Things are Looking Better

According to a recent study, hospitals are doing better in treating certain diseases and conditions. The study found that the recent focus on quality improvements have been effective in changing hospital practices to ensure that standards of care are being met in a more uniform fashion. Thus, the good news is that focusing on the issues of error and quality is starting to have a great effect! Read more here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5haPS-JKQrNLfoy9yfDsX75YlpFLgD9ID7MO80

The Cost of Dementia

A study released today has identified that the worldwide cost of caring for individuals with dementia is over $600 billion!!! The report further predicts that the number of individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia will likely triple by 2050. Interestingly, richer nations were noted to have about 46% of all dementia cases, but these same richer nations account for 89% of money spent on dementia. Read more about the report at this link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K0HL20100921

Insulin for Alzheimer's Disease??

A recent randomized, small trial of non-diabetic Alzheimer's patients (n=109) found that patients treated with twice daily doses of nasally inhaled insulin had mild improvements in their cognitive functioning. Plans are underway to conduct a large scale, multi-site randomized trial to replicate these results and assist in determining the appropriate dosing of the insulin.

While this was a small scale study, it certainly does present some interesting considerations. We currently have very few treatments available to Alzheimer's patients and none of our accepted treatments have demonstrated the ability to improve cognitive function. I will look forward to seeing additional studies along this line of inquiry!

Googling for Health Care Information -- Feeling Lucky?

A research UK based study of Interent searches related to common childhood health questions yielded mixed results. In general, 39% of the 500 sites visited provided accurate information, 11% provided incorrect info and 49% provided information that did not truly address the question/issue.

So what does this mean? Where do you go when you want to learn more about a health-related problem? Is your standard to "google it?" How do you decide what is the best source? According to this study, government sites were uniformly most accurate -- however, government sites are not without bias. At the start of the Bush administration, several years ago, there was actually a push to remove all STI prevention information other than abstinence, from the CDC site. So, while government sites do provide factually accurate information, it may not be "the whole picture." New sites were accurate in only about 55% of the cases -- this is particularly concerning since I imagine a majority of people do get their health information from news sites! Next time you are searching, try sites like the Mayo Clinic or other well-established health care organizations.

Deciding Where to Get Treatment?

Are there ways to determine if a particular hospital is the right one to treat your problem? According to a recent US New & World Report article (Iink below), there are some factors to be considered. Factor such as patient volumes, surgeon/surgery volumes, nurse staffing and more are discussed. The question remains, can you reasonably investigate all these factors before going to the hospital AND can you then choose to be admitted to the hospital you select? After you read the article below, try some out some of the evaluation sites listed -- did you find them helpful? Would your findings change where you would want to go to the hospital?

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/best-hospitals/articles/2010/07/14/when-a-hospital-is-bad-for-you.html