Mobile Digital Health

by Jose Sonik
The more aggressively you screen for and try to prevent osteoporosis, the lower your risk of a hip fracture is, studies show.
Hip fractures are common in the elderly, especially women, who lose essential calcium during pregnancy and menopause.
Kaiser Southern California has developed a three-step action plan that they say can reduce hip fractures by as much as 25%.
The three steps are as follows:
Bone scans: Kaiser recommends x-ray absotiometry, the best bone density test available. The tests should be taken by all women over 65, all men over 70, everyone on high dosages of medicines that leach calcium from the bones, and anyone over 50 with a history of fragility fractures. These are the high-risk populations, and a scan could catch a weakening bone before it becomes a fracture.
Education and treatment: Learning and teaching about osteoporosis helps people help themselves. The more you know about osteoporosis, the better you can protect yourself from fractures. Kaiser found that patients who understood their treatment opted for more than just drug treatment: they got home safety checks to help prevent falls. Slippery bathtubs, cords across the room, and loose rugs are all tripping hazards that can snap a fragile bone.
Fall Prevention: If you’re at risk for a fall, consider learning fall-reduction techniques, that will lower your risk for a fall. Physical therapy can improve balance and coordination, reducing the risk still further.
Kaiser ran a three-part program with 620,000 patients in Southwestern United States, and found an overall reduction of hip fractures by 35%. Why wait for them to test it in your neighborhood? Start your own three-part program today.

Touch and massage can relieve pain and improve mood in cancer patients.

A study comparing the results of touch therapy and massage therapy found that both relieved pain and improved mood, but massage was twice as effective. Furthermore, there was an increase in pain relief as treatment continued over time.

The results are important, suggesting a non-medical way for cancer patients to receive pain relief.

It’s been long known that touch has a soothing affect on the human body, but there have been few studies supporting it.

Touch therapy consists of a therapist placing their hands on specific spots on the body and applying light pressure for a few moments. The treatment comes out of the holistic healing movement and has not garnered much support among those in the medical field.

Massage therapy is more vigorous, including pressing, rolling, and finger pressure at trigger points. Though not common in the hospital, massage therapy is a commonly offered as part of a physical rehabilitation program. Now, it may become an option for patients receiving painful treatments for debilitating diseases.

Barely half the hospitals in the USA have palliative care programs.

If you aren’t sure what palliative care is, that’s part of the problem.

Palliative care is a care program that includes management of pain and other debilitating symptoms and increased communication and care coordination between physician and family. Palliative care increases the quality of life for patients with complex prognoses . . . Greater palliative care has been linked to lower death rates, fewer intensive care admissions during a patient’s final months, and lower overall expense per patient.

The statistics speak, and palliative care has been increasing around the nation, but it is still almost unavailable in many rural hospitals and the south. The trend is upward, but the problem is still widespread.

The best way to receive palliative care is via hospice care, delivered in specialized institutions, such as nursing or assisted living facilities. Such facilities are smaller, more specialized, and less hectic than hospitals, permitting them greater latitude in customizing the service their patients receive.

Palliative care utilizes a broad range of services for one goal: relieve suffering and increase quality of life. When paired with standard medical treatment, the results is a more comfortable treatment and faster recovery.

~ by Josh Libroan

Sonography is a popular new form of diagnosis because of its safe, non-invasive procedure. Borrowed from bats, sonagraphy utilizes the technology of sonar, which bounces sound waves off of objects to create dynamic pictures of them. Sonographers send and receive sound waves through a transducer, a thick baton that they run over the patient’s skin to sense what is underneath. Sonography is used to take a look at the heart, liver, kidneys, bloodstream, and most famously, unborn babies. It can be used to diagnose and treat heart disease, heart attack, and vascular disease that can lead to stroke. It is also used to guide probes and needles in surgery.

When you need a sonogram for diagnostic purposes, you don’t want to wait all day for it. That’s why Mobile DH provides rapid sonography service at your bedside, for hemologists, cardiologists, internists and other medical specialists, as well as homecare patients, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities.

A full physical exam and screening for heart risk are a necessary step prior to medicating a hyperactive child with a stimulant drug, but an electrocardiogram is not a must according to The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA has taken a step back from their earlier recommendation in April where they advocated taking an ECG as an essential measure before embarking on stimulant therapy.

Research has shown that while stimulants used to treat ADHD are known to raise blood pressure and heart rate, serious heart complications appear rare in kids who take the drugs. Undergoing an ECG would be reasonable but in some cases the ECG might result in false-positive readings, indicating heart risk where there is none.

By Donna Lampa

The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology released a joint statement urging research to be done to determine the link between sleep apnea and heart disease, following increasing evidence of just such a connection, as well as the widespread prevalence of sleep apnea and rising levels of obesity in the United States, especially among young people. Obesity is a major cause of sleep apnea

“We feel it is important to alert the cardiovascular community to the implications of this emerging area of research. It is possible that diagnosing and treating sleep apnea may prove to be an important opportunity to advance our efforts at preventing and treating heart disease,” said Dr. Virend K. Somers, a professor of medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

“We need to more clearly define the cause and effect relationship between sleep apnea and cardiovascular diseases and risk factors,” he noted. “There is evidence that sleep apnea may be a cause of some cases of high blood pressure, but for other cardiovascular conditions, the evidence is largely circumstantial

By Fay Ashland

New research findings by the University of Arizona show a link between a woman’s high bone mineral density and a greater likelihood of developing breast cancer. This factor is independent of the risk level predicted by using the popular Gail model. The Gail model utilizes family history, age and other factors to estimate a woman’s risk of breast cancer over five years and over her lifetime, but it does not include data on bone mineral density, which is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer.

Recently other studies have linked bone health and  breast cancer risk in various ways. At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting,  a study was presented that showed how Zometa (zoledronic acid), a drug used to treat osteoporosis, lowered the risk of breast cancer recurrence in premenopausal women.Other research revealed that women with breast cancer who are deficient in vitamin D  at the time of their diagnosis were more likely to have a recurrence or to die from their disease. Vitamin D is also vital to bone health.

Women with high bone density tend to be overweight or obese which does raise their risk of breast cancer.

According to Dr. Jay Brooks, Chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, “This is more information that shows a link in my opinion, between increasing weight, obesity and the development of breast cancer”.

~ by Damion Drilla

Dementia isn’t all about aging, studies show. Health in mid-life can have a marked effect on cognitive ability later on.

A British study of 10,308 people, mostly men, followed the subjects from roughly the ages of 35-55 (the study started in 1985) to about 60-75 years (the study ended in 2004).

Coronary heart disease in midlife was found to be linked to lower cognition in later years. In men, heart disease was linked to lower reason, vocabulary, and MMSE scores. In women, it corresponded additionally to lower phonemic and semantic fluency.

The longer the heart disease – meaning, the earlier it was contracted – the greater the drop in cognitive ability over the years. This suggests that heart disease creates an ongoing condition that continuously deteriorates mental function until dementia kicks in.

Medicare had proposed stopping coverage for CT scans used to diagnose heart disease, but after receiving complaints from many Medical Societies including the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Radiology, they reversed their decision.

According to the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Radiology  – the “policy would have a profoundly negative impact on Medicare beneficiaries by limiting needed access to this technology for clinically appropriate indications.”

High-tech scans are one of the fastest growing areas of health-care spending, and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service is determined to cuts costs. But for now, the agency will let the Regional Medicare carriers make their  own decisions on this and they usually tend to cover the test.

Medicare paid for an estimated 70,000 of the heart scans in 2006, at a cost of $40 million to $50 million.

The scans can serve a purpose similar to conventional angiography, in which X-ray images of the coronary vessels heart are enhanced with a dye injected by a catheter. A set of guidelines, created by several medical societies, recommends using the scans only on certain patients who have some evidence of heart disease, such as those with chest pain and a hard-to-evaluate stress test.

Since CT scans are less invasive than angiography, there is some concern that they might be used for screening patients who don’t show symptoms of disea

Many patients who require pulmonary care for chronic breathing problems such Asthma, Bronchiectasis, Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis, Pneumonia and Pulmonary Fibrosis as well as those who have undergone lung surgery are opting to be treated at home as opposed to languishing in a hospital or  nursing facility

“Many (clients) are sick people, but home is clearly what the majority of patients would prefer rather than going into a home,”says Dr. Benjamin Rossi, Medical Director of the Visiting Nurses Association’s Home Health Care program. “If you have a good organization, you can help people with quality of life and help manage their chronic disease so they can stay at their home.”

Advances in technology are making it easier for family members to manage the home care of their loved one. Mobile Digital Imaging is one area that can serve as a great asset to home care, helping to fill the gap between the hospital and home. Just one phone call brings a technician to the bedside of your mom or dad and  a full spectrum of test  can be done on the spot. X-rays, EKGs, Sonograms, and Echocardiograms are just some of what’s available and all imaging is done digitally so results aren’t long in coming. Radiologists on call 24/7 read and evaluate all tests immediately, so your physician can follow up with the appropriate treatment.

More and more people want their care provided at home so they can feel comfortable in their own bed. Now they can rest assured, knowing that when their doctor orders an x-ray  it doesnt require the hassle of a hospital trip. They can just stay put.