In today's health care climate, physicians are increasingly being asked to do their part to help contain costs and to "choose wisely" when it comes to ordering costly medical tests and services.
Culture
Boston, Mass. -- Researchers from the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have designed three new eyeglasses using high-power prisms to optimally expand the visual fields of patients with hemianopia, a condition in which the visual fields of both eyes are cut by half. The new designs, described in Optometry and Vision Science, address some limitations of existing prism correction available to this population.
Fifteen million: That's the number of adults in the United States affected by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
In fact, it's the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But for a disease so high on the mortality-cause list, patients might not be receiving adequate treatment.
When people think of sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), images of middle aged adults likely come to mind. However, a recent study by Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare sheds light on another population of people who are affected by the disorder: children who have cerebral palsy (CP).
High levels of water hardness in the home may be linked to the development of eczema early in life, according to a new study led by King's College London.
TORONTO, May 16, 2016 - Life-saving cardiac rehab programs are not being offered in countries where heart disease is the biggest killer. A panel of experts has now released a statement recommending how all the key elements of these programs can be delivered in an affordable way, in the places where it is needed most.
A new study shows that using a transparent air-tight helmet instead of a face mask helps critically ill patients breathe better and can prevent them from needing a ventilator. Patients with helmet ventilation also spent less time in the intensive care unit and had better survival.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nearly everybody thinks that presidential candidates routinely dodge hard-hitting questions, providing evasive answers to simple questions.
But a new study that analyzed the full transcripts of 14 U.S. presidential debates from 1996 to 2012 provides some surprising insights that might temper that belief -- and help explain why people believe politicians are evasive.
The research found that presidential candidates accused their rivals of evasion quite often -- 54 times in the 14 debates analyzed.
Studies that use UK hospital coding data to examine "weekend effects" for acute conditions, such as stroke, may be undermined by inaccurate coding, suggests research published by The BMJ today.
The research, by Dr Linxin Li and Professor Peter Rothwell at Oxford University, was the subject of media reporting last week, before the full findings had been published.
The full study is now available on thebmj.com.
HOUSTON - (May 16, 2016) - After months of near silence regarding Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's "increasingly hostile" comments about Mexico, the country, through its foreign ministry, is now trying to protect its image and respond more vigorously to anti-Mexican rhetoric, according to a new issue brief from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Philadelphia, PA, May 17, 2016 - Hospitalized patients can deteriorate quickly, requiring prompt identification and treatment, especially since each hour of treatment delay can increase the risk of mortality. In a new study published in the American Journal of Medicine, researchers have implemented an automated process that continuously samples electronic medical record (EMR) data in real time and triggers an alert to the physician at the patient's bedside to warn of potential clinical decline.
Paris, France May 17, 2016: Patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) who are at high risk for bleeding have significantly lower rates of target lesion revascularisation and fewer adverse events after undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with a polymer-free biolimus-A (BA9) drug-coated stent than with those receiving a bare metal stent (BMS) in results from a sub-study of the LEADERS FREE trial reported for the first time in a late-breaker session at EuroPCR 2016.
Paris, France - 17 May 2016: Using optimal frequency domain imaging (OFDI) to guide percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with second-generation drug eluting stents (DES) achieves equivalent clinical and angiographic outcomes to intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided PCI at 12 months, show results from the OPINION study reported in a late-breaker session at EuroPCR 2016.
Paris, France - 17 May 2016: Half of transcatheter heart valves may undergo degeneration within 10 years, according to estimates from the first study investigating the long-term durability of these valves in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) reported at EuroPCR 2016.
AURORA, Colo. (May 17, 2015) - A new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus appears to disprove the increasingly popular notion that doctors die differently than everyone else, using fewer interventions that often have little value.
In fact, the researchers said, their national study found that physicians use more hospice care, spend more time in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and just as much time in hospitals when compared to the rest of the population.