Last year a primary care trust announced it would take smokers off waiting lists for surgery in an attempt to contain costs. In this week’s BMJ, two experts go head to head over whether smokers should be refused surgery.
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) and Virtua Health have developed a strategic learning partnership to create a model for innovation in learning, technology and applied health care. With an ongoing dedication to advancing the careers of its students and faculty, the University has partnered for the first time with a leading regional healthcare organization that is at the forefront of technology and the delivery of high-quality care.
A new University of Georgia study suggests that rapid detection combined with aggressive education can dramatically curtail outbreaks of emerging infectious disease such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
This year, tens of thousands of heart patients will have high-tech devices implanted in their chests. Called ICDs or implantable cardioverter defibrillators, the expensive devices are designed to shock damaged hearts back into rhythm and save patients from sudden cardiac death. But a new study finds that while many of these patients will benefit from their ICDs, a large number won’t — and a simple heart-rhythm test can tell who’s who.
A new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine offers a unique and detailed view of race and discrimination in the health-care workplace and the negative impact on job satisfaction, career advancement and minority physician retention.
Researchers reported that all five standard hospital-based performance measures used to gauge quality-of-care for hospitalized heart-failure patients may not be the best benchmarks since none were significant predictors of patient mortality during the critical first 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.
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.
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.
Psychological interventions for chronic low back pain are effective, a new review of studies has found. Not only do these approaches improve psychological outcomes such as depression and health-related quality of life, they also reduce patients’ experience of pain.