A consensus exists among health care providers today that there is a general need for improvement in the overall standard of care in hospitals, especially patient safety and the reduction of medication errors. This need is largely based on literature that has identified medication errors as a significant and under-recognized cause of adverse outcomes in hospital units, including the emergency department (ED).» Full Article
Do you start to feel down when summer turns to fall and the days become shorter? Do you feel like sleeping all day and not going to work or studying for exams? Do these feelings seem to linger endlessly, perhaps resolving only when the snow melts and spring arrives? If this describes how you feel in the late summer and early fall, you may be suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a condition that affects from 1%–10% of the population (depending on what criteria are used to make the diagnosis), 4.2% of whom are children ages 9–12 years of age. » Full Article
Fueled by past media attention to concerns about a possible link between childhood immunizations and autism and a recent book promoting an alternative vaccination schedule, an increasing number of parents are choosing not to completely vaccinate their children against certain diseases or to delay vaccinations until their children are older. In Massachusetts, the number of parents choosing not to vaccinate still is fairly small, however, so medical officials are not overly concerned about the potential impact on public health. » Full Article
Essential tremor (ET) is a common condition, affecting 1%–4% of the population or an estimated 10 million people in the United States. Though it commonly begins as shaking or tremor of the hands, it may progress over time (years) to involve the arms, head, voice, tongue, legs, and trunk. In most people, it begins in the non-dominant hand before progression to both. Though once known as benign ET, since many affected people require no treatment or only small doses of medication, for a minority, the disorder is anything but benign, interfering with simple activities of daily living, like eating, drinking, dressing, and writing, and even making employment impossible. If the response to medical treatment was poor, such patients often had little recourse but for a relatively risky form of brain surgery, thalamotomy. Today, however, people with severe ET have the option of a newer procedure, deep brain stimulation (DBS) that offers comparable benefit with a lower risk of side effects and complications. » Full Article
A little humor makes a great opening into an often less than humorous discussion, but is it true that women are better estate planners than men? It is hard to say because frankly both sexes fail at alarming rates to plan their estates properly. » Full Article
Hearing loss is the third most common health problem in the country, yet most people avoid taking care of it for up to 10 years, often for personal or financial reasons. Some people may not know where to get help or have never heard of audiologists, who are described by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) as “the primary health care professionals who evaluate, diagnose, treat, and manage hearing loss and balance disorders in adults and children.”
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View health care related press releases from Western and Central Massachusetts, and Connecticut. » Full Article
