Children and teens diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are five times more likely to develop kidney disease later in life than those who develop diabetes as adults, a recent study found. The findings underscore the importance of preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes, doctors say.
Three female neurosurgeons who currently or formerly worked at Brigham and Women's Hospital have filed discrimination complaints against the new chairman of the department, Arthur Day, MD. Sagun Tuli, MD, a spine neurosurgeon at the hospital since 2000, filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination last month and a gender, color, and national origin discrimination lawsuit in federal court this month, asserting that Day asked her at a hospital dinner in 2004 if she would "get up on the table and dance for us to show the female residents how to behave?"
Plastic surgery has become mainstream--almost 11 million procedures were performed in the U.S. in 2006, up 7 percent from the previous year. The vast majority were performed on women, with breast augmentation and nose reshaping leading in popularity. Doctors say that anxiety about the response is common among patients and that they can expect comments that are not of the you-look-fabulous variety.
Two new services, Sound Cancer Connections based at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, and a new holistic cancer support group forming at Capital Medical Center on Olympia's west side--are setting up networks of integrative medicine practitioners who want to help ease the way for cancer patients.
The proposed sale of two Exempla Healthcare hospitals--Lutheran and Good Samaritan--won approval from state Attorney General John Suthers despite a conflict over services banned by the Catholic Church. The opinion sparked an outcry from community organizations opposing the loss of services such as abortions, forms of sterilization including tubal ligation and vasectomies, and emergency contraception pills.
A growing number of hospitals provide more than medical expertise. They provide an in-house team of chaplains to calm and support patients and their families. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and simply those in need of human support find counselors to buoy their spirits, help them cope with fear or confusion at why they, of all people, fell so ill. Stanford University Hospital retains five in-house spiritual counselors and more than 200 volunteer chaplains.