Pulmonology

Roflumilast, the first selective phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor approved for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), could actually become less effective with prolonged exposure.

An aging population of hemophilia patients is at risk for various cardiovascular diseases.

For obese asthmatics, an article in CHEST reported that weight loss could mitigate their symptoms, which investigators believed highlighted a need for doctors to simultaneously treat obesity and asthma.

A social media program created by The Canadian Cancer Center was found to be twice as successful than traditional methods at aiding young adults quit smoking.

Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) after major abdominal surgery are common, with risk increasing with patient age. Major abdominal surgeries alter and disrupt diaphragmatic dysfunction, which has been proven causative of PPCs.

Oxygen therapy is associated with burn injuries in patients with COPD, according to new findings.

Antibiotic resistance is an ongoing battle and a new method of testing for deadly infections may help prevent physicians from prescribing unnecessary medications.

Researchers identified a potential novel treatment for pulmonary fibrosis, according to research presented in the Journal of Pathology.

Study results show that a capsule-free preparation of pancreatin gastro-resistant granules is a safe and effective treatment for young children with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency due to cystic fibrosis.

A large percentage of acute lung injury survivors in the ICU may have clinically significant general anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms that tend to co-occur across domains.

On average, Aboriginal Australians have a lower forced vital lung capacity compared to the rest of the population, a phenomenon that was formerly attributed to COPD, according to a study published in Respirology.

Vitamin D insufficiency can be like the slippery suspect in a network procedural: It's probably up to no good on any number of counts, but pinning the crime on it with airtight evidence can still prove elusive.

The number-one cause of death in children under the age of 5 worldwide has also been shown to harm DNA.

The days of patients requesting stacks of paper medical records being sent to a new healthcare professional are largely over in many places. How the information is transmitted and who gets to see that information is now a topic of discussion in the community.

The field of electronic health records has made big advancements in recent years but there is still more work to be done. How that work is done will depend on input not only from the healthcare field but also the patients who use it.

Many hospitals around the country are eliminating their paper records all together which is changing the way patient records are shared. This can have a long reach into a patient's life as different parts of their lives depend on having their records to send to various entities.

Now that it has been shown that more control can be given to patients in regards to their electronic health records, the question becomes whether it should be done and how it should be done.

When converting medical records into an electronic form most of the work can be done without much consideration. However, when it comes to observations and other notes by healthcare professionals, how they are included and made available to patients can present the need for more in depth thought.

When deciding how or even if to give patients access to their medical records, a recent study found there are many areas that need to be considered before the access is made available.

When given the choice of what parts of their records patients wanted made available to healthcare professionals, the results showed a mixed reaction to the ability. There were also questions raised about the risks associated with only making the records available to certain people.

Having one of the oldest electronic health record systems in the country the state of Indiana has been at the forefront of the field for close to 30 years. Using those records and networks in the state a group from the Regenstrief Institute looked at how patients might want to control who can see their records.

Under the direction of the CNS 7 teams from around the country are looking at best practices for nursing homes in their area. The groups are then pooling their information to see what can be done to improve the life of patients in these facilities and others like them.

People are living well into their 70's and beyond, and as a result the medical community as a whole is being asked to tackle new challenges. This is especially true for nursing homes where patients can require a variety of care on a given day.

Nursing homes across the country have been operating with the same procedures for many years. While a new way of approaching care may take some getting used to and have some initial costs the end result could be beneficial in the long run.

As part of a program run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services centers around the country are taking a closer look at what the nursing home field could look like in the future.

It is well known that smokers and drug users are plagued with varying health issues. Supporting this idea is a University of Buffalo (UB) study, which has not only found that they visit the emergency room (ER) at alarming rates, but also disputed that people are bypassing primary care practices for hospital care.

Investigators at Toronto Western Hospital deemed an existing - but not widely used - augmentation therapy effective at treating genetically-motivate emphysema.

Researchers say over-expression of key proteins may cause the overproduction of mucus that is observed in airway diseases.

Although commercial support for continuing medical education has been on the decline since 2008, it nevertheless continues to be a major revenue source for CME providers and a cause for potential concern.

A recent Chinese study of antibiotic use in primary care settings found that up to 93% of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) were treated with antibiotics, with more than 60% reported as inappropriate.