http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. New research out of the George Washington University Cancer Institute (GWCI) focuses on the difficulties of transitioning to adulthood while dealing with the long-term and late effects of cancer and its treatment. The study was recently published in the Journal of Oncology Navigation and Survivorship, titled "Improving Cancer Survivorship for Adolescents and Adults." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-gw-cancer-publishes-adolescent-survivors.html Cancer Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:37:40 EST news286205809 (HealthDay)—Physicians, wake up! You no longer need to be one of the walking dead. You have the power to create positive change and return to the reason you chose this career in the first place, according to an internist presenting at TEDMED 2013, held from April 16 to 19 in Washington, D.C. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-tedmed-zombie-doctor-apocalypse.html Health Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:10:01 EST news285871340 Physician experts in health system issues propose a timely alternative process for harnessing and supporting physician-led innovations to rapidly address front-line health care delivery problems and improve health. Published as a Viewpoint article in the March 20th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the authors propose health systems adopt a strategy widely accepted in U.S. industries of "user-led" innovation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-health-effective-physicians-clinician-led.html Health Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:00:10 EST news282927173 (HealthDay)—Annual adult admissions for congenital heart disease are increasing and approaching that of pediatric admissions, according to a study published online March 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide with presentation at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 9 to 11 in San Francisco. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-acc-adult-admissions-congenital-heart.html Cardiology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:50:01 EST news281892026 (HealthDay)—The outcome of the Oregon experiment, an ambitious program centered on a model of an accountable care organization (ACO), will offer important lessons for the wider implementation of ACOs as cost-saving mechanisms, according to a perspective piece published online Feb. 13 in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-oregon-insight-aco-based-reform.html Health Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:52:46 EST news280065157 (HealthDay)—New approaches are being explored for streamlining physician multi-state licensure to accommodate the use of telemedicine in the delivery of health care, according to a report from a meeting held from Jan. 16 to 17 by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-fsmb-approaches-explored-multi-state.html Health Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:10:01 EST news279204266 (HealthDay)—The prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension is lower than previously reported in school-based cohorts, according to a large community-based study published online Jan. 28 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-community-based-ids-prevalence-htn-children.html Pediatrics Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:00:01 EST news278599643 Many people who suffer from chronic kidney disease progressively lose their kidney function over time and eventually develop a condition called end-stage renal disease – the complete failure of the kidneys – placing them in need of lifelong dialysis or a kidney transplant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-irregular-heart-elevates-kidney-failure.html Cardiology Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:46:57 EST news277656410 A new Mayo Clinic Proceedings study shows that people most often visit their health care providers because of skin issues, joint disorders and back pain. Findings may help researchers focus efforts to determine better ways to prevent and treat these conditions in large groups of people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-skin-problems-joint-disorders-people.html Health Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:39:05 EST news277573133 After gastric bypass surgery, diabetes goes away for some people—often even before they lose much weight. So does that mean gastric surgery "cures" diabetes? Not necessarily, according to the largest community-based study of long-term diabetes outcomes after bariatric surgery. For most people in the study, e-published in advance of print in Obesity Surgery, diabetes either never remitted after gastric surgery or relapsed within five years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-gastric-bypass-surgery-diabetes-doesnt.html Overweight and Obesity Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:21:38 EST news273165685 Patients with online access to their medical records and secure e-mail communication with clinicians had increased use of clinical services, including office visits and telephone encounters, compared to patients who did not have online access, according to a study appearing in the November 21 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-patients-online-access-clinicians-medical.html Health Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:00:02 EST news272647525 Patients' preferences are often misinterpreted or ignored in treatment decisions, leading to a "silent misdiagnosis" that is damaging to both doctors and patients, warn experts on BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-patient-treatment-decisions-experts.html Health Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:30:04 EST news271613806 (HealthDay)—Language barriers may help explain why Hispanic women in the United States are less likely than white women to receive an epidural for pain relief during childbirth, a new study finds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-language-barrier-blocks-epidural-childbirth.html Obstetrics & gynaecology Sun, 14 Oct 2012 07:30:01 EST news269414446 (HealthDay)—Even within an integrated Veterans Affairs (VA) system with a uniform national formulary and established criteria for drug use, there is substantial variation in the use of thiazolidinediones and long-acting insulin analogues among veterans with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), according to a research letter published online Oct. 8 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-costly-diabetes-medications-varies-widely.html Diabetes Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:00:04 EST news269256871 In an analysis that included nearly 100,000 Medicare patients who had experienced a heart attack, the use of a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) was lower for patients treated in states with public reporting of PCI outcomes compared with patients treated in states without public reporting, with these differences being particularly large in the highest-risk patients, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA. However, the researchers found that there was no difference in overall heart attack survival rates between states with and without public reporting. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-procedures-angioplasty-states-outcomes.html Cardiology Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:25:07 EST news269018695 A new study by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, provides compelling evidence that electronic health records (EHRs) enhance the quality of patient care in a community-based setting with multiple payers, which is representative of how medicine is generally practiced across the United States. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-electronic-health-shown-quality-patient.html Health Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:21:48 EST news269000501 Many health care systems across the US have declined to participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) program, developed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), to improve efficiency and quality of health care delivery. In a groundbreaking collection of commentaries in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, representatives of six leading health care organizations write about the challenges of reducing health care costs while improving health care quality. They further explain why they did or did not choose to participate in one of the two models now operational at CMS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-hcos-opportunities-quest-quality.html Health Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:02 EST news263057500 Preventive mammography rates in women in their 40s have dropped nearly 6 percent nationwide since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against routine mammograms for women in this age group, a Mayo Clinic analysis shows. That represents a small but significant decrease since the controversial guidelines were released, the researchers say. Their findings are being presented at the Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, June 24-26, in Orlando, Fla. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-mammograms-decline-task.html Cancer Tue, 26 Jun 2012 15:40:59 EST news259944049 Productivity gains that can be achieved by widely adopting health information technology are likely to come from the reengineering of health care and may require new measurement tools to accurately gauge their impact, according to a new analysis from RAND Corporation researchers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-productivity-gains-health-await-bigger.html Health Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:00:05 EST news258812996 Providing patient care using key features of a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), a model of health care delivery promoted by major physician groups, may not influence what patients think about the care they receive, reports a new study in Health Services Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-patient-centered-medical-home-features.html Health Fri, 08 Jun 2012 07:40:01 EST news258358086 It's well known that a relatively small percentage of chronically ill patients accounts for a disproportionate amount of health care dollars. Now, a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins researcher Bruce Leff, M.D., might provide insights into how to cut Medicare costs while improving health care for older adults suffering from chronic health conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-high-medicare-beneficiaries.html Health Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:01:34 EST news258036710 New research published Online First in The Lancet shows that having several medical conditions is not just a feature of old age. Most patients with two or more conditions are actually under 65. Health systems in the UK and other developed countries were not devised to deal with this scenario and must be radically changed to cope. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-uk-health-cope-people-multiple.html Health Thu, 10 May 2012 11:08:51 EST news255783098 Training physicians in mindfulness meditation and communication skills can improve the quality of primary care for both practitioners and their patients, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers report in a study published online this week in the journal Academic Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-physician-mindfulness-skills-patient.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:07:15 EST news254657223 75% of mental illnesses emerge by age 25. Mood and anxiety disorders are among the most common conditions, yet there is little support for youth in this age group. A new study from Lawson Health Research Institute shows that may no longer be the case. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-youth-mood-anxiety-disorders.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:47:35 EST news253363601 A study by Regenstrief Institute and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs investigators provides the first in-depth look at how health care providers react to medication alerts generated by electronic medical record systems. The researchers plan to use this information to improve the design of medication alerts and diminish the phenomenon known as alert fatigue, where providers can become desensitized and may start unintentionally ignoring some important warnings. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-medication-electronic-medical-usable.html Health Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:25:34 EST news252239128 Residency training requirements in competencies related to radiology business practice and health care policy have been in place for more than a decade. However, a recent study, published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, suggests curricula addressing these items still seem to be in a stage of acceptance and development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-business-health-policy-curricula-residents.html Other Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:10:01 EST news249799357 The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) today announced major changes in how the nation's medical residency programs will be accredited in the years ahead, putting in place an outcomes-based evaluation system where the doctors of tomorrow will be measured for their competency in performing the essential tasks necessary for clinical practice in the 21st century. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-acgme-medical.html Other Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:25:25 EST news249153843 In an effort to reduce the inappropriate use of medical imaging and improve quality of care, a large, tertiary-care hospital has successfully implemented a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system with clinical decision support for radiology, according to a study in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Significant increases in meaningful use (for electronically created studies, from 0.4 percent to 61.9 percent; for electronically signed studies, from 0.4 percent to 92.2 percent) and the adoption of CPOE (from 0.5 percent to 94.6 percent) were observed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-large-hospital-successfully-cpoe-clinical.html Other Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:19:37 EST news247288748 A new online guide is available from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help hospitals and other health care organizations anticipate, avoid and address problems that can occur when adopting and using electronic health records. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-online-health-electronic.html Health Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:10:36 EST news243090629 The health care system in the United States faces numerous challenges: how to bring innovation from the laboratory to the bedside, how to ensure more equitable use of medical services and, in a time of increasing financial strain, how to pay for that care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-journal-supplement-strategies-health-delivery.html Other Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:08:56 EST news242568519