Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  In a recent study, traumatic brain injuries have been found to increase the risk for Parkinson's disease. Even mild blows to the head with subsequent symptoms can increase this risk.  Read More

•  Two medical associations announced their collaboration surrounding a value-based payment model for treatment of opioid addiction. The payment model is aimed at lowering health care spending for people with addiction by decreasing the amount of expensive emergency department visits and improving coordination of care.  Read More

•  Apple is uniquely positioned to succeed in the population health space because they are moving data directly from the health system to the device. By giving the patient their data as opposed to storing it in another cloud, Apple is creating a positive, individual-centric experience for the patient.  Read More

•  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns of an E.coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona. The CDC has reported 31 people having been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported. The CDC cautions that if the source of the romaine lettuce is confirmed, do not buy or eat it.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  In research recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, a new study introduces a new potential malaria-fighting tool: the medication, Ivermectin. Ivermectin kills malaria-carrying mosquitos who feed on individuals that ingest the drug.  Read More

•  Many health systems experience obstacles in the operating room in the face of supply shortages. Using inventory analytics can help reduce costs and medical supply shortages. By automating this process, costs are reduced and providers have more free time to focus on patients and support better outcomes.  Read More

•  Experts have outlined three key reasons for ditching the fee-for-service (FFS) payment model. First, FFS trends toward a metric-oriented process over patient outcome. Second, joining partnerships in value-based care can break down payment barriers and prioritize patient input. And third, FFS can create an ethical issue when physicians over-diagnose or over-treat patients in favor of increased reimbursement rates.  Read More

•  This week, a California state judge ruled that coffee sellers would be required to brand their beverages with cancer warning labels. When coffee beans are roasted, a chemical called acrylamide is formed, which is on California's list of chemicals considered to cause cancer. Companies like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts can file objections to the proposed decision within the next two weeks.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  On Thursday, the House passed the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through the end of September. The Department of Health and Human Services will be getting a considerable increase in the billions. The budget also  includes a large amount of funding for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to boost interoperability.  Read More

•  Americans living in rural areas struggle with access to care. Expansion of programs providing emergency air medical services are limited by cost but a bill introduced last summer hopes to improve access to air ambulance services by updating Medicare's currently minuscule reimbursement rates.  Read More

•  Recently, Amazon announced its entry into the health care space. Its early efforts are dedicated to selling medical supplies such as gloves, syringes, and other health care items to various types of providers.  Read More

•  Social media is becoming a platform for patients to connect online and share reactions to drug treatments. Sometimes, clinical trials can miss side effects and collecting data about a drug from insurance claims and health records can take a long time. So, rather than being faced with lag time, companies are often sifting through the internet and social media for patient reports of side effects as a tempting method of collecting data. But experts warn of drawbacks to this approach.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  Use of opioid drugs has risen among the elderly population, despite their vulnerability to the drugs' side effects. Pain relievers like Vicodin and Oxycontin are frequently prescribed for older people, often for falls and fractures, and when patients take both, they're at risk for overdosing.  Read More

•  Leading vendors in the electronic health record space are developing technology that incorporate artificial intelligence, or AI. For AI and machine learning to advance in health care, clean data is needed to fuel interoperability and modern data exchange.  Read More

•  In a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, it has been found that the U.S. spends nearly double the amount on medical care than 10 of the highest-income countries, yet performed less well on patient population health outcomes. The main drivers of the differences in spending are prices of labor and goods and administrative costs.  Read More

•  On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration announced its plans to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes in the hopes of weaning millions of smokers off the deadly habit. The goal is also to prevent millions more from becoming regular smokers. Preliminary plans to cut nicotine in cigarettes tentatively begin in July.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  In a recent report, it has been found that women taking probiotics and fish oil supplements during pregnancy and breast-feeding may reduce food allergy risks and eczema in early childhood.  Read More

•  The U.S. still has the highest health care costs in the world and some experts suggest that carefully scrutinizing unnecessary elective treatments could contribute to a long-term solution. As people live longer, the population takes on more cost.  Read More

•  On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it has plans to do a complete overhaul of the Meaningful Use program for hospitals. CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, specified to reporters that the agency is moving away from giving credit to providers for simply having an EHR to making sure their EHR is focused on interoperability and providing patients with their data.  Read More

•  A slowly growing number of health systems are encouraging selected emergency department patients who are acutely ill yet stable to opt for hospital-level care at home. For this subset of patients, a trip to the hospital can put them at risk for infection, sleeplessness, and delirium, among other problems. The biggest obstacle is getting health insurers to pay for it.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  According to new research published in Family Medicine, family providers are spending more time completing electronic health record (EHR) work than looking at patients during visits. While technology can provide automation and efficiency that many hospitals find appealing, the downfall is that they can also steal providers' face-to-face time away from patients.  Read More

•  When you feel that tickle rising into your nose or throat, your first instinct may be to suppress a sneeze or cough by covering your mouth with your hand. While your efforts to stop the spread of germs are valiant, covering your mouth using your hand might actually be just as risky as sneezing out into the open air. Unless you plan to wash your hand immediately after sneezing into it, you're likely still spreading germs through everything you touch thereafter. Sneeze into your sleeve and stop those germs from spreading!  Read More

•  Apple plans to launch a medical practice this spring, called AC Wellness. The hope is to test potential consumer-facing health services and products with Apple employees first. There will also be two primary care clinics for Apple employees in Santa Clara County. This news comes shortly after Amazon's announcement that it will partner with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to launch an independent health care company.  Read More

•  Another big tech company is taking to the health care industry. Uber is teaming up with health care organizations to provide rides for patients going to and from medical appointments without even needing to open the Uber app.  That means patients without a smartphone can become Uber customers because rides can be schedule for patients through their doctor's office. Uber is hoping to break the transportation barrier that often impedes access to good health care.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  The Senate Finance Committee is examining potential strategies that could improve care access and treatment quality surrounding the opioid epidemic. Interoperability is one of the major roadblocks to data sharing capabilities between states who participate in programs that monitor prescription drugs. Data access needs to be a seamless and streamlined process for providers.  Read More

•  There are major disparities plaguing post-surgical discharges across the country. Patients undergoing the same type of surgery are discharged home while a portion are sent to a post-acute facility. New payment programs such as bundled payments can address these disparities by calling for more studies on the specific needs of patient populations and meeting those needs.  Read More

•  Emergency rooms are a hot bed for pain and pain management. Patients who come to the ER for pain relief are often prescribed medications like Percocet or Vicodin, which have contributed to the rising opioid epidemic. Physicians are now looking for alternatives to help reduce opioid abuse. Ten Colorado hospitals successfully participated in a sixth-month pilot project aimed at reducing prescription painkiller use.  Read More

•  A new study recently found that empowering the roles of midwives in the U.S. could significantly boost maternal and infant health. Compared to many European and Scandinavian countries where midwives oversee most expectant and new mothers, severe maternal complications have more than doubled in the U.S. in the last 20 years.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is making it their top priority to modernize the agency. The Anywhere to Anywhere initiative aims to allow VA medical providers to practice telehealth across state lines, expanding access to care for veterans who have historically encountered unreasonably long wait times at VA facilities.  Read More

•  Before-school exercise programs that allow children to run around and play for an hour before the start of school may improve children's physical and mental well-being, according to a recent study. While more research is still being conducted, we know most parents wouldn't be opposed to a program that aligns with their morning work schedules!  Read More

•  While research suggests that fewer and fewer people are religious, interest in spiritual care still remains high for patients in the hospital. Many hospitals offer spiritual services such as prayer rooms and support from chaplains. To prepare for the rigors of hospital jobs, chaplains often undergo training, which sometimes includes an interfaith approach.  Read More

•  A patient goes in for a urine test and comes out with a $17,850 bill. Sounds ridiculous, right? While this bill was wildly excessive, prices for urine tests, especially those for patients with chronic pain at high risk of opioid abuse, can vary widely depending on the complexity and technology used. Bills can continue to climb as labs check for levels of multiple drugs and bill for each one.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  Experts in health care IT rank device cybersecurity as number one on a list of top 10 challenges facing health care in 2018.  Some tips on how to enhance medical device security? Buying medical devices equipped with the proper security tools and conducting an inventory of medical devices and related software as part of the purchasing process are just some of the measures health care facilities can take to protect themselves from future cyber attacks.  Read More

•  Gelato is more than just a delicious, cold treat on a hot summer day. The math behind the ratio of ingredients is what makes gelato a desired dessert and skimping on sugar, which is considered critical in creating that smooth consistency, could be disastrous. However, new technology aims to remove sugar from gelato without taking away from the flavor.  Read More

•  A new spending measure, passed by the House of Representatives this Tuesday, includes funding for several health care programs for two years. However, the House bill is likely to undergo significant rewrites in the Senate to pave the way for long-term spending.  Read More

•  In a recent study published on Tuesday in the journal JAMA, researchers found that fetal alcohol syndrome and other alcohol-related disorders among children in the U.S. are as common as autism. This statistic is more that previously thought. These children suffer from neurological damage caused by mothers drinking alcohol during pregnancy.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.

Here's The Latest in Health Care:

•  A recent and dangerous trend that picked up in December is now responsible for an uptick of poisonings and ceases to slow in the new year. The Tide Pod Challenge, as it is known, has become a bizarre phenomenon, mostly involving teenagers who challenge each other to intentionally ingest the candy-like laundry pods. Potential side-effects include seizures, coma, and even death. Will this prompt Tide to redesign their product?  Read More

•  Patients with chronic illness often times have more to deal with than just managing their illness itself. They're also having to be their own medical record manager because electronic health systems across several different medical facilities never talk to each other. Patients are finding there isn't one, simplified, and centralized record keeping system. This can lead to inaccuracies and miscommunications surrounding patient care.  Read More

•  On Tuesday, Amazon announced it is partnering with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway to launch into the health care space. The focus will be on simplified, high-quality, and transparent technology solutions in health care at a reasonable cost.  Read More

•  A recent study found that two types of bacteria commonly found in the gut work together in fueling the growth of colon tumors. Bacteroides fragilis and a strain of E. coli may be the hidden cause of colon cancer, the third most common cancer in the U.S.  Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news. Brought to you by pMD, innovators in charge capture software.