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ATA to Congress: Expand telemedicine to rural communities
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationIf you haven't yet settled into the telemedicine drama playing out in the American healthcare landscape, you may be missing a bit of a good show. This latest prognostication by the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) is not game-changing, but it is enough of a play for fans to take notice, and to signal we're far from settled on where this movement will ultimately come to some finality.
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Workplace safety in healthcare: Identifying the problem
Christina Thielst Healthcare AdministrationThe healthcare industry has one of the highest rates of work-related injuries and illness, and the impact is great. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the number of days healthcare workers are away from work is higher than both construction and manufacturing — industries traditionally believed to be more hazardous. OSHA also reports workers' compensation losses result in a total annual expense of $2 billion for hospitals alone.
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Studies reveal clear link between marijuana and driving impairment
Dr. Denise A. Valenti Law Enforcement, Defense & SecurityMarilyn Huestis, Ph.D., recently spoke at the Marijuana and Cannabinoids: A Neuroscience Research Summit, which was held in Bethesda, Maryland, and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Huestis is an internationally renowned expert on human drug testing — in particular the biologic measures in blood, urine and saliva. Her presentation during the conference highlighted research related to marijuana and driving, including evolving concerns related to impairment with consumption of marijuana.
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Analyzing the social brain
Dorothy L. Tengler Science & TechnologyIn 2010, medical researchers uncovered a wiring diagram that shows how the brain pays attention to visual, cognitive, sensory and motor cues. The study was the first of its kind to show how the brain switches attention from one feature to the next.
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Warding off heart disease with dietary supplements
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareCoronary artery disease (CAD), also known as ischemic heart disease, is the most common type of heart disease in the United States. Atherosclerosis is the major cause of heart disease, killing approximately one individual every 34 seconds and responsible for about a third of all deaths worldwide.
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Changing medical simulation with 3-D printing
David Escobar Medical & Allied HealthcareThe 3-D printing movement has been featured in countless articles and media describing the changes it will bring to manufacturing, technology and the world. But what can we expect to see in the medical simulation community? Currently, the majority of medical simulation training devices are manufactured with traditional methods that meet the general objective of training healthcare providers. Yet this current simulation equipment lacks realism, which is needed when training future and current healthcare workers.
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Why is customer service so difficult in the hospital?
Joan Spitrey Healthcare AdministrationOn April 20, popular consumer reporter John Stossel wrote an opinion piece on the lack of customer service he received while in the hospital. Stossel was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, for which he was admitted to prestigious New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
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Benzodiazepine linked to higher risk of overdose death
Dr. Denise A. Valenti PharmaceuticalIn William Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the tragic character states, "To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream — ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come." However, the sleep of death is what close to 15 million adults risked as they filled their sleep, sedative, anxiolytic or anticonvulsant prescriptions containing benzodiazepine. A new study published in the April issue of the American Public Health Association Journal reported an increase in overdose mortality related to benzodiazepine prescriptions between the years 1996 and 2013.
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The end of ER diversions
Mark Huber Healthcare AdministrationThe problem of emergency room overcrowding is not new. It creates a chain of failure, particularly when ambulances with critically ill patients aboard — on the ground or in the air — must divert to a secondary hospital, and therefore delay the onset of care.
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Long-term memories may be the result of ‘replay’
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareWhen my dad was in his 80s, he was able to remember everything from decades earlier, but little about events of previous weeks. For some of us, it is the opposite — we have good short-term memory but remember little of long ago.
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