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ORLANDO, Florida — “Emergency medicine is a first-impression business,” says Jeffrey Backer, MD, 59, Orlando, Florida. “You walk into a room and a patient has confidence in you or they don’t.” These days, Backer’s first impression “is not all that confidence inspiring” to his patients, he commented to Medscape Medical News. “I do what I can to put them at …

The debate over describing low-risk lesions in a way that avoids the word “cancer” has been rolling on for a while, ever since the National Cancer Institute proposed the idea in 2013. Now, a study suggests that the name given to these low-risk lesions has a substantial impact on the way in which patients view their clinical situation, and the …

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. border agents said they have seized 1 million pounds (453,592 kg) of food products from China this month, rather than 1 million pounds of pork as they had previously announced, as they work to keep out African swine fever. The containers seized also had noodles and tea bags that were used to facilitate the unlawful import …

HONOLULU — An ultrarestrictive opioid prescribing protocol (UROPP) radically reduces the need for opioids following gynecologic oncology surgery without affecting pain scores, medication refill requests or the risk of complications, a retrospective analysis suggests. “We are beginning to learn how patients become addicted to opioids…and we now understand that 80% of the 5% to 6% of patients who become chronic …

The logo of Sanofi is pictured during the Viva Tech start-up and technology summit in Paris, France, May 25, 2018. REUTERS/Charles Platiau (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve a drug developed by Sanofi SA and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc intended for use with insulin in patients with type 1 diabetes, the companies said on Friday. The …

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety alert regarding cybersecurity vulnerabilities in telemetry systems in certain Medtronic lines of CareLink programmers and monitors used with many of its defibrillator implant systems. The vulnerabilities, stemming from a lack of “encryption, authentication, or authorization,” were discovered in the Conexus wireless telemetry protocol that allows communication between the implanted …

Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who are also diagnosed with cancer have significantly higher short-term expenses related to CAD than similar patients without cancer, investigators found. That situation is even more financially problematic for CAD patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer, as their CAD-related expenses increase by more than 150% compared with their counterparts without cancer, reported Ishveen Chopra, PhD, …

One of the challenges in treating patients with hemophilia A is that when they receive the standard treatment for the disease — factor VIII replacement therapy — many develop neutralizing antibodies (inhibitors) that make factor therapy ineffective. “Up to 30% or more of patients with severe hemophilia, when they start getting factor VIII for the first time, will develop antibodies …

Whether a disease is labeled “cancer,” “tumor,” or “nodule” may affect patient decision-making, according to a discrete-choice experiment. Use of the word cancer in a disease label of a low-risk malignant neoplasm was “profoundly” influential on more than 1,000 mostly young, healthy survey respondents, led to “paradoxical decision-making,” and could subsequently lead to overtreatment, reported Peter R. Dixon, MD, of …

(Reuters Health) – That nifty new health app you downloaded to your phone to keep track of your meds might be sharing your information with a host of unrelated companies, some of which have nothing to do with healthcare, a new study finds. When researchers ran two dozen medication apps through their paces using a phony identity, to track what …

(MedPage Today) — Progressive skin fibrosis associated with lung deterioration, all-cause death in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis Source link : http://www.medpagetoday.com/rheumatology/generalrheumatology/78744 Author : Publish date : 2019-03-22 16:30:00 Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

This weekly roundup features arrests, criminal proceedings, and other reports alleging improper or questionable conduct by healthcare professionals. Molestation charges against a Pennsylvania pediatrician were dismissed by the state’s medical board in 2000, but he was eventually convicted of sexually assaulting 31 children, and was sentenced this week to 79 years in prison. His own wife testified against him at …

(MedPage Today) — Is an infant easily calmed? It may be a screening target for early interventions Source link : http://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/obesity/78742 Author : Publish date : 2019-03-22 15:30:00 Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

The progression of relapsing-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) and its associated disability may be slowing, results from a large population-based study suggest. In an evaluation of more than 7000 patients from Sweden, the risk for reaching a sustained score of 6.0 on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) dropped a significant 7% per year for the participants diagnosed with relapsing MS …

(Reuters Health) – Kids with school attendance or truancy problems might be suffering from anxiety, a research review suggests. Chronic physical problems like asthma and diabetes have long been linked to an increased risk of school absences, poor grades and test scores, and lower odds of obtaining a college degree or a high-paying job. The current study offers fresh evidence …

Behavioral economics does not appear to affect participation in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening by fecal immunochemical testing (FIT), researchers reported. The study by Shivan J. Mehta, MD, MBA, of the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania found that while mailing out FIT kits directly to patients increased screening uptake, offering a small – perhaps too small – …

NEW ORLEANS — Technological advancements in the field of endocrinology will take center stage at this year’s annual meeting of The Endocrine Society. ENDO 2019 kicks off here on Saturday and will run through Tuesday, with over 7,500 expected in attendance. The meeting will commence with the presidential plenary lecture given by Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the …

WASHINGTON — A new report from the National Academies of Sciences is calling for expanded use of medications to help patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and to end barriers that limit access to these drugs so as to help curb the US opioid epidemic. The report, entitled “Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Save Lives,” argues for a shift in …

ORLANDO, Florida — Live music by professional musicians can cut the anxiety — and physiologic indicators of anxiety — of patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy treatment, suggests new research. Patients undergoing chemotherapy at the Saint Louis University Cancer Center, Missouri, who listened to live string music (n = 30) played by visiting members of that city’s world-class symphony had significant …

NEW ORLEANS — To much acclaim, the COAPT trial demonstrated that use of the MitraClip (Abbott) in a very sick population with symptomatic (heart failure (HF) and secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) extends life and reduces HF hospitalization at 2 years. A new substudy suggests that quality of life, at least for those 24 months, was convincingly better than receiving standard …