February 2012
2 posts
Koman, Catholics, and the Pill
Great passage that is very important to understand:
Prior to modernization of childbirth, 1 in every 150 births ended in the death of the mother. As the average woman likely had 4 to 6 pregnancies in the 1920s, probably 1 out of every 20 women died in childbed. Today, that number is 8 in 100,000 births in a large part due to antibiotics and C-sections, but also due to pregnancy spacing afforded...
Amazing new Stroke Therapy using Stents →
\ Wow, great study out of Oregon Health Sciences! New interventional stroke therapy with great results so far…
The stent expands the interior walls of the artery and allows blood to get to the patient’s brain immediately to prevent as much brain damage as possible. The clot seeps into the mesh of the stent. Then, after five minutes, the stent and clot are removed together.
...
January 2012
9 posts
Instead of Exercise, try Irisin: The Muscle... →
// Dana-Farber Institute research found a hormone released during exercise, which is responsible for converting stagnant white fat cells into brown fat cells. Brown fat cells burn calories, rather than store calories.
// Researchers injected obese mice with this protein and found better glucose tolerance and decreased body weight.
// I don’t like the idea of treating lifestyle problems...
Gates donates $750 million to fight AIDS, TB and... →
// Bill Gates and his Foundation deserve a Nobel Prize
// What he has done with his great fortune is far beyond simple donation, he has saved millions of lives from starvation, infection and lack of basic healthcare.
// He is no longer the richest person in the world, simply because he contributes so much damn money. awesome
// A truly inspirational person. Need more Bills like this.
...
Video consults with dermatologists aid treatment →
// Dr. April Armstrong from UC Davis looked at Live-Video derm consults of 1,500 patients 2003 - 2005
// Great work… what I see to be done further is have a control group to compare patient outcomes between PCP vs Telederm and stratify by disease type. Ultimately, PCP’s will learn to take care of many derm conditions with occasional oversight via TD
They found that the video consult...
Bill Gates Has Given Away $28 Billion Since 2007,... →
// The amazing impact of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. This is a great read. Great respect.
// The amount that foundation has invested into philanthropy is $2B more than the US Budget for Foreign Aid
// Their biggest impact on lives has been through Vaccination and Immunization!
(via BusinessInsider.com)
Surgeons Implant Synthetic Trachea in Baltimore... →
// Sweden does it again!
// 2nd such operation in the world. How amazing.
“What we did is surgically remove his malignant tumor,” Dr. Macchiarini said. “Then we replaced the trachea with this tissue-engineered scaffold.” The Y-shaped scaffold, fashioned from nano-size fibers of a type of plastic called PET that is commonly used in soda bottles, was seeded with stem cells from Mr. Lyles’s bone...
India on Track to Be Declared Polio-Free Next... →
// Truly amazing!
// Vaccines have saved more lives in the history of mankind than any other invention. Salk invented the 1st Polio vaccine (injected) in 1952 followed by Sabin oral drops vaccine (now used in the developing world).
For the first time, the polio virus has disappeared from the country for 12 months, but it could still be re-imported from neighboring nations that continue to...
Weighing the Evidence on Exercise - NYTimes.com →
// Timely piece for many New Years Resolutions…
“In general, exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss,” says Eric Ravussin, a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and an expert on weight loss. It’s especially useless because people often end up consuming more calories when they exercise. The mathematics of weight loss is, in fact, quite...
Dermatology Top Stories of 2011 →
// So much new medical information is published daily, it is sometimes overwhelming to stay on top of everything….
// JournalWatch is a great website that I subscribe to. They filter the top stories per my interests and send me email updates.
// Here is the list of the top Dermatology Publications in 2011 - Great list indeed!
(via JournalWatch)
December 2011
10 posts
My Plan to Learn Spanish - Duolingo →
// As fluent Russian speaker I know the power of connecting with patients in their native tongue. For the last four years, as I saw a significant number of Spanish-only speaking patients, I realized my Spanish speaking ability is lacking….
// Thanks to the guys who made Re-CAPTCHA (awesome TED Talks Link), DuoLingo promises to teach a language for free and translate the web at the same...
Archives of Dermatology: Maggots Quickly Clear... →
// Apparently, Magot therapy has been FDA approved since 2004
// 105 Hospitalized patients with non-healing lower-leg ulcers
All patients wore blindfolds during the treatment and were unaware of the difference in treatment schedules
At day eight of treatment, the percentage of the wound area covered by slough was 54.5% in patients given maggot therapy compared with 66.5% (P=0.04) of the wound...
As Doctors Use More Devices, Potential for... →
// Great read about the negative impacts of personal technology in the medical setting at the point of care!
// Just like texting while driving, the same thing is happening in hospitals. We need better monitoring and accountability when individuals break the rules.
// We can borrow a lot of the methods employed in other industries to tackle the issues of employee Internet abuse… for...
Online Stanford Anatomy Class - Starts Jan 2012 →
// I just signed up to take this online teaching class so I can brush up on my Anatomy! Especially since I won’t have much time to attend a real anatomy lab
// Some of the technology in use looks awesome!! I am very excited.
(via Anatomy-Class.org)
2011 Top Game Changers in Primary Care: 1. And the... →
// Study of 38,000 women and Vitamin supplement use shows negative effects and detrimental health risks.
New findings from Iowa Women’s Health Study,[15] published in October 2011, showed very few benefits if any of vitamin or mineral supplements. In fact, there was a suggestion of some risk associated with several of them. The study followed more than 38,000 women, with an average age of...
The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today →
(The “bomb”) is the provision of the Affordable Care Act, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having...
“So we have 100,000 people a year who pick up infections at hospitals, all...”
– One of my inspirations, Atul Gawande talking about the power of teams and utilizing checklists (via BigThink)
Dietary Fibre and Colorectal Cancer
// Yes that is Fibre spelled with a bre, the British way!
// The Sep 2011 British Medical Journal published the largest Meta-Analysis on this topic
// Critical Finding:
A high intake of dietary fibre, in particular cereal fibre and whole grains, was associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer.
// Keep on eating that Flaxseed and purchase cereals that are WHOLE grain! (links to my...
November 2011
5 posts
Drug Companies Wait for FDA Guidelines on Social... →
// Very interesting read about the growing trend of advertising via social media by Pharma… Since social media is consuming more time than TV in some population segments, regulation must definitely exist here too.
This past June, Facebook took industry social media policy into its own hands, no longer allowing drug makers to disable ‘comments’ on their social media pages. The two-way...
Winter Time Skin Defense
Dry skin is a big problem in the winter, so when you’re walking in the aisles trying to decide which moisturizer will be best keep this in mind:
The most moisturizing products are ones that require you to scoop with your hand as opposed to pumping or squeezing.
CeRave - if you don’t like greasy (my favorite!)
Aquaphor - if you like greasy
Don’t forget, if you have KP...
FDA Approves Melanoma Detection Device →
// Only cleared by a 8-7 FDAvote.
// Ultimate goal of these devices is to decrease frequency of unnecessary biopsies. I am not sure about this MELA device though, data is not convincing.
The device is indicated only for use on lesions that meet a number of specific criteria, including:
Accessibility by MelaFind tool
Diameter of 2 to 22 mm
Sufficient pigmentation
No scarring or...
How Biking Can Save Cities Billions of Dollars in... →
// This is great data! If you travel less than 2 mi by car, definitely consider biking!
Last week, the journal Environmental Health Perspectives published findings from a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin on the economic and health benefits of switching from a car to a bike for trips shorter than five miles long in 11 metropolitan areas around the upper Midwest. Combining data...
Mystical Experiences Occasioned by the... →
// Study from Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Dept about effects of LSD main ingredient Psilocybin
// Really interesting outcomes… explains some of the great music in our iPods I guess
Consistent with participant claims of hallucinogen-occasioned increases in aesthetic appreciation, imagination, and creativity, we found significant increases in Openness following a high-dose psilocybin session....
October 2011
5 posts
New CPR technique revives man after 63 minutes... →
// New CPR technique that utilized Capnography to lower body temperature and monitor CO2 production during CPR saves a man after one hour without pulse.
// Amazing potential!
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be...”
– Steve Jobs at Stanford 2005 Graduation Ceremony
New law makes tanning beds off-limits to most... →
Some counties also address the issue, with the same organization noting that Howard County, Maryland, was the first jurisdiction to ban indoor tanning for all under age 18.
// My hometown of Howard County represents!
// I have seen patients who have acquired the following due to tanning beds:
Herpes
Fungal Infection
Bacterial Infection
Skin Cancer
Wrinkles
Medical News: Melanoma Detector Nears FDA Approval →
// Potential of technology to detect Melanoma earlier
MelaFind analyzes near-infrared dermascope images of suspect lesions to assign a risk that a growth is malignant melanoma
Medical News: Deadly Listeria Outbreak Claims More... →
// Try to avoid the cantaloupes
Investigators are confident that cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen Farms, labeled as Rocky Ford, are the sole source of infections seen so far in the current outbreak. The company last shipped melons on Sept. 10 and issued a recall four days later.
September 2011
10 posts
The Clinical Informatics Subspecialty | AMIA →
// A new subspeciality for primary care with board certification!
// Exciting.
(via AMIA.org)
FaceTime calls are encrypted, HIPAA compliant →
// Wowzers!!
// iPad and iPhone Say hello to Telemedicine
Low-fat Low-Sugar Diet Puts Acne-Marked Faces in... →
The acne of the boys on the higher protein, low glycemic index diet improved dramatically, by more than 50%, which is more than what you see with topical acne solutions…
Acne is a condition that can be treated totally, teenagers don’t have to wait to grow out of it; that is a wrong conception.
// 12 week study of adolescent boys with diagnosed acne in Australia
// Great...
Performance and Objective Data from the Joint... →
…none of the 17 medical centers listed by U.S. News & World Report on its “Best Hospitals Honor Roll” this year are on the Joint Commission’s list of 405 hospitals that received at least a 95 percent composite score for compliance with treatment standards.
// Very interesting!
// Hospital performance looked at treatment of Heart Failure, Heart Attack, Pneumonia, General Surgery...
"The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to... →
// Thank you AAP for pointing out the false claims made by some Republican candidates, and making your statement public.
(via aap.org)
Electronic Health Records and Quality of Diabetes... →
// Finally, a study that analyzed whether EHRs improved medical outcomes…
// N = 27,207 diabetes patients from 33 EHR practices and 13 paper practices.
// 51% of patients in EHR practices (vs 7% in paper based) received the best care as measured by the study group standards
(via NEJM.org)
Medical News: Weight Loss from Cutting Calories... →
// Very important finding to pass along to patients!
Common rules of thumb exaggerate how much weight people will lose from a given dietary calorie reduction, leading to unrealistic expectations and disappointment, researchers said.
Whereas patients are often told that cutting 500 calories a day will let them lose a pound a week, a more realistic formula is that such a caloric reduction would...
Lessons from Dermatology #2 - Gentle Skin Care
** These recommendations are from Dermatologists who are not sponsored/reimbursed in any way by companies that make these products
CLEANSERS (“Body Wash”)
Cetaphil Cleanser (bar is preferable)
Neutrogena Foaming Wash
Purpose Cleanser
Dove Sensitive Skin (for those with very dry skin only, not those with acne-prone skin)
MOISTURIZERS (1st line treatment for those with Eczema)
...
August 2011
9 posts
The only plane allowed to fly on 9/11 after the... →
// What an awesome story!
// Guy still lives to talk about it.
(via Discovery Channel)
Surgeons carry out first synthetic windpipe... →
// Wow, those Swedes know what they’re doing!!
The health risks and benefits of cycling in urban... →
// Key Stat: The new program in Barcelona (around since 2007) prevents 12 deaths a year.
Urban bike sharing programs improve city dwellers’ lives by offering a convenient way to get around, exercise, and reduce pollution. But could cycling instead of driving could actually save lives? So says science. According to a study published earlier this summer by the British Medical Journal, a...
In Dermatology, Less is More
Lessons from Dermatology -
Use fewer skin products, never more.
There is only one cream in this world that is proven to smoothen wrinkles (“anti-aging”). It is called Tretinoin.
And there is only one way to prevent wrinkles… Sunblock with TitaniumOxide or ZincOxide and SPF > 30. Use everyday on face and hands especially.
Acne is not primarily due to bacteria or dirt...
JAAD - Research about Sunscreens with... →
// A new fad for sunscreen mixed with Antioxidants
// Results =
The idea of combining UV filters with antioxidants is appealing. Current sunscreen products on the market offer free radical protection, but the majority of the radical protection is from UV filters rather than antioxidants.
(via JAAD)
Chimeric Antigen Receptor–Modified T Cells in... →
// Amazing results from Penn about a cure for CLL.
// Innovative method of drug infusion using HIV virus as the vector!
This $1 Plastic Chip Can Diagnose HIV In 15... →
// That is brilliant Public Health 2.0
