Wearable Iron Lung Helps COPD Patients Breathe Easier
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has few treatment options, with patients frequently experiencing shortness of breath. To address this most unwelcome symptom of COPD, Dr. Jake Brenner, a critical care physician specializing in pulmonology at Penn State’s Perelman School of Medicine, came up with an idea for a wearable device that may help.
Resembling a bullet-proof vest, Dr. Brenner’s idea is based on the iron lungs that were common in the last century when polio still ravaged much of the world. The basic configuration consists of two shells that hug the patient’s chest and back, and a pump...
Source: Medgadget - December 12, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiology Critical Care Source Type: blogs
Higher Quality Healthcare Correlates with Lower Blood Transfusion Rates
In a previous life in the 1970s, I was a blood banker at a large academic hospital. This may sound unbelievable to some of the currentLab Soft News readers but one of our cardiac surgeons in the 1970's would often transfuse six or more units of blood during a CABG (see: Variation in Use of Blood Transfusion in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery). Although modern blood transfusion can be life-saving, it can sometimes be a substitute for controlling hemorrhage by other and more appropriate means. In other words, less transfusion can often be equated with higher quality care. There is also a financial benefit when a hos...
Source: Lab Soft News - December 10, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Blood banking Clinical Lab Industry News Cost of Healthcare Lab Industry Trends Medical Research Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Poem
Warning Alarms are going offThe lights are all strobing Municipal sirens wailingA skein of geese is honkingAs they fly low over my back deck.The warnings are all around us;It ’s a widespread global panic.That time the engines went out on my planeHalfway out over the North AtlanticThe flames flickering from the port side wingThe sudden thousand foot dropStewards collapsed crying in the galleyThe seas rising to meet usLooping around back to GanderIcebergs and not enough dinghiesIt ’s hard to get the count just rightA vast underestimation Of the effects of gravityOf the full steam ahead on the TitanicShovel...
Source: Buckeye Surgeon - November 22, 2019 Category: Surgery Authors: Jeffrey Parks MD FACS Source Type: blogs
Add These 8 Things to Your Morning Routine for a More Positive Day
Build a morning ritual that changes your life for the best.
Learning how to be happy and how to change your life requires a lot of positivity, and this can start by making necessary changes to your morning routine.
Even though not as easy as it sounds, building a morning discipline into your daily routine just might be the fastest way to improve performance in any area of your life, which will lead you to a path of happiness and positive thinking!
Most people’s morning routines include grabbing their cell phones to check e-mail, texts, social media, or newsfeeds before they even rouse out of bed in the morning.
The ...
Source: World of Psychology - November 10, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Guest Author Tags: Publishers Self-Help YourTango Appreciation Gratitude Meditation Morning Routine peaceful Positivity Source Type: blogs
Haunted Houses And The Ghosts Of Psychology Past: The Week ’s Best Psychology Links
Our weekly round-up of the best psychology coverage from elsewhere on the web
A large review of studies published over the past 40 years has found little evidence that cannabis is helpful in treating mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, Ruby Prosser Scully reports in New Scientist. Researchers say that people should be wary of claims by companies producing medical cannabis, and that there is a need for more large-scale, well-controlled studies into the effects of the drug on different conditions.
“As more data points come in, understanding and interpretation become more complete — and more nuanced. ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - November 1, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Weekly links Source Type: blogs
Breath-Holding Spells Are More Complicated than Imagined
It never ceases to amaze me how nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Breath-holding spells are just the latest of the simple and common medical conditions that turn out to be much more complex than ever imagined.It all started during a recent shift in the pediatric emergency department with a toddler who presented after a breath-holding episode. He fell after losing his balance on a trampoline.It started as a classic pallid breath-holding spell that then manifested as crying out, stopping breathing, and rapidly losing consciousness. He then had a CNS anoxic event. The unconscious child clenched his fists and arched his b...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - November 1, 2019 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Plant-based diets are best … or are they?
This study is also a reminder that the health impact of a particular intervention (such as diet) may not be easy to predict or explain. In most cases, the risk of stroke and heart disease tend to rise or fall together, but that wasn’t the case in this research.
Beware the study’s limitations
This study linking a vegetarian diet with a higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke has a number of important limitations that should temper the concerns of vegetarians.
The study was observational. That means it simply observed what happened among different people who followed different diets over time, without being able to account fo...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - October 31, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Healthy Eating Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs
Managing Internal Interference
The first time I learned about internal interference was when I took a Public Speaking class in college. That was not the first time I experienced internal interference, of course. I’d had the running, internal dialogue most of my life. But now, I had a name for it. And I learned it’s actually quite common, especially for situations like public speaking class because of the almost universal fear and panic many people feel when faced with this task.
Interference is any kind of barrier of distraction in the process of communication. This can be external or internal. External interference would be anything in the ex...
Source: World of Psychology - October 29, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Bonnie McClure Tags: Anxiety and Panic Memory and Perception Self-Help Stress Confidence Distraction internal interference Introversion Self-Doubt Source Type: blogs
Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky: 1942 – 2019
Tom G. PalmerThe Cato Institute mourns the passing of a colleague, Vladimir Bukovsky, asenior fellow of the institute and a giant among champions of freedom.A single name was enough to enrage powerful dictators: Bukovsky. Vladimir Bukovsky was a tower of strength, with the integrity never to buckle and the courage to endure. The word dissident barely suffices to describe him. He was interrogated and then expelled from university at 19 for attending illegal poetry readings and for criticizing Komsomol, the Young Communist League. In 1963 he was arrested for making two copies of Milovan Djilas ’s workThe New Class, which a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 28, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Tom G. Palmer Source Type: blogs
TWiV 569: Smolt ’ in iron
The TWiV pro-vaxxers reveal viruses that infect endangered wild salmon, and how iron in host serum modulates dengue virus acquisition by mosquitoes. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 569 (67 MB .mp3, 110 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - October 13, 2019 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology aedes aegyptii dengue virus endangered salmon host iron iron deficiency mosquito reactive oxygen species salmon viruses viral virus discovery Source Type: blogs
Using FibroScan in The Clinic: Interview with Dr. Stephen A. Harrison
EchoSens creates non-invasive liver diagnosis medical devices. The company’s line of products, called FibroScan, work by measuring the speed of ultrasound waves as they move through liver tissue. This measurement can tell us about the state of the liver. For example, ultrasound waves move faster through fibrotic/scarred livers. EchoSens recently appointed Dominique Legros as their new global CEO, and we recently spoke about his plans for growth in a Medgadget exclusive.
To learn more about how a clinician would use the FibroScan, we spoke with Dr. Stephen A. Harrison, Medical Director of Pinnacle Clinical Re...
Source: Medgadget - September 30, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Ben Ouyang Tags: Diagnostics Exclusive GI Medicine Source Type: blogs
China Celebrates an Anniversary of a "People's Democratic Dictatorship"
David BoazNext Tuesday the People's Republic of China is celebrating the 65th anniversary of its founding on October 1, 1949. Quite anextravaganza is planned, even as protesters in Hong Kongplan a counter-rally. China's opposition to democracy in Hong Kong and in China itself is not just the recalcitrance of cranky old men. It's part of the Chinese Communist state's founding mission.Take the speech of Mao Zedong on July 1, 1949, as his Communist armies neared victory. The speech was titled, “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.” Instead of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it spoke of “the extinct...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 26, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Health 2.0: Why I ’m (Freaking) Excited…and a (Bit) Concerned
By DAVE LEVIN, MD
The 2019 Health 2.0 conference just wrapped up
after several days of compelling presentations, panels, and networking. As in
the past, attendees were a cross section of the industry: providers, payers,
health IT (HIT) companies, investors, and others who are passionate about
innovation in healthcare.
Tech-enabled Services
One of the more refreshing themes of the
conference was an emphasis on how health IT can enable the delivery of
services. This is a welcome perspective as too often organizations believe that
simply deploying technology will solve their problems. In my 30+ years in
healthcare, I...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 20, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Data Health 2.0 Health Tech Health Technology Start-Ups Burnout Datica Dave Levin health innovation Health IT tech-enabled services Source Type: blogs
Lepidoptera first showing 2019
First appearances in 2019 of various moth species to the scientific trap. Some of these were new for the year (NFY) as I’d seen them in 2018. Some were NFM, new for me.
15 Sep Clepsis consimilana
15 Sep Beautiful Hook-tip
13 Sep Brown-spot Pinion
13 Sep Barred Sallow
10 Sep Common Marble
7 Sep Centre-barred Sallow
4 Sep Feathered Gothic
4 Sep Eudonia angustea
3 Sep Yellow-line Quaker
25 Aug Frosted Orange
25 Aug Jersey Tiger
7 Aug Straw Underwing
6 Aug White-spotted Pinion
5 Aug The Lychnis
5 Aug Rosy Rustic
5 Aug Wax Moth
4 Aug Twin-spotted Wainscot
4 Aug Pale Prominent
4 Aug Flounced Rustic
4 Aug Red Underwing
30 J...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - September 16, 2019 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs
The Opportunity in Disruption, Part 1
By JOE FLOWER
The system is unstable. We are already seeing the precursor waves of massive and multiple disturbances to come. Disruption at key leverage points, new entrants, shifting public awareness and serious political competition cast omens and signs of a highly changed future.
So what’s the frequency? What are the smart bets for a strategic chief financial officer at a payer or provider facing such a bumpy ride? They are radically different from today’s dominant consensus strategies. In this five-part series, Joe Flower lays out the argument, the nature of the instability, and the best-bet strategie...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 12, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy Health care Disruption Health care system Joe Flower Source Type: blogs
