Hospital Medicine

Robert Matheny, MD, discusses a technology that enables a person's own stem cells to repair damaged cardiovascular tissues by serving as scaffolding.

The highly coveted iPad was released last weekend, and those who were fortunate enough to acquire the new gadget have been quick to discuss what kind of impact it will have on just about any industry. But what kind of impact will the iPad have on healthcare?

Hospitalizations for poisoning by prescription opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers has increased by 65 percent from 1999 to 2006 in the U.S., according to study results published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The second in my series of trips down memory lane over the last 30 years is on the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF).

I confronted the banal face of our inefficient healthcare system, and it stares back at me in my mirror.

A study of this age-old practice finds communication breakdowns.

Electronic medical records (EMRs) have a bad reputation among many physicians for generating progress notes that are so verbose and filled with standard phrases that they are nearly useless to other physicians, and even to the physician who produced the note in the first place.

Using CT scans that measure blood flow in the lungs, researchers at the University of Iowa may have found a new tool that identifies at-risk smokers for emphysema before the onset of serious symptoms.

Results from the STOP-AF trial was presented at the recent American College of Cardiology annual conference, and it sure has generated much excitement about atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. This is a good thing.

Early this morning, President Obama announced that there is no actual need for healthcare reform, and apologized for "making such a big deal about it before."

Regulatory T cells, which help to keep the immune system in check, may be one of the barriers to the development of a therapeutic HIV vaccine.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections are contracted many times more often by individuals with HIV, a new study has found.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Pamela Hartzband, MD, and Jerome Groopman, MD, explore the changes, good and bad, that the Internet has brought to the practice of medicine.

Individuals across the country are either rejoicing, cursing, or anxious over the historic passing of healthcare reform legislation and for physicians and legal experts alike the question remains: What will these changes mean for the practice of medicine and patients' rights?

Study results published in the American Journal of Infection Control found that Twitter is often used to spread misleading or false information about key healthcare topics, with incorrect information from a single tweet able to reach hundreds of thousands of patients.

Exercise alone does not seem to be effective in preventing weight gain once a woman is already heavy. The latest issue of JAMA reports on a huge study trying to see if different levels of exercise prevent weight gain in women.

The "idea-immune healing artist" of medicine at the opening of the 20th-century - the general practitioner - is the ancestor to today's primary care providers who, at this new century�s beginning, still maintain their legacy (albeit barely).

The number of community-acquired MRSA infections has increased among patients in the pediatric ICU in recent years, according to a new study.

HCPLive interviewed Ron Wince, president and CEO of Guidon Performance Solutions about the healthcare reform bill.

We met cute. Classic Hollywood. America caught a glimpse of healthcare reform about a year ago--but only in passing, a little flirtatious hair-toss. Couldn't really see anything, veiled and shadowy, but God did she look great.

I have stayed away from saying much about the health care reform debate so far, but based on the healthcare reform plan passed yesterday, I'd have to say, "Gosh, that doesn't look too bad."

Sunday evening, the House of Representatives voted 219 to 212 to approve the Senate version of the health reform bill. Lost in all the hoopla surrounding backroom wheeling and dealing and arcane parliamentary procedures has been the response from the physician community, which has been decidedly mixed.

Hospital administration is a complicated, taxing job. So many decisions, so many changes, and so much data collection. Practicing physicians, like myself, are confronted with new systems, new process, and the new world of computer based health delivery systems.

A new website provides data on how healthy-or unhealthy-every county is.

I challenge you to think about your own bucket list. What are the things you want to do, say, or be? And the bigger question is what's stopping you?

During the first months of my internship at Milwaukee County Hospital, a distraught family asked me to remain with their loved one while he died. An elderly male with total pulmonary failure, his soul was tethered to earth only by IPPB-assisted respiration.

Genetic testing as part of initial management of patients on warfarin reduced hospitalizations by nearly 30%.

A recent study found that the mortality rate of patients with mild to moderate hypoglycemia, a condition previously considered clinically unimportant, was twice as high as those who did not have the condition.

The enzyme calmodium kinase II reduces the heart's negative functions while maintaining positive ones, making the enzyme a potential new treatment for heart arrhythmias and failure.

The author recalls how the digitization of a sign-out system greatly improved efficiency and reduced headaches among hospital staff, leading to the development of a custom system that further eased the pains of the sign-out process.