Asthma :: Respiratory diseases like asthma ‘undertreated’ in the USA
Many patients in the USA with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) do not receive the recommended levels of care, researchers have found.
Performance
Memory Loss :: Education does not protect against age-related memory loss
Adults over 70 with higher levels of education forgot words at a greater rate than those with less education, according to a new study from the University of Southern California. The findings, published in the current issue of Research on Aging, suggest that after age 70, educated adults may begin to lose the ability to use their schooling to compensate for normal, age-related memory loss.
Instinct :: Trusting your instincts leads you to the right answer
A UCL (University College London) study has found that you are more likely to perform well if you do not think too hard and instead trust your instincts. The research, published online today in the journal Current Biology, shows that, in some cases, instinctive snap decisions are more reliable than decisions taken using higher-level cognitive processes.
Medicare :: Focus on covering the uninsured, reducing health costs
Expanding coverage for the uninsured should be the top health care priority for the new Congress over the next five years, identified as “absolutely essential” or “very important” by 88 percent of respondents to the latest Commonwealth Fund Health Care Opinion Leaders survey. Other top priorities are moderating rising health care costs (81 percent), reforming Medicare to ensure long-term solvency (80 percent), and increasing use of information technology to improve quality and safety of patient care (80 percent).
Heart Failure :: Quality-of-Care Indicators for Heart Failure Patients
Academic 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 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.
WHO :: Dr. Margaret Chan takes office as Director-General of the World Health Organization
Dr. Margaret Chan of China took office as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) following her election in November. She pledged that her term of office and the effectiveness of the Organization would be judged by the impact they have on two specific populations.
Healthcare :: Race impacts professional lives of physicians of African descent
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.
Heart Failure :: Most hospital performance measures for heart failure not linked to improved patient outcomes
Four of five hospital performance measures for heart failure do not appear to accurately reflect the quality of care provided, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA.
Heart Failure :: Limitations in publicly reported quality-of-care indicators for heart-failure patients
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.
Education :: 142 alternative medicine colleges lack infrastructure – India
In an alarming finding about alternative medical institutions, a parliamentary panel has said that 142 colleges of Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy colleges in the country lack minimum infrastructure.