Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/8raLJFL5YtE

Here is some notable healthcare-related business news for this 4th week of June, 2022

The Northside Hospital, headquartered in Sandy Springs metro Atlanta, has been fined $1 million by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for violating hospital price transparency rules.  The feds dictate that every hospital must provide a consumer-friendly price list of 300 medical and surgical procedures.  Northside Hospital failed to fulfill this obligation for two of its sites.  Northside isn’t alone either since a national study showed that 51% of all US hospitals failed to do so.  Shame on the hospitals for hiding the truth and shame on the government for not enforcing the law.

https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/58122?s=newsreg

United Healthcare is offering the artificial intelligence-driven Kaia Health app to offer virtual physical therapy to its subscribers with musculoskeletal problems.  The app provides coaching with individualized feedback based on its analysis of the users motion in real-time using the a smartphone camera’s monitoring.  The app also provides user access to human coaches for additional counseling and therapeutic help.

https://healthcareweekly.com/unitedhealthcare-and-kaia-health-partnered-for-a-new-virtual-physical-therapy-program/

Epic, the giant electronic medical records enterprise, will be signing on with the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement that will permit its 2,000 hospitals and 45,000 clinics greater information exchange and interoperability with clinical entities on other EMRs.  The Epic network will become part of the Sequoia Project to more toward better interchange of health data.  That means, if you are admitted emergently to a hospital in another state, your medical records will be available.  That could be lifesaving.

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/epic-will-sign-tefca

And finally……To make its patient’s episodes of care as frictionless as possible, Missouri’s Columbia Orthopedic Group has hired Force Therapeutics to implement its digital care management platform in 22 of their 27 ambulatory surgery centers.  This wrap around electronic system uses a patient’s clinical data to implement and monitor their journey through the system including pre-op patient education, pain control during and after the procedure, and appropriate rehabilitative measures following surgery.  The system also provides fail-safe communications between patients and their provider teams.

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ambulatory-surgery-centers-virtual-care-platform-helps-boost-productivity-and-patient

There you have the latest healthcare-related business news for this 4th week of June, 2022

#hospital #prices

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/a1x_V_O4q5Q

Here are the quickie reports about cutting edge medical and healthcare discoveries this 4th week of June, 2022.

New technology may not only show the brain blood vessel pathology that caused a stroke but also exactly when the stroke occurred.  Canadian and Australian researchers have been able to employ mid-infrared spectromicroscopy to date and time stamp brain tissue oxidative damage.  This vital information guides clinicians in their application of therapeutic clot-busting and other measures to help minimize brain damage and improve recovery speed and completeness following the stroke.

https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/58133

Besides triggering guilt-free kissing during the holidays, mistletoe may be the source of an advanced superglue that capably fuses tissues.  German biomaterial engineers have taken the mistletoe berry’s gummy substance called viscin containing tiny flexible fibers and processed it into thin sheets with powerful adhesive properties.  This material may one day be capable of closing wounds and covering skin gaps.

https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/1/pgac026/6549457

Future drug capsules may be capable of being electrically-controlled to release medication at optimal times for therapeutic effectiveness and individual patient preference.  The capsules are constructed of an electrically-controlled polymer that can trap or release biomolecules at the touch of a button.  The Swedish biochemical engineers perfecting this polymer also foresee its usefulness as a means of separating proteins and other biologic substances with results better than chromatography.  Pardon me while I flip on my aspirin.

https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/1/pgac026/6549457

And finally…. Speaking of pills, collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine and Stanford University have discovered a molecule produced during exercise that can stunt appetite and drive weight loss.  That molecule, a modified amino acid Lac-Phe, is the combination of lactate and phenylalanine.  When administered to obese, overeater mice, their food intake dropped by over 50%.  Someday soon we could be seeing Lac-Phe pills though you’re better off making your own with vigorous exercise.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04828-5

There you have the latest health reveals for the 4th week of June, 2022.  When additional information about these developments becomes available, I’ll pass it on to you.

#stroke #imaging #glue #viscin #mistletoe #capsules #chromatography #obesity #exercise #lacphe

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/IpROuUBJxfY

Those drinking coffee prior to shopping in stores spend 50% more money and purchases 30% more items than non-coffee drinkers.  Academic marketing investigators at the University of South Florida studied 300 subjects shopping in stores in France and in Spain.

One-half of the shoppers were provided a free cup of coffee containing 100 mg of caffeine.  The others were offered either decaf coffee or water.  Those drinking caffeine not only bought more items in total but the extra items were non-essential or impulse items.  Un-caffeinated shoppers bought the same numbers of essential items as those drinking caffeine.

In a side experiment looking at online shopping, the researchers followed 200 business school students who, by habit, drank caffeinated beverages or didn’t.  Analysis of their purchases revealed that the caffeinated shoppers bought more impulse than essential items.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00222429221109247

#shopping #caffeine #impulse

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/ajjDXzpkfVs

At least one-quarter of asthmatics are mismanaging their disease overusing short-acting bronchodilators.  So say British pulmonologists following their case reviews of some 30,694 London residents from 5 to 80 years of age with diagnosed active asthma.

The data reveals that 26% of these patients were consistently prescribed more than six short-acting beta-agonist inhalers per year.  Furthermore, 25% of those patients using this inappropriate abundance of bronchodilators were underusing the recommended continuing therapy for asthma which is inhaled corticosteroids.  More inappropriate overprescribing was occurring for those patients with more severe asthma.

Apparently, these patterns of inappropriate asthma management are replicated in other countries, notably in Sweden and Germany.  The same may well be true for the United States.  To be clear, the recommended ongoing preventive therapy for asthma is the prescription of inhaled steroids with or without bronchodilators.  The prescription of bronchodilators alone is not appropriate for most patients.

https://bjgp.org/content/bjgp/early/2022/05/31/BJGP.2021.0725.full.pdf

#asthma #inhaledsteroids #bronchodilators #shortactingbetaagonists

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/F6RDA4QDc6U

Two-thirds of those who develop ongoing neurological symptoms after even a mild to moderate CoVid infection continue to suffer from them 6 months following that infection.  This the worrisome conclusion of an ongoing UC-San Diego study of 40 CoVid long haulers with a mean age of 50 and two-thirds women.  All were recruited between October 2020 and October 2021 and nearly all were unvaccinated.  None of these study participants had any previous history of of neurological issues.

At study entry 90% had fatigue, 83% had headaches, 70% couldn’t sleep, two-thirds had memory problems, and 60% couldn’t concentrate.  A full 80% complained that their symptoms interfered with their lives.

Nineteen participants have already had their 6 month followup evaluations.  A full 85% still had symptoms that reduced their quality of life and one-third of them had no severity improvement at all.  Specifically, 44% had persisting fatigue, 36% had headaches, 40% couldn’t sleep, 55% had continuing memory problems, and 50% still couldn’t concentrate.  Most noted some severity improvement but nearly 30% had none.

This study is ongoing, but even now the results are troubling.  The bottom line: get vaccinated and appropriately boosted and do EVERYTHING you can to avoid contracting CoVid.  Right now that includes: constant masking with n95 masks indoors in public places, masking outdoors in crowds even if the wind is blowing, and avoiding indoor restaurant dining.  Oh yes, use that hand sanitizer.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acn3.51578

#CoVid #longcovid #brainfog #headache #memory #fatigue 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/oX2wWh2bKL0

Drinking 11 ounces of beer a day for a month significantly improves the diversity of gastrointestinal bacteria in men.  Portuguese researchers report this finding following their pilot study of 19 healthy men.

Half the group drank beer with 5.2.% alcohol and the other half consumed non-alcoholic beer.  Both groups enjoyed a beneficial increase in gut bacterial diversity as well as better intestinal barrier function.  And both groups of men failed to increase their body weights, fat masses, or adverse cardiometabolic indicators.

Beer, alcoholic or not, contains polyphenols as well as microorganisms as by products of the fermentation process.  Polyphenols, also found in plant foods including fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, tea, dark chocolate, and wine, are antioxidants that block cell damaging and mutating effects of free radicals. So ingesting polyphenols is beneficial.  Do so by consuming the foods that contain them.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.2c00587

#beer #alcohol #polyphenols

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/VP_iTWH8NDc

Zapping intermediate risk prostate cancer with high intensity ultrasound using real-time MRI imaging for aiming offers a way to get rid of smaller tumors without the risks of either radiation or surgery.  Urologists at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center now report the result of their phase 2 clinical trial using this technique for 101 men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

The outpatient procedure lasts about 2 hours.  The men, in half-body MRI devices for imaging and mapping the prostatic tumors, were anesthetized and received focused ultrasound beams from several directions sufficient to cook the tumor and a rim of surrounding normal tissue at 140 to 160˚ F.  When the tumor zones were biopsied at 24 months following therapy, 88% of the patients had no evidence of cancer remaining.  The best news: ultrasonic therapy produced none of the urinary incontinence or bowel problems that often follow surgery or radiation therapy.

More studies were underway, but focused ultrasound appears to be an excellent option for men with select prostate cancers.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(22)00251-0/fulltext#section-3d6acba1-acea-4be2-8dc9-b7e14e5b6583

#ultrasound #prostatecancer #MRI #surgery #radiationtherapy

Vidcast:  Less Long CoVid With Omicron

Your chances of developing Long Covid after an Omicron infection is anywhere from 20% to 50% less than following a Delta infection.  Investigators at King’s College, London studied more than 56,000 UK adults who tested CoVid positive during 11 weeks from late December 2020 to early March 2021 when 70% of UK cases were due to the original Omicron subvariants.

For Delta, 10.8% of those infected developed at least one Long CoVid symptoms compared with only 4.5% of those falling victim to Omicron.  The differential risk of Long CoVid after Omicron vs. Delta was least for those who were vaccinated 3 to greater than 6 months before infection and that risk was 24 to 26%.  Those vaccinated less than 3 months before infection did better and were 50% less likely to get Long CoVid after Omicron than after Delta. 

The catch-22 here is that this study offers no information about the risks of Long CoVid from our latest batch of Omicron sub-variants including BA.2, BA.2.12.1, or the very latest BA.4 and BA.5.  Stay tuned as the story continues to unravel.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00941-2/fulltext#%20

#CoVid #longcovid #omicron #delta

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/nlQBgAtYRIU

The FDA and Urban Remedy have recalled Urban Remedy Organic Revitalizing Tea Tonic Strawberry Hibiscus Rose.  The strawberries in used to make this product are possibly contaminated with the Hepatitis A virus.  This virus is a contagious virus that causes a liver infection that may range from mild and short-lived to severe and lengthy.with possible progression to liver failure.  The product was sold in: CA, NM, VA, CO, WA state, OR, CO, NY, PA, AZ, IL, OH, MD, WI, TX, WY, MO, ME, KY, MI, NC, MA, NE, and UT.  If you purchased this product, do not consume it but return it to the place of purchase.,  If you consumed it or have been exposed to someone who did, consult your healthcare team for possible vaccination, testing, and treatment.  For more information, contact Urban Remedy at 1-855-875-8423 or via the email [email protected].

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/urban-remedy-recalls-urban-remedy-organic-revitalizing-tea-tonic-strawberry-hibiscus-rose-due

#urbanremedy #teatonic #strawberry #hepatitisA #infection #recall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/TOIw5zt86Nk

The FDA and Taharka Bros are recalling Taharka Brothers Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream.  This product was make with the Smucker Company’s JIF salmonella-contaminated peanut butter.  It was sold in Maryland and the Washington DC regions by Streets Market, Green Valley Marketplace, Eddies of Roland Park, Good Food Markets Santoni’s, Graul’s Market, and Geresbecks.  Don’t consume this ice cream but return it to the place of purchase or to a Taharka Brothers store.  For more information or a direct refund, call Taharka Brothers Ice Cream at 1-410-698-2738 or reach them via the email [email protected].

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/taharka-brothers-ice-cream-recalls-peanut-butter-cup-ice-cream-because-possible-health-risk

#taharka #icecream #peanutbutter #jif #salmonella #recall