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Survey finds veterans generally satisfied with mental health care

A survey of U.S. veterans receiving mental health services from the Veterans Health Administration finds general satisfaction, but also significant room for improvement among all areas studied.

The RAND Corporation study, conducted in 2008 and 2009, found that patients with a substance use disorder were less satisfied than other veterans who received mental health services. Those with substance abuse problems also were less likely than others to report that staff listened to them or respected their decisions.

Highs and lows: Height changes in the ice sheets mapped

Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany have used satellite data to map elevation and elevation changes in both Greenland and Antarctica. The new maps are the most complete published to date, from a single satellite mission. They also show the ice sheets are losing volume at an unprecedented rate of about 500 cubic kilometres per year. The results are published today in The Cryosphere, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Diabetes calculator helps identify A&E patients at risk of disease

A new online tool will help doctors predict which patients are most likely to develop diabetes.

The calculator will help doctors identify high risk patients so that they can be tested for the disease and offered lifestyle advice. The test is targeted at people who have been admitted to hospital for emergency care.

Experts say it could offer a cost-effective way to identify people with diabetes in Scotland as it avoids the need for significant investment in screening.

USC Eye Institute study finds African-Americans at higher risk for diabetic vision loss

LOS ANGELES — Research by Keck Medicine of USC ophthalmology scientists demonstrates that African Americans bear heavier burden of diabetic macular edema (DME), one of the leading causes of blindness in diabetic patients in the United States.

Providing futile care in the ICU prevents other patients from receiving critical care

Providing futile treatment in the intensive care unit sets off a chain reaction that causes other ill patients needing medical attention to wait for critical care beds, according to a study by researchers from UCLA and RAND Health.

The study is the first to show that when unbeneficial medical care is provided, others who might be able to benefit from treatment are harmed, said study lead author Dr. Thanh Huynh, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Testing the shelf-life of nuclear reactors

Oxford, August 20, 2014 – Researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls and TerraPower based in Bellevue, Washington, have demonstrated the power of high-energy beams of charged particles (ions). The ions can rapidly and consistently damage samples of ferritic-martensitic steel, the material used in certain nuclear reactor components.

Repeat ED visits for acute heart failure suggest need for better outpatient care

Almost one-third of acute heart failure syndrome patients seen in hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Florida and California during 2010 had ED visits during the following year, findings that suggest a lack of appropriate outpatient care. A study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators also finds that patients with frequent ED visits for the syndrome accounted for more than half of all such ED visits and hospitalizations, contributing to significant health care costs.

Is China's 50 percent cesarean section delivery rate too high?

Efforts must be made to decrease China's increasing caesarean section rate, suggests a new commentary published today (20 August) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG).

How parents juggle work hours may influence kids' weight

The way parents balance their work schedules may affect their adolescent children's eating habits, according to Penn State researchers. Those schedules may be even more important than the number of hours the parents spend at work, said Molly Martin, associate professor of sociology and demography.

Adolescents with moms and dads who spend more time at home, especially at breakfast and dinner time, generally have healthier eating behaviors and in some cases better exercise habits than most adolescents, according to the researchers.

Novel oral anticoagulant prescriptions soar, but at a high cost

Philadelphia, PA, August 19, 2014 – Warfarin, the longtime standard treatment for atrial fibrillation, is facing competition from new options in the anticoagulant drug marketplace including dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban. A new study documents the rapid adoption of these novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs) into clinical practice. By mid-2013 NOACs accounted for 62% of all new anticoagulant prescriptions yet this represents 98% of total anticoagulant-related drug costs. Findings are published in The American Journal of Medicine.

Engineering new bone growth

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT chemical engineers have devised a new implantable tissue scaffold coated with bone growth factors that are released slowly over a few weeks. When applied to bone injuries or defects, this coated scaffold induces the body to rapidly form new bone that looks and behaves just like the original tissue.

Predicting cholera outbreaks using ecology

Imagine if we had the ability to track how a wide range of ecosystems was responding to global changes in real time. Such a tool would be particularly powerful if it coupled multiple decades of information about ecological responses to environmental change with large-scale, long-term experiments and models from dozens of different ecosystem types.

In fact, this tool exists: It is the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, which will soon celebrate its 35th anniversary.

Nurse staffing and mortality in stroke centers

Hospital staffing levels have been associated with patient outcomes, but staffing on weekends has not been well studied, despite a recent UK mandate to make physician specialist care 7 days a week a policy and service improvement priority for the National Health Service. To help address the paucity of research on the association of weekend staffing with patient outcomes, Dr.

Blood glucose levels measured in hospitalized patients can predict risk of type 2 diabetes

Blood glucose levels measured in hospitalized adults during acute illness can be used to predict risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the following 3 years, according to a study published by David McAllister and colleagues from the University of Edinburgh, UK in this week's PLOS Medicine.

New study first to examine quality of cardiac rehabilitation programs in Canada

The quality of cardiac rehabilitation programs across Canada is strong, with specific criteria areas now identified as requiring further enhancement to improve patient outcomes, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, York University and UHN.