medical

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

Buying drugs on the street is a game of Russian roulette. From Xanax to cocaine, drugs or counterfeit pills purchased in nonmedical settings may contain life-threatening amounts of fentanyl. Physicians like me have seen a rise in unintentional fentanyl use from people buying prescription opioids and other drugs laced, or adulterated, with fentanyl. Heroin users in my community in Massachusetts came to realize that fentanyl had entered the drug supply when overdose numbers exploded. In 2016, my colleagues and I found that patients who came to the emergency department reporting a heroin overdose often only had fentanyl present in their drug test results. As the Chief of Medical Toxicology at UMass Chan Medical School, I have studied fentanyl and its analogs for years. As fentanyl has becom...

In Medical Laboratories Across The US The Omicron Variant Is Deepening Severe Staffing Shortages

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

In Medical Laboratories Across The US The Omicron Variant Is Deepening Severe Staffing Shortages

Medical laboratory professionals form the backbone of health care and the public health system. They conduct some 13 billion laboratory medicine tests annually in the U.S. As of January 2022, these individuals had also performed more than 860 million COVID-19 tests and counting during the pandemic. Why should anyone care? Laboratory testing is the single highest-volume medical activity affecting Americans, and it drives about two-thirds of all medical decisions made by doctors and other health care professionals. Simply put, every time you enter a hospital or health care facility for care, your life is in the hands of a medical laboratory professional. Like other health care and health professionals, these lab workers are experiencing dangerously low staffing numbers as a result of the p...

What US medical supply chain can learn from the fashion industry

25May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

FASHION

What US medical supply chain can learn from the fashion industry

The shortage of crucial medical supplies, especially personal protective equipment, has crippled the United States’ ability to quell the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 54,000 nursing home residents and workers have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. as of June 26. This is a staggering number when compared to nursing homes in Hong Kong, which have reported zero deaths despite cramped quarters. Other countries with ample PPE, such as South Korea and New Zealand, have reported few deaths in nursing homes. The shortage of PPE in the United States has gone on for months and is expected to exacerbate in a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, due to structural issues in the U.S. medical supply chain. As an operations management scholar whose research has touched upon health care supply chains, I have be...

Medical Marvels Or Ethical Missteps? – Lab–Grown Embryos And Human–Monkey Hybrids

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE, VIDEO REELS

Medical Marvels Or Ethical Missteps? – Lab–Grown Embryos And Human–Monkey Hybrids

In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World,” people aren’t born from a mother’s womb. Instead, embryos are grown in artificial wombs until they are brought into the world, a process called ectogenesis. In the novel, technicians in charge of the hatcheries manipulate the nutrients they give the fetuses to make the newborns fit the desires of society. Two recent scientific developments suggest that Huxley’s imagined world of functionally manufactured people is no longer far-fetched. Researchers have grown mammal embryos later into development than ever before in an artificial womb. Vitalii Kyryk/WikimediaCommons, CC BY-SA On March 17, 2021, an Israeli team announced that it had grown mouse embryos for 11 days – about half of the gestation period – in artificial wombs that were essential...

A Long History Of Medical Abuse Suggests Why Many Black Americans Aren’t Rushing To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

24Feb

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

A Long History Of Medical Abuse Suggests Why Many Black Americans Aren’t Rushing To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

Black Americans have been the least inclined of any racial or ethnic group to say they’d get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The proportion of Black people who said they’ll probably or definitely take the shot has risen over time – but even by mid-January, with two COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S., only 35% of Black survey respondents said they’d get it as soon as they could, or already had gotten the shot. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately harmed Black, Indigenous and other people of color in comparison to white members of American society. With Black Americans being hospitalized at rates 2.9 times higher than white Americans and dying from COVID-19 at rates 1.9 times higher, you might assume that Black people would be lining u...

More Than Half Of People Using Medical Cannabis For Pain Experience Weed Withdrawal Symptoms

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

More Than Half Of People Using Medical Cannabis For Pain Experience Weed Withdrawal Symptoms

In stark contrast to the overblown fears portrayed during decades past, these days, most people think cannabis is relatively harmless. While weed is indeed less dangerous than some other drugs, it is not without risks. CC BY-ND In a study published Jan. 5, my colleagues and I found that 59% percent of people using medical cannabis for chronic pain experienced moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms if they stopped ingesting weed for hours or days. Most states in the U.S. have legalized cannabis for medical purposes and 15 have legalized it for recreational use. More people are using cannabis, especially older adults, and the perceived harms from weed use are steadily decreasing. While many people report therapeutic benefits or enjoy recreational use of cannabis, it is important peo...

For Families Who Need More Than Medical Care – A Hospital That Prescribes Free Nutritious Food

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

For Families Who Need More Than Medical Care – A Hospital That Prescribes Free Nutritious Food

Being food-insecure – unable to get enough nutritious food to meet your needs – can take a toll on your health. So Dayton Children’s Hospital has begun to screen its patients and their families for this problem and refer them to what it’s calling the “Food Pharm.” This program, which launched about two years ago, currently aims to provide about 55 families per month with enough healthy food, such as whole grain pasta, beans and green beans, to feed a family of four for three days while also connecting them with other resources to help them get through the rest of the week. It’s also taking care to ensure that this one-time donation of nutritious food is culturally appropriate, meaning that people know how to prepare and consume the food they receive and it fits with their culture and bel...

How the Civil War drove medical innovation – and the pandemic could, too

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

How the Civil War drove medical innovation – and the pandemic could, too

The current COVID-19 pandemic, the largest public health crisis in a century, threatens the health of people across the globe. The U.S. has had the most diagnosed cases – surpassing 6 million – and more than 180,000 deaths. But six months into the pandemic, the U.S. still faces shortages of personal protective equipment for both front-line medical workers and the general public. There is also great need for widely available inexpensive, rapid tests; the infrastructure to administer them; and most importantly, safe, effective vaccines. Moving forward, medical innovation can play a substantial role in controlling and preventing infection – and treating those who have contracted the virus. But what’s the best way to catalyze and accelerate public health developments? Research and history sh...

The ethical case for allowing medical trials that deliberately infect humans with COVID-19

17Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

The ethical case for allowing medical trials that deliberately infect humans with COVID-19

Despite the urgent need to beat COVID-19, health officials may be delaying the development of an effective vaccine. Authorities in the U.S. and elsewhere are yet to authorize an ethically charged research procedure called “human challenge trials.” Challenge trials entail deliberately infecting volunteers with the disease – which explains the official reticence – but they could substantially expedite the development of a vaccine. The debate over human challenge trials has been raging for months among health professionals and academics. But only now – some eight months into the pandemic – are authorities in the U.S. beginning to consider them in a bid to speed up the vaccine-development process. Sitting and waiting A vaccine has to go through multiple stages before it can be rolled out. Af...

High School Health Workers A Medical School And Georgia Students

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

High School Health Workers A Medical School And Georgia Students

As part of his training to become a certified community health worker, 10th-grader Malachi Ward needed to monitor family or community members—checking their vital signs and setting health goals. When Ward first asked his mother, Fayron Epps, if he could monitor her, she expressed ambivalence. Epps considered herself to be in good health. Although she didn’t have a primary care physician, she always attended her annual women’s health checkup and, despite the occasional headache, felt fine. She agreed to be a study participant because Ward needed five people to monitor. “I was like ‘OK, you can monitor me, but you’re not going to find anything’,” she recalls. Except Ward did find something. “I was really taken aback,” Epps admitted. Her blood pressure was dangerously high. Over the course...