Mortality News and Research

RSS

Childbearing women who take painkillers may face increased risk of birth defects

More than one-fourth of privately-insured and one-third of Medicaid-enrolled women of childbearing age filled prescriptions for opioid-based (narcotic) painkillers between 2008 and 2012, according to a new analysis published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

23 Jan 2015

TOSH Program aims to improve oral-systemic health

Improving oral health is a leading population health goal; however, curricula preparing health professionals have a dearth of oral health content and clinical experiences. Funded by a grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration, New York University College of Nursing's Teaching Oral-Systemic Health Program is working to build interprofessional oral health workforce capacity which addresses a significant public health issue, increases oral health care access, and improves oral-systemic health across the lifespan.

23 Jan 2015

Cypher Genomics, Sequenom sign development agreement for noninvasive prenatal tests

Cypher Genomics, Inc., the leading genome informatics company, and Sequenom, Inc., the leading molecular diagnostics company, today announced a development agreement for next generation noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPT).

22 Jan 2015

Twitter can indicate community's psychological well being, predict rates of heart disease

Twitter has broken news stories, launched and ended careers, started social movements and toppled governments, all by being an easy, direct and immediate way for people to share what's on their minds. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have now shown that the social media platform has another use: Twitter can serve as a dashboard indicator of a community's psychological well being and can predict rates of heart disease.

22 Jan 2015

St. Mary's wins Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence for second consecutive year

Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center has received the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ from Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. This is the second consecutive year St. Mary's has received this award, which recognizes St. Mary's as among the top five percent of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for clinical performance.

21 Jan 2015

Use of methadone drug to treat pain increases mortality risk

Outside the hospital, use of methadone to treat pain carries a 46 percent increased risk of death when compared to the equally effective but more costly alternative, morphine SR (sustained release).

21 Jan 2015

Male stroke patients who live alone are at greater risk of premature death

Men who live alone have a considerably greater long-term risk of dying prematurely than other patients. This is shown in a doctoral thesis that followed 1,090 stroke cases in western Sweden.

21 Jan 2015

EvergreenHealth recognized as Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence

EvergreenHealth has achieved its sixth designation as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence from Healthgrades, placing the health care organization among the top 5 percent of hospitals of the more than 4,500 hospitals evaluated nationwide and based solely on its outstanding clinical performance.

20 Jan 2015

Combining insecticide-treated bed nets and vaccines may worsen malaria

Combining insecticide-treated bed nets with vaccines and other control measures may provide the best chance at eliminating malaria, which killed nearly 600,000 people worldwide in 2013, most of them African children.

20 Jan 2015

DaVita Rx celebrates ten years of service

DaVita Rx, a full-service pharmacy created for patients with chronic conditions such as those with kidney disease, is celebrating a decade of accomplishments as an integrated pharmacy for patients with complex conditions across the country.

19 Jan 2015

WHO calls for urgent action to reduce premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases

Urgent government action is needed to meet global targets to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and prevent the annual toll of 16 million people dying prematurely - before the age of 70 - from heart and lung diseases, stroke, cancer and diabetes, according to a new WHO report.

19 Jan 2015

Early estimates indicate flu vaccine is providing little protection in US

Each year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) undertake flu vaccine effectiveness studies. Early estimates for the current season indicate that those people (all ages) who had the flu vaccine were only 23% less likely to have to go to the doctor because of flu (influenza).

16 Jan 2015

Report: Folic acid saves babies from neural tube defects

Fortifying grain foods with the B vitamin folic acid has saved about 1,300 babies every year from being born with serious birth defects of the brain and spine known as neural tube defects (NTDs), according to new data published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

16 Jan 2015

Asian and Hispanic patients with lupus have lower mortality rates

A new study by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts reveals that Asian and Hispanic patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have lower mortality rates compared to Black, White, or Native Americans with the disease.

15 Jan 2015

People with iron overload disease are more vulnerable to Vibrio vulnificus infections

Every summer, the news reports on a bacterium called Vibrio vulnificus found in warm saltwater that causes people to get sick, or die, after they eat raw tainted shellfish or when an open wound comes in contact with seawater.

15 Jan 2015

Platelet transfusion treatment increases death in people with certain rare blood cell disorders

People hospitalized with certain rare blood cell disorders frequently receive a treatment that is associated with a two- to fivefold increase in death, according to a new study that reviewed hospital records nationwide. The study authors recommend that for these rare disorders, doctors should administer the treatment, a platelet transfusion, only in exceptional circumstances.

14 Jan 2015

Leading cardiac specialists propose new guidelines for donor heart allocation

A group of leading cardiac specialists has proposed new guidelines for the allocation of donor hearts to patients awaiting transplant. The changes are aimed at improving the organ distribution process to increase the survival rate of patients awaiting transplant and posttransplant.

14 Jan 2015

Medical co-morbidities associated with direct maternal deaths in the UK

Medical co-morbidities, when women have one or more medical conditions, are found to be an important factor associated with direct maternal deaths, suggests a new study published today (9 January) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG).

14 Jan 2015

Life satisfaction associated with higher bone density in older women

Women aged 60-70 who are satisfied with their lives have a higher bone density and they suffer from osteoporosis less frequently than their unsatisfied peers, according to a recent study completed at the University of Eastern Finland.

14 Jan 2015

Atmospheric oxygen may play role in lung carcinogenesis, new study suggests

The ancient physician/alchemist, Paracelsus, said: "The dose makes the poison." According to a new study published in PeerJ, even oxygen may fall prey to the above adage. While essential to human life, aspects of oxygen metabolism may promote cancer. Capitalizing on the inverse relationship of oxygen concentration with elevation, researchers found lower rates of lung cancer at higher elevations, a trend that did not extend to non-respiratory cancers, suggesting that carcinogen exposure occurs via inhalation.

14 Jan 2015