July 10, 2015

Mayo Clinic in the News Weekly Highlights

By Karl Oestreich

Mayo Clinic in the News LogoMayo Clinic in the News is a weekly highlights summary of major media coverage. If you would like to be added to the weekly distribution list, send a note to Laura Wuotila with this subject line: SUBSCRIBE to Mayo Clinic in the News. Thank you.

Editor, Karl Oestreich; Assistant Editors: Carmen Zwicker, Emily Blahnik

 

Star Tribune
Mayo makes case for Medicare reimbursement for telemedicine
by Jim Spencer

Nurses Jennifer Meindel and Chad Ditlevson stand in front of monitors in a small room at the Mayo Clinic reading vital signs and occasionally calling up video images of patients lying in beds. All of the 40-some patients cycling across theStar Tribune newspaper logo screens are in intensive care in the Mayo Clinic Health System. But none of them are actually at Mayo. The clinic’s electronic intensive care unit, known as eICU, is one of the frontiers of telemedicine. Backed by Dr. Daniel Brown, Mayo’s chief of critical care, and nurse manager Sarah Bell, Meindel and Ditlevson direct the care of very vulnerable patients from afar.

Reach: The Star Tribune Sunday circulation is 518,745 copies and weekday circulation is 300,277. The Star Tribune is the state’s largest newspaper and ranks 16th nationally in circulation.

Additional coverage: Insurance News Net

Context: Each year, Mayo Clinic physicians see people from all 50 states. Advances in technology are helping patients who may be faced with long-distance travel and logistical hurdles connect with Mayo Clinic’s specialized health care providers easier and faster. However, the patchwork of state-by-state medical licensing rules presents a costly and time-consuming barrier to telehealth care delivery. Steve Ommen, M.D. is medical director of Center for Connected Care, Mayo Clinic.

Contact: Sharon Theimer

 

Wall Street Journal
Seeking Better Ways to Treat the Lows of Bipolar Disorder
by Melinda Beck

Distinguishing between regular depression and bipolar disorder is one of the toughest calls psychiatrists face. The WSJ Bannersymptoms are often similar, but medications that ease depression can make bipolar patients worse by triggering manic episodes. The dilemma is fueling new research efforts to understand how the two conditions differ and how to predict which patients will respond to which drugs. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic, which treats some 3,000 patients a year with bipolar disorder, are collecting DNA samples, blood tests, brain scans and clinical information in hopes of identifying genetic risk factors, or biomarkers, that can lead to earlier diagnoses and individualized treatments.

Reach: The Wall Street Journal, a US-based newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, has the largest print circulation in America with 1.4 million (60 percent) of a total of 2.3 million. Its website has more than 4.3 million unique visitors each month.

Context: The Individualized Medicine Biobank for Bipolar Disorder is intended to serve as a resource for the bipolar research community. This biobank will be open to collaborations after a three-year infrastructure development. Researchers are establishing a large-scale biobank of Bipolar Type I and II Disorder, collecting both biologic samples and clinical data from 2,000 individuals ages 18-80. This is a multi-site endeavor, with Mayo Clinic Minnesota serving as the primary project site. Researchers at Mayo Clinic will collaborate with other researchers at the University of Minnesota, Lindner Center of Hope (Cincinnati, Ohio) as well as the Mayo Clinic sites of Arizona and Florida. Mark Frye, M.D., is chair of psychiatry and psychology at Mayo Clinic.

Contact: Bob Nellis

 

MPR
How hospitals are improving heart attack care, survival
by Emily Kaiser

"We've been advocating for getting our act together and moving quickly for literally two decades," said Dr. Sharonne Hayes, a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic. "What has really happened is we put the systems in place to achieve this and whenMPR News logo you have a little success it makes everybody get on board." The time for care dropped when all sides of the system coordinated: from recognition and speed on first contact with a paramedic or emergency room to transfer to hospitals with the technology required for proper care, said Dr. Chet Rihal an interventionalist and the chairperson of the Cardiology Department at Mayo Clinic.

Reach: Minnesota Public Radio operates 43 stations and serves virtually all of Minnesota and parts of the surrounding states. MPR has more than 100,000 members and more than 900,000 listeners each week, which is the largest audience of any regional public radio network.

Context: Charanjit "Chet"Rihal, M.D., is an academic interventional cardiologist and an expert in the field of coronary and valve and structural cardiology. As the principal investigator on multiple research grants, Dr. Rihal oversees studies focusing on valvular and structural heart disease (for example, percutaneous aortic valve therapies), clinical trials in coronary artery disease, and developing novel genetic approaches to anti-thrombotic therapy. Sharrone Hayes, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist. Her research focuses on cardiovascular disease and prevention, with a focus on sex and gender differences and conditions that uniquely or predominantly affect women.

Contact: Traci Klein

 

Post-Bulletin
Good Health: Doctors belong in the social media conversation

Next fall, Mayo hosts the first ever global meeting for its social media health network, a gathering planned to be in Logo for Post-Bulletin newspaperAustralia."Mayo encourages physicians to understand how to use these tools appropriately," said Dr. Farris Timimi, medical director of Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. "Most patients make their decisions based on a reference network. More and more often that includes online communications. We check our phones an average of 14 times a day."

Reach: The Post-Bulletin has a weekend readership of nearly 45,000 people and daily readership of more than 41,000 people. The newspaper serves Rochester, Minn., and southeast Minnesota.

Context: Farris Timimi, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and also serves as the medical director for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

Contact: Lee Aase

 

New York Times, In Health Law, a Boon for Diet Clinics by Rachel Abrams and Katie Thomas — Dr. Michael Kaplan looked across his desk at a woman who had sought out his Long Island Weight Loss Institute and asked the question he often poses to new patients: “Where do you think you go wrong with food?”…Sustained weight loss is notoriously difficult to achieve. Lasting results require long-term care and follow-up, said Michael D. Jensen, the director of the obesity treatment research program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who has studied the effectiveness of weight-loss programs. “It just takes most people so long to make permanent changes in eating or activity habits,” he said. “There’s always this search for the quick fix, and usually you can find somebody who’s willing to sell it to you.”

New York Times, Effective Concussion Treatment Remains Frustratingly Elusive, Despite a Booming Industry by Barry Meier and Danielle Ivory — In a small brick building across the street from a Taco Bell in Marrero, La., patients enter a clear plastic capsule and breathe pure oxygen. The procedure, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, uses a pressurized chamber to help scuba divers overcome the bends and to aid people sickened by toxic gases. But Dr. Paul G. Harch, who operates the clinic there on the outskirts of New Orleans, offers it as a concussion treatment…Experts say that the most effective treatment is addressing each of a patient’s symptoms individually, and in some ways, the search for new approaches has returned to the starting line. A concussion expert with the Mayo Clinic, Dr. David W. Dodick, said he believed a cheap nutritional supplement, N-acetylcysteine, could help treat concussion symptoms, and he hoped to study it.

Post Bulletin, Industry payments to doctors show impact of royalties by Paul John Scott — Drug and device makers paid American doctors and hospitals $6.5 billion in 2014, according to 2014 figures released Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medical device royalties dominated the funds sent to Mayo Clinic doctors from private industry in 2014. According to a Post-Bulletin analysis, Mayo Clinic in Rochester and its physicians received about $13 million in more than 4,000 transactions from private industry last year. More than 2,200 Rochester-based doctors received payments. While many of the payments are for small sums, Rochester doctors took part in more than 150 transactions exceeding $10,000 each.

Psych Central, 1 in 4 Patients Given Painkillers Go On to Longer-Term Prescriptions by Janice Wood — Painkiller addiction and accidental overdoses have become common in the U.S. In an effort to identify who is at most risk, researchers from the Mayo Clinic studied how many patients prescribed an opioid painkiller for the first time progressed to long-term prescriptions.

Star Tribune, Radiation errors at St. Cloud cancer center under investigation — by David Chanen  and Jeremy Olson — Reports of errant doses of radiation given to patients at a large St. Cloud cancer center are being investigated by the Minnesota Department of Health and a Minneapolis law firm…In addition to being operated by CentraCare, Coborn in 2012 became the first cancer center in the United States to join the Mayo Clinic Cancer Care Network. That gives Coborn practitioners access to Mayo expertise on tumors. A spokesman for Mayo in Rochester said its leaders are aware of the issues at Coborn and are providing suggestions and oversight to improve the quality of its radiotherapy treatments.

Star Tribune, After same-sex marriage ruling, employers weigh domestic partner programs by Kavita Kumar — The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling allowing same-sex marriage has raised a question for employers: Should they maintain domestic partner benefits? Two of Minnesota’s largest employers, Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, have already phased out those benefits since the state legalized same-sex marriage in 2013.

Star Tribune, Senior athletes stay in the game by playing it safe, smart by Allie Shah — Tom Langenfeld can’t jump as high as he used to when he was a college student competing in track and field meets, but that hasn’t curbed the 80-year-old’s enthusiasm for the sport…“There’s clearly a slowing down,” said Tom Allison, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Sports Cardiology Clinic and an associate professor of medicine. “You can’t perform at the same level,” he said. “I see patients every day who say, ‘I think there’s something wrong with my heart. I can’t keep up.’ The first thing I say to them is: ‘How old are the people you’re playing with?’ ”

Star Tribune, Consulting deals with medical companies can earn doctors six-figure paydays by Joe Carlson — For the past five years, Coon Rapids cardiologist Dr. Jeffrey Chambers has led a nationwide study that found doctors could safely use a Minnesota-made medical device to drill out hardened calcium in clogged arteries around the heart…Manufacturers have a huge financial stake in the outcomes of clinical studies because positive results are crucial to getting regulatory approval to sell their products. Organizations like the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota no longer allow their doctors to serve as investigators on studies if they have consulting deals with makers of the devices or drugs being tested.

Post Bulletin, Hormel Institute researcher receives grant by Andrew Deziel — The Hormel Institute's Cancer Cell Biology & Translational Research department has received a $1.7 million grant for a project studying cholangiocarcinoma, a form of cancer for which few treatment options currently exist. The Hormel Institute is an Austin-based medical research center. The study will be led by Dr. Sergio Gradilone, who worked as a Mayo Clinic research physician prior to becoming leader of the Hormel Institute's Cancer Cell Biology & Translational Research department last fall.

The Economic Times, Can petting your pet dog keep you away from doctors? If you've had a bad day at work - say, you've lost a client rush home and rub your dog's tummy. This is not a line from a sappy greeting card, but advice from highly respected doctors. Here's what happens when you pet an animal: your brain releases chemicals that make you feel good, a little like that spa treatment you would pay for, according to Edward T Creagan, a senior oncologist at Mayo Clinic.Petting lowers blood pressure, he wrote in his 2003 book, "How Not to be My Patient."

Post Bulletin, Minneapolis man saw Mayo Clinic helicopter start up by Jessica Bies — A Minneapolis man in Mankato for the Minnesota Air Spectacular said he was only a few feet away from a Mayo Clinic helicopter when its blades started whirring and its engine powered up. At about 1:45 p.m. on June 27, the aircraft was accidentally started by a 17-year-old, the FAA confirmed Tuesday. Additional Coverage: The Free Press, Mankato

Star Tribune, Onetime Mayo nurse who injected self while on job sentenced for narcotic thefts by Paul Walsh — A onetime Mayo Clinic surgical nurse who stole a powerful narcotic for many months and injected herself while on duty has been sentenced to five years of supervised probation. Connie K. Stier, 60, who no longer works for Mayo and whose license has been suspended, was sentenced Monday in Olmsted County District Court.

Mankato Free Press, Mayo purchases distracted driving simulator by Nate Gotlieb — Mayo Clinic Health System is reminding drivers to keep their eyes on the road and off their phones with a new distracted driving simulator. The foundations of six Mayo hospitals in the southwest Minnesota region purchased the $12,000 simulator in April. Mayo is using it at events across the region with the goal of reaching young drivers, said Peggy Sue Garber, injury prevention coordinator for the region.

Ventura Star County, David Loe: Mayo Clinic offers a unique travel experience — How about spending a week’s vacation immersing yourself in a layman’s medical school? Last month I did just that at the famed Mayo Clinic. It’s the most unique travel experience I’ve ever encountered.

Columbia Business Times, MU Health, Mayo Clinic partner for faster Testing — MU Health Care recently enlisted Mayo Medical Laboratories as its main source of advanced laboratory testing. The partnership is projected to save MU Health Care more than $1 million annually by consolidating specialized tests, thus reducing the cost of outsourcing those tests to different laboratories.

Lacrosse Tribune, Since Obama was last here, La Crosse has prospered while Dems have been overshadowed by Marc Wehrs — Since first meeting candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, this city on the Mississippi River has weathered a recession and the ensuing lukewarm recovery better than much of the rest of the country…On the same page of today’s Tribune, Dr. Tim Johnson, CEO of Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, points to an increase in insurance coverage that has allowed the St. Clare Health Mission to refocus time and energy on other community health care needs.

WJXK, Kidney stones in summer — Ivan Porter of the Mayo Clinic joins us discussing how the summer heat can contribute to kidney stones, and how you can avoid them.

KEYC, Fire Dept. Encourages Safety On Fourth Of July — The fourth of July is rapidly approaching, but some holiday activities like fireworks can be dangerous. Mayo Clinic Health System Nurse Manager of the Emergency Department, Lindsay Hennek says, "If you must use fireworks, use sparklers, I know that the city has put on some nice shows that people can attend and view as well if you want to see some big fireworks."

Post Bulletin, A look at new laws taking effect by Heather J. Carlson — Among the laws that took effect Wednesday are provisions dealing with bingo in nursing homes, an insurance requirement for ride-share drivers and increased funding for medical research…Medical research funding gets a significant funding increase in a higher education funding bill that takes effect today. The legislation boosted funding by $1 million over the next two years for the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, which is overseen by Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. That brings the total state funding for the partnership to $15 million over the next two years. In addition, the partnership will be responsible for administering $1 million in competitive research grants for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Lawmakers also OK'd another $1 million in research grants for spinal injury and traumatic brain injury.

Red Wing Republican Eagle, Pediatricians lead way to active summer by Michael Brun — Pediatricians at Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing are stepping out of the exam room and hitting the walking path this summer to motivate children to get active. The doctors will be in Bay Point Park at 5:15 p.m. Mondays through July 27 to lead family walks and demonstrate the importance of regular exercise. “We plan to walk a few laps and have a conversation about healthy habits — and have some fun,” Dr. Peggy Decker said. The program is for children “of all shapes and sizes,” the Red Wing pediatrician said, as well as family members, friends and the local community.

Mankato Free Press, After cancers, woman runs across U.S. perimeter by Nate Gotlieb — Helene Neville started running marathons, mountain climbing and body building after she was diagnosed with cancer in an effort to create positive memories by which her sons could remember her. More than 15 years later, she's on the verge of completing a journey only four others have finished: a run across the entire perimeter of the U.S.  Neville, a longtime nurse, ran through southern Minnesota this week during the fourth and final leg of her five-year journey. She spoke to nurses at Mayo Clinic Health System on Tuesday night before a short run with several hospital employees Wednesday morning.

Cleveland Business, Cleveland Clinic hires Mayo Clinic veteran to lead Abu Dhabi medical operations by  Timothy Magaw — Cleveland Clinic has recruited Dr. Rakesh M. Suri — a 12-year veteran of the Mayo Clinic — to lead its medical operations and department of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at its hospital in Abu Dhabi. In addition to his role in Abu Dhabi, Suri will maintain a presence on the Clinic’s main campus. He’ll serve as a professor of surgery at the Clinic’s Lerner College of Medicine where he will lend his expertise in mitral valve repair and robotic and minimally invasive valve repair, the health system said in a news release.

The Decorah Newspapers, Mary Lally joins Winneshiek Medical Center — Dr. Mary Lally, B.M.B.Ch., has joined Winneshiek Medical Center. Lally previously worked as a resident physician in Rochester, Minn., at Mayo Clinic. She is excited to bring her expertise to Iowa, to have the opportunity to practice in a rural community and to be close to family.

KIMT, Mayo Clinic Doctor helps raise $130,000 for blood cancer research by DeeDee Stiepan — A Mayo Clinic Doctor, along with help of a fundraising team which includes patients, raised $130,000 in donations for the Minnesota Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Dr. Martha Lacy entered a competition through the LLS and since she raised the most, she was named the 2015 Woman of the Year. She says she sees a lot of patients with blood cancers and wanted to do her part to give back.

Wall Street Journal, Boards Struggle With Cybersecurity, Especially in Health Care by Kim S. Nash — Directors on corporate boards continue to struggle to understand cybersecurity risks. Just 11% of board members across industries say they have a “high level” of knowledge about the topic, according to a survey of  1,034 directors by the National Association of Corporate Directors…Health-care data is often harder to protect than financial information, as Jim Nelms, CISO at Mayo Clinic, told CIO Journal last month. Mayo Clinic’s board requests quarterly reports about the risks and exposures the organization faces, Mr. Nelms said, adding that finding and keeping security staff is “extremely hard.”

Columbia Business Times, MU Health, Mayo Clinic partner for faster testing by Abby Wade — MU Health Care recently enlisted Mayo Medical Laboratories as its main source of advanced laboratory testing. The partnership is projected to save MU Health Care more than $1 million annually by consolidating specialized tests, thus reducing the cost of outsourcing those tests to different laboratories. “University of Missouri Health Care offers approximately 3,000 different lab tests,” said Dr. William Miller, director of clinical laboratories and transfusion medicine for MU. “Of these, there are about 200 specialized tests that require the use of outside laboratories. Prior to the partnership between MU Health Care and Mayo Medical Laboratories, these specialized tests were sent to about 50 different laboratories.”

Healthcare Informatics Magazine, Up and Comers: Creating Invention Out of Healthcare Necessity  by David Raths — Here is a company that is trying to do something completely new. Its founders say they are “democratizing” analytics. What does that mean? Founded in 2012 as Pervasive Health, Chicago-based Apervita Inc. is seeking to address the demand for health analytics and data by empowering leading health systems to commercialize and share their expertise, making it readily available through a marketplace. Where did this idea originate? “We had the good fortune of spending time talking with executives from Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and others,” says CEO Paul Magelli.

CNBC, Regenerative medicine's big bet: Putting an end to injury pain by Janine Wolf...With professional sports organizations plagued with consistent athlete injuries and their long-term effects, one blossoming area of medicine is specializing in a way to make long and painful injury recovery a thing of the past. The Mayo Clinic calls the therapy a "game-changing area of medicine," offering effective therapy for people whose conditions are beyond repair. Experts say the field, which combines cell biology, traditional medicine and physics, holds promise for treating numerous ailments.

KTTC, Rochester shrouded in smoky haze due to Canadian wildfires by Taj Simmons — Since Friday afternoon, Minnesotans have experienced a dangerously hazy shade of summer. The smoky situation has resulted in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an air pollution advisory throughout the state on Monday due to unhealthy levels of fine particles. "For individuals with heart or lung problems, elderly individuals, or younger children with developing respiratory systems, it's best to avoid exposures outside at this point," said Mayo Clinic pulmonologist Dr. Clay Cowl.

La Crosse Tribune, Eric Brekke deeply loved family, patients by Mike Tighe — Dr. Eric Brekke’s untimely death leaves a vacuum not only in the Coulee Region medical community but also among the hundreds of friends and patients he touched with his gentle, loving personality… “As I look at Eric, he always was going to pay it forward. The love he has for his wife and his three kids is amazing,” said Langenhorst, an industrial and ergonomic occupational therapy specialist at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare.

mHealth News, Mayo's eICU makes case for connected care by Eric Wicklund — Can the Mayo Clinic convince Congress to take telemedicine seriously? That's the gist of a July 4 story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which notes how the Rochester, Minn.-based health system is absorbing the cost of its eICU service to seven network hospitals and charging a subscription fee for telestroke consults to health systems outside the Mayo network. The pioneering health system, which saw a 36 percent boost in income from operations in 2014, to more than $834 million, can foot the bill for now, but its goal is to spur Washington to enact legislation that compels Medicare to cover more of the costs. “Medicare reimbursement for telehealth is kind of stuck in the 1990s,” Randy Schubring, the Mayo Clinic's public policy manager, told the Star-Tribune. And that wasn't a good decade for healthcare.

KSTP, Wolves' Rookies Participate in First Practice by Parker Anderson —Timberwolves rookies Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyus Jones participated in their first NBA practice Monday at the Mayo Clinic in downtown Minneapolis.

Star Tribune, Timberwolves rookies report, ahead of the learning curve by Jerry Zgoda — Fresh from a holiday weekend spent at the ocean or in a parade through downtown Apple Valley by horse-drawn trailer, newest Timberwolves Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyus Jones went to work Monday, their first real day as professionals on the NBA job…They will be joined by Andrew Wiggins, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng — each missed Monday’s first workout because of flight delays — for practices this week at the team’s new Mayo Clinic Square facility and by Zach LaVine and Adreian Payne for both Minneapolis practices and Las Vegas games.

NBA, Practice Report - July 6 | First Day Of Summer League Practice by Kyle Ratke — For the last few weeks, the talk was all about who will be on the court for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Who will be the No. 1 pick? Will the Wolves trade into the first round? How many players on the team can legally get into a bar?... Big man Nikola Pekovic was at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square rehabbing after his right ankle surgery that he underwent in April. It’s probably too early to tell where he’s at and whether or not he’ll be 100 percent before Training Camp.

CBS Local, Heart Attack Victim Saved By Hospital’s Fast ‘Door To Balloon’ Rate— When someone suffers a heart attack, the time it takes to treat them can make the difference between life and death…The American College of Cardiology reports nearly all hospitals treat at least half of their patients for heart attacks in 61 minutes or less. The Mayo Clinic averages around 50 minutes.

KSTP, Toddler Dies after Falling into Wash Bucket in SE Minnesota by Cassie Hart — The child that fell into a wash bucket in late June in southeastern Minnesota died Sunday…The child was airlifted to Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, and the boy eventually began breathing again but was listed in critical condition.

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Study finds bad bites given by family dogs by Jim McVeigh — Research suggests that family dogs cause most dog bite injuries. A recent study conducted by Mayo Clinic and Phoenix Children's Hospital and published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery confirms that finding. More than half of the dog-bite injuries treated at the Phoenix hospital came from dogs belonging to an immediate family member.

Consumer Affairs, Mayo Clinic: 1 in 4 one-time painkiller prescriptions become long term by Mark Huffman — Drugs prescribed by doctors to relieve pain often end up becoming the object of abuse as users quickly become addicted…Since almost all addiction to painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet start with a legitimate prescription, doctors at the Mayo Clinic wondered how many first-time users of an opioid drug went on to become long-term users. When they investigated, they discovered it was 25%.

United States. Department of Labor, Advancing Equal Access to Opportunity,  by Gretl Kruse: Last year, I helped found an employee resource group at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to improve the experience of our patients and employees with disabilities. The group is formed of Mayo employees with disabilities and colleague allies who, together, work to connect employees and patients with needed resources.

The Decorah Newspapers, WMC renews agreement with Mayo for at least five years — Winneshiek Medical Center and Mayo Clinic will continue their partnership for at least another five years. At Wednesday’s meeting of the Winneshiek Medical Center Board of Trustees, the Board approved some minor revisions to WMC’s current management service agreement and professional service agreement approval with Mayo Clinic Health System.

WebMD, Who's At Risk Of Narcotic Painkiller Addiction? by Alan Mozes — The study was led by Dr. W. Michael Hooten, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His team tracked outcomes for nearly 300 patients given a first-time, short-term prescription for one of this class of narcotic painkillers in 2009. The investigators found that nearly one in every four of the patients continued to take the medication for extended periods of time.

WQOW Eau Claire, Special air quality notice issued in Wisconsin by Heidi Bohl — The Wisconsin DNR issued a special air quality notice Tuesday for parts of Wisconsin, and Eau Claire was in the red, labeled as "unhealthy" air conditions that is a concern for all ages. “Those who have heart conditions or breathing conditions such as asthma or chronic bronchitis, can notice that their day to day activities are harder for them if they're outside,” said Adela Taylor, an asthma specialist at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire.

Doctor’s Lounge, Researchers ID Patients More Prone to Long-Term Opioid Use — The study was led by W. Michael Hooten, M.D., an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His team tracked outcomes for 293 patients given a first-time, short-term prescription for an opioid analgesic in 2009. The investigators found that nearly one in every four of the patients continued to take the medication for extended periods of time.

La Crosse Tribune, Onalaska to get part of Hwy. S in anticipation of Mayo development by Betsy Bloom — Onalaska is willing to have part of what now is La Crosse County Hwy. S become the city’s responsibility, with the county in return committing to do more than $127,000 in seal-coating work on city streets by late 2016... Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic purchased 187.4 acres along the route in 2014, then this past May filed a traffic impact study with the city that indicated potential plans for a new campus that could accommodate about 3,800 employees.

The Telegraph, Why do men suffer more heart problems than women? by Jonathan Wells —  Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, believes that cardiovascular disease can be exacerbated by the responsibilities of holding a position of power. He identifies "middle-aged men in high stress jobs" as being the most susceptible to complications of the heart.

EmpowHer, Severe Insomnia Relieved With Hormonal Support: Case Study by Dr. Daemon Jones, My patient and I started with a hormonal profile that looked at several different hormones. According to the Mayo Clinic, hormonal shifts occur as a woman transitions from having her monthly cycle to menopause. The hormonal changes which impact sleep the most are night sweats and hot flashes.

Medscape, New Scanning Study Points to Osteoporosis/Heart Disease Link by Veronica Hackethal, MD — Asked to comment, Bart Clarke, MD, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Medscape Medical News that the study "demonstrates a clear link between ischemic heart disease and cortical bone loss and increased cortical porosity and possibly fracture risk at the radius." It is an "important" study that "should have an impact in the long term," he added. However, the big question remains whether this will change how often clinicians check bone density in this patient population, because many of the people who get ischemic heart disease are already considered at risk for osteoporosis simply because of age.

Newsweek, Memory loss protein identified by Alice Milliken — The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota associates an increase in B2M protein in diseases with chronic inflammation, liver disease, some acute viral infections and a number of cancers. It is also associated with diseases that have a large cell turn over, like HIV and other Autoimmune diseases.

Good Housekeeping, 8 Things That Will Probably Kill You in July by Megan Harney — More people suffer from heatstroke and dehydration in the summer than any other time of the year and the high temperatures in July will leave many people overheated and sick. According to the Mayo Clinic, heatstroke occurs when your body becomes overheated due to prolonged exposure to or physical exertion in high temperatures. Untreated heatstroke can damage your brain, heart, kidneys, muscles, and increase the risk of serious complications or death.

AOL, Ohio woman once scared to leave her home wins beauty pageant  — According to the Mayo Clinic, people with agoraphobia "fear an actual or anticipated situation," which for Quinn-Wilson was the fear of leaving her house. After her husband passed away in 2010, Quinn-Wilson made the decision to overcome that fear. She entered the Ohio Plus America Pageant in May and won.

Waseca County News, Mayo sponsors distracted driving simulator at Waseca County Fair by Suzy Rook — “The goal is to prevent distracted driving habits or eliminate the habit if it’s present with a current driver,” says Peggy Sue Garber, trauma and injury prevention coordinator at Mayo Clinic Health System. “Even though nearly all teens agree that texting and driving is dangerous, 90 percent admit to having done so at one time or another.”

Health Data Management, The Role of Content Management in Ebola Response by Sam Bagchi, M.D., — The first conference call was held the same night following the announcement of the Ebola diagnosis—September 30, 2014. Part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, Methodist collaborated with clinical experts from Mayo Clinic as well as teams from ProVation and UpToDate. Evidence-based content was gathered to devise a screening workflow and triage assessment, which was incorporated into a final Ebola order set on October 1. On the morning of October 2, the content built in the clinical content management system was uploaded in the EHR and was available to clinicians by 5 p.m. on the same day.

Youth Health Magazine, Are You at Risk for Painkiller Addiction? by Bernadette Strong — A study published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings looked at a group of 293 patients who had been prescribed opioids in 2009. The drugs that were prescribed for these patients included oxycodone, morphine, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, meperidine, codeine, and methadone. Twenty-one percent of the patients went on to continue to use opioids for 3 to 4 months. Six percent went on to have a long-term pattern of using the drugs for more than 4 months.

Boston Public Radio, Self-Diagnosing Online? Study Finds Sites Are Only Accurate About Half Of The Time by Martha Bebinger — At the Mayo Clinic, Dr. John Wilkinson said, “We’re always trying to improve, but if most of the time the diagnosis is included in the list of possibilities, that’s all we’re attempting to do.” Wilkinson, an editor of Mayo’s symptom checker, said patients should not expect it to deliver the correct diagnosis. “It’s designed to be a starting point,” Wilkinson said, one that will direct patients to the best articles and help them “be better equipped to have a conversation with their doctor or a nurse triage line or whatever the next step might be.” – Additional coverage by CBC News

Star Tribune, Minnesota med-tech among 12 key manufacturing regions designated in U.S. by Joe Carlson — The federal announcement noted that a large share of all newly approved medical devices over the past five years have been from Minnesota, and the state continues to attract new investment through vehicles like Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator.

Chicago Tribune, Arts, crafts and socializing keep the brain young by Vickie Jurkowski — The Mayo Clinic study concluded people who did artwork such as painting, drawing, woodworking, sculpting and quilting in their middle and old ages were 73 percent less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI) than those who did not. Socialization through movies, travel and book clubs led to a 55-percent reduction, with crafting a close third at 45 percent. Activities to stimulate the brain and teach it new things, the study showed, are preventive strategies for MCI that may need to begin in midlife and continue through later years.

Phys.org, Mayo Clinic receives $11 million grant from NCI to study cancer survivorship — Mayo Clinic announced today that it has received a five-year, $11 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study survivorship in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes Cohort Study will enroll 12,000 patients with NHL. The study will follow these patients for long-term prognosis and survivorship.

Drug Discovery and Development Magazine, 21st Century Cures Bill, Touted as Spark, Faces Some Opposition by Seth Augenstein — Groups such as the Friends of Cancer Research, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, even the Mayo Clinic have announced their full support of the bill and the faster changes it will bring. “We are particularly pleased to see the draft’s emphasis on reducing regulatory barriers that unnecessarily slow clinical trials,” said John Noseworthy, the Mayo Clinic CEO. “We also are very encouraged by the committee’s efforts to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health, which Mayo Clinic believes is an essential national investment.”

The Architect’s Newspaper, Extra Mayo by Chris Bentley — Medicine has always been a calling card for the city of Rochester, Minnesota—or at least since Dr. William Worrall Mayo settled there in 1863. The foundation that bears his name is now the state’s largest employer, sustaining nearly 33,000 jobs throughout Minnesota and beckoning more than 2.5 million visitors to Rochester each year. Now an ambitious master plan led by Perkins Eastman aims to help the Mayo Clinic sustain that economic engine over the next two decades by investing in medical and municipal amenities alike.

LaCrosse Tribune, Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling by Mike Tighe — That is the result of widespread collaboration, said Hammes, who co-chairs the La Crosse Medical Centers Task Force on Advance Directives with Nickijo Hager, mission vice president of Mayo Health System-Franciscan Healthcare.The local effort traces to the late ’80s, when the city’s four medical institutions created the task force to formulate criteria and protocol for the advanced-care planning that eventually became Respecting Choices. Gundersen now has proprietary rights to Respecting Choices, under an agreement with Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare.

Fox Sports, Former contender Dan Hardy plans training camp, return to Octagon by Elias Cepeda — The genetic condition has kept him from getting medically cleared to fight again since that point, though Hardy has always maintained that he feels healthy and expressed a constant desire to one day get back in the cage. The Mayo Clinic defines the syndrome as "the presence of an extra, abnormal electrical pathway in the heart that leads to periods of a very fast heartbeat." Also according to the clinic, the fast heartbeat episodes are not life threatening, but "serious heart problems can occur."

MD Magazine, Increased Cardiovascular Risk Linked to Psoriatic Arthritis by Caitlyn Fitzpatrick — Investigators from the Mayo Clinic recently conducted a study to examine the role of cardiovascular disease risk factors in psoriatic arthritis. Analysis of this relationship in the past has produced unsatisfactory results, due in part to previous research being limited by selection bias and imprecise definition of outcomes. Therefore, the team sought to find a potential correlation between the conditions.

Health24, Who's most likely to get addicted to painkillers?  — The study was led by Dr W. Michael Hooten, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. His team tracked outcomes for nearly 300 patients given a first-time, short-term prescription for one of this class of narcotic painkillers in 2009. The investigators found that nearly one in every four of the patients continued to take the medication for extended periods of time.

Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry Magazine, Cutting out the Noise to Target Arrhythmias by Marie Thibault — Dr. Samuel Asirvatham, professor of medicine in the division of Cardiovascular Diseases and director of strategic collaboration for the Center for Innovation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, writes in an e-mail that the two animal studies compared PURE EP to standard recording systems on several measures, including "sensing of electrograms, effective pacing and ablation, and the potential for discernment between the individual components of complex signals."

Cancer Therapy Advisor, In Primary Cutaneous Melanoma, Tumor Cell Adhesion Increases Risk for Sentinel Lymph Node Metastasis by Jason Hoffman — According to the study, fewer than 20% of patients with melanoma who undergo SLN biopsy are SLN positive. Therefore, researchers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and Jacksonville, FL, as well as their colleagues at Hospital Roskilde in Copenhagen, Denmark, sought to identify new molecular risk factors associated with SLN positivity in patients with thin and intermediate-thickness melanoma. Researchers used next-generation gene sequencing to identify gene mutations in a set of benign tumors, primary cutaneous melanomas, and in-transit melanoma metastases. Then, researchers validated their findings in a cohort of 146 melanomas.

GenomeWeb, Mayo Researchers Develop MP-seq Test to Detect Rearrangements in Cancers, Genetic Disease by Monica Heger — Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have devised a next-generation sequencing technique for detecting rearrangements and are in the process of developing clinical tests for hematological malignancies, breast cancer, and constitutional disease. George Vasmatzis, co-director of the biomarker discovery program at Mayo's Center for Individualized Medicine, described the strategy at last month's Clinical Genome Conference in San Francisco.

U.S. News and World Report, Coping With Childhood Depression by Kirstin Fawcett — "A child who experiences a major depressive episode probably has at least a 50 percent chance of having another episode in the next five years," says Dr. John Huxsahl, a psychiatrist who specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Early diagnosis, intervention and treatment are key, experts say. Childhood depression is just as serious as adult mental illness – and should be treated as such.

Post-Bulletin, Mayo Clinic in Austin to extend hours — Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin has extended its pediatrics clinic's hours for children with busy parents. Starting Wednesday, pediatrics will be open from 8 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. The extended hours will run through mid-November."With children in school and often times both parents working, we are seeing an increased need for appointments after 3 p.m.," Dr. Sarah Scherger said in a press release. "An extended hours clinic allows us to learn the potential impact — positive and negative — to accessing care for children."

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