ROCHESTER, Minn. — New research from Mayo Clinic shows that implementing a uniform method to care for lower-risk cardiac surgical patients improves outcomes, reduces patients' time in the hospital and lowers overall per patient costs by 15 percent. The study is published in the May issue of Health Affairs.
MULTIMEDIA ALERT: Video and audio are available for download on the Mayo Clinic News Network.
Unlike medical records kept in paper charts, electronic health records (EHR) provide numerous access points to clinicians to review a patient's medical history.
In 2012, John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamakana were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering that adult cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent ones (iPS); the cells obtained are capable of behaving in a similar way to embryonic stem cells, and hence have enormous potential for regenerative medicine.
However, although there are many research groups around the world studying this process, it is still not completely understood, it is not totally efficient, and it is not safe enough to be used as the basis for a new cell therapy.
WASHINGTON D.C. May 6, 2013 -- The eye is an exquisitely sensitive system with many aspects that remain somewhat of a mystery—both in the laboratory and in the clinic.
A U.S.-based team of mathematicians and optometrists is working to change this by gaining a better understanding of the inner workings of tear film distribution over the eye's surface. This, in turn, may lead to better treatments or a cure for the tear film disease known as "dry eye." They describe their work in the journal Physics of Fluids.
The sight of seabirds following trawlers in order to feast from discarded fish is a common maritime sight, but each year many thousands of seabirds are killed by overhanging cables or in nets. New research in Animal Conservation assesses mortality figures from South Africa to show that a simple bird scaring line can reduce the mortality rate by over 90%.
Although the nation is spending more on welfare than ever before, most of that money is going to better-off families rather than the very poorest, a researcher found.
ANN ARBOR—Forget the "me" generation. A new analysis of long-term trends in egotism shows there's been a "me" century in America.
The analysis, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, shows that characteristics related to self-interest, compared to interest in the lives and needs of other people, was low during the 19th century but rose steadily after the turn of the 20th century.
Amsterdam, NL, 5 May 2014 – A follow-up study of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who participated in an earlier "proof of concept" clinical trial using exenatide showed that improvements persisted twelve months after discontinuing exenatide therapy. These data provide strong encouragement for the further study of this drug in patients with PD, report researchers in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.
When single mothers lose their jobs, their children suffer significant negative effects as young adults, according to a new study by researchers at the California Center for Population Research at UCLA.
PHILADELPHIA, PA, May 6, 2014 – The home is an important microenvironment in models of obesity and can trigger behaviors both positively and negatively associated with weight status. With this in mind, a group of researchers from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, and the Cancer Coalition of South Georgia sought to examine the home food environment and determine which aspects are associated with healthy eating in low-income overweight and obese women who receive healthcare through local federally-qualified community health centers.
Ann Arbor, MI, May 6, 2014 – Exposure to long-term obesity has become more common with increases in obesity at younger ages. Researchers examined the relationship between BMI at age 25, obesity later in life, and biological indicators of health. They found that people who were obese by age 25 had a higher chance of more severe obesity later in life, but that current weight, rather than the duration of obesity, was a better indicator of cardiovascular and metabolic risk. Their findings are published in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The $260 million Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen Plus Progestin (E+P) clinical trial yielded a huge economic return on investment, according to a modeling study being published in Annals of Internal Medicine. A decade ago, the NIH funded the WHI E+P clinical trial to determine the cardiovascular benefits of combined hormone therapy (cHT).
DETROIT – Factors like the level of poverty in a neighborhood, living alone, and age affect a patient's chances of being readmitted to a hospital after discharge, even after possible variations in quality of care in the hospital have been taken into account.
Those are the conclusions of a new study by Henry Ford Health System researchers who found links between readmission rates and social factors such as patients' marital status and neighborhood poverty, suggesting that readmissions are not just an issue of hospital quality.
Research demonstrates that lowering copayments for cardiovascular medications results in better adherence and outcomes among all patients, but until now, little was known about whether lowering copayments could improve known disparities in cardiovascular care. New research finds that lowering copayments for medications following a heart attack could have a significant impact on reducing the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in cardiovascular disease.
These findings are published in the May issue of Health Affairs.
NEW YORK, May 5, 2014 – Neuronetics, Inc. announced today results from a new, dual-arm randomized pilot study that showed a trend toward symptomatic improvements with once-monthly TMS maintenance therapy in medication-free patients treated with NeuroStar TMS Therapy® for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Six weeks of acute NeuroStar TMS Therapy induced remission in 61.2 percent of all enrolled patients.