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Pediatric mental health ED visits spike during recent years
Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied HealthcareWhile the number of overall pediatric emergency departments visits has remained stable over the past decade, the number of children who have presented with mental health disorders has increased by 60% and cases of self-harm have skyrocketed by 329%. "We're seeing more and more children presenting with mental health disorders," said Dr. Rachel Stanley, chief of emergency medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Stanley authored a study published in the journal Pediatrics that sheds light on emergency department utilization for mental health symptoms among patients between the ages of 5 and 17.
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Social distancing: Is 6 feet enough?
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) define social distancing as avoiding crowded places and mass gatherings and staying at least six feet, which is about two meters, from others in order to minimize the risk of contagion. However, recently published studies support the hypothesis that virus transmission may occur more than two meters from an infected person.
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Study shows men receive preference for liver transplants
Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied HealthcareWomen in the U.S. are significantly more likely to die while waiting on a liver transplant. The results come from a large cohort study that looked at sex-based disparities among women and men who received liver donation from living and deceased donors. "Our findings suggest that the MELD [model for end-stage liver disease] score does not accurately estimate disease severity in women and that the lack of consideration of candidate anthropomorphic and liver measurements in the current allocation system may have a greater association with the sex disparity in liver allocation than geographic factors," the researchers wrote in their study in JAMA Surgery.
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What to say when someone dies
Lisa Cole Mental HealthcareFrom the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, early in April, a physician wrote a note I found to be very profound and moving. Right after receiving it, I got a ping asking, "What do you say to someone when their loved one just died?" The same question came the next day and, again, the day after. People were and are flailing in this deluge of death. Here's what I've found to be helpful to say when someone dies.
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US payrolls add 2.5 million jobs amid reopenings; unemployment drops to…
Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementEmployers added 2.5 million nonfarm jobs in May after April's 20.5 million layoffs, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. May's rate of unemployment dropped to 13.3% versus 14.7% in April. Some economists had spoken of May's unemployment rate reaching 20%, rivaling the depths of the Great Depression. Instead, the labor market improved due to a partial resuming of economic activity after its curtailment in March and April to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some areas of the economy did not rebound in May.
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Infographic: The power of sleep
Brian Wallace Medical & Allied HealthcareSleep is crucial to our health and well-being, but 77% of American adults haven’t been sleeping as well since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This infographic outlines why sleep is so important and provides tips to get better rest.
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COVID-19 and national responses, part 1 of 2: Asia and Europe
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareWhen COVID-19 first emerged and the world began to take notice, each country naturally responded in its own way. These responses were based on many factors, including available public health resources, political will, governmental structure, scientific interest and rigor, as well as the expertise of virologists, epidemiologists, and other experts. How have some countries handled the outbreak, and what lessons can we learn from our relative failures, oversights, and successes?
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Could cannabis help treat COVID-19?
Bambi Majumdar PharmaceuticalThere is a massive global effort underway to develop a COVID-19 vaccine as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. But in the meantime, new prevention strategies and therapies are sorely needed. One promising Canadian study indicates that certain enzymes in cannabis could help treat the disease. It highlights cannabis’ benefits as an aid in blocking the cells that enter the body from the novel coronavirus.
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Heart attack, stroke patients are avoiding the ER due to COVID-19 concerns
Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied HealthcareThe number of heart attack patients treated at U.S. hospital emergency rooms decreased by nearly half during the pandemic. That statistic has health officials worried that people are avoiding care because they are afraid of contracting COVID-19 at a hospital. Kaiser Permanente researchers reviewed heart attack treatments at its Northern California hospitals before and after the first COVID-19 death was reported on March 4. The 4.4 million records showed the number of ER treatments dropped by 48% once pandemic-related deaths started occurring.
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Medical practices are up against it as they struggle to retain patients,…
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareFor some more than others, the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. Still, medical practices remain at the center of battling the virus as they treat patients. They also face personal financial pressures like many of their American counterparts. More than half of clinicians (55%) fear another wave of the virus. They are stressed because of potentially limited access to testing and personal protective equipment, according to a survey of 730 primary care clinicians in 49 states and Washington, D.C.
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