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NCCN publishes recommendations for assessing quality improvements in cancer care

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network has published a curated list of high-impact measures for assessing quality improvements in cancer care.

10 Mar 2020

Community characteristics may influence life expectancy

While lifestyle choices and genetics go a long way toward predicting longevity, a new study shows that certain community characteristics also play important roles.

10 Mar 2020

Dental shock: Six pulled teeth and one unexpected bill

The ache in three of Kathy McCracken's teeth started almost four years ago. It was hard for her to chew and swallow. She was sensitive to both hot and cold food.

10 Mar 2020

FAIR Health launches website feature to aid shared decision making for palliative care

Today FAIR Health launched a groundbreaking website feature that combines clinical and cost information to support seriously and chronically ill patients and their caregivers in the process of shared decision making with clinicians for three palliative care scenarios.

10 Mar 2020

As youth suicides climb, anguished parents begin to speak out

Alec Murray was 13. He enjoyed camping, fishing and skiing. At home, it was video games, movies and books. Having just completed middle school with "almost straight A's," those grades were going to earn him an iPhone for his upcoming birthday.

10 Mar 2020

Noncitizens in the U.S. less likely to receive treatment for CVD risk factors

A new study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, shows that noncitizens in the United States are less likely to receive treatment for cardiovascular disease risk factors when compared with born or naturalized U.S. citizens.

10 Mar 2020

Heart Association puts halt to Bayer’s giant displays of baby aspirin

The large red-and-white bins at Walmart pharmacies across the country read, in bold all-caps type: "Approximately every 40 seconds an American will have a heart attack."

10 Mar 2020

Gene therapy reverses cardiac dysfunction in mice with Barth syndrome

Barth syndrome is a rare metabolic disease in boys caused by mutation of a gene called tafazzin or TAZ. It can cause life-threatening heart failure and also weakens the skeletal muscles, undercuts the immune response, and impairs overall growth.

9 Mar 2020

A public health approach to prevention and treatment of firearm violence

While firearm violence is a major public health challenge in the United States, it has often been considered a law enforcement issue with only law enforcement solutions.

9 Mar 2020

How does COVID-19 coronavirus compare to the 1918 Spanish flu?

The world has seen outbreaks, with some worst than others, but one thing is common, all these outbreaks result in loss of life and a global health crisis. One of the worst epidemics in the world was the 1918 Spanish flu. Now, the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is being compared to the Spanish flu that ravaged the world more than a century ago.

9 Mar 2020

First-ever study compares cancer prevalence among transgender and cisgender individuals

A new Boston University School of Public Health study is the first-ever population-based study of cancer prevalence in transgender people, estimating 62,530 of the nearly 17 million cancer survivors in the U.S. are transgender.

9 Mar 2020

New federal rules will let patients put medical records on smartphones

Federal officials on Monday released groundbreaking rules that will let patients download their electronic health records and other health care data onto their smartphones.

9 Mar 2020

Around the corner: 3D housing designed for the homeless and needy seniors

Tim Shea is counting the days until he can move into a new, 3D-printed house. Shea, 69, will be the first to live in one of six such rentals created by what some in the housing industry call a futuristic approach that could revolutionize home construction.

9 Mar 2020

Improving lifestyle habits may be useful additions to management of atrial fibrillation

Weight loss, regular physical activity and other lifestyle changes are effective yet underused strategies that should be added to optimize management of atrial fibrillation (an abnormal heart rhythm), according to "Lifestyle and Risk Factor Modification for Reduction of Atrial Fibrillation," a new Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association published today in the Association's flagship journal Circulation.

9 Mar 2020

Surging health care worker quarantines raise concerns as coronavirus spreads

As the U.S. battles to limit the spread of the highly contagious new coronavirus, the number of health care workers ordered to self-quarantine because of potential exposure to an infected patient is rising at an exponential pace.

9 Mar 2020

Collaborative approach needed to build pathways to end homelessness in Canada

A collaborative approach is required to build health care pathways that will end homelessness in Canada. Clinicians can play a role by tailoring their interventions using a comprehensive new clinical guideline on homelessness published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

9 Mar 2020

Study looks at lung injury and vaping THC and vitamin E acetate

The US has witnessed a spate of patients presenting with acute lung injury associated with e-cigarettes or vaping product use. A new study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine shows the pattern of the outbreak in California where recreational cannabis use is legal and which has among the maximum cases of the strange illness.

8 Mar 2020

Flexible options for lifestyle programs may benefit modern women with heart disease

Women with heart disease today need flexible options for lifestyle programs that fit their busy schedules. That's the finding of a study published today, International Women's Day, in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology.

8 Mar 2020

Individual responsibility to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is equally vital as government action

How individuals respond to government advice on preventing the spread of COVID-19 will be at least as important, if not more important, than government action, according to a new commentary from researchers at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London in the UK, and Utrecht University and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands.

7 Mar 2020

Focusing on healthcare quality as a business strategy

Despite two decades of effort - targeting care processes, outcomes, and most recently the value of care - progress has been slow in closing the gap between quality and cost in the US healthcare system.

7 Mar 2020