Screening for Subclinical Atherosclerosis - Is It Useful?

Atherosclerosis (also known as arteriosclerotic vascular disease or ASVD) is a condition in which an artery wall thickens as the result of a build-up of fatty materials such as cholesterol.

"Screening asymptomatic individuals for subclinical atherosclerosis has the potential to improve cardiovascular disease prevention strategies, but any screening program must yet be proven to prevent actual cardiovascular disease, an editorial viewpoint and commentary suggest."

In the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Prediman Shah (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California) explains that screening is central to the primary prevention of CVD.

In a related commentary, Michael Lauer (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) argues that undertaking such screening has disadvantages, such as over diagnosis, which are often overlooked.

So, what do we conclude?

Also see- Number needed to screen: development of a statistic for disease screening

Related articles

• What Are the Effects of Atherosclerosis? (brighthub.com)
• To predict atherosclerosis, follow the disturbed blood flow (eurekalert.org)

Electronic Medical Records - Hosted Vs SaaS

A very simple explanation of what an EMR is and what are the main 2 options of EMRs available.

1) Internally Hosted EMRs - like most famous EMRs, including VistA and OpenEMR

Here, the software is on a client server and is generally cut-off from the outside world. Some of these EMR packages also allow remote computers to log in into the software, thus adding 'web- enabled' feature.

2) Internet based/ Cloud Based EMRs - like Medscribbler

These EMRs reside in the cyberspace and access is via a website login. These services are typically priced based on number of doctors using it / number of patient entries / Periodic subscription fees.

               

Though the first type is considered more secure, it can be a pain to use. You would need a whole army of technicians to maintain a system like that in-house.The other option, of using a web based EMR provided as a service, would be my choice. It allows for easier to use interfaces (in my opinion), geographically free application (as it can be logged on to from clinic/hospital/home) and less expensive for small and mid sized practices.

Also Read-

List of open source healthcare software

GE Bets on EMR in The Cloud

Related articles

• HP edging toward VistA support? (zdnet.com)
• Electronic Medical Records on Google Wave? (scienceroll.com)
• What the perfect EMR would look like (kevinmd.com)
• Pros and cons of cloud based or web based EMR systems (kevinmd.com)

What Are Electronic Medical records: EMR primer

View more presentations from Neelesh Bhandari

Health Technology to Improve Geriatric Care

Eric Dishman is an Intel Fellow and director of health innovation and policy for Intel’s Digital Health Group.

Dishman is recognized globally for driving healthcare reform through home and community-based technologies and services, with a focus on enabling independent living for seniors.

Related articles

• Geriatric Population Soars While NIH Devotes Modest Resources To Aging Research (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Seniors Owe Robert Butler Many Thanks (money.usnews.com)
• Patients' Bill of Rights (nowpublic.com)

Multi-platform Medical Simulation App Built on Flash Platform

Innovation Mecom developed a simulation for training and marketing of Carina, a medical device. The application is built on top of the Flash Platform using ActionScript3.0 and simulates all the functions of the actual device.

The same application can run in the browser, as a standalone application and on multiple devices. Check out this video for a demonstration of the app running on a variety of devices.

 

Also read-

Immersion Medical Expands Endovascular Medical Simulation Capabilities 

Flash Brings the Web to Life (blogs.adobe.com)

Open Source + iPad in Surgery

Discovering new innovative uses of iPad in Health care everyday!

This one comes via @Berci

A wonderful match of Open source DICOM viewer coupled with use of touch screen functions of an iPad.

DICOM viewer OsiriX ( an open source imaging software ) helps surgeons to understand the patient's anatomy and cancerous lesion by pinching to zoom, rotating, and changing window level of the DICOM volume data on an iPad through latex gloves.

To Know more, Read

Usng the Mac for Better Surgical Navigation

Medical Error Rates Reduce Seven Fold with Electronic Prescribing !

There is a growing consensus that the implementation of health information technology should lead to more efficient, safer, and higher quality of care. The ever increasing burden of record keeping, to comply with the numerous regulations, makes shifting to Electronic prescribing a very attractive option. 

The benefits of shifting to EMRs and CPOEs are enormous.

• Less Paperwork
• Better Evidence based care
• Better Data collection
• and of course LESS ERRORS.

An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a study of 37 million patient records by HealthGrades

"For e-prescribing adopters, error rates decreased nearly sevenfold, from 42.5 per 100 prescriptions at baseline to 6.6 per 100 prescriptions one year after adoption. For non-adopters, error rates remained high at 37 per 100 prescriptions at baseline and 38 per 100 prescriptions at one year.


Illegibility errors were very high at baseline, and not surprisingly, were completely eliminated by e-prescribing (87.6 per 100 prescriptions at baseline for e-prescribing adopters, 0 at one year). Prescribing errors may occur much more frequently in community-based practices than previously reported. This study findings suggest that stand-alone e-prescribing with clinical decision support may significantly improve ambulatory medication safety.

 References:

 Electronic Prescribing Improves Medication Safety in Community-Based Office Practices. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2010.

(via)Electronic Prescribing Decreases Prescribing Errors Seven Fold:

Also read-

Electronic Medical Records Help Reduce Medical Errors

Will HealthCare.gov change HealthCare Practice in the United States ?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled an innovative new on-line tool to help consumers take control of their healthcare. It very neatly co-incidents with the changing political/public view on healthcare. A very handy tool, it paves an easy way to access maximum information about health care regulations as applicable to most people.

Called for by the Affordable Care Act, HealthCare.gov is the first website to provide consumers with both public and private health coverage options tailored specifically for their needs in a single, easy-to-use tool.

HealthCare.gov  is the first central database of health coverage options, combining information about public programs, from Medicare to the new Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan, with information from more than 1,000 private insurance plans.  Consumers can receive information about options specific to their life situation and local community.

Another point of interest - This is the FIRST health care related twitter account i ever found with about 1200 followers within 3 tweets!

Thumbs up !!!

Collaboration in Health care - John Abele

John Abele talks about the importance of collaboration in healthcare!

John Abele is an American businessman and the co-founder and a director of Boston Scientific, a medical device company.

In 2006, he was ranked #258 by Forbes Magazine's list of "The World's Richest People," with an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion. In 2005 he was ranked #132 by Forbes Magazine's list of "The World's Richest People," with an estimated net worth of $4 billion.

Related articles 

• "How Does True Collaboration Foster Better Health Care?" (medgadget.com)
• Boston Scientific co-founder Abele on innovation, healthcare reform (medcitynews.com)
• Boston Scientific begins 'Evidence' clinical trial for Precision Plus spinal device (medcitynews.com)