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Day-of-injury blood tests predict which TBI patients are likely to die or survive with severe disability

A study finds that blood tests taken the day of a traumatic brain injury can predict which patients are likely to die or survive with severe disability, allowing clinicians to make decisions earlier on possible treatment of TBI.

19 Aug 2022

Increased rates of paramedic transports could contribute to overcrowding, long wait times in the EDs

Increase in paramedic transport rates over the last decade far exceeds population growth and walk-in emergency department (ED) visits in Ontario, according to a new study from ICES and McMaster University.

19 Aug 2022

ER physician shows how empathy, creativity, and imagination are the cornerstones of clinical care

To be an emergency room doctor is to be a professional listener to stories. Each patient presents a story; finding the heart of that story is the doctor's most critical task. More technology, more tests, and more data won't work if doctors get the story wrong.

16 Aug 2022

Study quantifies the prognostic accuracy of two protein biomarkers

Blood tests taken within 24 hours of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) flag which patients are likely to die and which patients are likely to survive with severe disability, according to a study headed by UC San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan. Their results -- available within minutes -- may confirm the need for prompt surgical interventions or may help guide conversations with families in cases of devastating injury.

11 Aug 2022

Patients and doctors trapped in a gray zone when abortion laws and emergency care mandate conflict

Each week, Dr. Kim Puterbaugh sees several pregnant patients at a Cleveland hospital who are experiencing complications involving bleeding or infection.

8 Aug 2022

A California man’s ‘painful and terrifying’ road to a monkeypox diagnosis

Two days after Kevin Kwong flew home to California from New York, his hands itched so badly, the pain jolted him from sleep. He thought the problem was eczema.

4 Aug 2022

Because of Texas abortion law, her wanted pregnancy became a medical nightmare

New, untested abortion bans have made doctors unsure about treating some pregnancy complications, which has led to life-threatening delays and trapped families in a limbo of grief and helplessness.

2 Aug 2022

Future wave of opioid-involved overdose deaths will spike in rural and urban areas

Over the past 21 years of opioid overdose deaths-;from prescription drugs to heroin to synthetic and semisynthetic opioids such as fentanyl-;geography has played a role in where opioid-involved overdose deaths have occurred, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

28 Jul 2022

Exposure to SNAP work requirements associated with increase in mental health care use

Being exposed to work requirements in order to receive nutrition benefits from the U.S. government significantly increased mental health care use for depression and anxiety, a new Northwestern University study has found.

28 Jul 2022

Pandemic policy to shield homeless people lowers the use of acute medical care

In the first year of the pandemic, San Francisco and other communities in California offered private hotel rooms, three meals a day and on-site medical services to homeless people who were at risk of getting severe COVID-19.

27 Jul 2022

The ambulance chased one patient into collections

In retrospect, Peggy Dula said, she shouldn't have taken the ambulance. She was the least injured of the three siblings who were in a car when it was struck by a pickup truck last September. Her daughter had even offered to come to the crash site and pick her up.

27 Jul 2022

Specific brain responses to traumatic experiences predict vulnerability to develop PTSD

Results from the largest prospective study of its kind indicate that in the initial days and weeks after experiencing trauma, individuals facing potentially threatening situations who had less activity in their hippocampus – a brain structure critical for forming memories of situations that are dangerous and that are safe – developed more severe posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

26 Jul 2022

Medical professionals use Twitter amplifiers to tackle COVID-19 misinformation

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when false information about the virus began to spread on Twitter, physicians and scientists from Northwestern Medicine and other institutions banded together to combat the deadly misinformation and disinformation and support one another when they ultimately were attacked online for doing so.

25 Jul 2022

Survey: Telemedicine widely viewed as an effective means for delivering care

After experiencing a rapid expansion early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey indicates that telemedicine is now widely viewed as an effective means for delivering care.

25 Jul 2022

Appropriate guidance and follow-up needed for children at high risk for long COVID

Nearly 6 percent of children who presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with COVID-19 reported symptoms of long COVID 90 days later, according to a study conducted in eight countries and published in JAMA Network Open.

22 Jul 2022

New $29 million grant awarded to five leading children’s hospitals for improving pandemic readiness

A group of children's hospitals from across the country will coordinate on the response to future pandemics and other disasters through a new $29 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

19 Jul 2022

Research tests the effectiveness of a callback program on preventing ER return visits

Can a simple phone call reduce the likelihood that a patient will have to return to the emergency room in the days just after being discharged?

15 Jul 2022

Study: Prescribing rate of non-opioid pain medications increased after 2016 CDC guideline

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a guideline for prescribing opioids to patients experiencing chronic pain in 2016, the prescribing rate of non-opioid pain medication increased each year above and beyond what would be expected based on the preexisting trends, a new study finds.