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Health app certification program halted
Pamela Lewis Dolan Medical & Allied HealthcareJust days after the first class of certified mobile apps was announced by an organization that promised to take the guesswork out of app recommendations for physicians, the certification program was halted after it was found to be significantly flawed.
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The importance of blood vessel reorganization after face transplants
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareFor the handful of full facial transplants that have been performed, there is a complex rehabilitation process during which the patient learns how to eat, speak and make facial expressions again. The biologic changes that happen after full face transplantation were not fully understood until recent discoveries. Researchers have found that in the months following the procedure, the blood vessels in the faces of transplant recipients are actually able to reorganize themselves.
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Handcuffing the crew: When rules and regulations get in the way
Mark Huber Medical & Allied HealthcareWe all need rules. Especially those of us who fly. The days of reckless barnstorming — especially in the wake of 9/11 and the new national nervousness — are long behind us. Now we go to simulator training, we have best practices, and we get audited by independent watchdogs and insurers. Most of this is good and necessary, but some of it has the effect of retarding flight crew decision-making skills, turning them into mindless automatons who slavishly follow data trails and flight directors, sometimes with tragic results.
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Meaningful use shows promise in cutting adverse drug events
Pamela Lewis Dolan Healthcare AdministrationThe launch of the meaningful use incentive program was accompanied by many promises of improved patient safety and reduced costs. A new study finds one way in which those promises are holding true. Hospitals that adopted electronic health record systems featuring all five of the meaningful use program's stage 1 medication management functions had fewer adverse drug events compared with hospitals that have not yet implemented those features, according to a study published online Nov. 22 by the American Journal of Managed Care.
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Medical device plastic material innovations to watch
Don Rosato ManufacturingThe medical device universe encompasses a particularly imposing spectrum of constant technological innovation, including hundreds of different technologies and thousands of types of products. This affords high performance specialty plastics material suppliers unique opportunities in medical device market development.
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A blood test that predicts suicide?
Dorothy L. Tengler Mental HealthcareThere are other variables, however, that affect suicide rates, such as socioeconomic status, employment, occupation, sexual orientation and gender identity. But there may be more; it could be that changes in gene expression can indicate heightened risk for self-harm. Alexander Niculescu, a psychiatrist at Indiana University in Indianapolis, has been looking for biological signs of suicide risk in an effort to prevent these tragedies. Because of the brain's complexity and inaccessibility, he has focused on molecular signs, such as biomarkers.
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Text messaging in emergency medicine
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareTexting via cellphones and other electronic communication devices is used more than ever today. Interacting with friends and family, text messaging shapes our lives and language in many ways. And those ways are increasing, especially for patients with diabetes.
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Reactions mixed to announced meaningful use changes
Pamela Lewis Dolan Healthcare AdministrationA new proposed timeline for the meaningful use incentive program for electronic health record use was announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The change came with mixed reaction from many healthcare member organizations advocating for more flexibility in the incentive program. It was also met with some initial confusion over what the revised timeline means.
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Full tilt: The future of helicopter design leaning to propellers
Mark Huber Transportation Technology & AutomotiveThe future of helicopters is ... propellers! The Pentagon recently awarded initial development contracts for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Future Vertical Lift program, and all of the winning designs were compound helicopter designs. That is, they had the ability to take off and land like helicopters but fly with the speed of slow jet or fast turboprop airplanes.
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The ER doctor in your living room
Maria Frisch Healthcare AdministrationVirtual ERs benefit hospital-based locations by screening and treating low-urgency and common medical problems. This frees up both staff time and resources to focus on high-urgency, major medical concerns. For this reason, some local ERs have started to offer their own virtual service.
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