All Pharmaceutical Articles
  • During pandemic, US hospitals are firing, furloughing and cutting pay

    Scott E. Rupp Healthcare Administration

    While it may seem counterintuitive during the coronavirus pandemic, there are many hospitals across the United States that are furloughing, firing, or cutting pay for employees despite the coming surge of virus cases. The act of doing so is not, unfortunately, limited to a specific few, and is becoming an issue for more hospitals nationwide. These moves have become a necessity for most hospitals as they have cut elective procedures to limit supplies and make the most of their resources to battle COVID-19.

  • Does COVID-19 affect the cardiovascular system?

    Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied Healthcare

    COVID-19 is an illness that can affect a person's lungs and airways with fatal consequences for those with underlying cardiovascular disease (CVD), evidenced by the large proportion of COVID-19 patients who have CVD. Although researchers have known that viral illnesses such as COVID-19 cause respiratory infections that lead to lung damage and sometimes death, their knowledge about the effects on the cardiovascular system is still evolving. A recent review, however, shows that COVID-19 can cause cardiac injury even in patients without underlying heart conditions.

  • The coronavirus is devastating rural hospitals

    Scott E. Rupp Healthcare Administration

    While urban hospitals and health systems are getting racked by an overflow of patients and the need to respond to an overwhelming number of patients currently infected with COVID-19, their rural counterparts are equally or more so overwhelmed, too. In some cases, the impacts on rural hospitals are dramatic. Many of these community-based hospitals will close because the pandemic is preventing them from performing profitable elective surgeries, physical therapy, and lab tests.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic: A reverse Wizard of Oz?

    Keith Carlson Medical & Allied Healthcare

    At the end of the classic film, "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy, the naïve yet savvy heroine played by a young Judy Garland, wakes up in her bed on a bright morning following a frightening tornado and a grand, slightly nightmarish adventure of epic proportions. The sleepy Dorothy quickly realizes that it has all indeed been a dream, and she’s safe and sound at home. If only the COVID-19 pandemic was the same: a global nightmare from which we will all awake on a sunny Midwestern morning, surrounded by the people we love most.

  • Social media posts offer clues to ED utilization

    Chelsea Adams Healthcare Administration

    Social media often serves as a signal of medical distress that could be utilized to help hospitals determine when a patient might seek emergency care. Previous research has analyzed clinical information to forecast readmissions but looking at digital signatures on social media could predict individuals’ behaviors, thoughts and motivations prior to a healthcare visit. A study published in the March 12 edition of Nature Scientific Reports found that patients made Facebook posts that discussed family and health more than usual. They also included language that was more anxious, worrisome and depressed.

  • Researchers ‘trick’ body into accepting organ transplant using…

    Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have developed technology designed to "trick" the body into accepting a transplanted organ. "It's like hacking into the immune system, borrowing a strategy used by one of humanity's worst enemies to trick the body into accepting a transplant," said senior author Steven Little of the Swanson School of Engineering at Pitt. "And we do it synthetically." The enemy Little is referring to is cancer, which tricks the body's immune system into thinking the tumor is a part of the body.

  • COVID-19 and the grief process

    Keith Carlson Medical & Allied Healthcare

    The COVID-19 pandemic is encircling our planet and the entire human family is facing great distress. The deadly impact of the coronavirus can be felt throughout every economy in the world, as well as in villages, rural communities, cities, and suburbs the world over. From shortages of essential supplies to the demise of thousands of small businesses, the ripple effects of this pandemic are beyond imagination. Amidst the social isolation and the wide array of emotions elicited in most every individual, one concept stands out: the grieving process.

  • Coronavirus may delay HHS’ timetable for interoperability rules

    Scott E. Rupp Healthcare Administration

    Opponents of the new federal healthcare interoperability rules may have found an ally in the least likely place: The coronavirus. Because of the outbreak of the global pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to determine whether or not to push back the originally publicized timeline of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) interoperability rule.

  • COVID-19: Of Hercules and Sisyphus

    Keith Carlson Medical & Allied Healthcare

    COVID-19 is ravaging the world, and the healthcare system writ large is struggling to maintain its hold on surveillance, treatment, testing, supply chains, personnel, and all manner of response to this unprecedented threat. We have not seen such a ferocious pandemic since the so-called "Spanish Flu" of 1918, and we are hard-pressed to hold the line as our interdependent and frequently flawed systems are taxed beyond capacity. How can healthcare providers be most effective in these frightening and chaotic times? Is our fight against COVID-19, this novel coronavirus, Sisyphean or Herculean in nature?

  • Reputation management: A key healthcare strategy that’s crucial to…

    Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare Administration

    As a practice administrator or physician, you know how important it is to earn and maintain your patients' trust. You no doubt work as hard as you can to deliver compassionate, quality care on a constant basis — yet you can't always control what is said about your practice online. You can, however, take steps to make the best impression possible. Reputation management is a key strategy for shoring up the way your practice appears online, especially when it comes to reviews — and it's crucial to maintain.