Pharmacist-directed anticoagulation service can impact patient satisfaction

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DETROIT – As hospitals look for ways to improve patient satisfaction and boost their Medicare reimbursement, a Henry Ford Hospital study found that an inpatient pharmacist-directed anticoagulation service (PDAS) might be an unexpected opportunity.

Oldowan hominin: earliest evidence of human ancestors hunting & scavenging

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WACO, Texas (May 9, 2013) -- A recent Baylor University research study has shed new light on the diet and food acquisition strategies of some the earliest human ancestors in Africa.

Operating without interrupting warfarin reduces risk of bleeding after cardiac device surgery

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DENVER, May 9, 2013 – A new Canadian study shows that operating without interrupting warfarin treatment at the time of cardiac device surgery is safe and markedly reduces the incidence of clinically significant hematomas compared to the current standard of care. The new findings were released today at Heart Rhythm 2013, the Heart Rhythm Society's 34th Annual Scientific Sessions, and will be published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Why we love it or hate it: The Attachment-Aversion model of customer-brand relationships

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Why do brands such as Manchester United and Apple capture some hearts and minds while Arsenal and Samsung capture others?

When consumers feel a strong emotional attachment to a brand, they tend to be willing to pay more and defend it against detractors.

And why is brand attachment so rare? For all the millions of dollars spent on advertising and other efforts, consumers rarely feel an affinity for brands.

Purging Facebook after a break-up: social media makes painful memories persist

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The era is long gone when a romantic breakup meant ripped-up photos and burned love letters and moving on. Digital photos and emails can be quickly deleted but the proliferation of social media in an Internet where 'nothing is really deleted' has made forgetting a bigger chore.

What about the ubiquitous digital records of a once beloved that lurk on Facebook, tumblr, and flicker?

Study shows lower rate of inappropriate shocks in patients with Sorin dual chamber ICD devices

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Denver, Colorado, USA, May 11, 2013 –Sorin Group, (Reuters Code: SORN.MI), a global medical company and a leader in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, announced findings from the landmark OPTION study1 demonstrating that patients with Sorin dual-chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) experienced a significantly lower incidence of inappropriate shocks compared with patients with standard single-chamber devices (4.3% vs.10.3%, p=0.015).The study also found that there was no difference in all-cause mortality between the two groups.

Nationalized health care would have saved Medicare an extra $34.1 billion in 2012, say advocates

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A paper out today says that private insurance companies that participate in Medicare under the Medicare Advantage program and its predecessors have cost the publicly funded program for the elderly and disabled an extra $282.6 billion since 1985, most of it over the past eight years. They claim that in 2012 alone, private insurers were overpaid $34.1 billion.

That wasted money that should have been spent on improving patient care, shoring up Medicare's trust fund or funding the White House tours that had to be canceled due to the sequester.

Background noise in the operating room can impair surgical team communication

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Chicago (May 10, 2013): Ambient background noise—whether it is the sound of loud surgical equipment, talkative team members, or music—is a patient and surgical safety factor that can affect auditory processing among surgeons and the members of their team in the operating room (OR), according to a new study that appears in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. The findings are the first to demonstrate that a surgeon's ability to understand spoken words in the OR is directly affected by noise in the environment.

Alternative model for personality disorders in upcoming DSM-5 endorsed

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Philadelphia, Pa. (May 10, 2013) – A new "alternative model" included in the upcoming Fifth Edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, lines up well with the current approach to diagnosis of personality disorder, according to a study in the May Journal of Psychiatric Practice.

Exercise for patients with major depression -- What kind, how intense, how often?

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