High blood pressure, obesity linked to memory loss in elderly. Older people who have larger waistlines, high blood pressure and other risk factors associated with a condition doctors call "metabolic syndrome" may be at higher risk of memory problems, a new study suggests. In the large French study, older adults with metabolic syndrome were 20% more likely to have cognitive decline on a memory test than those without it. "Our study sheds new light on how metabolic syndrome and the individual factors of the disease may affect cognitive health," said study author Christelle Raffaitin, of the French National Institute of Health Research in Bordeaux, France. "Our results suggest that management of metabolic syndrome may help slow down age-related memory loss, or delay the onset of dementia. " The study, by researchers from the University Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2 and Sanofi-Aventis, runs in today's online issue of Neurology.
Gail Musen, a researcher at Joslin Diabetes Center and instructor at Harvard Medical School, agrees. -- High blood pressure. The Business of Health Care - Prescriptions Blog. The Walgreen Company, bracing for potentially hundreds of thousands of customers to switch to another pharmacy when the new year begins on Sunday, is introducing a national plan it hopes will minimize customer disruption from its contract battle with its pharmacy benefits manager, Express Scripts. For customers who want to remain, Walgreen’s plan includes a special discount in January to customers for its prescriptions savings club. For those moving on, Walgreen has staffed up 24-hour call centers and instituted computer changes to permit the transfer of multiple prescriptions to other pharmacies in the customer’s network.
Express Scripts and Walgreen have been battling over payment issues for months. “Even as much as we have communicated this, a lot of folks don’t know what a P.B.M. is or what Express Scripts is, so we want to make sure we are helping patients through this,” Walgreen’s chief executive, Gregory D. Teenage birth rates continue state and national decline - Courant.com. February 02, 2011|By RINKER BUCK, rbuck@courant.com, The Hartford Courant The birth rate for teenage girls has resumed its dramatic decline nationally, with Connecticut and other New England states registering the lowest rates in the country. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Wednesday showing that the national birth rate for teenagers in 2009 was 39.1 births per 1,000 females 15 to 19 — the lowest rate recorded since teen birth statistics were first collected in the 1940s.
The birth rate for 2009 was 59 percent lower than the historic peak of 96.3 births per 1,000 in 1957, and was welcomed by health experts because rates had briefly increased in 2006 and 2007. Connecticut, which the CDC says recorded 21 births per 1,000 teenage girls in 2009, ranked the fourth lowest in the country. New Hampshire, with a teen birth rate of 16.4 per 1,000, was ranked lowest in the country, followed by Vermont with 17.4, and Massachusetts with 19.6. DJ Kool Herc Rallies for Health Care Reform. DJ Kool Herc, still suffering from complications that arose from a combination of kidney stones and lack of health insurance, remains in poor condition, but now he’s turning his situation into a cause. Highlighting heath care reform as necessary and pointing to his work to preserve 1520 Sedgwick as the “Birthplace of Hip-Hop,” Herc says he is on a quest to highlight how many citizens have little to no access to health care.
“We live in one of the superpowers of the world!” Herc said to MTV News yesterday. “‘Give me your tired, your poor … ‘ and then you don’t take care of them? There should be no weak ants in the colony. There shouldn’t be anyone fighting for health care! Herc took pains to spread word that the issue wasn’t just about him or other members of the entertainment industry. “I see this situation as another quest for me to shine light on a sensitive issue for the community,” he continued.
Donations for Kool Herc can be sent to: Kool Herc Production, P.O. Senate Votes Down Health-Care Repeal. Battlefield Lessons for Nursing Care. At a recent medical conference in Miami, I sat spellbound as Dr. Stephen Ferrara, a commander in the Navy, delivered a keynote address describing his work in a mobile hospital in Afghanistan. Jeff Swensen for The New York TimesTheresa Brown, R.N.
Dr. Ferrara is an interventional radiologist, a doctor who uses medical images — CT scans, ultrasounds and the like — to treat abscesses, biopsy hard-to-reach masses, check blood flow and cauterize bleeds. He first went to Afghanistan as a medic, then made a place for himself in the operating room, where he placed micro-stents to restore blood flow to damaged tissue, checked perfusion to save legs that would otherwise be amputated and embolized wounds to stop blast victims from bleeding to death.
It’s undeniably grim work, but done with a driving sense of urgency and very few administrative distractions. Hospital nurses are required to do paperwork, or “chart,” throughout each shift. All medications must, of course, be charted. Securing a Healthy Future: The Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard on Child Health System Performance, 2011. States Diverge on How to Approach Health Care Ruling. UMass Medical School - MassAHEC Network trains mentors for community health center workforce.
By: Lisa Dayne, UMass Medical School Communications Robert Carlin MassAHEC Network Associate Director Shelly Yarnie (left) and MassAHEC Network Director of Training and Education Mary Philbin. In a recent survey conducted by Commonwealth Medicine’s Massachusetts Area Health Education Center (MassAHEC) Network, state primary care physicians emphasized the importance of a competent clinical support team for effective health care delivery.
The MassAHEC Network is addressing this need and strengthening the health care workforce in Worcester’s most vulnerable communities by training mentors to support career development and job retention for entry-level medical assistants at community health centers. “The program trained these primary care professionals as mentors for medical assistants in community health centers,” said Mary Philbin, MEd, director of training and education for the MassAHEC Network. About Commonwealth Medicine Related links: Health care reform struck down by judge. A federal judge ruled Monday that President Barack Obama's sweepinghealth care overhaul is unconstitutional, the latest in a series of contradictory rulings that will likely need to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition Faced with a major legal setback, the White House called the ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson — in a challenge to the law by 26 of the nation's 50 states — "a plain case of judicial overreaching. " The Florida judge's ruling produced an even split in federal court decisions so far on the health care law, mirroring enduring divisions among the public. The Justice Department quickly announced it would appeal, and administration officials declared that for now the federal government and the states would proceed without interruption to carry out the law.
Democrats just as quickly slammed the decision. New Medical Home Standards Align With Meaningful Use Rule. On Monday, the National Committee for Quality Assurance released new standards for primary care practices seeking recognition under its patient-centered medical home program, Modern Physician reports (Robeznieks, Modern Physician, 1/31). The new standards reinforce federal criteria on how primary care practices can demonstrate meaningful use of health IT. Under the 2009 federal economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records will qualify for incentive payments through Medicare and Medicaid. New Medical Home Standards The patient-centered medical home model emphasizes care coordination and communication. NCQA's new standards for 2011 call for primary care practices to: Assist patients with self-care; Help patients access community resources; Improve communication between medical facilities; and Provide more patient-centered services.
Alignment With Meaningful Use.