Alabamians receive more painkiller prescriptions than anyone else in the country, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2012, there were 143 prescriptions per 100 people in the state. Are doctors partially responsible for the rise in heroin use? "Yes," says Dr. Mark Wilson, health officer for Jefferson County. "I think the doctors in Alabama, by and large, want to do the right thing, they want to help their patients alleviate suffering, that's what almost all of us went into medicine to do," said Wilson, chief executive of the Jefferson County Health Department.
The U.S. government says it will help develop a new Ebola drug ? one of five drugs that are being tested against the deadly virus. This one's made by North Carolina-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. "BioCryst's drug, BCX4430, is a small molecule that prevents the Ebola virus from reproducing in the body," the Health and Human Services Department said in a statement. "Small molecule" means it can be taken as a pill. "In non-human primate studies, the drug was effective against Ebola virus and Marburg virus, another virus in the filovirus family, indicating that BCX4430 may be useful as a broad spectrum antiviral drug."
Trista Matascastillo remembers arriving at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center in 2010 for an exam and thinking the hospital didn't quite get the needs of female veterans. The exam room, for instance, opened onto the patient waiting area, she said. She had to ask that the door be closed. It was a tiny detail, one Matascastillo said staff fixed quickly. But the 16-year veteran keeps the story close by now that she is part of an effort to help the center improve care for women. More than 200,000 women nationwide — 30,000 in Minnesota — have served since 2001; 20 percent of the nation's military recruits are female, according to a recent report from the group Disabled American Veterans.
Whether a patient is in the hospital for an organ transplant, an appendectomy or to have a baby, one complaint is common: the gown. You know the one. It might as well have been stitched together with paper towels and duct tape, and it usually leaves the wearer's behind hanging out. "You're at the hospital because something's wrong with you – you're vulnerable – then you get to wear the most vulnerable garment ever invented to make the whole experience that much worse," said Ted Streuli, who lives in Edmond, Okla., and has had to wear hospital gowns on multiple occasions.
The rate of people being diagnosed or killed by cancer in the U.S. is stable or decreasing for men and women, according to a new report. "For the main cancers, it's really pretty much good news, incidence and mortality is decreasing," said Recinda Sherman, an author of the new report from the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) in Springfield, Illinois. A highlight of the report is that for the first time it breaks breast cancer into specific groups based on how it responds to hormones, said Ahmedin Jemal, vice president of surveillance and health service research at the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Hospitals are starting to abandon the time-honored drill for surgery patients— including fasting, heavy IV fluids, powerful post-op narcotics and bed rest—amid growing evidence that the lack of nutrients, fluid overload and drug side effects can do more harm than good. Instead, they are turning to "enhanced recovery" protocols that are easier on patients, help them get better faster with fewer infections and other complications and reduce health-care costs. The changes, pioneered in Europe over the past 15 years, now are being adopted more widely in the U.S. Though the evidence is strongest in colorectal surgery, the approach is being used with an increasing range of procedures including hip fracture and joint replacements and surgeries for bladder, pancreas, liver and breast cancer. [Subscription Required]