Tag Archives: Health
Medical Care: “Restoring Hearing Loss – The Patient Experience” (Penn ENT)
At Penn Medicine ENT, we offer patients the most advanced developments in hearing technology. Our multidisciplinary approach to medicine ensures that each patient path is tailored to the patient’s specific needs.
- When they come to our center, patients typically begin by having a diagnostic assessment.
- Often, those patients are also seeing an ear, nose and throat physician after they have their hearing evaluation.
- Together, the team can then make the appropriate recommendation of what should come next.
In terms of hearing devices, we offer access to almost every hearing aid manufacturer available, as well as advanced implantable technology. This includes the auditory brain stem implant, which Penn Medicine is the first in the region to offer.
Hearing is currently the only sense that we can completely restore. We’re proud to be able to offer our patients everything available to help restore their communication with family and friends.
Health: “90% Of Americans Consume Too Much Sodium” (Infographic)
Health: “What Is The Coronavirus?” (Video)
The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, answers some of the most common and pressing questions surrounding the recent coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China
Heathcare Podcasts: An Inside Look At Benefits & Costs Of Hospice (NPR)
According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, seven in 10 Americans say they would prefer to die at home. And that’s the direction the health care system is moving, too, hoping to avoid unnecessary and expensive treatment at the end of life.
Hospice allows a patient deemed to have fewer than six months to live to change the focus of their medical care — from the goal of curing disease to a new goal of using treatments and medicines to maintain comfort and quality of life. It is a form of palliative care, which also focuses on pain management, but can be provided while a patient continues to seek a cure or receive treatments to prolong life.
World Economic Forum: “Building Resilient Health Systems” (Davos 2020)
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
Medical Procedures: Inside Look At “Total Hip Replacement” Surgery
Head “Inside the OR” with Michael D. Stover, MD, and see what it takes to tackle a total hip replacement. Sound on for this one!
Mayo Clinic Health Video: Dangers Of “Sepsis” Now Require Response Teams In Intensive Care Units
Our bodies are very good at fighting infection. The immune system reacts and attacks bacteria and viruses that make us sick. But sometimes the immune reaction is so strong that it damages the body. This is called a septic reaction or sepsis, and the mortality rate associated with it can be high.
In fact, a new study suggests that sepsis is responsible for 20 percent of all deaths worldwide. That’s more deaths than are estimated to be attributable to cancer. At Mayo Clinic, doctors like Kannan Ramar, M.B.B.S., M.D., are trying to change that with a sepsis response team in intensive care units. Their goal: to stop sepsis and save lives.
More health and medical news on the Mayo Clinic News Network. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/
Medical Procedures: How “Gamma Knife” Surgery Treats Brain Tumors
It’s called gamma knife surgery, but there’s no cutting involved. It’s been used at Mayo Clinic for 30 years as an alternative to open brain surgery.
The patient’s head is held still during the procedure with a headframe, which also serves as a map for the radiation. Using 3D imaging — typically an MRI — as a guide, the gamma knife is targeted directly at the tumor. And with no hospital stay and minimal side effects, it’s a procedure that is efficient and can be lifesaving.
Digital Medicine: Apps For Smartphones, Machine Learning To Treat Kidney Disease (The Lancet)
From a The Lancet online article (January 18, 2020):
Smartphone app-based platforms for urine testing could improve adherence to albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) testing. One study showed screening of at-risk patients almost doubled with a home urine test kit that uses a smartphone camera to easily and accurately quantify ACR from a user-performed urine dipstick. If independently validated in a large, diverse population, this low-cost strategy could change the often dim trajectory for individuals with declining kidney function. 
In the outpatient setting, a Japanese team used machine learning and natural language processing to predict disease progression and need for dialysis over 6 months in patients with diabetic nephropathy. And while the increased risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury has been long appreciated, a machine learning algorithm trained and tested on 3 million adults effectively quantified the degree of kidney injury on the basis of the volume of contrast used and individual patient-level characteristics.
Boomers Daily 