MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'elaine'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:16:29 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592394&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fa-new-treatment-for-lupus%2F2011.03.15 Lupus, an autoimmune disease, [recently] turned up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). It cropped up, also, on the first page of the New York Times business section, and elsewhere. Scientific American published a nice online review just now. The reason is that the FDA has approved a new monoclonal antibody for treatment of this condition. The drug belimumab (Benlysta), targets a molecule called BlyS (B-lymphocyte Stimulator). The newspapers uniformly emphasize that this drug marks some sort of triumph for Human Genome Sciences, a biotech company that first reported on BlyS in the journal Science way back in 1999. BlyS triggers B cells to produce antibodies that in patients with lupus tend to bind and destroy their own cells’ needed machinery, causing various joint, lung... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592394 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:00:36 +0100 4592394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570545&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fa-helpful-vitamin-chart%2F2011.03.10 Lately I’ve been worrying about Kevin’s refusal to eat broccoli, and wondering what exactly is so good about those green bunches of roughage. In browsing the Web for more detailed information on the matter, I found a helpful vitamin chart. This table comes from the HHS–sponsored National Women’s Health Information Center — a good spot to know of if you’re a woman looking online for reliable sources. It’s a bit simple for my taste. In the intro, we’re told there are 13 essential vitamins our bodies need. After some basics on Vitamin A — good for the eyes and skin, as you probably knew already — the chart picks up with a quick review of the essential B vitamins 1, 2 ,3 ,5 ,6 , 9 and 12 (my favorite), followed by a rundown on Vitamins C, D, E, H (that would be biotin) and ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570545 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:00:54 +0100 4570545 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560276&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmedical-ethics-and-the-r-word%2F2011.03.07 [Recently] a short article in the New York Times, New Kidney Transplant Policy Would Favor Younger Patients, [drew] my attention to a very basic problem in medical ethics: Rationing. According to the Washington Post coverage, the proposal comes from the United Network for Organ Sharing, a Richmond-based private non-profit group the federal government contracts for allocation of donated organs. From the Times piece: Under the proposal, patients and kidneys would each be graded, and the healthiest and youngest 20 percent of patients and kidneys would be segregated into a separate pool so that the best kidneys would be given to patients with the longest life expectancies. This all follows [the recent] front-page business story on the monetary value of life. I have to admit, I’m glad to s... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560276 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 19:00:35 +0100 4560276 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4532213&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhow-experienced-is-the-radiologist-who-reads-your-mammogram%2F2011.02.28 There’s a new study out on mammography with important implications for breast cancer screening. The main result is that when radiologists review more mammograms per year, the rate of false positives declines. The stated purpose of the research*, published in the journal Radiology, was to see how radiologists’ interpretive volume — essentially the number of mammograms read per year — affects their performance in breast cancer screening. The investigators collected data from six registries participating in the NCI’s Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, involving 120 radiologists who interpreted 783,965 screening mammograms from 2002 to 2006. So it was a big study, at least in terms of the number of images and outcomes assessed. First — and before reaching any concl... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4532213 Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:00:57 +0100 4532213 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4507283&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fon-health-and-discrimination-in-hiring%2F2011.02.22 From a [recent] article in the New York Times on hiring discrimination against people who smoke: “There is nothing unique about smoking,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the Workrights Institute, who has lobbied vigorously against the practice. “The number of things that we all do privately that have negative impact on our health is endless. If it’s not smoking, it’s beer. If it’s not beer, it’s cheeseburgers. And what about your sex life?” I think he’s right, more or less, in a slippery-slope sort of way, seriously. *This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons* (Source: Better Health) Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4507283 Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:00:45 +0100 4507283 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4459958&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmind-over-matter-in-medicine%2F2011.02.10 [Recently] I came upon a Jan 24 op-ed, “A Fighting Spirit Won’t Change Your Life” by Richard Sloan, Ph.D., of Columbia University’s psychiatry department. Somehow I’d missed this worthwhile piece on the sometimes-trendy notion of mind-over-matter in healing and medicine. Sloan opens with aftermath of the Tucson shootings: …Representative Giffords’s husband describes her as a “fighter,” and no doubt she is one. Whether her recovery has anything to do with a fighting spirit, however, is another matter entirely. He jumps quickly through a history of the mind cure movement in America: From Phineas Quimby’s concept of illness as a product of mistaken beliefs — to William James and “New Thought” ideas — to Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 “... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4459958 Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:00:02 +0100 4459958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4411528&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Ffda-reports-on-association-of-breast-implants-and-a%25c2%25a0rare-form-of-cancer%2F2011.01.28 The FDA [has] issued an alert about a pos­sible link between breast implants — saline or sil­icone — and a rare form of lym­phoma called anaplastic large cell lym­phoma (ALCL). These lym­phoma cases are exceed­ingly rare, but the asso­ci­ation appears to be significant. The FDA iden­tified a total of approx­i­mately 60 ALCL cases in asso­ci­ation with implants, worldwide. Of these, 34 were iden­tified by review of pub­lished medical lit­er­ature from 1997 to May, 2010; the others were reported by implant man­u­fac­turers and other sources. The agency esti­mates the number of women worldwide with breast implants is between five and 10 million. These numbers translate to between six and 12 ALCL cases in the breast, per million women with breast implan... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4411528 Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:00:26 +0100 4411528 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4399524&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fa-second-opinion-is-good-but-a-third-or-fourth%2F2011.01.26 A few years ago I started writing a book on what it was like to be a cancer patient and an oncologist. This morning I came upon this section on second opinions: Is It OK To Get A Second Opinion? Definitely. And there’s no need to be secretive about it, or to worry about hurting the doctor’s feelings. Second opinions are routine in fields like oncology, and are often covered by insurance. Be up-front: Any decent oncologist can understand a cancer patient’s need to find a doctor who’s right for them, with whom they’re comfortable making important decisions. And in difficult cases, some specialists appreciate the chance to discuss the situation with another expert. So a second opinion can be beneficial to patients and physicians alike. When things can get out of hand, though, is whe... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4399524 Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:00:50 +0100 4399524 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4372048&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fsynthetic-blood-via-artificial-cells-and-platelets-from-stem-cells%2F2011.01.19 There’s hema­tology news, times two (at least): 1. Progress in devel­oping syn­thetic red blood cells A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill research group has created hydrogel par­ticles that mimic the size, shape and flex­i­bility of red blood cells (RBCs). The researchers used PRINT® (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates) tech­nology to gen­erate the fake RBCs, which are said to have a rel­a­tively long half-life. The findings were reported on-line yes­terday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (abstract available, sub­scription required for full text). According to a PR-ish but inter­esting post on Futurity, a website put forth by a con­sortium of major research uni­ver­sities, tests of the par­ticles’ ability to ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4372048 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:00:47 +0100 4372048 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4349514&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwhy-the-term-patient-is-so-important-in-healthcare%2F2011.01.14 An online friend, col­league, and out­spoken patient advocate, Trisha Torrey, has an ongoing e-vote about whether people prefer to be called a “patient,” a “con­sumer,” a “cus­tomer,” or some other noun to describe a person who receives healthcare. My vote is: PATIENT. Here’s why: Providing medical care is or should be unlike other com­mercial trans­ac­tions. The doctor, or other person who gives medical treatment, has a special pro­fes­sional and moral oblig­ation to help the person who’s receiving his or her treatment. This respon­si­bility — to heal, hon­estly and to the best of one’s ability — over­rides any other com­mit­ments, or con­flicts, between the two. The term “patient” con­stantly reminds the doctor of the spe­cialness of... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4349514 Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:00:02 +0100 4349514 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4314005&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fon-the-value-of-open-mindedness%2F2011.01.05 Three recent sto­ries lead me to my open­ing topic for the year: The value of open-mindedness. This char­ac­ter­is­tic — a state of recep­tive­ness to new ideas — affects how we per­ceive and process infor­ma­tion. It’s a qual­ity I look for in my doc­tors, and which I admire espe­cially in older people. Piece #1 — On the brain’s matu­rity, flex­i­bil­ity and “cog­ni­tive fitness” For the first piece, I’ll note a Dec 31 op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times: This Year, Change Your Mind, by Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neu­rol­o­gist and author. In this thought­ful essay, he con­sid­ers the adult brain’s “mys­te­ri­ous and extra­or­di­nary” power to adapt and grow: “I have seen hun­dreds of patients with var­i­ous deficits &#8212... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4314005 Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:00:57 +0100 4314005 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294636&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmeasuring-gnh-gross-national-happiness%2F2010.12.26 This evening, when I fin­ished clean­ing up the kitchen after our fam­ily din­ner, I glanced at the cur­rent issue of the Econ­o­mist. The cover fea­tures this head­line: the Joy of Grow­ing Old (or why life begins at 46). It’s a light read, as this so-influential mag­a­zine goes, but nice to con­tem­plate if you’re, say, 50 years old and won­der­ing about the future. The article’s the­sis is this: Although as peo­ple move towards old age they lose things they treasure — vitality, men­tal sharp­ness and looks — they also gain what peo­ple spend their lives pur­su­ing: Happiness. Fig. 1 (above): “A snap­shot of the age dis­tri­b­u­tion of psy­cho­log­i­cal well-being in the United States,” Stone, et al: PNAS, May 2010 (y-axis: “WB&... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294636 Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:00:44 +0100 4294636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4265734&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fconcierge-medicine-the-cost-of-healthcare-room-service-and-other-hospital-amenities%2F2010.12.18 A per­spec­tive in [a recent] NEJM con­sid­ers the Emerg­ing Impor­tance of Patient Ameni­ties in Patient Care. The trend is that more hos­pi­tals lure patients with hotel-like ameni­ties: Room ser­vice, mag­nif­i­cent views, mas­sage ther­apy, fam­ily rooms and more. These ser­vices sound great, and by some mea­sures can serve an institution’s bot­tom line more effec­tively than spend­ing funds on top-notch spe­cial­ists or state-of-the-art equipment. Think­ing back on the last time I vis­ited some­one at Sloan Kettering’s inpa­tient unit, and I mean­dered into the bright lounge on the 15th floor, stocked with books, games, videos and other signs of life, I thought how good it is for patients and their fam­i­lies to have a non-clinical area like this... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4265734 Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:00:25 +0100 4265734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4251108&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fvideo-the-too-informed-patient%2F2010.12.11 This video, “The Too-Informed Patient,” came my way lately. It’s featured on NPR’s Mar­ket­place website: The Too Informed Patient from Marketplace on Vimeo. —– The pup­peteer skit fea­tures the inter­ac­tion between a young man with a rash and his older physi­cian. The patient is an informed kind of guy: He’s checked his own med­ical record on the doctor’s web­site, read up on rashes in the Boston Globe, checked pix on WebMD, seen an episode of “Gray’s Anatomy” about a rash and, most inven­tively, checked iDiagnose, a hypo­thet­i­cal app (I hope) that led him to the con­clu­sion that he might have epi­der­mal necro­sis. “Not to worry,” the patient informs Dr. Matthews, who mean­while has been try­ing to ex... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4251108 Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:00:28 +0100 4251108 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4230160&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2F5-reasons-why-patients-dont-mention-symptoms-to-their-doctors%2F2010.12.04 To com­plain or “be good” is an appar­ent dilemma for some patients with seri­ous illness. Yes­ter­day I received an email from a close friend with advanced breast can­cer. She’s got a lot of symp­toms: Her fatigue is so over­whelm­ing she can’t do more than one activ­ity each day. Yes­ter­day, for exam­ple, she stayed home all day and did noth­ing because she was sup­posed to watch a hockey game in the evening with her teenage son and other fam­ily mem­bers. Her voice is weak, so much it’s hard to talk on the phone. She has dif­fi­culty writ­ing, in the man­ual sense — mean­ing she can’t quite use her right arm and hand properly. “It’s some­thing I would never men­tion to the doc­tor because it is very sub­tle,” she wrote. “But it has no... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4230160 Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:00:07 +0100 4230160 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3776609&cid=t_352388_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FG7wD-XKMv5o%2F Twice this week, we have learned that members of the FDA advisory panel convened to review the safety of the Avandia diabetes pill had relationships with drugmakers that had something at stake. One panelist, David Capuzzi, has an ongoing relationship with GlaxoSmithKline as a speaker, although he apparently spoke only once about the diabetes drug (see here). And Abraham Thomas has, in the past, given talks about Actos, a rival pill sold by Takeda Pharmaceuticals (see here). The FDA is now investigating the episode surrounding Capuzzi and expects to have some decision by the end of the week. A finding that warrants further inquiry could be sent to the HHS Office of Inspector General. The agency, however, may not probe Thomas, because his speaking engagements for Takeda took place more than ... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3776609 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:29:54 +0100 3776609 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3617783&cid=t_352388_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fnurse-practitioners-elaine-lankford-cheryl-hackett-sued-womans-death%2F As part of a burgeoning movement by tort attorneys to attack non-physician healthcare providers, nurse practitioners Elaine Lankford and Cheryl Hackett have been included in a medical malpractice suit brought by the fiance of Sharon Britt, who died of a narcotic overdose. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3617783 Mon, 31 May 2010 18:01:29 +0100 3617783 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3243770&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJtq5yp4ML48%2F By David BoazAt the Economist’s online debate, Elaine Kamarck and I have posted rebuttals to the opening statements. I say, among other things: One question here is how do you measure a politician’s failure. Is it, for instance, a failure to get his policies enacted, or his success in enacting bad policies? Surveys of historians always give high marks to presidents who expanded government or fought wars. Washington’s most-quoted political scientist, Norman Ornstein, recently defended the productivity of the current Congress; his article illustrated that to the Washington establishment the very definition of a productive Congress is the spending of more taxpayers’ money, the creation of new agencies and bureaucracies, and the concentration of more power in the hands... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3243770 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:03:55 +0100 3243770 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2995990&cid=t_352388_136_f&fid=36162&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myelomablog.com%2F2009%2F11%2F15%2Fthree-harpsichords%2F We went to a concert Friday night in Chapel Hill that featured three harpsichords!  The program included music by Bach and a local composer named Edwin McLean.  I really enjoyed McLean’s music, and will be looking for a CD. One of the performers, Elaine Funaro, played her new harpsichord (Opus 333). The instrument was built by Richard Kingston. The harpsichord was painted by Durham artist Lisa Creed. Possibly Related Posts: Pilot Mountain astronomy observation Saturday Night North Carolina spider identification Academic excellent! Duke Lemur Center / Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic today Lyrica (Source: beth's myeloma blog) beth's myeloma blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2995990 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:38:06 +0100 2995990 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876035&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aahcdc.org%2Fpolicy%2FAAHC_OutofTime_4WEB.pdf The following post was written by Elaine R. Rubin, PhD, who is Vice President for Policy and Program of the Association of Academic Health Centers. She is a health policy analyst with a focus on health care organizations, infrastructure, regulatory, and research issues and publications on a variety of health topics. The post first appeared on HealthPROSE, the blog of the Association of Academic Health Centers. I heard today that congressional staffers are “punch drunk” from logging in so many hours working on health reform.  I am not comforted by that thought given they are trying to  write one of the most significant pieces of legislation in decades.  I am  wary of the urgent rush to produce something—good or bad—to show that Congress is not twiddling its thumbs.  Does the Co... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876035 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:20:20 +0100 2876035 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2405063&cid=t_352388_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blisstree.com%2Fbreastfeeding123%2Fhow-to-talk-so-kids-will-listen-a-review%2F The classic parenting book How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish is as relevant and helpful today as it was when it first came out 30 years ago. The descriptions, examples and cartoons offer straightforward information that parents can put into practice right away. Readers can invest time in the practice exercises or simply skim the summaries for an overview or a brief refresher. Throughout the chapters on “Helping Children Deal with Their Feelings,” “Engaging Cooperation,” and “Alternatives to Punishment” I found myself dog-earring pages and scribbling notes in the margins: Prevention not punishment. Punishment versus natural consequences. Give child a way to make amends. Teach them the proble... Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2405063 Mon, 11 May 2009 06:31:35 +0100 2405063 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2272034&cid=t_352388_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F03%2F17%2Fvideo-the-highly-sensitive-person%2F If you have ever wondered why you don’t fare well in noisy places, why it takes you so much longer to adjust to change, or why your feelings are so much more intense than your friends, you will appreciate this video. I explain what it means to be a highly sensitive person, as defined by Elaine Aron in her bestselling “The Highly Sensitive Person.” I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so I won’t say anything more before you watch the video. Click through to watch the video. (Source: World of Psychology) World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2272034 Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:03:45 +0100 2272034 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1991314&cid=t_352388_134_f&fid=36049&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FDiabetesNotes%2F%7E3%2FGHjIVx_1lrk%2F var iamInit = function() {try{initIamServingHandler(420,626,273043,"http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/Resources/Css/css2.css")}catch(ex){}}() Have you ever seen Elaine Stritch? She’s absolutely delightful. So much spunk and so full of life. But like all real people, she’s had her share of challenges. She talks with Diabetes Life about diabetes and alcoholism. Tags: alcoholism, candid, Diabetes, elaine stritch, interview, link between diabetes and alcohol, Personal, videoShare This (Source: Diabetes Notes) Diabetes Notes blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1991314 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:27:51 +0100 1991314 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1912022&cid=t_352388_133_f&fid=37107&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aspieweb.net%2Fnew-autism-advisor-in-government%2F Canada has appointed a new Specialist Advisor for Autism at the Department of Health.  Elaine Hill will work four days week to develop a new Adult Autism Strategy, advise on the needs of Autistic Individuals and work on policy reform. Ms. Hill stated, “I am very excited about the prospect of being able to take forward [...] (Source: AspieWeb.net) AspieWeb.net blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1912022 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 21:29:09 +0100 1912022