Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles
Natural Remedies

Vertos Medical's Mild(R) Procedure Gets Nod From Leading Pain Medicine Physicians
Leading interventional pain physicians from key U.S. centers gathered at a special clinical symposium to share their experience with Vertos Medical"s mild (Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression), the least invasive surgical procedure for treating lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), with no implants left behind.* Their early clinical experiences suggest that mild may be an appropriate treatment alternative earlier in the LSS progression, as mild patients have shown favorable results when comparing post-treatment improvement at three months to open surgical procedure patient results at one year1. Moreover, mild leaves future surgical options open.
generic viagra online
Boston Globe Examines Hospital's Attempt To Reduce Emergency Department Visits, Hospital Stays Among Elderly
Efforts by Massachusetts General Hospital to reduce health spending could be indicative of the difficulty the health industry faces in trying to reduce spending growth, the Boston Globe reports. Industry groups last week pledged to seek a 1.5% overall reduction in health care spending over the next 10 years.Massachusetts General"s program, which began in 2006, aims to reduce hospitalizations among the elderly by 15% to 20%, as well as to improve the quality of care the elderly receive. A study looking at 35 efforts to improve elderly care found that only six, including Massachusetts General"s program, saved money or covered their costs, the Globe reports. Massachusetts General"s program relies on nurses in primary care practices to be in regular contact with patients and provide assistance with nonmedical services. The program also uses electronic health records to coordinate care. The hospital spent $8 million to $9 million over the first three years of the program to provide enhanced services to patients. Hospital readmissions fell by 19%, admissions decreased by 17% and ED visits dropped by 15% between 2007 and 2008, according to preliminary research. The program saved enough by reducing hospital admissions and emergency department visits to cover its costs and also to generate savings of $7 million to $10 million. The overall cost for the program was about 5% less than for a group of other patients treated in a more traditional way.According to Harvard University health care economist David Cutler, improving care and reducing costs among the elderly is a necessary component of health reform. He said, "If we can"t do this, it doesn"t bode well for health reform." Eric Weil, a primary care physician and medical director of the program at Massachusetts General, said, "Medicare is looking for any and every way to save money," adding, "This is a population of patients who are sick and will get sicker over time. Any opportunity to demonstrate savings in this group of patients is good, and 5% is very good" (Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, 5/17).
News of the day
New Test For Safer Biomedical Research Results
In cancer research, as in most other biomedical sciences, they are playing a key role: living cells, kept in sterile plastic containers with red culture media populating incubators in laboratories around the world. But do researchers always know what is really living in their culture dishes? Under the microscope, different cell lines are almost impossible to distinguish from each other. When these important research objects stop growing without apparent reason - is it because of the manipulations by the scientists or because of an invisible viral or bacterial infection?
Endocrinology

Teens Sensitive To Others' Perceptions Of Them

Young adolescents care a lot about what others think about them. A new study confirms this using brain-mapping techniques that shed new light on this complex period of social development. The study, published in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development, is authored by researchers at the University of Oregon and the University of California Los Angeles. Previous research into this area has relied on reports by teenagers themselves. This study eliminated the potential bias of self-reports by using brain scans to look at the neural systems that support individuals" perceptions of themselves. During the brain scans, 12 early adolescents (11- to 13-year-olds) and 12 young adults (22- to 30-year-olds) responded to researchers" questions about whether short phrases (such as "I am popular") described them, and whether they believed others (mothers, best friends, classmates) thought these phrases described them, too. The researchers then examined activity in the brain that occurred when the participants gave their responses. In comparison to the young adults, the tweens see themselves in ways that may depend more on what they believe others think about their abilities and attributes. And these others - including parents and friends - may have more influence in some areas than in other areas, with moms having more sway over how the tweens view their academic abilities but best friends exerting influence over how they see their social skills. "These findings provide a novel form of evidence confirming the sensitivity of adolescents to what they believe others think of them, especially parents and peers," suggests Jennifer H. Pfeifer, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and the lead author. "More importantly, they suggest that being able to see others" perspectives on oneself may be particularly critical to development in adolescence. As a result, individuals who lack this social cognitive skill (including those with autism spectrum disorders) may face significant obstacles." The study was funded, in part, by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Center for Research Res, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 80, Issue 4, Neural Correlates of Direct and Reflected Self-Appraisals in Adolescents and Adults: When Social Perspective-Taking Informs Self-Perception by Pfeifer, JH (University of Oregon), Masten, CL, Borofsky, LA, Dapretto, M, Fuligni, AJ, and Lieberman, MD (University of California Los Angeles). Copyright 2009 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. Sarah Hutcheon Society for Research in Child Development


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009