Diabetes Health Care - Tips - News

New Diabetes Classification System by experts

2016-02-06T04:43:00.004-08:00

While this is research, six experts have a convincing argument for a change in the diabetes classification system. Type 1, type 2, and LADA do not provide clear guidance for diagnosis and treatment of patients with diabetes. The experts in the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) claim that their algorithm is sufficient, but not that accurate.

The new method would make β-cell centric classification of diabetes a single common denominator for all types. At present, the classification identifies only four types of diabetes mellitus. These are type 1, type 2, 'other specific types' (which include genetic defects of beta-cell function, genetic defects in insulin action, diseases of exocrine pancreas and more) and gestational diabetes.

Since the first distinction between presentations of the disease from back in January 1936, the categorization of diabetes has been through numerous changes in order to keep up with new research and findings on the best way to help patients combating the disease. However, the inherent setback with the currently established system lays in the fact that it is inadequate with the present understanding of the phenotypes associated with diabetes. In addition, this and
the limited research and information present at the time of formulating the current system, the designations related with the different types of diabetes are vague and inaccurate. Due to this fact and current evidence-based practice, there is a call to revise the current classification of diabetes mellitus and focus on a β-cell centric classification schema, according to a new article published online in Diabetes Care Jan. 21, 2016.

Based on new research performed by Stanley Schwartz and affiliates, there is a new proposition for using a β-cell centered model for diabetes, which supports the notion that all diabetes originates from an abnormal pancreatic β-cell. Type 1 diabetes has been thought of as an ailment of low insulin production, while type 2 has usually been of insulin resistance. This discrepancy is not clear or helpful. Schwartz and colleagues suppose all diabetes is a product of impairment to beta cells (which produce insulin) and according to this theory, insulin resistance just reveals the rudimentary deficiency in insulin production.

Presently, only about one-third of individuals with insulin resistance will go on to develop diabetes. The basis of the new classification system is treatment of patients as individuals though currently most prescribers will initiate treatment based on a diagnosis instead of the person.

Schwartz believes that diabetes is rooted to β-cell and because of this, classification of diabetes types should be based on causes of that damage so physicians will know how to go about treatment. This “β-cell centric” criterion recognizes that β-cell damage can be caused by inflammation, immune actions, gut biome, high fatty acids, high glucose levels, genetics and other causes; categorization founded on these sources can help cultivate an improved treatment strategy, as opposed to simply knocking down an individual’s glucose level.

Defining key markers and the processes of care in using them will allot appropriate patient-centric approaches with either currently established medications or an up-and-coming drug.

This proposed model acknowledges a total of 11 interconnecting pathways that contribute to hyperglycemia, which are prompted by the transformation of genetic predispositions to insulin resistance. These pathways of hyperglycemia contribute to β-cell dysfunction within the liver, adipose, brain, colon, immune dysregulation and muscle. The “damage caused results in downstream hyperglycemia arising from increased glucagon secretion, as well as a reduction in insulin production, incretin effect and amylin levels.” For any one patient, the routes for hyperglycemia vary and more than likely involve numerous pathways. It is significant to note that these arbitrating pathways of hyperglycemia are common across prediabetes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and other outlined forms of the disease state.

The most ideal management model presented was the impression that treatment should comprise the use of the least amount of agents to help in targeting the greatest number of these particular mediating pathways of hyperglycemia in any given patient. The research also noted that any treatment option that would potentially be detrimental to the long-term integrity of the β-cells–specifically including sulfonylureas and glinides–should be avoided because any potential benefits of the medications are severely outweighed by the risks associated with their use. It will be very interesting if the ADA will even consider this as important, but it should be very important.

Five more Medical Terms thrown around Diabetes World

2011-11-24T04:05:00.000-08:00

Did you know people with diabetes have a reduced immune system? This can increase the risk for illness. Here are Nurse Robbie's (Roberta Kleinman, RN, M.Ed., CDE) cold and flu season tips which are good for anyone but especially for people with diabetes. Below are the five more important Diabetes medical terms that are thrown around in the diabetes world by her.

Hypoglycemic Unawareness - People who have diabetes may have this condition; they do not experience the symptoms of hypoglycemia -sweating, dizziness, or shaking due to a blunted epinephrine response. This happens if the body experiences frequent lows and gets accustomed to hypoglycemia. The longer you have diabetes or the more lows you have, the more you are at risk. Be prepared to test blood sugars more frequently and have a sugar source like glucose tablets with you at all times.

Gastroparesis - The GI tract can be affected by vagus nerve damage due to elevated blood sugars over time and the muscles in the wall of the stomach do not work. This causes a delay in food digestion and could result in fullness, bloating, nausea or vomiting. If you are on insulin, slowed digestion may cause erratic blood sugars. There is no cure, but small frequent meals and Reglan can help. Talk to your physician if you think you may have this condition.

Fructosamine level - This is a blood test that measures glucose combined with protein in the blood. It reflects the level of glucose in the blood over the last three weeks. It is used as a supplement to an A1C - not in place of it. It helps when the A1C may not be as accurate because of anemia, blood loss, or pregnancy. There is no standard reference range for this test.

C-peptide - It is a blood test to determine if and how much insulin is being made in the pancreas. It is not used to diagnose diabetes, but can be used to track beta-cell activity over time. This can help your doctor decide when insulin shots are needed. It can also be used to determine recurring hypoglycemia.

PCOS: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome - A health problem relating to women who may have irregular periods, small cysts or fluid sacs in their ovaries and elevated levels of androgens or male hormones. The cause is unknown but genetics and hormone imbalance, including increased insulin, play a part. Women with PCOS are usually insulin resistant and have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. They are treated with exercise, weight management and possibly Metformin.

Keeping up with medical terms will make you less stressed and better prepared whether you use it for informational purposes or are confronted with these terms during a routine visit with your healthcare provider. Keep learning!

NOTE: Consult your Doctor first to make sure my recommendations fit your special health needs.

Glucose Meter - Blood Sugar Monitor

2016-02-06T02:30:00.000-08:00

Four generations of blood glucose meter, c. 1993-2005. Sample sizes vary from 30 to 0.3 μl. Test times vary from 5 seconds to 2 minutes (modern meters typically provide results in 5 seconds).

Glucometer (Glucose Meter) refers to a battery-operated device used to measure blood glucose from a few drops of blood obtained from the finger. The definition is from the "Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary," published by F.A. Davis Co.

A glucose meter (or glucometer) is a medical device for determining the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood. It can also be a strip of glucose paper dipped into a substance and measured to the glucose chart. It is a key element of home blood glucose monitoring (HBGM) by people with diabetes mellitus or hypoglycemia. A small drop of blood, obtained by pricking the skin with a lancet, is placed on a disposable test strip that the meter reads and uses to calculate the blood glucose level. The meter then displays the level in units of mg/dl or mmol/l.

Since approximately 1980, a primary goal of the management of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus has been achieving closer-to-normal levels of glucose in the blood for as much of the time as possible, guided by HBGM several times a day. The benefits include a reduction in the occurrence rate and severity of long-term complications from hyperglycemia as well as a reduction in the short-term, potentially life-threatening complications of hypoglycemia.

For more information : Glocometer

Eczema Patients stick to Treatment with the help of Text messages

2010-09-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

A recent study conducted by the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, revealed that daily text messages providing medication reminders and information about atopic dermatitis (a type of eczema) significantly improved treatment adherence, self-care behaviors, skin severity and quality of life for dermatology patients.

Atopic dermatitis is a common chronic skin disease, accounting for 30 percent of all dermatology visits. Adherence to self-care behaviors among patients with the disease has been historically low.

The study was published in the current issue of Dermatology Research and Practice (volume 2010).

It was the first to combine medication reminders with educational information, which researchers say may lead to the use of text messaging as an important way to educate patients and support positive behavior change.
"It is not surprising that text messaging helped patients stick with their treatment plan and take their medication as prescribed," said Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, director of the Center for Connected Health. "However, we went a step further by including educational information, which, we believe, can lead to critical improvements in self-care behavior that were observed in this study."

Following an initial visit with a trained research assistant to assess the severity of the participants' skin condition, 25 adolescents and adults (mean age, 30.5 years), completed the study, conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Patients received daily text messages for six weeks, reminding them to continue their treatment or providing them with educational information about their condition. At the conclusion of the study, participants received a second skin evaluation.

At enrollment, the majority of participants reported they sometimes forgot to use their medication (92 percent) and often stopped treatment when their skin symptoms improved (88 percent). At the end of the six-week study, 72 percent reported improved adherence. More than two-thirds of participants (68 percent) reported an improvement in the number of self-care behaviors they routinely performed, such as avoiding soaps or other products that could irritate skin, and 98 percent reported an improvement in at least one self-care behavior.

oseph C. Kvedar, MD, director of the Center for Connected Health
As a result, there was a significant improvement in skin conditions, with 76 percent of participants realizing an improvement in their condition. Seventy-two percent of participants reported improvements in their quality of life.

"Text messaging is a cost-effective way to deliver short, concise information to patients over a longer period of time, and because it is automated, requires no extra effort from the provider," Kvedar said. "Our study also indicates that patients are willing and ready to integrate technology, such as text messaging, into their care. It can also help to improve communication between patients and providers."

The majority of study participants also reported they found both the text message reminders (88 percent) and the educational texts (92 percent) helpful. All participants stated that they were willing to use technology to manage their health, and 84 percent would want to continue using the text messaging system.

News Tip By: HealthCare IT News

Gargling With Salt Water for Colds keeps you healthier

2010-09-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever gargled with salt water to ease a sore throat or cold symptoms, you know whether it made you feel better. But now the “Really?” column explores the scientific evidence behind the popular home remedy.

Not only does the saltwater gargle appear to ease cold symptoms, but it also keeps you healthier during cold and flu season.

In a randomized study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2005, researchers recruited almost 400 healthy volunteers and followed them for 60 days during cold and flu season. Some of the subjects were told to gargle three times a day. At the end of the study period, the group that regularly gargled had a nearly 40 percent decrease in upper respiratory tract infections compared with the control group, and when they did get sick, "gargling tended to attenuate bronchial symptoms," the researchers wrote.

To learn more read the full column, "The Claim: Gargling With Salt Water can Ease Cold Symptoms,".

By TARA PARKER-POPE

How to manage low Blood Sugar

2011-11-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

ADW discusses diabetes and blood sugar with former NFL player Mike Golic

American Diabetes Wholesale recently had the opportunity to speak with former NFL player and Co-Host of ESPN’s ‘Mike & Mike In The Morning’ radio show. Golic was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in 2005 and he is now working to spread the word about diabetes education and how to manage low Blood Sugar.

You lead a busy lifestyle. Is it hard for you to find healthy options when traveling or having little time to sit down for a meal?

If you make your health a priority, there is always time for a healthy meal, no matter how busy you are. For example, there are always snacks around the radio station, and I realized a while back how often I was grabbing something on busy mornings without really thinking about what I was eating. So I started bringing healthy snacks with me to work, like a piece of fruit, so I’d be less likely to grab a donut when I got hungry during the show.

The bottom line is, when your schedule is crazy or you’re on the road, planning ahead is incredibly important for maintaining a healthy diet, particularly if you have type 2 diabetes like me. I was diagnosed about five years ago, which was a big wake-up call and helped push me to live a healthier lifestyle.

What major changes have you had to make to your diet once you were diagnosed with diabetes?

I would say the two biggest changes for me, as far as my diet is concerned, were adjusting to portion control and learning the importance of eating small meals throughout the day instead of a lot of food at once. Since being diagnosed with diabetes, I’ve learned that eating at irregular times can lead to low blood sugar levels. When I skip a meal, or don’t eat small snacks between meals, I can get dizzy and shaky, two of the most common symptoms of low blood sugar. That is why eating healthy and regularly throughout the day is so important. It’s not only better for my health, but it also helps me manage my blood sugar levels.

While on the air for your radio show, what do you keep handy to help maintain your blood glucose levels?

As I mentioned earlier, I make sure that I always have a piece of fruit or a granola bar handy – I’ve learned how important it is to have a healthy snack around to keep my blood sugar levels steady. To help avoid low blood sugar, I also talk to my doctor regularly about other things that can affect my blood sugar levels. He told me that skipping meals, excessive exercise and certain diabetes medications are common causes of low blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes.

Being a former professional athlete, you were used to routines as it relates to practice, travel, and working out. Has that helped with your diabetes management? If so, how?

In football, I listened to my coach – at practice, in games – and now my doctor is my coach. We developed a game plan together for how I was going to manage my diabetes, and I follow his instructions just as I did as a professional athlete on the field. My diabetes management has become a routine in my life, in the same way that working out and practicing was in my professional athletic career, but it was a long road getting to this point and I had a lot to learn. That’s why I’ve become involved with the Blood Sugar Basics program. The program's website, www.BloodSugarBasics.com was created by the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) with support from Merck, provides easy-to-understand information, videos and tools to help people manage their diabetes and blood sugar levels. A good way to get started is to take the quiz on the website to find out how much you know about low and high blood sugar.

Is there a difference between the kind of working out you do to stay in football shape versus that of trying to stay fit for your overall health?

There definitely is a difference, which is something I didn’t always realize. When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the athlete in me recognized that I needed to lose weight by eating less and working out harder. I didn’t eat enough before a tough workout and got shaky and sweaty – and I nearly passed out. This, I later learned from talking to my doctor, was an episode of low blood sugar. He told me that low blood sugar can be caused by not eating enough, working out too aggressively and even by certain types of diabetes medications.

How often do you go to your doctor to specifically discuss your diabetes?

I try to get to my doctor every 3-6 months to make sure I am managing my diabetes in a way that is going to improve my health and my lifestyle. Staying on top of my blood sugar levels is part of my game plan for keeping my diabetes in check. When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I didn’t know what to ask my doctor when I went for checkups. The Fast Five Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Blood Sugar, which you can download on BloodSugarBasics.com, has helped me get the conversation started with my doctor, and now I get a lot more out of my visits.

How helpful has it been to be working with someone that has made this process easier for you to handle?

It’s been extremely helpful. As I mentioned before, I had a low blood sugar experience after being diagnosed with diabetes, and my doctor helped me understand how and why this low blood sugar experience occurred, which has really helped me better understand how to manage my diabetes. He explained to me that shakiness, sweating, and nervousness are symptoms of low blood sugar that can happen from skipping meals, over-exercising or taking certain types of diabetes medications.

How important is it for you and your family to have a doctor that takes the time to explain how your body is constantly changing?

As the father of three kids, two of which are college football players, it is extremely important to me that they are learning the things about diabetes that I wish I had learned when I was a young athlete. For example, my doctor makes sure that I’m managing my blood pressure and cholesterol levels in addition to my blood sugar levels, since those of us with type 2 diabetes are much more likely to develop heart disease than people without the disease. I want my kids to be aware of the risk factors and consequences of diabetes so they are able to develop and maintain healthy habits throughout their lives.

Your father has diabetes. How much did you and your family know about the disease while he was getting treatment? And how does that compare to what you and your family are doing for your diabetes?

Honestly, I wasn’t very educated about diabetes until I was diagnosed myself. Even though my dad has it, my diagnosis still came as a shock to me. Everyone has the attitude “this isn’t going to happen to me” and that was exactly my problem – as a former professional athlete, I never thought type 2 diabetes would happen to me. I wish the Blood Sugar Basics program had been around when my dad was diagnosed, and when I was diagnosed, because it provides such great information about managing diabetes on a level that I can understand. At BloodSugarBasics.com, you can find resources like everyday tips for managing your diabetes and an interactive quiz to test how much you know about low and high blood sugar.

Your ESPN radio show reaches millions of people every morning. How often do you have your listeners contact you with questions about diabetes?

Most of my listeners ask me about sports, but a lot of them know I have type 2 diabetes and are in the same boat as me. I want my listeners to feel comfortable asking me questions about my health so that I can share what I have learned from the Blood Sugar Basics program. I like to set a good example for others with the disease, and show them they can manage it effectively. I encourage all my listeners struggling with diabetes to visit www.BloodSugarBasics.com.

What tips or recommendation would you tell someone who was just diagnosed with diabetes?

Honestly, what I would do first is direct them to www.BloodSugarBasics.com. It is an amazing resource developed by the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) with support from Merck –I wish I had had it when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes several years back. It teaches you the basics about managing your blood sugar, which is essential for people with type 2 diabetes. Most importantly, people who have been recently diagnosed need to have conversations with their doctors and ask them the correct questions, and BloodSugarBasics.com can help there, too – you can download the Fast Five Questions to Ask Your Doctor to help start the conversation.

Nurse Robbie's Tips to combat Cold & Flu

2011-11-09T03:31:00.000-08:00

Did you know people with diabetes have a reduced immune system? This can increase the risk for illness. Here are my cold and flu season tips which are good for anyone but especially for people with diabetes.

What you need to know about the flu

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), people with diabetes who get the flu are 6 times more likely to be hospitalized with complications. People with diabetes are 3-4 times more likely to die from the flu and pneumonia.
Some people may develop the flu despite getting a flu shot, but not because of the vaccine. It is not recommended that people with diabetes use the flu nasal spray mist which is a diluted live virus.
Medicare patients are entitled to free flu and pneumonia vaccines.
It is recommended that every person with diabetes get the pneumonia vaccine since it can prevent 80% of the pneumonia cases and related complications.
You can get both pneumonia and flu vaccines at the same time but have them given to you in different arms.
People allergic to eggs or who have Guillian Barre Syndrome should NOT get the flu shot.
The best time to get the flu shot is in October or November.

The Differences Between a Cold and the Flu

A Cold

Slow onset and is caused by a virus (versus a bacterial infection that may feel like a cold).
Typical symptoms: sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, clear secretions, dry cough, no fever, sore throat and no body aches.
A cold generally does not affect blood sugar.

The Flu

Sudden onset and is caused by virus. Also increases your chances of a bacterial illness like sinusitis, bronchitis or pneumonia.
Typical symptoms: watery eyes, stuffy running nose, flushed skin, fever, body aches, chills, muscle aches, weakness and extreme fatigue.
Very possible for the flu to have an effect on blood sugar due to the stress of the illness.

What to do if you get the flu

Rest.
Hydrate with sugar free liquids about once an hour.
Monitor your blood sugar every 4 hours. If it is below 60 mg/dL or over 240 mg/dL, call your doctor.
Monitor your temperature. Adults with a temperature above 101 should call their doctor.
Check for ketones when your blood sugar rises above 240 mg/dL. If a moderate to large amount of ketones is present, call your doctor. If a small amount of ketones is present, drink extra sugar-free liquids.
Wash your hands often.
If you are vomiting or have diarrhea, add some sodium from soup or consommé about every 3 hours.
Keep taking your medications as directed even if you are not eating as your blood sugar will possibly be elevated. Check with your physician if you are on insulin as it may need to be increased.
Call your doctor if you lose more than 5 pounds. That may indicate that your blood sugar is out of control.
Call your doctor if you have trouble breathing or if you start to feel disoriented.
Change your tooth brush when you are feeling better to avoid potential infection or re-infection.

What to do if you get a cold

Rest.
Hydrate.
Consider taking zinc supplements of 50 mg every 8 hours for 3 - 4 days. If you prefer zinc lozenges, choose the sugar free kind.
Consider taking vitamin C supplements up to 1000 mg a day. Watch out for stomach upset which can happen.
Consider taking Echinacea if you have a cold to help support your immune system.

Preventing Illness

Of course, preventing illness is always best. In addition to getting the flu shot or pneumonia vaccine, here are ways to help keep your immune system healthy and avoid illness during this season of increased travel and social interaction:

Get plenty of rest.
Stay hydrated.
Wash your hands.
Carry hand sanitizer.
Avoid contact with objects such as door knobs, computer keyboards, telephones, or grocery carts without using hand sanitizer.
Consider supplementation such as Vitamin D (D3 cholecalciferol) and probiotics to support your immune system.
Consider using a Neti pot which will help keep your nasal passages clear.

Tips by Nurse Robbie

Chef Charles Mattocks Shares Pumpkin Bread

2011-11-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

Everyone wants to save money, but eating well on a tight budget can be a great challenge, especially with today's rapidly-rising food costs. Now, The Poor Chef comes to the rescue with a collection of creative, great-tasting meal solutions that won't break the bank. As TV's "The Poor Chef," Charles Mattocks has challenged home cooks all over the country to come up with healthy and interesting meals that can be made on a budget. The resulting cookbook includes a multicultural mix of 122 great-tasting recipes -- almost all of which can be made for $7.00 or less for 4 servings! The book is illustrated throughout with 74 black and white photographs, and includes chapters on poultry, beef, pork, and other meats as well as pasta, fish, seafood, eggs, salads, soups and sandwiches, vegetarian meals, and desserts. All the recipes are simple enough for everyday, weeknight cooking, and offer big flavors on a small budget. A must-have for anyone seeking creative, inexpensive meal solutions, The Poor Chef will teach readers everywhere to eat cheap -- but eat well!

How to Prepare Granny's Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread

Mammogram can cut the breast cancer for Women

2010-09-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

Researchers reported Wednesday that mammograms can cut the breast cancer death rate by 26 percent for women in their 40s. But their results were greeted with skepticism by some experts who say they may have overestimated the benefit.

The study’s authors include Dr. Stephen Duffy, an epidemiologist at the University of London, and Dr. Laszlo Tabar, professor of radiology at the University of Uppsala School of Medicine in Sweden, who have long been advocates of mammography screening. Their paper is published online in the journal Cancer and will be presented on Friday at a meeting sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Oncology and five other organizations.

The study’s conclusions contrast with those of a report last year by the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group that issues guidelines on cancer screening, questioning the benefit of screening women younger than 50.

The new study took advantage of circumstances in Sweden, where since 1986 some counties have offered mammograms to women in their 40s and others have not, according to the lead author, Hakan Jonsson, professor of cancer epidemiology at Umea University in Sweden.

The researchers compared breast cancer deaths in women who had a breast cancer diagnosis in counties that had screening with deaths in counties that did not. The rate was 26 percent lower in counties with screening.

The study, said Dr. Jennifer C. Obel of the oncology society, “captured the real-world experience of mammograms in this age group.” She suggested that all women, starting at age 40, should “speak to their doctors about mammograms.”

Other experts were not convinced. One problem, said Dr. Peter C. Gotzsche of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, a nonprofit group that reviews health care research, is that the investigators counted the number of women who received a diagnosis of breast cancer and also died of it. They did not compare the broader breast cancer death rates in the counties.

It is an important distinction, Dr. Gotzsche said, because screening finds many cancers that do not need to be treated or found early. With more harmless cancers being found in the screened group, it will look like the chance of surviving breast cancer is greater in that group. “The analysis is flawed,” he said.

Dr. Jonsson said the aim of screening “is to find breast cancers early and to reduce mortality from breast cancer.” He and his colleagues plan to look at the overdiagnosis later, he said.

But Donald Berry, a statistician at MD Anderson Cancer Center, said the overdiagnosis problem was a serious one. “We are finding cancers that would never be found if we didn’t look,” he said. “Small wonder people think screening is great — some of the cancers it finds were not lethal in the first place.”

News Courtesy by: The New york Times

About Health Care Reform

2010-09-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

Health care reform is a general rubric used for discussing major health policy creation or changes for the most part, governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to:

* Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insurance programs or private sector insurance companies
* Expand the array of health care providers consumers may choose among
* Improve the access to health care specialists
* Improve the quality of health care
* Decrease the cost of health care

For further information about Health Care in the countries : The Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States, Hawaii and Massachusetts, Elsewhere

HIM professionals are very vital to healthcare revamp

2010-09-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

On left is Mr. Peter Salgo, MD, associate director of surgical intensive care at Presbyterian Hospital in New York.

ORLANDO – There is "no distinction between information management and healthcare," said Peter Salgo, MD, associate director of surgical intensive care at Presbyterian Hospital in New York, in his rousing presentation at AHIMA on Tuesday. And the people who know how to synthesize, store, and integrate medical information will lead the massive healthcare changes of the 21st century.

Indeed, said Salgo, a television personality and healthcare futurist, what is a physician but "essentially an information synthesizer?" Not for nothing are many docs known for their excellent memories and near-total recall.

And in healthcare, these days "memory is something we have in great supply. We can fill CPUs with memory." And the data and IT professionals who will do that are key to the future health of the healthcare system, said Salgo.

"You are on the forefront of change," he told the audience. "You will make the difference. It's through your influence in the way information is managed. Even by grinding through CPT codes, you're creating a database that we can mine later."

On those and countless other issues, HIM professionals are key, said Salgo. "Nobody's going anywhere without the folks in this room."

There were many laugh lines in Salgo's speech.

He parodied the dinosaur-like doctors who "write a note in Word, print it out, dump it in a folder and think they've enter the electronic age. These people might as well use quills and parchment."

He guffawed at the contention "that the EMR is going to balance the healthcare budget," running down a list of politicians who essentially claimed "that the EMR would save the government $77 billion a year, starting the first year. I'm assuming that year is … now." That money can be saved – "long-term," he said, "but not before the midterm election."

He poked fun at some of the foibles of manual and voice-recognition based transcription – wondering about the poor soul who's afflicted with "chirpies."

But despite the jokes, Salgo's speech had a seriousness of purpose.

He urged a "common language" among EMRs that can bridge the gaps between legacy and next-generation programs.

He requested technology that would allow for a "simple link" that leads from the record to X-rays or lab results with just a click, and EMRs featuring improved lab reporting standards: "I want graphs. I want trends. I want it to show me out-of-norm findings."

He wondered, "where was it written that the only way to make a system secure is to make it so difficult to log on that nobody uses it?" And he pointed out that if passwords continue to have to be be 22 characters long, with letters and numbers, needing to be changed every few weeks, "people are going to write them on Post-it notes" and defeat their purpose entirely.

And he railed against the scourge of "note creep," where docs simply cut and past previous assessments into a patient's record, vastly undermining its efficiency and effectiveness.

"I have reviewed 6,000-page charts, of which two thirds was regurgitated garbage," he said. Worse, some physicians are "printing it out! It's not enough that it's taking up silicon and magnetic domain, they're putting it on tree bark."

Resolving those and other problems are imperative, said Salgo. "It can be done. And you're just the folks to do it."

He went on: "Do we have an EMR now? Yes. Does it work? Sort of. Does it need to be better? Yup. Will it be better? Yup. Tomorrow? Absolutely not! And are we going to save $77 billion with it? Nope.

"See why we need you?"

News By: HealthCare IT News

Obesity Makes More Expensive for Women

2010-09-30T06:25:00.000-07:00

Economists at George Washington University have tabulated the cost of obesity and discovered a surprising gender gap: It’s more expensive for a woman to be obese than for a man, as Roni Rabin reports in today’s Vital Signs column.

While a man racks up $2,646 annually in extra expenses if he is obese, a woman’s obesity costs her $4,879, almost twice as much. Much of the gender gap is due to lower wages for obese women, who earn less relative to similar working women who are not obese, according to the analysis.

The study also found that the more overweight you are, the more expensive life gets. The incremental costs faced by obese women are nine times higher than those for overweight women. For obese men, the costs are six times higher than those of overweight men.

To learn more read "Obesity Costs Women More, Study Finds." You can also read the original report, "A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States."

News Courtesy By: The New York Times

HealthCare.gov is on Facebook Now

2010-09-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

Connect with HealthCare.gov on Facebook so you can stay informed about the
Affordable Care Act (The comprehensive health care reform law enacted in March 2010. The law was enacted in two parts: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010 and was amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act on March 30, 2010. The name “Affordable Care Act” is used to refer to the final, amended version of the law.), and other resources that allow you take health care into your own hands. The link is http://www.facebook.com/Healthcare.gov

Whether you’re searching for health insurance coverage options or trying to understand what the new law means for you, your family, or your small business, HealthCare.gov on Facebook will give you the tools you need to get started. Simply Follow HealthCare.gov Facebook page.

At Healthcare.gov’s Facebook page, you will be able to:

* Search for insurance coverage using our “Insurance Finder” tool. The tool asks you to fill out two fields with basic information about yourself and the state you live in. You are redirected to a page on HealthCare.gov that continues with the insurance finder process based on the information you provided.
* Share your thoughts and ideas with other members of the HealthCare.gov network.
* Understand what the Affordable Care Act means for you, your family, or your small business.
* Stay informed with new blog posts and webchats.