If you are unfortunate enough to have a brain injury that requires surgery, a pilot study in Operative Neurosurgery suggests that a new implantable sensor device will make it possible for you to avoid the more invasive alternative for monitoring pressure within the skull, and, even better, be monitored from home, a press release revealed. Controlling ICP is a critical factor in the management of patients with hydrocephalus and certain other conditions.
If you live on the East Coast and remember any of the recent storms that left some of us without phone and more important, Internet service, for over eight days, you will be happy to learn that Verizon (News - Alert) is now offering its mobile satellite solutions to back up services and improve disaster recovery when normal communications are disrupted, according to a story at Communications Technology.
While schools were shuttered, kids not able to get online for projects (or games!), the biggest losers were businesses. Michael Cooper of the New York Times reports that Hurricane Irene last October cost businesses over $7 billion, mainly because it was spread over so large an area.
IBM recently announced a new way for doctors to more helpfully advise their patients on the right treatments for them using a biomedical analytics platform which allows doctors to more precisely target the specific needs of each patient, leading to better outcomes and cutting costs at the same time, according to a company press release. This personalized form of medicine will be applied to the management of cancer, hypertension and AIDS patients.
Apricus Biosciences, Inc., also known as the San Diego Hospice, or the “Hospice,” announced today that it has signed a clinical development collaboration agreement with The Institute for Palliative Medicine to study the use of the company’s drug delivery technology in the hospice setting, according to a company press release. Clinicians at the Hospice will review whether common medications applied to the surface of the skin can be delivered to patients better and less painfully with the Company’s NexACT drug delivery technology.
Just as we’ve been assured that electronic health records (EHRs) will make going to the doctor easier, safer and cheaper, now a new study points out that the availability of these digital records may also result in more medical tests for us, and higher costs, for everyone.
That’s right. No one – not us, not the doctors and not the health system itself – may save a dime. According to a story by Brian T. Horowitz, a Cambridge Health Alliance study found that doctors are now ordering more lab tests since they can view the images electronically. Possibly it’s because images are so easy to call up now, anywhere, anytime, but the study found that physicians who could get access electronically to patient histories tended to order additional tests 40-70 percent more of the time than those using paper records.
