One-step HIV test may be cheaper, faster, less wasteful
.... In the end, because it required no return clinic visits or use of the expensive Western blot test for confirmation, the one-step rapid protocol was less costly both for HIV-positive and HIV-negative persons. While this study was not a cost-benefit analysis of the test methods, Ekwueme says that it should ...Adopting some osteopathic traits might help M.D.s boost their patient communication skills
... osteopaths interacted with patients during office visits for physicals, headaches, low back pain and high b...f illnesses." The study, which analyzed 54 patient visits in detail, showed that 79 percent of osteopaths but only 47 percent of allopaths talked about preven...Children with sickle cell anemia often don't receive antibiotics to prevent deadly infections
... a year requires repeated requests for refills and visits to a pharmacy. "Many insurance groups, including M... visited a doctor a mean of 13 times a year; those visits could provide an opportunity for health-care professionals to check and see if the family is getting...Black women receive inadequate cardiac care compared to whites despite greater risk, study finds
...compliant as white women when it came to follow-up visits and taking study medications as white women. Researchers believe economic disparity was unlikely a factor in producing these results because Black women showed slightly greater use of expensive drugs, including ACE inhibitors and calcium channel bloc...Nursing homes not burden to system, says researcher
...e least expensive senior group, but their hospital visits decline once they are admitted into nursing homes. Dr. Donna Wilson from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Nursing studied 12 years of long-term care (LTC) resident data from 1988 to 2000 provided by Alberta Health and Wellness--the biggest rel...Did rats spread SARS in Amoy Gardens?
...reak) could have infected so many people from two visits to Amoy Gardens, an apartment block with no communal facilities. A common source of food or water contamination has not been identified. Airborne transmission is thought to have been unlikely by the WHO team sent to investigate the outbreak. He sugg...Extended, progressive physical therapy aids stroke survivors mobility
...ainder received an average of 8.7 physical therapy visits and an average of 10.4 occupational therapy visits. The usual care therapy mostly consisted of balance and mobility exercises, upper extremity function and range of motion function. Endurance training was rarely incorporated and the therapy was not...ID Migraine screener found to be highly reliable in detecting migraine in undiagnosed patients
...443 patients making routine primary care physician visits for any reason. Patients in the study either had headaches that interfered with their ability to work, study, or their enjoyment of life; or said they wanted to talk to their physicians about their headaches. All the patients were then referred to o...Recent study suggests that tooth loss/gum disease may be associated with heart disease
...er diet, daily brushing and flossing, and frequent visits to the dentist, consumers can arm themselves against gum disease with the proper oral care tools. According to an independent study released earlier this year, only power toothbrushes with rotational oscillation technology, such as the Oral-B Profes...Genetic risks for disease often missing from patient charts
...et, limited training in genetics and brief patient visits curb most physicians' routine use of a comprehensive three-generation pedigree, Frezzo and colleagues said. "Recording the medical family history should be a component of any preventive healthcare risk assessment. As genetic risk factors are better ...Study shows pharmacist-physician partnership reduces health care costs, bad drug interactions
...apy increased from 74 percent during their initial visits to the pharmaceutical care clinic to 89 percent at their latest visit. The study also found pharmacists were able to resolve the drug-therapy problems without directly involving the patients' physicians in many cases. For example, pharmacists increas...Children with bowel disease prone to emotional problems
... have fewer hospitalizations and visits to the doctor's office." "While medication is necessary in controlling IBD, psychosocial interventions may help improve the course of the disease," Crandall said....Most Canadian hospitals below recommended standards
... Hospital, for example, an infection control nurse visits patients after surgery to check how their wounds are healing, and surgeons receive monthly confidential reports, which Dr. Zoutman reviews. "As a teaching hospital and the only tertiary care hospital in southeastern Ontario, protecting our SARS-free...Docs see missed opportunities for adult, kid vaccinations
...s like vaccinating people during unrelated medical visits and creating standing orders for vaccinations that...opportunities, such as sick visits, emergency room visits or visits during which a sibling or parent is being seen, to administer needed vaccines," say Yemisi...Music therapy strikes a chord with cancer patients
... Because their immune systems have been wiped out, visits are kept to a minimum to avoid infections, and feelings of isolation often set in. Patients can have a variety of side effects, including pain, nausea, fatigue, anemia and dehydration. "One reason we began this study was because patients were reques...July/August 2003 Annals of Family Medicine tip sheet
...ng ongoing support for patients, through in-person visits or telephone contacts with providers or counselors...ng ongoing support for patients, through in-person visits or telephone contacts with providers or counselors, increased the proportion of women continuing to ...U.S. News & World Report ranks The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia the top pediatric center
...ation and treatment in more than 17,000 outpatient visits annually. The Center's extensive experience in cardiac catheterization techniques has helped foster its expansion from solely a diagnostic tool to its use as a therapeutic modality. Cardiac Center surgeons are leaders in the use of pioneering techni...... the cost, it still would be cheaper than repeated visits to the physician's office to keep getting the wound cleaned, treated and re-bandaged several times a week, Miller said. "One dose of this could replace all of that, and all you have to do is change the covering a couple of times a week," he said. M...Study: Hurricane Floyd boosted long-term use of N.C. emergency rooms, outpatient services
... 4 percent to 7 percent increase in emergency room visits in the first 11 weeks. Because little work had been done to examine the impact of disasters on actual health services use, the UNC researchers used specialized statistical techniques to analyze July 1998 to December 2000 N.C. Medicaid claims and enro...People only slightly more likely to die after episodes of stagnant air
...us work in their program found that emergency room visits for asthma in children are associated with persistent stagnation....