast cancer bonds breast cancer treatment stress Source Type: blogs
Excess Visceral Fat Tissue Raises Cancer Risk
One of the many detrimental consequences of carrying excess fat tissue is an increased risk of cancer. Visceral fat generates chronic inflammation in addition to other forms of metabolic disruption, and that inflammation speeds the development and progression of all of the common age-related conditions, cancer included. The epidemiological research noted here is one way of looking at the numbers behind this relationship. When considering the number of people who are harming their health by being overweight, it is interesting to note the fact that progress in medical technology is still keeping pace to reduce mortality in l...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 6, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 31st 2017
In conclusion, documentation is important, a critical part of advocacy and the development process at the larger scale. It isn't just words, but rather a vital structural flow of information from one part of the larger community to another, necessary to sustain progress in any complex field. We would all do well to remember this - and to see that building this documentation is an activity in which we can all pitch in to help.
Evidence Suggests that, at Least in Earlier Stages, Alzheimer's Disease Blocks Rather than Destroys Memories
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2017/07/evidence-suggests-that-at-least-in-e...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 30, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Civilization Intent on Eating Itself into an Early Grave
If the successes in technological development achieved over the past few hundred years is teaching us anything, perhaps it should be that individual members of a species that evolved in an environment of pervasive scarcity and intermittent famine are not well equipped for an environment of consistent plenty. Our biochemistry and our instincts lead us astray: eat too many calories and life expectancy and long-term health will suffer for it. This is not new. We are no different from our ancestors in this aspect of the human condition. The change lies in the fact that we now live in an age so wealthy and capable that consiste...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 25, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Peek into the Future of Hospitals: Smart Design, Technologies and Our Homes
A simple, round table with a desktop computer and a projector, where the patient and the doctor have their friendly chat. Whenever an examination is necessary, they cross the “blue line” in the room indicating the “boundaries of the clinic” elegantly. It’s definitely not rocket science, but the patient satisfaction index is soaring. What’s the secret?
Radboud University Medical Centre & Cleveland Clinic leading the way into the future of hospitals
The scenery takes place at the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department of Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The head of the departm...
Source: The Medical Futurist - June 6, 2017 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Healthcare Design architecture future of hospital gc4 hospital design Innovation technology Source Type: blogs
Once Upon A Time, I Was A Healthy Person
I have many friends who, after cancer, get back to their old lives for the most part. I ' m not talking about that ' new normal ' bull, but just doing normal things like going back to work, taking part in all their family activities and all sorts of regular, every day life things.Me, I did not get to go back to my regular life after breast cancer. My body had other plans for me. It decided it was time to fall apart.After breast cancer, I got gall stones and had my gallbladder out six months after radiation ended. That winter I slipped on the ice, landed on my left hand and started all my lymphedema crap.The following fall ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - May 31, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: ailments being healthy being me Source Type: blogs
“The Essential Medicinal Chemistry of Curcumin”
Conclusion: all my neighbors have dogs.
Of course, you’d say that’s ridiculous. And you would be right.
You can’t just consider the specific trials that support your theory.
This means that if you are making sweeping statements about curcumin, it is indeed NOT “beyond the scope” of your work to look at ALL the trials that have results. But that is what seems to have occurred here.
Note: the review authors tell us that they chose these trials because the data is available on the clinicaltrials.gov website. Um, I’d like to point out that there are curcumin clinical trial results in PubMed, too…
Let...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 2, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll curcumin 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
The Wrong Doctor
Synopsis ofa very sad story: A man with horrible pain issues was cut off of pain meds by his doctor and as a result took his own life.The details: The man ' s pain issues were treated by his PCP who was concerned about potential opioid abuse and cut him off of medication. His PCP was concerned about losing his own license as a result of tightening laws regarding opioid medications due to the current abuse epidemic. His pain, when untreated was so bad, caused him to commit suicide.I think my big problem is that the man was not treated by a specialist who would have a better understanding of options for treating his pain. Th...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 5, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: chronic conditions pain management uncertainty with doctors Source Type: blogs
Cancer Prevention (Or Why Me?)
I have a feeling I am bit cynical these days. This morning I found a post by Dana Farber ' s Insight blog on cancer prevention tips, which caught my cynical eye.I was 19 when I was first diagnosed with cancer. Okay, I admit to smoking some by then but I wasn ' t much of a drinker until I got to college (!!). I was pretty active. I was young. Any bad habits didn ' t have much time to turn into a cancer, or so I think. Then by my second diagnosis, 26 years later, I might have had a few more bad habits but I was pretty active and got check ups, wore sun screen and in good shape. This is my family history of cancer: ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - January 2, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: aggravation cancer diagnosis cancer prevention frustration Source Type: blogs
