Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Medical Examiner’s Office released its annual report on investigated deaths and death trends in 2005. Of the 1,945 deaths investigated by the Medical Examiner, there were 80 homicides, 226 fatal traffic crashes, 602 other kinds of fatal accidents (injuries), 233 suicides and 216 drug/poison deaths.
Interoperability between emergency services’ radio systems and better coverage in rural areas means improved care for patients. A new state-of-the-art radio system is to be installed by all NHS Ambulance Trusts in England beginning in early 2007.
The proposed risk management plan by FDA addresses risks to animal health and potential remaining uncertainties associated with feed and food from animal clones and their offspring.
Adults living with children eat more saturated fat — the equivalent of nearly an entire frozen pepperoni pizza each week — than do adults who do not live with children, according to a University of Iowa and University of Michigan Health System study.
A unique Mayo Clinic collaboration has revived the healing wisdom of Pacific Island cultures by testing a therapeutic plant extract described in a 17th century Dutch herbal text for its anti-bacterial properties.
Researchers at Purdue University have used a new technique to rapidly detect and precisely identify bacteria, including dangerous E. coli, without time-consuming treatments usually required.
Medical teams — not individuals — are critical to the prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections, as well as for the overall health, safety, and welfare of patients, according to an editorial by two Virginia Commonwealth University physicians published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Hospitals will quickly slash the rate of common, costly and potentially lethal catheter-related bloodstream infections in their intensive care units (ICUs) by using cheap, low-tech, common-sense measures like hand washing, timely removal of unneeded catheters and use of sites other than the groin to place lines when possible, according to a report from safety experts at Johns Hopkins in the Dec. 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Use of the drugs proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for the treatment of acid-related diseases such as gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is associated with a greater risk of hip fracture, according to a study in the December 27 issue of JAMA.
A long-term study of the most widely used osteoporosis drug has found that many women can discontinue the drug after five years without increasing their fracture risk for as long as five more years.