t’s a month since high tides struck Venice, causing devastating flooding. The city’s mayor estimated damage at over a billion euros.
A system of floodgates called MOSE, under construction for years, should have prevented the disaster. But it’s been delayed and mired in corruption.
So is MOSE the lifeline Venice needs – or is it doomed to failure?
From a Harvard Gazette online article:
“This work cements the idea that, for the right patients, we can deliver hospital-level care outside of the four walls of the traditional hospital, and provides more of the data we need to make home hospital care the standard of care in our country,” said corresponding author David Levine, a physician and researcher in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care.
“It opens up so many exciting possibilities — it’s exciting for patients because it gives them the opportunity to be in a familiar setting, and it’s exciting for clinicians because we get to be with a patient in that person’s own surroundings. As a community-minded hospital, this is a way for us to bring excellent care to our community.”
The home hospital model of care — in which select patients receive hospital-level care for an acute illness from the comfort of their own home instead of in a traditional hospital — has become increasingly popular across the U.S.
To read more: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/12/home-hospital-model-reduces-costs-by-38-improves-care/
Today, Monday December 16, marks 75 years since the beginning of one of World War II’s most savage battles. In December 1944, the Nazi army surprised U.S. and Allied forces in the frozen forests of Belgium. Badly outnumbered, the U.S. lost 10,000 soldiers amid frigid conditions in the war’s deadliest conflict. John Yang reports on the commemoration of what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report join Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest political news, including the two articles of impeachment passed by the House Judiciary Committee, political stakes for a potential Senate trial, public opinion on impeachment, a labor dispute threatens the next Democratic debate and how many Democratic voters have already chosen a candidate.
Interactive immune systems are at the center of cancer and other diseases. Dr. Matthew Krummel explores how the immune system can regulate cancer progression. Recorded on 10/31/2019.
To read more: https://www.uctv.tv/shows/Understanding-and-Treating-Cancer-and-Other-Diseases-Through-the-Immune-System-35239
From an FTC online release:
The Social Security Administration (SSA) scam is the number one scam reported to the FTC right now.
As soon as a caller threatens you, or demands you pay them with a gift card or by wiring money. It’s a scam. Even if the caller ID tells you otherwise.
If you get a call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration, hang up the phone and remember:
To read more: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2019/12/getting-bombarded-scam-calls-youre-not-alone?utm_source=govdelivery
Parkinson’s disease is a neurological condition that affects the brain and other parts of the nervous system. The gradual loss of nerve cells leads to a suite of characteristic motor and non-motor symptoms.
What causes these cells to die and how the pathology develops in the nervous system are not yet clear but multiple lines of investigation are being pursued to answer these questions. In this animation, we explore some of the latest in Parkinson’s disease research.
From a The Art Newspaper online release:
“People want to see photography and right now there are not a lot of places to do that,” he says. Showing “the best photography in the world” remains Fotografiska’s core mission, Broman says.
The global expansion of Fotografiska is finally taking shape. The Stockholm-based photography hub, founded in 2010 by brothers Jan and Per Broman, will open its New York outpost on 14 December, almost two months later than previously announced.
https://www.fotografiska.com/nyc/
This follows a venue launched in June in Tallinn, Estonia, and anticipates the arrival in late 2020 of Fotografiska London, billed as the world’s largest photography gallery by the British Journal of Photography.
To read more: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/first-fotografiska-takes-manhattan
From a USA Today online article:
In people with Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas can’t make insulin. Those with the condition require several doses of insulin a day and spent $5,705 per person on it in 2016, an increase of $2,841, or 99%, per person since 2012, according to the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute.(Podcast interview “This Weekend With Gordon Deal”, 12-14-19)
Costs continue to rise, so much so that almost half of people with diabetes have temporarily skipped taking their insulin, according to a 2018 survey by UpWell Health, a Salt Lake City company that provides home delivery of medications and supplies for chronic conditions.
“Insulin prices doubled in a four-year period,” said Cathy Paessun, the director of the Central Ohio Diabetes Association. “They continue to go up, and the infuriating thing is that there is no change in the process for creating the product.”
To read article: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/12/09/insulin-prices-double-ohio-lawmakers-looking-answers/2629115001/
Boomers Daily 