Blogging is Important to Doctors!

The proliferation and enhancement of the internet has made pivotal effects to almost every aspect of human life and culture. A tool that has been viewed to be solely military utility has flaunted and been used for many other purposes. This time, people of different field of expertise and profession from different parts of the world can now interact and share knowledge through the internet. On the part of the most busy practitioners – the doctors and the nurses – blogging has been their other side out of the surgical room whether they are still on their medical scrubs or not.

The issue arising from this trend varies according to culture and social perception. The very critical issue about these practitioners’ blogging and writing about their life in the ER is the possibility of compromising the identity of their patient and therefore would lead to the violation of the standard acceptable medical ethics. And since blogs are considered at some point as journal, it can be searched by search engines and if there are error in terms of the medical procedures or advice, chances are that people would believe the error as just what happened in 2003 when a student from a renowned university claimed that a particular sexual thing could possibly reduce a risk of breast cancer. The latter issue has even been published in major internet based journals and news authorities. The article has been dumped fallible and the author explained that it was meant for entertainment only. But why does nurses, doctors, and all those in medical scrubs people still want to have their blogs and write about their everyday experiences in the hospital? Here are some of the reasons why they should and they wanted to.

Information

There are medical cases that cannot be shared comfortably by a patient and because of the internet people can ask questions about their condition anonymously. By this, nurses and doctors too can answer and give opinion without having to know the name or the identity of the person asking. Today is the information era and a lot of people depend on the internet for information. Medical information is not that easy to understand and unless there are experts to interpret those, people can never get it.

Anti-Stress

The life inside the hospital is not that easy. Medical practitioners meet different kinds of people and with different medical cases. Their job is simply exhausting. For many medical practitioners, blogging is their way of outpouring everything they have gone through their shift by simply writing it down. Their blogs would also be their avenue of expressing their opinion on something that they cannot personally debate on with their co-workers in the hospital.

Other reasons would be personal of the medical practitioner but as long as there people like them willing to share what know, many will be able to benefit from them. But since usually of the medical bloggers do not give their identity online, it is still better to consult from a doctor personally than to depend solely on medical blogs.

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Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1333476_50.html

Want to organize physicians handwritten notes and prescriptions into electronic documents without spending a fortune? A a href=http://www.tradeseam.com/smallbusiness/business-resources/get-free-quotes/1200/Medical+Transcription+Services target=_blankmedical transcription outsourcing/a service is the perfect solution for you. br /
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All medical institutions require computerization of medical notes for clean and compact record-keeping, insurance claims processing, quick reference, conferencing and various other reasons. Hospitals and clinics have long been hiring full time transcriptionists to do the same. But this is an expensive option and not the ideal solution if you have varying volume of transcription needs. Alternatively, you can give transcription duties to other clerical staff or use voice recognition software. But these solutions can be quite inaccurate, putting the health of your patients at stake. Your clerical staff may not be well trained for medical transcription and accuracy of voice recognition usually is too low to be useful. A medical transcription service gives you the best combination of expense, quality and accuracy. br /
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How does a medical tanscription service work?br /
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* Physicians dictate their notes into a recording device, usually a toll-free phone line or handheld digital recorder. Most medical transcription services support both these methods. Some services also accept recorded cassettes. Mp3 is the preferred sound format when using digital recorders, though other formats can also be used. br /
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* The recorded information is then sent to the medical transcription service provider. Information security during transfer is critical. Your patients personal information must not be leaked out at any cost. Digital recordings are submitted via the Internet. This can be done using a secure web site and file transfer protocol (FTP) using custom software from the provider, or even through encrypted email. In case of a toll-free line, the information is directly recorded on the providers servers.br /
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* The recorded notes are then transcribed and returned to the hospital or clinic. Information is usually returned as word files, though other formats like pdf can also be specified. Delivery methods include secure web sites, FTP, custom software, encrypted email and in some cases fax. br /
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More comprehensive medical transcription services are also available. They offer an online system that stores both the audio files and transcripts, organizes them by date, doctor, or patient, and keeps track of progress as theyre being transcribed. These services are more expensive but offer substantial management benefits.br /
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Important Considerationsbr /
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Accuracy: The returned work must have accuracy close to 100 per cent. Select a medical transcription service that employs experienced and skilled medical transcriptionists and quality assurance professionals who review the transcriptions before delivering them to you. Your doctors should review and evaluate each transcript on delivery to prevent any damage to your patients health and well-being. br /
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Turnaround Time: It refers to the maximum time within which medical transcripts will be delivered to you after submitting the audio recordings. Most medical transcription services offer a turnaround time of 24 to 48 hours. Most also include a STAT service that allows you to specify a turnaround time of one-, two- or four-hours at an additional cost. Different types of notes can have different turnaround times. br /
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Security: Medical transcription services are subject to HIPAA rules about patient confidentiality. The industry standard for internet security is 128-bit SSL security. Physical security at the provider location is also important. Careful employee screening and tracking is essential. Audit trails can assist in tracking employees. An audit trail keeps track of each individual who accesses a given set of notes and the modifications they make. br /
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Sound Quality: Good quality of sound recording is essential for performance. Digital handheld recorders provide better sound, though they carry an additional hardware cost. Some medical transcription services charge lower prices if you provide them with better quality recordings.br /
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Location of service: Many medical transcription services use both domestic and international transcriptionists. There is generally no difference in quality and accuracy between the domestic and outsourced services. Having transcription teams all around the world enables the service providers to meet deadlines. You will most like pay more for service if you insist on using medical transcriptionists located in a developed country like the US.br /
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How much will you have to pay?br /
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You are charged per line of text. The industry standard is 65 characters in a single line including spaces. Some service providers however, include lesser number of characters in a single line. Price usually ranges from $.05 to $.20 per line. Before you select a vendor, compare price quotes from multiple a href=http://www.tradeseam.com/smallbusiness/business-resources/get-free-quotes/1200/Medical+Transcription+Services target=_blankmedical transcription/a companies. br /
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Most medical transcription service providers offer free trial runs. Carefully assess the providers ability to meet deadlines, the accuracy of transcripts, and ease of interaction with their customer service representatives during the trial run. Many providers assign a dedicated team of transcriptionists for long term contracts and also offer lower prices. Carefully evaluate your requirements, the providers and the available services before making a decision.br /
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Read important things to know about a href=http://www.o9i.net target=_blankhttp:///a – please make sure to read the page. The times have come when proper information is truly only one click away, use this possibility.

Original Source: About.com

Chinese surgeons removed a chopstick from a child’s brain this week. The 14 month old baby, Li Jingchao, fell with chopsticks in his hand, resulting in the injury.  He had to be driven 10 hours to Beijing in order to find a facility that could remove the chopstick.

The chop went up his nose and into his brain, causing a life-threatening situation.  In fact, by the time he arrived at the hospital, he had a high fever and his heart was beating irregularly.  X-rays revealed that the chopstick had penetrated 4mm into his brain.

Surgeons were able to dislodge the chopstick with only minor bleeding, and Li is expected to make a full recovery.

More about this story, including a photo.

Original Source: Business Week

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) — The approximately 2 million older adults who undergo common abdominal operations each year are at higher risk than others of suffering complications and early death, researchers find.

Little was known about the specific risks facing people 65 and older, the researchers said. “For clinicians, patients and families considering abdominal surgical procedures, informed decision making is challenging because of limited data regarding the risks of adverse perioperative events associated with advancing age,” they write in the December issue of Archives of Surgery.

The researchers, from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, examined medical records of 101,318 adults age 65 or older who underwent abdominal procedures from 1987 to 2004. The operations included cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), hysterectomy, colectomy and other procedures.

Of the patients, 17.3 percent had complications within 90 days and 5.4 percent died. As patients got older, so did the rate of complications and deaths — to 22.7 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, for those 90 and older.

“After adjusting for demographic, patient and surgical characteristics as well as hospital volume, the odds of early postoperative death increased considerably with each advance in age category,” the researchers wrote. “These associations were found among patients with both cancer and noncancer diagnoses and for both elective and nonelective admissions.

“Older adults may be less able to adapt to the stress of surgery or to the added stress of any postoperative complication, greatly increasing their risk of early mortality,” the researchers added. “These effects appear to be additive, highlighting the need for interventions to both prevent decline among older patients and avoid postsurgical complications.”

According to Philly.com, a Philadelphia couple thought that they could get rich selling elderly people expensive medical equipment they did not need – then sending the bill to medicare.  Powered wheelchairs and other medical supplies were used in the scheme.  Read more…

Original Source: Philly.com

Robert Saul and his wife allegedly thought they could get rich by giving people expensive power wheelchairs and other medical equipment – equipment they didn’t need – and falsely billing Medicare.

And they thought they had their bases covered by allegedly telling baffled recipients that Philadelphia was giving out $3,200 wheelchairs for free, or having sources in doctors’ offices intercepting phone calls from confused patients.

But the alleged scheme fell apart, according to U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy.

Saul, 36, and his wife, Sheila, 51, were charged yesterday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with defrauding Medicare and other programs by submitting more than $1.2 million in bogus claims.

Saul and his wife, who both live in Philadelphia, own R&V Medical Supplies, which is located on the 11th floor at 1420 Walnut St., in Center City. The company is still in business.

The Sauls did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Also charged yesterday were Lisa Burnett, 40, of Philadelphia, and Carol Mason, 57, of Norristown.

Burnett and Mason worked at a Philadelphia nonprofit that provided service to seniors and the disabled. They allegedly provided the Sauls with client information that was used to bill Medicare for unneeded medical supplies, and for which they were paid kickbacks.

In separate court filings, Susan Landolf, 27, and Debra Stallings, 43, both of Philadelphia, also were charged with participating in the scheme. Landolf worked at a medical clinic and then at R&V. Stallings worked at a private medical practice. Since they were charged in criminal informations, it is likely they have negotiated guilty pleas.

“This case involves breaches of trust at every level: From the medical office employees who sold patients’ identity information, to the people charged today who used the Medicare Trust as their personal ATMs,” Levy said.

“Any Medicare beneficiary who gets equipment that they know nothing about, or who sees payments for equipment on their explanations of benefits that they do not recognize, should contact the number on the explanation of benefits forms immediately to report it,” Levy said.

A first cat died from H1N1 Swine Flu back in November.  It appears now, as Fox News reports, that a second feline fatality has occurred.  Read more below, and don’t forget that you can stop H1N1 in its tracks with Sklar Disinfectants.

Original Source: Fox News

A second cat has died of swine flu in Oregon, leading veterinarians to investigate why the disease has become a threat to a household pet.

Emilio DeBess, the state public health veterinarian, said the cat died about two weeks ago on the Oregon coast after catching the H1N1 virus from its owner.

Another cat died from the virus early in November in the town of Lebanon after a child in the household got sick with swine flu.

DeBess is working with veterinary researchers at Oregon State University to find clues about why cats might be susceptible to the virus.

Various diseases in animals have long been a threat to humans, such as rabies, or the West Nile virus. But with swine flu, the disease is going the other way, from humans to an animal — which is rare.

In this article, published by rockdalecitizen.com, we learn that the Red Cross’ blood supply is dangerously low.  Donating blood this holiday season can help to save lives.  Read more…

Original Source: Rockdale Citizen

CONYERS — The Red Cross is asking residents this Christmas season to give the gift of life and donate blood at several blood drives scheduled this month to help metro Atlanta hospitals meet the demand for blood heading into the spring.

Rockdale Medical Center will hold a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 15 in the East Tower classrooms.

All donors who give this month will be entered into a drawing for one of three pairs of round-trip tickets on Delta Air Lines as part of the American Red Cross’s “Give Blood and Go” campaign.

Blood donations often decline between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day due to holiday preparations and travel, but the need for blood remains constant. Officials with the American Red Cross urge people who are able to take the time to give the gift of life during the coming weeks and months.

For faster service, however, donors are encouraged to make appointments. Appointments can be set online at www.givelife.org for all local blood drives.

According to the Southern Region office of the American Red Cross, at least 1,200 people are needed to donate blood each weekday to adequately supply more than 130 hospitals throughout Georgia.

Eligible donors must be age 17 or older, weigh a minimum of 110 pounds and be in general good health. Most blood donors can donate every 56 days and platelet donors every two weeks.

Another blood drive in Conyers is scheduled at the Rockdale County Board of Commissioners office from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 23. The BOC office is located at 958 Milstead Ave.

The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office will also hold a blood drive on the same day and time.

For more information, go to www.givebloodredcross.org or call 800-GIVE-LIFE.

Harvard researchers are saying that patients who take so-called “proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are at higher risk for pneumonia than those who do not.” br /br /The drugs — including Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid — are often recommended for intensive-care patients to prevent stress ulcers, and in recent years they have been given to many other hospital patients. Experts estimate that 40 percent to 70 percent of inpatients now receive acid-suppressive drugs during a hospital stay, with about half receiving them for the first time.br /br /”I noticed that there were a lot of patients being placed on these for prophylactic purposes, and I thought that was curious because they are not currently recommended for patients who aren’t at high risk for stress ulcers,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Shoshana J. Herzig, chief medical resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, explaining why she was interested in the subject.br /br /Dr. Herzig said that proton pump inhibitors, which suppress acid in the stomach, might promote the growth of different types of bacteria in the upper gastrointestinal and respiratory tract, and that those bacteria might be the culprits in the pneumonias. Another explanation, she suggested, may be that acid stimulates coughing, and coughing less may promote pneumonia.br /br /The study, published this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed 63,878 admissions to Beth Israel Deaconess from Jan. 1, 2004, to Dec. 31, 2007. Among patients who received the drugs, 4.9 percent developed pneumonia in the hospital — more than double the 2 percent who had not been given the drugs. After adjusting to account for the fact that recipients of the drugs may have been sicker to begin with, the researchers determined that patients treated with acid-reflux drugs faced a 30 percent increase in pneumonia risk over patients who were not.br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /This is yet another good reason to be vigilant when you or a loved one goes to the hospital. Many of the patients in the study were given acid-suppressing drugs for prophylactic purposes – meaning, just in case, but not because they needed them. Pharmaceutical drugs are powerful and have side effects. If the patient has no heartburn, why give drugs for it? If you do have heartburn, what is the cause? And, by the way, it may be too little acid, rather than too much acid. If you treat the cause, then you solve the problem and have no need to expose yourself to side effects. br /br /Sometimes heartburn is the body’s way of giving us an early warning signal. GI distress plays a role in a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/allergies.html”food allergies/a, a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/autoimmune_diseases.html#ibs”inflammatory bowel disease/a, a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/autoimmune_diseases.html#chronicfatigue”chronic fatigue/a, a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/fibromyalgia.html”fibromyalgia/a, and more. If you merely suppress the symptom, you may leave the door wide open to even worse problems down the road.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-4365298388932145358?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

For fiscal year 2010, the FDA requests a total budget of $3.2 billion – that represents a 19 percent increase over 2009 – the largest increase ever in FDA history.br /br /The FDA budget proposes $828 million in industry user fees, an increase of $215 million compared to FY 2009, including $141 million in proposed new user fees. These FDA user fee programs “facilitate premarket review for human and animal drugs and human devices. Three other user fee programs support the mammography facilities inspection program and provide certification services for color additives and for drug and device products exported from the United States.br /br /”In addition to amounts for food safety and generic drug review user fees, the budget includes fee increases for safety and application review for human drugs (+$67.5 million), animal drugs (+$2.3 million), and medical devices (+$4.5 million).”br /br /The acting head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Joshua Sharfstein, defended the agency’s request for more funding from drug companies: “I understand the concern that people … have expressed that user fees create a perception or a conflict of the agency’s work. I think these concerns reflect a broader lack of trust in the FDA.”br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /The FDA established a practice of collecting “user fees” from drug companies, food manufacturers, and others the agency regulates. The idea was that the FDA should be able to collect fees from pharmaceutical companies, for example, in order to conduct drug approvals. That may have sounded good to those balancing budgets, but the practice invites conflicts of interest. br /br /Critics say the program ties the interests of FDA’s drug approval office too closely to those whom they regulate, and that the agency has become dependent for its funding upon the very industries over which it has regulatory authority. Due to the dependence on user fees, those being regulated are increasingly seen as stakeholders, customers, or even clients.br /br /The American Association of Health Freedom believes it is time to “reform the Food and Drug Administration from the ground up” and is circulating a petition at a href=”http://www.ReformFDA.org/”ReformFDA.org/a.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-7856213827314109148?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Dartmouth Medical School have found that the ability to mount an immune response to influenza A (H1N1) infection is significantly compromised by a low level of arsenic exposure that commonly occurs through drinking contaminated well water. Study findings are reported in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.br /br /”When a normal person or mouse is infected with the flu, they immediately develop an immune response,” says Joshua Hamilton, the MBL’s Chief Academic and Scientific Officer and a senior scientist in the MBL’s Bay Paul Center. However, in mice that had ingested 100 ppb (parts per billion) arsenic in their drinking water for five weeks, the immune response to H1N1 infection was initially feeble, and when a response finally did kick in days later, it was too late. “There was a massive infiltration of immune cells to the lungs and a massive inflammatory response, which led to bleeding and damage in the lung,” Hamilton says.br /br /The EPA considers 10 ppb arsenic in drinking water safe, yet concentrations of 100 ppb and higher are commonly found in well water in regions where arsenic is geologically abundant, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Florida, and large parts of the Upper Midwest, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains.br /br /”One thing that did strike us, when we heard about the recent H1N1 outbreak, is Mexico has large areas of very high arsenic in their well water, including the areas where the flu first cropped up. We don’t know that the Mexicans who got the flu were drinking high levels of arsenic, but it’s an intriguing notion that this may have contributed,” Hamilton says.br /br /Arsenic exposure not only disrupts the innate immune system, as the present study shows, it also disrupts the endocrine (hormonal) system in an unusually broad way, which Hamilton’s laboratory discovered and first reported in 1998.br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /The good news is that arsenic does not accumulate in the body over a lifetime, as do other a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/therapies/heavy_metal_detox.html”toxic metals/a such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Organic arsenic usually exits the body through urine in a few months, but when you have constant daily exposure to it through drinking water or by eating commercially-raised chickens who were fed a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/kid_food.html#arsenic”arsenic-laced feed/a, then you have a constant supply of arsenic on board that can do harm. Arsenic is a carcinogenic. br /br /Although the use of arsenic has been recently banned by various countries in various ways, there is a lot of it out there. The vast majority of pressure-treated wood was treated with an arsenic compound because the toxicity of arsenic to insects, bacteria and fungi makes it a great preservative. The arsenic leaches out however when it leaches out of the wood into the surrounding soil (from playground equipment, for instance). Arsenic is also released when treated wood is burned. br /br /A good description of arsenic toxicity can be read at the following website, from the University of Arizona. a href=”http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/water/az1112.pdf”http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/water/az1112.pdf/adiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-5246954709502671740?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div