Tag: Today’s Healthcare

Patients’ self-diagnosis of personality disorders not as far off as previously believed

Purdue University researchers think the gap between a psychologists’ diagnosis and a patient’s self-evaluation might not be as extreme as previously perceived when both are using the same evaluation tools. The research findings are published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. They lessen concerns that people lack awareness of their own personality pathology.

What doctors wear really does matter, study finds: Survey of more than 4,000 patients isn’t just about fashion — patient satisfaction may be affected

Physicians may want to dig a little deeper into their closets, or grab their white coats on the way out of the operating room, if they want patients to view them favorably, according to the largest-ever study of patient preferences for doctors’ attire. In fact, what medical doctors wear may matter more than most doctors

Clinical trials in a dish: A perspective on the coming revolution in drug development

A new SLAS Discovery article available now for free ahead-of-print, offers perspective from researchers at Coyne Scientific (Atlanta, GA) about Clinical Trials in a Dish (CTiD), a novel strategy that bridges preclinical testing and clinical trials. The pharmaceutical industry is facing unprecedented challenges as the cost of developing new drugs reaches unsustainable levels, fueled in

‘Why not take a risk’ attitude widespread among patients and providers: Belief could lead to unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics and spread of superbugs

“Antibiotics can’t hurt. They might even make me feel better. Why not take a risk?” You may have had similar thoughts when sick with the flu or common cold. Your doctor may think so too. A new study led by David Broniatowski, an assistant professor in the George Washington University’s department of engineering management and

Study reveals gaps in follow-up care after concussion

Being discharged from a hospital trauma center after receiving treatment for a traumatic brain injury (TBI) does not necessarily mean that a patient has fully recovered. TBI can lead to long-lasting physical and cognitive symptoms, but a new study in JAMA Network Open suggests that many patients may not be receiving follow-up care. Patients in

Global healthcare access and quality improved from 2000-2016

Healthcare access and quality improved globally from 2000-2016 due in part to large gains seen in many low and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, according to the latest data from the Global Burden of Disease study published in The Lancet. Despite this, some countries saw progress slow or stall over this time.

More patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis receiving liver transplants: Medical centers willing to perform transplants without mandated six-month wait

Increasingly, liver transplant centers are changing a long-standing practice of delaying potentially life-saving liver transplantation for patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis until after they stopped drinking alcohol for six months, according to a new study scheduled for presentation at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2018. Study implications “Liver transplant for severe alcoholic hepatitis is being increasingly

Above us only sky: The open air as an underappreciated habitat

Numerous bat species hunt and migrate at great altitudes. Yet the open sky had, until recently, not been on the radar of conservation scientists as a habitat relevant to a large variety of species. Christian Voigt and colleagues from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin have collated the current scientific

Alternative treatment for mild asthma

A large international study led by a Hamilton researcher has found a patient-centric treatment that works for people with mild asthma. People with mild asthma are often prescribed a daily treatment regimen, but up to 80 per cent do not follow the routine, using inhalers only when they have an asthma attack. Now the researchers

Big data from world’s largest citizen science microbiome project serves food for thought: How factors such as diet, antibiotics and mental health status can influence the microbial and molecular makeup of your gut

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and collaborators have published the first major results from the American Gut Project, a crowdsourced, global citizen science effort. The project, described May 15 in mSystems, is the largest published study to date of the human microbiome — the unique microbial communities that inhabit our

National trial: EEG brain tests help patients overcome depression

Imagine millions of depressed Americans getting their brain activity measured and undergoing blood tests to determine which antidepressant would work best. Imagine some of them receiving “brain training” or magnetic stimulation to make their brains more amenable to those treatments. A national research trial initiated by UT Southwestern in 2012 is generating the first set

Trial shows chemotherapy is helping kids live with pulmonary vein stenosis: Adding chemotherapy to a treatment regimen including catheterization and surgery can deter abnormal cellular growth

Pulmonary vein stenosis (PVS) is a rare disease in which abnormal cells build up inside the veins responsible for carrying oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the heart. It restricts blood flow through these vessels, eventually sealing them off entirely if left untreated. Typically affecting young children, the most severe form of PVS progresses very

Drug effectiveness in reducing glucocorticoid-induced bone loss: The drug denosumab was superior to a commonly used drug in a 12-month study enrolling 795 patients

About one in every 100 people in the world takes glucocorticoids long term to treat immune-mediated diseases. However, glucocorticoids, such as prednisone, have a side effect — they induce the bone loss called osteoporosis, causing an estimated yearly bone fracture rate of 5 percent. An alternative treatment option now appears promising, according to results of

Statistical designs accelerate the optimization of layered 2-D crystals

It has been estimated that there are more than 10^100 possible materials that can be synthesised, grown, and optimised. Materials design can be a slow and laborious process and investigating the full parameter space is a formidable challenge. Machine learning and other advanced statistical techniques will almost certainly help accelerate materials discovery, design, and optimisation,