Two new studies published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) show there has been no decrease in the gap in life expectancy between people living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and the general population over the past few decades.
Culture
WASHINGTON --Emergency physicians used a patient's personal activity tracker and smartphone to identify the time his heart arrhythmia started, which allowed them to treat his new-onset atrial fibrillation with electrical cardioversion and discharge him home. The first case report using information in an activity tracker/smartphone system to assist in medical decision-making was reported online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Interrogation of Patient Activity Tracker to Assist Arrhythmia Management").
DALLAS, April 5, 2016 -- Hispanics/Latinos have higher rates of cardiac dysfunction but are rarely aware they have the heart-pumping problem that can lead to heart failure, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation: Heart Failure.
Researchers found that about half of the 1,818 adults in their study of middle-aged and older Hispanics/Latinos had cardiac dysfunction, yet fewer than 1 in 20 participants knew they had a problem.
Death is a part of life for people over 95 years old, who mainly live day-to-day, concludes a rare study of attitudes to death and dying amongst the very old. The research, from the University of Cambridge and published today in the journal PLOS ONE, finds that this group is willing to discuss dying and their end-of-life care, but is seldom asked.
Despite anti-poverty efforts, hunger in Canada has not decreased - and it has now reached epidemic levels in Nunavut, where almost half of households suffer from food insecurity, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers.
One in six children under the age of 18 in Canada lives in food insecure households, according to Household Food Insecurity in Canada, 2014, a report published by PROOF, a U of T research group.
Household food insecurity is the inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, comprises a group of liver disorders whose prevalence is widespread and rising. It's estimated that at least one-third of Americans have NAFLD; among obese persons, the figure is 50 percent.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- People with diabetes who rely on insulin have seen the cost of that drug triple in just a decade -- even as doctors have prescribed higher doses to drive down their blood sugar levels.
Meanwhile, the cost of other diabetes drugs has stayed about the same or even gone down.
The rise in insulin costs was so large that since 2010, the per-person spending on insulin has been higher than per-person spending on all other diabetes drugs combined.
DALLAS - April 5, 2016 - More patients hospitalized with acute liver failure - often the result of acetaminophen overdose - are surviving, including those who receive a liver transplant and those who don't, an analysis led by a UT Southwestern Medical Center researcher showed.
Researchers compared more than 2,000 patients with acute liver failure (ALF) - those hospitalized between 1998 and 2005 to those hospitalized with ALF between 2006 and 2013. They assessed survivorship in each group after 21 days of being hospitalized and found:
CHICAGO (April 4, 2016) -- Patients taking losmapimod, an anti-inflammatory drug currently being developed, for 12 weeks following a heart attack did not show improvements in the trial's primary endpoint, the rate of cardiovascular death, subsequent heart attack or urgent coronary revascularization, which includes placement of a stent or coronary artery bypass surgery, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session.
CHICAGO (April 4, 2016) -- Paramedics often give heart rhythm stabilizing drugs to patients who are suffering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest when they fail to regain a stable heart rhythm after electrical shock treatment. In a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session, these drugs, specifically amiodarone and lidocaine, did not significantly improve such patients' likelihood of surviving to hospital discharge overall.
Boston, MA - Colonoscopies, mammograms, and childbirth services are the most searched-for medical services when it comes to cost information--and millennials with higher annual deductible spending are the most frequent comparison shoppers--according to an analysis of a large national health insurance plan database by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study appears in the April issue of Health Affairs.
Other top searched-for services in the study included MRIs, vasectomies, physician office visits, and other non-emergency services.
PHILADELPHIA - Yelp reviews of hospitals cover topics not found in the federal government's survey of patients' hospital experiences, according to the results of a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The additional information, which the authors say tends to be strongly linked to positive or negative reviews from Yelp contributors, could influence patient decision making on where to receive hospital care, and provide valuable information to hospital administrators, caregivers, and policymakers.
The health care system has come a long way from the "doctor knows best" approach of decades ago, and the importance of involving patients in decisions about their medical care - particularly in situations when there is more than one treatment option - is broadly acknowledged. At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a formal Shared Decision Making Program was instituted in 2005 to provide decision aids - booklets, videos and online resources - to patients to help them learn about their options and participate in decisions about their care.
At a time when public health agencies and health care providers are striving to make health care and health policy decisions on the basis of evidence, it is important for patients and the public to engage with the production, consumption and evaluation of evidence too. But such engagement is challenging, write Hastings Center scholars in the April issue of Health Affairs, because "evidence alone is never definitive," People will prioritize different values, and weigh risks and benefits differently.