All Blog Posts (1,645)

With the HITECH Act the healthcare industry is rapidly expanding into the digital age.  The use cases for technology in healthcare are growing – everything from making medical records available electronically, social networks for health and medical professionals being created, doctors writing prescriptions online, to consumers scheduling hospital visits or making an insurance claim online.  With this growth comes a…

The mitral valve separates the heart’s left atrium from the left ventricle. When the ventricle contracts to send blood to the aorta and out to the body, the mitral valve closes to prevent blood rushing backward into the atrium and back to the lungs. The mitral valve can become stiff and tight, called stenosis or it can become unable to close tightly, called regurgitation. Once the regurgitation becomes sufficiently severe to cause heart failure, the death rate reaches about 5% per year. Most…

Much of today’s foods are “ultraprocessed,” lead to obesity and its ultimate diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension, many cancers and worsening of diseases such as osteoarthritis.

Ultraprocessed foods originate from just a few grains, namely corn, wheat and soy but these then undergo extensive chemical and mechanical manipulation resulting in compounds that humans have never eaten before. Just look at the ingredients list on many store products and…

Well, probably not a surprise at all. The seeds of coronary artery disease (CAD) are laid down early and over long periods. But given our current pandemic of obesity beginning in childhood, should we worry about an epidemic of chronic disease like diabetes and CAD in the years to come? The clear answer is a resounding “Yes.”

There has been a long term study of military men in the Israeli Defense Force. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine, April 7, 2011 reports…

Medical billing software has become an essential part of every medical office. With the onset of the electronic revolution, accounting via pen and paper has become an outdated, time-intensive process that is no longer used in most societies. This software is continually evolving, and along with this comes a number of valuable benefits.…

It is currently popular for government officials to single out the insurance companies for the rising cost of healthcare. Not that the insurers are without fault but the real reasons for cost increases are rarely addressed and therefore not appreciated. We are a country with an aging population (“old parts wear out”) and of many adverse behaviors (e.g., overweight, sedentary lifestyle, stress and 20% still smoke.) Combined, these are driving a rapid increase in chronic diseases such as…

When Clarissa was 13 she entered Johns Hopkins Hospital to be treated for relapsed acute leukemia knowing full well that she had only a 40% chance of survival. Today she is 16 and in excellent health. But it took 2 ½ years of incredibly rigorous treatments to get there. Equally importantly it meant riding an emotional roller coaster for her and her parents. 

Clarissa had been treated for leukemia when she was 2 and had been fine for a decade when the relapse occurred. She found there…

During the healthcare reform debate there was the unfortunate reference to “death panels.” No such thing was ever in the proposals but it meant that an important part of medical care was set aside as too “toxic” to discuss. But end of life counseling is very important. Indeed it is good to have realistic discussions at the beginning of a serious illness; indeed it is only fair to the patient and the patient’s family.

            Palliative care (I don’t like the term; it seems to…

We hear that doctors do not like “protocol medicine” – they do not want to follow a “cookbook” when every patient is different. It is not a good understanding of the issues.

Some years ago when I worked in a branch of he National Cancer Institute and then the University of Maryland Cancer Center, we admitted many patients with acute leukemia. The treatment approach including the necessary special tests to obtain, chemotherapy drugs, steps to prevent infection, prevent kidney…

Diabetes mellitus is the most common cause of kidney failure that progresses to end stage renal disease (ESRD,) meaning that the person requires dialysis or kidney transplant. ESRD is chronic and life long, is complicated to treat, has a major negative effect on quality of life and the costs are high.

So it was good news when the Centers of Disease Control reported that the incidence of ESRD among diabetics had declined by…

GCI ConnectMD (ConnectMD), the premier provider of telehealth connectivity and services throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, has partnered with Swedish Medical Center (Swedish) on The Swedish Cancer Institute's Mobile Mammography Program. The program was created to deliver potentially life-saving technology to communities that would otherwise have little to no access to advanced breast-cancer screening. This is the latest example of ConnectMD’s…

Herpes zoster (or shingles) is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. Zoster increases in incidence with advancing age. It is estimated that over 1 million Americans get shingles annually with the resulting acute discomfort and often chronic pain thereafter. A vaccine was introduced by Merck in 2006; the initial studies of 38,546 patients indicated that it reduced the incidence by about 50% and for those who still got shingles, the severity was lessened substantially. But…

Lung cancer is the most common cancer other than skin cancer. The survival rate is still dismal so early diagnosis presumably could make an impact. Chest x-rays just do not have the sensitivity to find early lung cancer. Computed tomography (CT Scans) can detect very small lesions in the lung. Another study has now been completed and it was able to find many early cancers.…

I just returned from a cholera mission to Haiti - my first.

I can't believe how little they have there. In response, I am bringing the first telemedicine terminal to the largest hospital in North Haiti. The Justinian Hospital in Cap Haitien.

Details on the project are at the following website: www.porschestoplowshares.org.

I'm relativly new to all this so your comments and suggestions are most…

GCI ConnectMD Increases Safety for Puget Sound Blood Center Patients

DECEMBER 29, 2010, SEATTLE — GCI ConnectMD (ConnectMD) is making a new blood-distribution process possible for the…

Medical Product Manufacturing News (MPMN) released it's "Top 25 over the Last 25 Years". The list is subject to debate, but serves as solid retrospective of the impact of technology on the delivery of healthcare over the span of a quarter-century ... worth a read!

Over the past ten years and since the publication of the Institute of Medicine landmark book “To Err Is Human” there have been many attempts to reduce preventable medical errors which are estimated to take about 100,000 lives per year – perhaps many more. The question is whether all of this effort has had a substantial clinical impact.

The results of a recently published study are therefore concerning. A…