Millennium Research Group (MRG), the global authority on medical technology market intelligence has conducted a detailed and thorough analysis of the acute care clinical information systems (CIS) market and finds that a major driver in the US is the demand for improvement in patient safety. Medical errors are the fifth-leading cause of deaths in the US, with up to 98,000 deaths annually. According to the new report entitled US Markets for Acute Care Clinical Information Systems, hospitals are adopting CIS to help them provide adequate, timely care and reduce the frequency of preventable errors.
"Medical errors in the healthcare system arise from miscommunication, physician order transcription errors, adverse drug events, or incomplete patient medical records," says David Plow, Senior Analyst at MRG. "Generally, medical errors are caused by overcrowded, understaffed clinical areas with complex workflow patterns, and incomplete or inefficient communication between clinical areas. Through the use of a CIS, professionals within each clinical area are able to access and use information pertinent to a patient's medical profile and history. As a result, CIS can effectively help prevent errors and enhance patient safety.
People who shake children hard enough to cause brain damage will soon be unable to hide behind false defences in court, thanks to new UQ research.
Researchers from the University of Queensland have conducted tests on a true-to-life model of a baby to show exactly how shaking damages the infant brain.
The researchers have successfully tested a numerical model that accurately predicts the type and extent of injuries based on real brain scans from cases of alleged child abuse.
Until now, it has been difficult for doctors looking at scans to say whether brain damage in a baby was caused from shaking or from other causes such as an accidental fall or asphyxiation.
An Oregon doctor is the first surgeon in the United States to remove a woman's gallbladder through her mouth.
Dr. Lee Swanstrom performed the surgery last month at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center in Portland, Ore.
Using special endoscopic tools that include a camera, Swanstrom cut a hole in the patient's stomach to reach the gallbladder. He cut away the diseased gallbladder and pulled it through the incision and her throat and out her mouth, the Oregonian newspaper said Friday.
Swanstrom said the surgery has been performed in Brazil but this was the first time it was performed in the United States.
Think your job is tough? Can't wait for summer vacation to "get away from it all"? Just wait, says a Rutgers University - Camden researcher. In the not-too-distant future, some jobs will challenge workers placed far, far away from it all.
On the moon, in fact.
According to Chester Spell, an associate professor of management at the Rutgers School of Business - Camden, the lunar settlements of tomorrow - or, for that matter, the space stations of today - carry long-term implications for the mental health of employees working in isolation for extended periods. Depression and anxiety will reach new levels among those employees, creating mental and cardiovascular health problems as well as a sharp decline in productivity.
The higher a pregnant woman's level of blood sugar, the greater the risk to her newborn, whether the mother has diabetes or not, the largest study on the problem suggests.
The findings released yesterday may lead to more women being diagnosed with diabetes during pregnancy and given stricter diet advice or medication to lower blood sugar.
The research involved more than 23,000 pregnant women in nine countries. It found a surprisingly strong relationship between the blood sugar levels of the women and the rate of big babies and first-time caesarean sections, said Dr. Boyd Metzger of Northwestern University, lead investigator.
The newborns also were more likely to have low blood sugar levels and high insulin levels if their mothers' blood sugar levels were higher. The problems can lead to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure later in life.
Stephanie Nebehay
ReutersFri, 22 Jun 2007 12:42 UTC
A new, untreatable form of tuberculosis is striking up to 30,000 people a year, the World Health Organization said on Friday, and warned it could spark an "apocalyptic scenario" if unchecked.
© Unknown
A controversial chemical used in Teflon non-stick coatings could be making people more prone to allergies, a study suggests.
Perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) - also used to make all-weather clothing and stain-resistant fabrics and carpets - has already been identified by scientists as "likely" to be carcinogenic to humans.
Now Dr Jean Meade and colleagues at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown, West Virginia, have shown it may prime the immune system to overreact to allergy triggers (allergens) such as dust mite or dander.
Lab mice given PFOA before being exposed to an egg allergen produced more antibodies and experienced more constriction of their airways than those exposed to the allergen alone.
The results published in Toxicological Sciences suggest one possible explanation for the rising incidence of asthma in children.
AFPThu, 21 Jun 2007 17:33 UTC
Czech officials confirmed Thursday the country's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in poultry, at a turkey farm in the centre of the country.
"It is confirmed, it is H5N1," the spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration, Zbynek Semerad, told AFP.
Around 1,800 turkeys have already died at the farm at Tisova, near the central town of Usti-nad-Orlici, which has a flock of around 6,000 birds.
Is big sister always telling you what's best? Does big brother seem to know it all?
Instead of stewing in resentment, maybe you should start listening when they dispense smart-alecky advice.
Turns out, they really are brighter than you, by and large.
A large study by Norwegian scientists appearing in today's edition of Science, the weekly academic journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, concludes that a child raised as the eldest has a higher intelligence quotient, on average, than younger siblings.
The difference is just a couple of IQ points -- not exactly the gap between Albert Einstein and Homer Simpson.
Why does putting our feelings into words - talking with a therapist or friend, writing in a journal - help us to feel better" A new brain imaging study by UCLA psychologists reveals why verbalizing our feelings makes our sadness, anger and pain less intense.
Another study, with the same participants and three of the same members of the research team, combines modern neuroscience with ancient Buddhist teachings to provide the first neural evidence for why "mindfulness" - the ability to live in the present moment, without distraction - seems to produce a variety of health benefits.
When people see a photograph of an angry or fearful face, they have increased activity in a region of the brain called the amygdala, which serves as an alarm to activate a cascade of biological systems to protect the body in times of danger. Scientists see a robust amygdala response even when they show such emotional photographs subliminally, so fast a person can't even see them.
But does seeing an angry face and simply calling it an angry face change our brain response" The answer is yes, according to Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience.
"When you attach the word 'angry,' you see a decreased response in the amygdala," said Lieberman, lead author of the study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science.
