Many physicians feel no obligation to tell patients about legal but morally controversial medical treatments or to refer patients to doctors who do not object to those treatments, report researchers from the University of Chicago in the Feb. 8, 2007, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Physicians who treat a blood disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), characterized by easy bruising and excessive bleeding, now have a new tool to help them provide the best care for patients with this disease.
Custom Ultrasonics, Inc. agrees to stop manufacturing devices that wash and disinfect endoscopes until it corrects problems.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined how hospitals nationwide are “mining patient satisfaction surveys to identify patient pet peeves and service problems” and using those findings to “adopt the family-centered-care approach, which advocates building strong partnerships with patients and their families to improve care.”
The World Bank plans to provide Thailand with a $750,000, three-year grant aimed at providing HIV-positive people with increased access to antiretroviral drugs, Viroj Tangcharoensathien, program director for international health policy at the country’s Ministry of Public Health, said recently, Thailand’s Nation reports.
A new study to be published in an upcoming edition of the journal of Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice reveals that French maritime pine tree extract known as Pycnogenol? (pic-noj-en-all) delays the uptake of glucose from a meal 190 times more than prescription medications, preventing the typical high-glucose peak in the blood stream after a meal.
More than 7,000 deaths and 27,000 cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, can be avoided over the next five years by modernising the prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD), the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) said.
Cancer services in Wales are over-stretched and over-complicated, according to a new report by the UK assembly health committee review, that also found confusion within the NHS when it comes to planning and funding care.
Children who sleep less are at greater risk of being overweight, according to the first nationally representative, longitudinal investigation of the relationship between sleep, Body Mass Index and overweight status in children 3 to 18. “Even an hour of sleep makes a big difference,” said Northwestern University researcher Emily Snell. “An additional hour a night reduced young children?s chance of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent.”
Opioid therapy, opioid prescribing and prescription drug diversion are provoking topics at the 23rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel/Morial Convention Center, Feb. 7-10, 2007.