Culture

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- It happened fast. It happened in nearly every hospital in the state of Michigan. And it didn't come with dreaded side effects.

"It" was a change in the type of patients treated by the state's 130 hospitals - or rather, the insurance status of those patients.

A new study shows that the proportion of those patients who lacked insurance dropped by nearly 4 percentage points, and the proportion covered by Medicaid rose more than 6 points, within three months of the launch of the Healthy Michigan Plan in April 2014.

In a study appearing in the June 21 issue of JAMA, Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined changes in insurance coverage among hospitalized nonelderly adults after Michigan expanded Medicaid coverage in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Most clinical research is not useful to clinicians. This could change.

Many billions of dollars are spent on clinical research every year, yet much of the knowledge produced is not useful for guiding clinical decision making. Because many of the features that make clinical research reliable as a basis for clinical practice can be identified, more useful clinical research could easily be produced at the same or even at massively reduced cost, according to John Ioannidis from Stanford University, US, in an Essay published in PLOS Medicine.

COLOGNE. The music of Mozart and Strauss is able to lower blood lipid concentrations and the heart rate. This is the result of a study of the effect of different musical genres on the cardiovascular system, which Hans-Joachim Trappe und Gabriele Volt of Ruhr University Bochum present in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2016; 113: 347-352).

Campaigns to promote physical activity and reduce obesity among children should focus more on active outdoor play, according to a study led at the University of Strathclyde.

The Active Healthy Kids Scotland Report Card 2016 has found that children's physical activity levels are continuing to fall well short of recommended levels.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Researchers have found that an existing diabetes drug can be used to halt progression of another disease that is a leading cause of liver transplants.

A three-year clinical trial led by University of Florida Health researcher Kenneth Cusi, M.D., found that the drug pioglitazone is safe and effective in certain patients who have nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, a chronic liver disease caused by a buildup of fat. The findings are published today (June 20) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

(PHILADELPHIA) - Up to 30 percent of people who receive organ transplants will develop diabetes, but researchers are unsure why. Although doctors typically blame immunosuppressive drugs that transplant recipients take to prevent organ rejection, it's unclear why some people develop the lifelong disorder, while others do not. A new study in kidney transplant recipients suggests that patients with more inflammation prior to surgery are more likely to develop diabetes than those with less overall inflammation, and that a patient's fat stores also play a role.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA - Offering medical assistance in dying to people in Canada on the basis of psychiatric illnesses could put vulnerable people at risk, argues a commentary in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

LONDON, ON - Dr. Jason Gilliland, a Scientist at Children's Health Research Institute, Lawson Health Research Institute and Director of the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory at Western University, is combining health research with geography to understand the connection between children's nutrition and their local neighbourhoods. In an innovative study, Dr. Gilliland and his team used GPS technology to provide evidence that adolescents' exposure to junk food outlets during trips to and from school affects their likelihood of making a junk food purchase.

BOSTON - In an analysis recently published in BMJ, which coincided with the UN High Level Meeting on HIV in New York, Boston Medical Center (BMC) clinician researchers assessed current global evidence and found that mandatory treatment for people with substance use disorders is not effective in reducing their drug use. In addition, mandatory treatment, which is defined as treatment ordered, motivated or supervised under the criminal justice system, done without a patient's informed consent violates their human rights and does more harm than benefit to the patient.

Philadelphia, PA, June 21, 2016 - Exercise plays a crucial role in being healthy and preventing disease. Because of their close relationship to patients, primary care physicians (PCPs) can act as a catalyst to help people be more active through physical activity counseling; however, doctors often encounter barriers to being able to properly address inactivity. A new paper from The American Journal of Medicine offers PCPs implementable strategies to break down those barriers and help their patients get more exercise.

Low dose aspirin is recommended by clinicians as a preventive measure for patients who have already had a heart attack or stroke, but the risk of taking low-dose aspirin to prevent or delay a first heart attack or stroke is less clear, as the benefit for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) must be balanced with the increased risk of gastrointestinal or other bleeding.

Municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash (MSWI bottom ash) contains a noticeable amount of metallic aluminum, and circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) fly ash is rich in active SiO2. The two types of solid wastes can thus be theoretically used as an aerating agent and silica source for the production of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), respectively.

There is still no consensus on the treatment of traumatic thoracolumbar fractures, therefore more evidence is needed. As surgeons base treatment decisions on classification of the fractures, much attention has been given to classification schemes for fractures around the world. However, it is remarkable that none of the classification methods has paid attention to the kyphosis. This seems to be of importance, because post-traumatic kyphosis is related to post-traumatic pain.

A team of researchers has elucidated individual profiles of allergy reactivity in patients that are not protected after treatment with immunotherapy. The aim is to improve medical treatment of people who are allergic to insect stings.

Approximately 30 per cent of the European population suffers from allergies and 3-5 per cent are allergic to insect venom. In Denmark alone, 50,000 people are at risk of severe allergic reactions if they are stung. The majority of people, however, are not aware of their allergy.