News by Subject Business & Economics

Telemedicine has been used during disasters for many years, but providing such care directly to consumers only has become viable because of the widespread growth of smartphones and the creation of services that allow consumers to directly access thousands of US physicians. A new study of the aftermath of hurricanes Harvey and Irma finds that direct-to-consumer telemedicine is a viable way to deliver medical care in the days following a natural disaster.

New research shows that patients in the hospital are eager to collaborate with clinicians to track their health data. Traditionally, clinicians have been the only ones who collect, track and reflect on that data.

A special recovery program for thoracic surgery patients developed at the University of Virginia Health System is getting patients home sooner while decreasing both healthcare costs and opioid use, a review of the first year of the program shows.

Many conclusions drawn from a common approach to the study of human genetics could be distorted because of a previously overlooked phenomenon, according to researchers at the Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute. Their conclusions and a unique method they developed to help correct for this distortion were recently published in Nature Genetics.

In comments submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the American College of Rheumatology expressed concern that the Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance proposed rule could weaken consumer protections that enable individuals living with rheumatic diseases to access quality, affordable care.

Teens who admit to texting while driving may be convinced to reduce risky cellphone use behind the wheel when presented with financial incentives such as auto-insurance apps that monitor driving behavior, according to a new survey. However, while more than 90 percent of teens surveyed said they were willing to give up sending or reading text messages, almost half indicated that they would want to retain some control over phone functions such as music and navigation.

Researchers tracked genomic alterations detected in patient samples during tumor cell evolution in culture, in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models from the cultures, as well as before and after treatment in patients. In a recent paper in Nature Genetics, the team reports that tumor progression was often driven by cancer-promoting genes, known as oncogenes, on extrachromosomal pieces of DNA.

Contact precautions, used in addition to the standard precautions, the basic level of infection control applied to all patients, did not limit or prevent the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in non-intensive care unit (ICU) hospital wards, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

Cellulitis treated with a six-day course of intravenous antibiotic flucloxacillin resulted in greater rates of relapse at 90 days post treatment despite having similar short-term results to that of the 12-day course, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).