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As far back as I can remember, medical care has been paper-driven. When you see a new doctor or return to one you haven't seen for a while, you are asked to complete a written medical history that includes every illness or condition you have ever had (along with operations and their dates), every drug and over-the-counter medication and supplement you take, the major illnesses and causes of death of members of your family, and perhaps other medical facts of possible interest to the doctor. If you are able to recall and record such facts fully and accurately, especially if you are currently ill, injured or in pain, you're a better patient than I'll ever be. Yet today some 80 percent of practicing physicians rely entirely on this kind of paper trail -- patient records that can be misplaced or lost, or unavailable in an emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recounts the author's experience regarding the medical history of a 2-year old patient in New York.

The article offers information on the lawsuit filed by the victims of cholera in Haiti against United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, ordering him to appear in response to the resistance of the United Nations that was being alleged as the cause of cholera in 2010.

COLORADO SPRINGS -- When it hit the streets here last week, the latest issue of ReLeaf, a pullout supplement to The Colorado Springs Independent devoted to medical marijuana, landed with a satisfying thud. Forty-eight pages in all, it was stuffed with advertisements for businesses with names like Mile High Mike's, Happy Buddah and the Healthy Connections (which enticed potential customers with promises of ''naughty nurses'' to tend to patients' needs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses ethical issues for grateful patient fundraising (GPF) by physicians at health care organizations. It warns about risks of GPF including interference with the physician-patient relationship and violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Emphasis is given on physician nondisclosure of patient information for fundraising or donations.

The article discusses the challenges faced by long COVID patients in obtaining disability support, with many unable to return to work or function as before due to their condition. It discusses absence of definitive diagnostic tests for long COVID poses difficulties for doctors in documenting disability; patients are urging doctors to be more open-minded and attentive in assessing their limitations; and the role of doctors in confirming disability.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine examined whether women make better doctors than men. The study used Medicare claims data to analyze outcomes for different combinations of patient and physician sex. The results showed that female patients had a lower 30-day mortality rate when cared for by female doctors compared to male doctors. However, the influence of physician sex on outcomes for male patients was not as strong. The study suggests that there may be various factors contributing to these findings, including differences in how female physicians address patient concerns. However, it is important to note that the effect size was small and the findings may be influenced by other factors not accounted for in the study. [Extracted from the article]

The article explains how optometrists can help patients quit smoking and cites various papers proving the health risks of smoking, especially when it comes to diseases and problems of the eye.

The article explains a program at the University of Nebraska medical school that offers doctors in training lessons in looking. The author describes Scottish portrait painter Mark Gilbert's work with student doctors. Regardless of artistic ability, students draw actors pretending to suffer from various ailments; first they draw with their dominant hand, then try again with their "wrong" hand, and finally draw without looking at or lifting the pencil from the paper. The last effort is more abstract but more "articulate," according to Gilbert. Students report discomfort with the exercise, but acknowledge the confidence gained in observing. Former U.S. Poet laureate Ted Kooser oversees a similar exercise with students, using poetry to inspire observation and description.

The article comments on Sharon Youngblood's paper about best practices in hospitals in Tucson, Arizona. In her paper, Youngblood detailed how much a dog received a better treatment from a veterinarian's office than a person received at a medical hospital. One of the problems with hospitals is that they do not think of the people they serve as customers, they call them patients. This gives hospitals an excuse to believe that they are above the people they serve.

The article focuses on the presence of implicit bias in medical records and its impact on the care received by Black patients. Topics include research revealing that doctors tend to use negative language when describing Black patients in their notes, leading to potential disparities in treatment. It also discusses efforts to address and mitigate this bias through interventions like using algorithms to identify stigmatizing language and increasing awareness among clinicians.

The article reports the case of a newly delivered mother Ruby Graupera-Cassimior in a Florida hospital who revived 45 minutes after her heart stopped and was considered clinically dead. Cassimior suffered amniotic fluid embolism that caused a blockage in circulation and led to heart and lung collapse. The article describes her family's prayer to Jesus for her recovery. Divine intervention and miracle have been attributed to her revival. The patient's out of body experience is described.

The article discusses the transition from paper to electronic medical records in the U.S., and examines the benefits of databases containing large amounts of patient information for medical researchers. Concerns about patient privacy are also commented on along with the process of "de-identifying" records before their use for research.

The article discusses a research paper on the growth in the number of people suffering from high blood pressure, which references a study by Majid Ezzati et al., published in an issue of "The Lancet," and tackles factors that contributed to this growth in poorer countries.

The article discusses the move by the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) to initiate a war against AIDS. IDI was designed to provide research and patient care along with the Global Fund and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Andrew Kambugu, head of clinical services at IDI, said that they operate about $2 million for their facilities such as oxygen tanks and paper-thin mattresses.

The article reports that a group of scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla recently won more than $12 million in federal grant money to find ways to predict how patients will respond to immunosuppressive drugs following kidney transplants. Some 15,000 Americans undergo kidney transplant surgery every year and then are treated with a powerful class of drugs called immunosuppressants to keep their immune system from attacking the foreign tissue. While many patients live normally on the drugs, they can cause serious health problems, from heart disease, diabetes, infections and cancer, to toxicity of the very kidney the drugs are protecting.

The article reports on a research study which explores the medical care provided by long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) in the U.S. The objective of the study was to evaluate the number of LTACH patient readmissions to Short-Term Acute Care Hospitals (STACHs) within 30 days of discharge. It also examines the impact of readmissions to heart failure and pneumonia patients.

The article discusses the highlights of the launch of The Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative jubilee celebration where Malaysian Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai advised patients to question their doctors on why certain medication and treatment have been or not administered to them.

Snakebite isn't exactly a neglected disease, but since many victims die for lack of the right medicine, the World Health Organization recognized it as such two years ago. Papers arguing for new emphasis on snakebite were presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently there was little proof that medical errors spike in the summer when new medical trainees start working at teaching hospitals -- a phenomenon known as the ''July effect.'' But a new review has found evidence that death rates do increase in July, and that many patients stay in the hospital longer than in other months. The paper, published Tuesday in Annals of Internal Medicine, is believed to be the first systematic review of the data from previous studies. While the analysis found inconsistencies among nearly 40 studies examined, the data produced by the largest and best-designed ones indicated that patient death rates in teaching hospitals increase by 8 percent in July. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Roger W. Evans, a cardiologist in Wichita, Kan., is used to answering patients' questions about their hearts. But lately, he said, he has spent half his time answering a succession of different questions -- about the health care law. Donald Moore, 75, one of those patients, expressed his uneasiness about the law recently: ''The fact is that I don't understand it, and no one else I talk to understands it. Every day, you read something different in the paper.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I SAT on the examining table in my urologist's office and tried to cover myself with the ridiculous blue paper gown that has become the standard patient uniform in our throwaway society. Surely this wasn't designed with an adult in mind. ''Put it on with the opening in the front,'' the nurse mumbled, probably for the 20th time that day, as she raced out of the room. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article looks at how the University of Ottawa's Heart Institute had to remove five paintings of Elizabethan-style queens from the walls of its hypertension waiting room after patients began showing heightened anxiety and raised blood pressure in an apparent response to the artworks. According to Victoria Henry, the director of Canada's federal Art Bank, a creepy feeling came from the eyes and the stimulating colors of "The Queens," as the five paintings are collectively called. In another example of poor placement, a painting that bore the words "Getting there is half the fun" was briefly hung outside the entrance to the critical-care ward.

The article discusses the ethics and logistics of performing emergency research without patients' consent. The clinical trial was the first to proceed without informed consent under a rule the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released in 1996. The rule allows human research without approval from subjects, but only with life-threatening conditions that must be dealt with quickly and that have no proven treatment. Doctors who participate in this kind of research say they are most concerned not about whether these experiments are right or wrong but about how to discuss them with the public. For years, medical researchers performed studies without the consent of unconscious patients, but without explicit rules. They justified their studies by saying they were obtaining "deferred consent" after the treatment, until the government clamped down on such research in 1993. However, the research need was clear. In situations like sudden heart attacks, just 5 percent or 10 percent of patients survive, and only if they receive treatment in the first few minutes after they go into cardiac arrest. INSET: Artificial-Blood Study Has Critics Seeing Red.

The article discusses medical ethics. Doctors should learn as much as possible about the scientific-technological skills of medicine, while maintaining the wisdom to integrate these skills into what are fundamentally moral and interpersonal relationships with their patients. The greatest distinguishing characteristic of primary care medicine-family medicine, general pediatrics, and general internal medicine is that the subject of care is the person, not a particular disease, not a specific body part, and not just a physical body. Though metaphysics is not a frequent topic of conversation in primary care training programs, all good primary care doctors know that their first responsibility is the ongoing care of the person. In the arena of modern biomedicine, attempts to integrate the interpersonal aspect of healing into patient care are looked upon, at best, as an extracurricular activity.

Offers information on the fight over stem-cell research in the United States. Delay of research; Arguments from Republican Jay Dickey; Controversial federal support; Comments from Harold E. Varmus, the director of the National Institutes of Health; Actions of the Patients' Coalition for Urgent Research; Views of Senator Strom Thurmond on stem-cell research; Donations of unused embryos by couples who sought in vitro fertilization.

The article focuses on a study from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) which revealed unique genetic differences in the causes of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) between African Americans and people of European ancestry.

A personal narrative is presented in which the author recounts how her diagnosis of reflux laryngitis and severe limit of speaking impacted her ability as a teacher.

The article presents a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which showed that nearly 23% of adults aged 18 to 59 in the country suffer have genital human papillomavirus (HPV), making them at high risk of certain cancers.

The article offers information on the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) by referring to the case of Ekata Doshi, a 38 year old resident of New York who is suffering from CLL. Topics include treatment of CLL through a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, and difficulties in finding donors for bone marrow transplant for CLL patients. It mentions the participation of celebrity Nina Davuluri to support the campaign about the need for South Asians to register as bone marrow donors.

In this article, the author focuses on her girlfriend, who works at a clinic and mentions about her supportive decisions for the patients.

The article discusses issues related to making online medical data accessible to patients. A recent survey conducted by Georgia-based physician recruitment firm, Jackson & Coker Locumtenens LLC, found that 46 percent of physician respondents agreed that the key to streamlining health care and driving reform is automating patient records. One of the problems regarding this is the possibility that patients who are not trained medical professionals will misinterpret findings.

The article focuses on the negligence of Bidhanagar Municipal Corporation's vector-control unit in preventing the spread of dengue fever in the Salt Lake township of Kolkata, India. Topics discussed include the problems being faced by residents in the absence of an elected civic body, lack of surveillance and coordination between the health department and the civic body, and the inadequacy of initiatives to prevent casualties from dengue fever.

The article focuses on the Stein Hospice Chicken Soup Project which is providing comforting chicken soup to patients and their families, along with the sisterhood of Temple Beth El in Somerset, New Jersey that offers nearly 30 quarts of soup, along with hallah roll.

The article reports that the student council members of LaSalle Springs Middle School are giving blankets to chemotherapy patients undergoing treatment at the Siteman Cancer Center in Missouri.

The article reports that the Robert A. Stehlin Campaign for ALS has started accepting applications for the RASCALS Higher Education Scholarship Program in June 2011.

This article reports on medical schools using actors as 'patients' to help teach doctors how to face up to their mistakes and also how to avoid them. Medical trainees at Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Morchand Center for Clinical Competence are taught how to prevent errors and how to handle them properly when they do occur.

Focuses on the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University created by Rita Charon, professor of clinical medicine at the university. Goals of the innovative program; Information on the experiences of medical student Stephen Lee-Kong on his encounters with patients; Background on the development of the program; Advantages of hearing the narratives of the patients.

Focuses on the debilitating disease of David Witt. Religiousness of Witt.

Presents an article on HIV-infected people in Ethiopia. How they are discriminated in Ethiopia; Reason for their refusal to talk about their status in society; Approach used in taking their photographs.

Discusses a proposal by the Clinton Administration in the United States which would broaden requirements that academic researchers protect the confidentiality of patients' medical records. How the proposals would require institutional panels to review all privately financed research; Ability of boards to order the release of confidential information without the patients' consent; Clarification and expansion of the role of institutional review boards (IRB); Comments by various scientists on the proposals.

The eyes seem soft and scared and peer from the photograph of a blond man clutching what may be a musical score. Beyond that not too much is known about […]

Service quality is a high priority for most health care organizations. Unfortunately, failures in service and, therefore, concerns are inevitable due to the number of variables and perceptions involved in [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration says that, in the past 12 months, it has issued a 'vast number' of new regulations and notices aimed at protecting and promoting consumer [...]

PATIENT RECORDS, LAB REPORTS, PHYSICIANS' NOTES AND lab data trends. All the information, all the time, anywhere. That's what clinical data repositories offer physicians, and the technology is still in [...]