Communication breakdown among nurses and doctors is one of the primary reasons for patient care mistakes in the hospital. In a small pilot study, University of Michigan researchers learned about potential causes of these communication failures by recording interactions among nurses and doctors, and then having them watch and critique the footage together.
Culture
Drinking excessive amounts of fluids can be a medically unremarkable habit, but it could also signify a rare hormone disorder. A new procedure now enables a fast and reliable diagnosis. Researchers from the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel reported these findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Montreal, Aug. 1, 2018 - Treatment of latent tuberculosis is set to transform after a pair of studies from the Research-Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) revealed that a shorter treatment was safer and more effective in children and adults compared to the current standard. These findings are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Use of prescription opioids in the United States has not substantially declined over the last decade, despite increased attention to opioid abuse and awareness of their risks, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
The results show that, although opioid use and average dose of opioids levelled off after a peak in 2012-13, all patient groups had a higher average daily dose in 2017 than in 2007, and use was particularly high among patients with a disability.
Think summer holidays and you'll likely call up images of a beautiful beach or a glittering blue lake. But more and more lakes, rivers and coastal areas are plagued by an oversupply of nutrients that causes algae to grow at an explosive rate, which can eventually lead to water bodies that can't support aquatic life.
Scientists call this type of water pollution eutrophication, and it is an enormous problem worldwide: There are more than 400 marine 'dead zones' caused by over-fertilization, covering an estimated 245,000 km2, which is an area six times the size of Switzerland.
DURHAM, N.C. -- For a small, reddish-beaked bird called the zebra finch, sexiness is color-coded. Males have beaks that range from light orange to dark red. But from a female's point of view, a male's colored bill may simply be hot, or not, new findings suggest.
Due to a phenomenon called categorical perception, zebra finches partition the range of hues from red to orange into two discrete categories, much like humans do, researchers report August 1 in the journal Nature.
Researchers have identified a rare cell type in airway tissue, previously uncharacterized in the scientific literature, that appears to play a key role in the biology of cystic fibrosis. Using new technologies that enable scientists to study gene expression in thousands of individual cells, the team comprehensively analyzed the airway in mice and validated the results in human tissue.
Soil is full of life, essential for nutrient cycling and carbon storage. To better understand how it functions, an international research team led by EMBL and the University of Tartu (Estonia) conducted the first global study of bacteria and fungi in soil. Their results show that bacteria and fungi are in constant competition for nutrients and produce an arsenal of antibiotics to gain an advantage over one another. The study can also help predict the impact of climate change on soil, and help us make better use of natural soil components in agriculture.
Keratinocyte skin cells are common targets of the beta subtype of human papilloma virus. This usually harmless infection causes skin disease in people with rare gene mutations.[/caption]
You're probably infected with one or more subtypes of the human papilloma virus--and, as alarming as that may sound, odds are you will never show any symptoms. The beta subtype of the virus, ß-HPV, is widespread in the general population and the least pathogenic; in fact, most carriers don't even know that they have it.
A new roundtable report from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC) titled 'Coffee, caffeine, mortality and life expectancy' highlights the potential role of coffee consumption on all-cause mortality, examining both published and yet-to-be published research to date.
It is one of the most unusual primates on the planet - famed for its large eyes, big ears and thin, bony finger used for probing.
Often persecuted as a harbinger of evil, the aye-aye has fascinated scientists, in particular how and why it evolved such unusual features.
But now a new study has, for the first time, measured the extent to which the endangered aye-aye has evolved similar features to squirrels, despite being more closely related to monkeys, chimps, and humans.
Since Darwin first laid out the basic principles of evolution by means of natural selection, the role of competition for food as a driving force in shaping and shifting a species' biology to outcompete its adversaries has played center stage. So important is the notion of competition between species, that it is viewed as a key selective force that resulted in the split of the lineage leading to modern humans from that of our early ape ancestors.
Eating high fibre foods may reduce the effects of stress on our gut and behaviour, according to new research published in The Journal of Physiology.
Stress is a significant health concern and can cause major changes in the gut and in the brain, which can cause changes in behaviour. In recent years there has been growing interest in the link between gut bacteria and stress-related disorders including anxiety, depression and irritable bowel syndrome.
A single-payer health care plan could expand coverage for all New York State residents, but would require significant new tax revenue, according to an analysis released today by the RAND Corporation and the New York State Health Foundation.
A plan outlined by the New York Health Act is likely to increase use of health services as more people receive coverage. But overall health care costs would decrease slightly over time if administrative costs are reduced and state officials slow the growth of payments to health care providers, according to the analysis.
Up until quite recently, the animal phylum Placozoa enjoyed a unique position in animal systematics. It was the only phylum to which only a single species had ever been assigned: Trichoplax adhaerens. Now, however, at team led by Professor Gert Wörheide of LMU's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and GeoBio-Center has discovered that placozoan specimens collected from coastal waters off Hong Kong clearly differ from T. adhaerens in their genetic make-up.