April 26, 2013
Mayo Clinic Creates Institution-Wide Electronic Prolonged QT Interval Warning System
Using a one-of-a-kind computer-aided program, Mayo Clinic has developed and implemented a Mayo-wide electronic warning system to identify patients at risk of QT-related deaths from an abnormality in the heart’s electrical system. The system informs all physicians, regardless of their specialty or QT awareness, if their patient’s ECG activated the QT alarm. In addition, the […]
Tags: alarm, computer program, ECG, electrocardiogram, electronic warning system, HealthCanal, QT death
April 26, 2013
Risk of Delay in Response to Patient E-Mails Up Over Weekend
The risk of delays in opening and responding to primary care patient e-mail communication is significantly worse at the weekends, according to a study published in the April/June issue of Quality Management in Health Care. James E. Rohrer, Ph.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues assessed delays in response to primary care […]
Tags: Doctors Lounge, Dr. James Rohrer, patient email, Quality Management in Health Care, response
April 26, 2013
Smaller margins too close for comfort in breast cancer
Small surgical margins can mean big trouble for patients with breast cancer, said investigators at the annual Society of Surgical Oncology Cancer Symposium. A retrospective study of outcomes for 2,377 women who underwent either breast-conserving therapy or mastectomy revealed that margins less than 2 mm resulted in a substantial risk of residual disease for all […]
Tags: breast-conserving therapy, Dr. Erin Garvey, mastectomy, OBGYN News, small surgical margins, Society of Surgical Oncology Cancer Symposium
April 26, 2013
How Gut Bacteria Increase Heart Disease Risk
Participants who had a heart attack, stroke or died during the study period had higher average TMAO levels than those who didn’t experience a cardiovascular event. People with high TMAO levels and no cardiovascular risk factors were 1.8 times more likely to experience a cardiovascular event than those with low levels. “This is going to […]
Tags: dietary recommendation, Dr. Scott Wright, gut bacteria, heart attack, heart disease, My Health News Daily, risk
April 26, 2013
Sickle cell disease accounts for many priapism cases
Thanks to commercials for erectile dysfunction drugs, men know to seek medical attention for “erections lasting more than four hours,” but a new study suggests a blood disorder is the cause of many prolonged erections. “I would say what the paper is telling us is that sickle-cell disease is still responsible for the bulk of […]
Tags: Dr. Gregory Broderick, priapism, prolonged erection, Reuters, sickle cell disease
April 25, 2013
Mayo Clinic Doctor Testifies at Senate Committee Hearing on Aging
Mayo Clinic doctor is in Washington telling lawmakers what needs to be done about Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Robert Petersen testified Wednesday at a Senate committee hearing on aging. He updated them on the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, which aims to effectively treat the disease by 2025. “It’s mandatory to make these investments,” he said. “We […]
Tags: alzheimer's disease, Dr. Robert Petersen, early intervention, KSTP, National Alzheimer's Project Act
April 24, 2013
Mayo Clinic and Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOR) today announced that the first patient has been enrolled in the first clinical trial of rHIgM22, a remyelinating antibody being studied for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS)… “This remyelinating antibody, if successful in clinical trials and approved, would be a novel approach to treating people with […]
Tags: Acorda Therapeutics, antibody, chronic neurologic deficits, clinical trial, Dr. Moses Rodriguez, MS, multiple sclerosis, rHIgM22, Wall Street Journal
April 24, 2013
FDA Device Surveillance to Tap Phone App
Last year, a prominent cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, Robert G. Hauser, and colleagues published a study showing that an automated safety-surveillance software tool applied to large existing databases could have identified problems earlier than actually happened…Dr. Hauser, along with David L. Hayes of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and others, concluded the […]
Tags: cardiovascular device, Dr. David Hayes, Dr. Robert G. Hauser, Minneapolis Heart Institute, safety surveillance software, Wall Street Journal
April 23, 2013
Support for organ donation on the rise
There are over 100,000 people in the U.S waiting for a kidney and nearly 16,000 waiting for a liver. The good news for them is many people would be willing to donate theirs. The Mayo Clinic conducted a survey to see how people’s opinion changed on donating one of their organs. What they found was […]
Tags: Dr. Julie Heimbach, KIMT, Mayo Clinic Liver Transplant Program, organ donation, survey
April 23, 2013
A different means of attack: Mayo Clinic
Could controlling blood vessel growth in the body be a key to treating rheumatoid arthritis, cancer and other diseases? The answer is perhaps, according to Mayo Clinic experts. Angiogenesis is the term used to describe blood vessel growth. Researchers are trying to understand and better control this complex process. Most recent research has focused on […]
Tags: angiogenesis, blood vessel, growth, rheumatoid arthritis, Toronto Star, tumors