Migraine

"Aging in place" researchers have found that sensors, computers, and communication systems put into seniors’ homes leads to earlier identification of healthcare problems and better intervention.

Jeffrey Harris, MD, president of the American College of Physicians, last week sent an interesting letter to prospective Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Daschle. In it, he proposed that any "stimulus package" enacted in president-elect Barack Obama’s administration should "provide a ‘down payment’ on expanding health insurance coverage and delivery system reforms to reverse a growing shortage of primary care physicians."

How would your patients react to the knowledge that they might be able to control migraines by zapping them away instead of using prescription drugs?

Government funding for pain research has dropped in the past five years, declining more than 9% a year since 2003.

The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and the American Academy of Family Physicians announced the launch of HealthLandscape.

The ICD-9 medical coding system we’ve all relied on for decades will soon change.

Conducting distance learning activities over the telephone and the Internet is a cost-effective alternative.

Some of the Top Health IT Stories from 2008 are discussed.

The negative effects of high-fructose corn syrup have previously been reported in several types of studies.

New evidence-based guidelines have been issued by the American Academy of Neurology to test for distal symmetric polyneuropathy (DSP).

The Medical Records Institute released yesterday "The HIT Status Report 2008," the latest version of its annual "state of the union" review of notable health information technology developments in the past year and preview of stories to watch for in 2009.

In examining the brains of people with a chronic pain condition known as complex region pain syndrome (CRPS), scientists found that patients’ brains "looked like an inept cable guy had changed the hookups, rewiring the areas related to emotion, pain perception and the temperature of their skin."

A survey released in November by the Physicians’ Foundation compiled responses from more than 12,000 US physicians, many of them primary care providers, with the goal of presenting a comprehensive snapshot of physicians’ opinions about the current state of the healthcare industry and the prospects for the future.

Study results published in the October 2008 issue of the American Journal of Physiology � Heart and Circulatory Physiology reveal that "young African American men have greater central [blood pressure] despite comparable brachial [blood pressure] when compared with young white men."

Study results published in the most recent issue of General Hospital Psychiatry indicate that "patients with chronic pain are more prone than others are to consider suicide. The increased risk remained even when study authors took the possible influence of mental illness into account."

Clinvest was approached by one of the largest pharmaceutical companies to "create and manage a [Mental Efficiency and Workload Test] for 500 subjects in a migraine trial occurring in 50 sites across the United States." This will be the first time cognitive processing time will be tested in a major migraine study.

Can the application of chaos theory lead to better clinical rehabilitation and assistive devices for patients suffering from neuromuscular disorders?

The wireless, customizable NESS H200 Hand Rehabilitation System device has proven to give newfound independence to patients with paralyzed hands caused by a neurological disorder.

Technology and medicine are a wonderful combination, but not if the doctor hides behind it, a real concern in a world of EMRs and handheld medical devices.

Remember in the 1960s Star Trek series when Dr. McCoy would pass his medical tricorder over a prostrate body to discover not only which species of alien had invaded the young ensign, but also how to expel the creature with a dose of medicine?

President-elect Barack Obama’s ascension to the White House was fueled in part by an Internet-driven grassroots campaign that brought together Americans of all backgrounds.

The turmoil in the financial markets combined with a steep recession is hitting most of my clients pretty hard.

Disparities in the care and treatment for hypertension contributes to the deaths of almost 8,000 African American men and women in the United States each year.

Electronic prescribing is rapidly gaining support from a diverse array of healthcare organizations, government agencies, and technology corporations.

The push for clinical decision support technology in medicine is a logical consequence of our experiences.

As we age, the limitations on where we live and how we can live increase.

These three physicians decided to take the bull by the horns and start their own EHR companies.

Clifford Chirls discusses the features of the new social networking site iMedExchange and explains how it diff ers from other social networking resources for physicians.

Molecular imaging reveals fibromyalgia symptoms related to functional brain abnormalities.

Public health scientists say they're worried that a downtrodden economy will make Americans more overweight than ever before.