In a new study published today in JAMA Cardiology, a team of researchers led by Rishi Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, an investigator in the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, found that hospitals that received awards from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology for the delivery of high-quality care for acute myocardial infarction and heart failure were more likely to be financially penalized under value-based programs than other hospitals.
Read More

Researchers at McMaster University have peered into the most intimate moments of sexually active women and men across Canada to ask if they’re using condoms, all in an effort to gather data that could inform decisions around public health and sex education.
Read More

A pilot program introducing bundled payments for hip and knee replacement (HKR) in Medicare patients hasn’t led hospitals to “cherry-pick” healthier patients at lower risk of complications, reports a study in the February 19, 2020 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
Read More

Treating stroke patients in specialized ambulances speeds treatment and reduces patients’ disability, according to late breaking science presented today at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2020.
Read More

A new study, led by RCSI researchers, has found that patients receiving methadone treatment are most at risk of overdosing in the month following the end of methadone treatment and during the first four weeks of treatment.
Read More

Facial fillers can help with wrinkles and other skin issues. Here’s what to expect when you inject.
Read More

Prematurely born babies often need oxygen therapy to prevent brain damage or death. Unfortunately, excessive oxygen can damage immature lungs and cause severe life-long problems including bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and pulmonary hypertension (PH). A new study in the American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier, provides insights into the important role that the hormone adrenomedullin plays in the development, recovery, and prevention of BPD and PH.
Read More

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have completed a cross-sectional human study that compares biomarkers and metal concentrations in the urine of e-cigarette users, nonsmokers, and cigarette smokers.
Read More

Using a mixture of oil droplets and hydrogel, medical active agents can be not only precisely dosed, but also continuously administered over periods of up to several days. The active agents inside the droplets are released at a constant rate, decreasing the risk of over- or underdosage.
Read More

Egypt, Algeria and Republic of South Africa are the African countries most at risk for coronavirus COVID-19 importation in the continent, due to high air traffic with the contaminated Chinese provinces.
Read More