Hospitals can save you, but they can also harm you. So how can you stay safe in hospitals? Follow these 12 life-saving tips:
1. Never go alone. Always bring someone else—a trusted family member or friend—with you. That person will be your primary advocate, and can serve as an extra set of eyes and ears to help make sure you are safe. (This tip applies to routine doctors’ appointments too; always ...
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The FDA issued a warning about the antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax). The media stories have some patients terrified and some of them are calling me convinced that azithromycin is poison, a reliable agent for suicide.
What’s the hubbub about?
Azithromycin is in a family of antibiotics called macrolides, which also includes erythromycin and clarithromycin (Biaxin). Erythromycin and clarithromycin have long been known to very rarely cause fatal abnormal heart rhythms. It ...
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An excerpt from In the Kingdom of the Sick: A Social History of Chronic Illness in America
Hospitals are very focused on avoiding harming patients lately. They have been moving in that direction for a long time, but with health care reform legislation, payments are on the line, which makes something that was a very good idea into an imperative.
In the year 2000, the Institute of Medicine, a non-profit organization that monitors various aspects of medical care, reported that 44,000-98,000 people died each year due to medical ...
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Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. Study: 'Low-T' Linked to RA Risk. Lower testosterone levels predicted an increased risk of a subtype of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in men.
2. Dementia Tab Set to Top $200 Billion. Costs associated with dementia amounted to between $159 billion and $215 billion in the U.S. in 2010, and are expected to increase nearly 80% per adult ...
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Brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. Emotions Run High Over Value of HPV Vax. There was a battle last week among those who commented on the survey question about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination.
2. New Kidney Function Tied to Vitamin D Status. Low vitamin D after a kidney transplant is associated with worse kidney function and increased fibrosis.
3. Vaccine-Autism ...
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A new CDC report is bringing a lot of attention to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals and long-term care centers across the country. Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, strike critically-ill patients in nursing homes and intensive care units where infections can be fatal in up to 50 percent of cases, according to the report.
Without being able to count on ...
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Those of you who have followed our blog for the past few years probably know that one of my favorite topics in infection prevention is the role of clothing in transmission of pathogens. But I'm also fascinated by the sociologic aspects of clothing in medicine, which is usually framed around questions of professionalism (for example, is a doctor in a white coat more "professional" than a doctor ...
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, which was ...
As undoubtedly you’ve heard by now, there’s another person cured of HIV out there — this time, it’s a baby born to an HIV-infected mother.
Here’s the story: The mother didn’t know she was HIV positive until delivery, and the baby was found to be infected by both HIV DNA and RNA right at birth. The doctors started combination antiretroviral therapy approximately one day later, essentially as soon as ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
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