Marianjoy Medical Library launches new website on developmental problems, chronic conditions
April 23, 2017
The New York Times: As Physicians' Jobs Change, So Do Their PoliticsThere are no national surveys that track doctors' political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine as well as South Dakota, Arizona and Oregon, according to doctors' advocates in those and other states. That change could have a profound effect on the nation's health care debate. Indeed, after opposing almost every major health overhaul proposal for nearly a century, the American Medical Association supported President Obama's legislation last year because the new law would provide health insurance to the vast majority of the nation's uninsured, improve competition and choice in insurance, and promote prevention and wellness, the group said (Harris, 5/30).
The New York Times: Tuning In To Patients' Cries For HelpWhether it's a request for ice water, help getting to the bathroom or a plea for pain relief, an unanswered call light leaves hospital patients feeling helpless and frustrated. And for nurses, often the first responders to these calls, the situation is frustrating too: Short staffing and a heavy workload often make it impossible to respond as quickly as they would like. Now some hospitals around the country are starting programs to deal with the problem (Parker-Pope, 5/30).
The Washington Post: Tough Decisions About Money And Treatment Are Ahead As AIDS Turns 30The AIDS epidemic turns 30 next month. What began as a fatal new plague has become a treatable, if still incurable, chronic illness. That change counts as a triumph by any measure, but it also poses an unusually difficult question for the next 30 years: How many people do we want to save from a death by AIDS ??” and who's going to pay for it? (Brown, 5/30).
The New York Times: 30 Years In, We Are Still Learning From AIDSAs AIDS has become entrenched in the United States and elsewhere, a new generation has grown up with little if any knowledge of those dark early days. But they are worth recalling, as a cautionary tale about the effects of the bafflement and fear that can surround an unknown disease and as a reminder of the sweeping changes in medical practice that the epidemic has brought about (Altman, 5/30).
The Washington Post: NIH Human Clinical Trials Look For Causes And Cures For DiseaseNIH is conducting nearly 1,500 trials at its Clinical Center and is budgeted to spend about $10 billion on clinical research this year, with about $3 billion of that specifically for trials. The center is the largest hospital in the world dedicated to these human studies. Their topics range from obesity to rare blood diseases to cerebral palsy, and they represent only a small fraction of the trials conducted in the United States. Still, they are unique because many of the diseases being studied are too rare, or the treatment is too much of a gamble, for pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms or universities to pursue (Hambleton, 5/30).
Los Angeles Times: Woman Selling 'Suicide Kits' Reignites Right-To-Die DebateSharlotte Hydorn peddles a product touted for its deadly simplicity. Inside her butterfly-decorated boxes are clear plastic bags and medical-grade tubing. A customer places the bag over his head, connects the tubing from the bag to a helium tank, turns the valve and breathes. The so-called suicide kit asphyxiates a customer within minutes (Marosi, 5/30).
Los Angeles Times: California Authorities Deny State's First Medical Parole CaseA quadriplegic inmate serving a 150-year term for kidnapping, beating and raping a San Diego woman in 1998 will not be released to the care of family members under a new law, parole board rules (Perry, 5/30).
USA Today: Business Travel Takes Toll On Workers' HealthNow, a recently published study backs up business trekkers like (business traveler Judith) Briles who've long suspected life on the road was negatively affecting their health. The study, which analyzed data gathered from roughly 13,000 workers, found that those who traveled more than 20 nights a month were 2.61 times more likely to report they were in poor or fair health than those on the road one to six days a month. And they were 1.92 times as likely to be obese, a condition that can lead to diabetes and heart disease (Jones, 5/30).
NPR: Egg Freezing Puts The Biological Clock On HoldAs more women postpone motherhood into their 30s, even 40s, they're hitting that age-old constraint: the biological clock. Now, technology is dangling the possibility that women can stop that clock, at least for a while (Ludden, 5/31).
Kaiser Health News has a roundup of several stories from the weekend about the quality of care at VA hospitals.
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.