Articles Posted in Medical News

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Most of us are urged by our doctors to take a multiple vitamin everyday or some other supplement, such as a B vitamin or a calcium pill. There hasn’t been a lot of evidence, however, that a multiple vitamin has a beneficial effect on our health.

That may be changing for multivitamins. A new report indicates that taking a standard multivitamin pill every day for more than a decade reduces the odds of developing cancer. The finding comes from the Physicians’ Health Study II, a Harvard-based trial that was launched in 1997. In the study, nearly 15,000 male physicians aged 50 years and older took a daily pill containing 31 vitamins and minerals or a placebo.

Over the course of the trial, 1,379 men in the placebo group developed some form of cancer (18.3 cancers per 1,000 men per year), compared to 1,290 men in the multivitamin group (17.0 cancers per 1,000 men per year). That represents an 8 percent reduction in cancer. Rates of prostate cancer were the same in both the multivitamin and placebo groups, however. Deaths were also similar in both groups. The findings were presented at the annual American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif., and published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death among Americans. Hospitalization and medical care immediately following a stroke are very costly, as is the rehabilitative care. So the question is how best to prevent a stoke or to help patients recover following a stroke.

The National Institutes of Health is conducting ongoing studies to determine ways of preventing strokes. Some of the most recent studies include:

— The use of dilation and stenting techniques similar to those used to unclog and open heart arteries has been proposed as a less invasive alternative to carotid surgery to remove the buildup of plaque within the carotid artery, which supplies blood to the head and neck. According to the NIH, carotid endarterectomy is considered the best treatment for preventing stroke and other vascular events. Stenting is a newer, less invasive procedure in which an expandable metal stent is inserted into the carotid artery to keep it open after it has been widened with balloon dilation. But the new NIH study found that the safety and effectiveness of the two procedures was largely the same. Following this study, doctors will have more options to tailor treatments for people considered at risk for stroke.

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The American Medical Association reports that a growing number of physicians are choosing to be “hospitalists.” These doctors work in the hospital full time, while their colleagues provide care in local offices.

The advantage for the patient is that care is not disrupted when the doctor has to rush off to the hospital to attend to another patient there. Meanwhile, doctors don’t have to drive to hospitals, search through parking lots for a place to put their cars, then rush into a hospital to find a patient to provide care.

The hospitalist program seems to be an advantage to everyone involved. But hospitalists say physicians in each community need to be involved closely in determining how hospitalist programs are structured. They say physicians should decide how information will be communicated between settings, who will do what, how reimbursement will be handled and the protocols for certain procedures.

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A new study shows that shoulder dislocation in older patients is more likely to be overlooked or misdiagnosed than among younger patients. The study warned that older patients whose shoulder injuries are not treated can face years of persistent pain and disability.

Published in the October 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the study examines the differences in dislocation injuries between older and younger patients. It also suggests an approach to evaluate older patients that could help improve diagnosis and management of related injuries.

The study’s lead author is Dr. Anand Murthi. He says understanding the very different ways shoulder dislocation can affect patients over 40 years of age is the first step in making an accurate diagnosis of dislocation-related injuries. Older patients are more likely to experience injury to the rotator cuff, which is the group of tendons, ligaments and other structures that help give the shoulder its range of motion, Dr. Murthi explained. He said this happens because the rotator cuff tissue becomes weaker and more brittle with aging and tears more easily.

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The Obama administration wants consumers to be able to report medical mistakes and unsafe practices by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and others who provide treatment.

Some hospital spokesmen say they are receptive to the idea, although they have concerns about malpractice liability,
Federal officials say medical mistakes often go unreported, and that patients have potentially relevant information. The information often entails drug mix-ups, surgery on the wrong body part, surgical instruments left in patients’ bodies following surgery, radiation overdoses and other problems.

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Most elderly people will tell you they’d rather remain in their homes as they age rather than going to live in a care facility. Now a new study shows that those who live at home are MORE likely to die in a hospital. That’s because the elderly who live in their homes often do not receive the care of a nursing professional, resulting in a trip to the emergency room, and, eventually, death in a hospital bed.

The study was carried out by researchers from the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College in London. It was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services & Delivery Research (NIHR HS&DR) Program. But even though it was conducted in the United Kingdom, its findings are applicable in the United States.

The study found that 42 per cent of patients with advanced non-malignant conditions reported a preference for home death, yet only 12 per cent of deaths from respiratory and neurological conditions occur at home, and only 6 per cent for dementia.

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Most of us can remember a time when our doctors scribbled notes on paper inside a folder while talking to us. Now most of us see only our doctor’s back while he or she types information into a computer whenever we visit. The change is due to the introduction of electronic health records.

A new study has found that doctors who use these electronic health records are less likely to get sued than their colleagues who stick with traditional paper records.

Electronic health records were first introduced 30 years ago in the United States to streamline patient care. They allow different doctors treating a single patient to access each other’s notes and see what medications the patient has been prescribed. Some researchers have worried that doctors could make more mistakes using electronic medical records because they are using a new and unfamiliar system and could write notes and prescribe drugs in the wrong patient’s record.

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A new study by the Institute of Medicine has found that over treatment is costing the nation’s health care system $210 billion each year. More important, too many treatments — x-rays, CAT scans, blood checks and procedures — are harming patients.

“What people are not realizing is that sometimes the test poses harm,” said Shannon Brownlee, acting director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation and the author of “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.”

In her book, Brownlee writes that the nation’s medical system delivers an enormous amount of care that does nothing to improve people’s health. Between 20 and 30 cents on every health care dollar we spend goes toward useless treatment and hospitalization, she says.

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Hip fractures are a significant risk for the elderly, often forcing a victim into a wheelchair and even a nursing home. A new study has found that the elderly who have eye surgery to remove cataracts and improve their vision also significantly reduce their risk of breaking a hip in a fall.

The study reports that the sickest among older people and those in their early 80s experience nearly 30 percent fewer hip fractures in the first year following cataract surgery.

A relatively safe outpatient procedure with a high success rate, cataract surgery may greatly enhance the quality of life among the elderly, improving sleep, enabling them to be more engaged and mentally alert and curbing depression.

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Good news for people who have suffered cardiac arrest: Your chances of survival are higher than they were ten years ago.

That is the conclusion reached in a recent study and reported in the journal Circulation.
Researchers who completed the study theorized that the survival rate is higher now because of changes in hospital treatment and the way bystanders respond when a person collapses.

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