When Kaiba Gionfriddo was just a few months old, a 3D-printed device saved his life. Kaiba was born with a rare condition called tracheobronchomalacia, which meant his windpipe was weak, and would collapse and prevent air from flowing to his lungs. Researchers at the University of Michigan sought approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a 3D-printed tracheal splint , which they implanted around the baby's airway to help him breathe. Thanks to 3D printing , a technology that produces objects of any shape, including medical devices highly customized for patients, from a computer model, these kinds of stories are becoming increasingly common.
There is growing concern that physicians are spending less time with patients. One study at Johns Hopkins earlier this year documented that physicians in training are now spending about eight minutes per day with each of their hospitalized patients. The reasons are complex: Things that used to be done by doctors, such as drawing blood, are now done by non-physicians; restrictions on duty hours limit the amount of time trainees can spend in the hospital; and managing the electronic health record now consumes a great deal more physician time. While the reductions in time for patient contact have been apparent for many years, some of their consequences are still just emerging.
About a year ago, President Obama signed a law that was supposed to end chronic shortages of lifesaving drugs. But the critical lack of generic drugs continues unabated. It is a preventable crisis that is inflicting suffering on patients and, in some cases, causing needless deaths. According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a group that maintains a closely watched drug-shortage database, 302 drugs were in short supply as of July 31, up from 211 about a year earlier.
Female physicians in the U.S. continue to earn less than their male counterparts, with the pay gap widening during the past two decades to more than $50,000 annually in 2010, researchers said. Women doctors had a median annual income of $165,278 from 2006 to 2010, compared with yearly earnings of $221,297 for male physicians, according to the report published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. While the annual pay for women doctors has increased since the median of $134,995 in 1990, it's only now beginning to approach the $168,795 annually earned by men 20 years ago, the researchers found.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Employers are just beginning to learn the financial ironies of the federal health law. Small nonprofits that pay no taxes can get tax credits. Some businesses that currently provide generous insurance may stop. And organizations could fork over more money covering part-time workers than full-time workers. While the Affordable Care Act will provide access to insurance for millions more Americans, it is not a law of equality for employers. The impact differs according to how an employer's workforce is structured and the generosity of its health benefits.
(Reuters Health) - Helping people who were recently released from a hospital understand how to care for themselves and informing their primary care doctors about their stay may reduce their risk of being admitted back into the hospital, says a new study. Researchers found that implementing a statewide transitional care program for North Carolinians on Medicaid - the state and federal insurance for the poor - was linked to a 20 percent reduction in patients' risk of going back to the hospital during the next year.