By analyzing geographical health care data, public health and hospital officials are able to make better decisions for patients, increase accessibility to services and prevent future disease outbreaks.

American Sentinel University has identified four ways GIS is improving the health care industry.

The health care industry has long mapped events for epidemiological research. But now with GIS technology, hospitals can map where their patients are coming from and the most prevalent disease processes and procedures. GIS plays a crucial role in tracking diseases and contagions so governments can better track and respond to outbreaks.

“GIS allows for greater understanding of the spread of geological phenomena, including the spread and clustering of contagious diseases,” says Gabriel Schmidbauer, GIS professor at American Sentinel University. “This greater understanding will increase the efficiency of resource allocation within the health care system.”

For example, Wellcome Trust scientists working in Kathmandu, Nepal, have recently mapped the spread of typhoid and traced its source. Research was done by combining DNA sequencing technology and GPS signaling data and then mapping it out on Google Earth™ mapping service.

“Until now, it has been extremely difficult to study how organisms such as the typhoid-causing bacteria evolve and spread at a local level,” says Dr. Stephen Baker from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam in a press release issued by Wellcome Trust. “Without this information, our ability to understand the transmission of these diseases has been significantly hampered. Now, advances in technology have allowed us for the first time to create accurate geographical and genetic maps of the spread of typhoid and trace it back to its sources.”

In Australia, GIS technology helped researchers determine that rural women are more at risk for obesity and diabetes, while the United States, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) uses GIS to track everything from suicide hotbed areas to exposure to chemicals.

In fact, the CDC regularly uses GIS in data collection, mapping and communication to respond to national crisis, including the World Trade Center collapse, Hurricane Katrina, Avian flu, SARS and Rift Valley Fever.

But, GIS is used for much more than just emergency response or tracking disasters.

According to Esri, which has more than 5,000 health care clients worldwide, GIS plays a critical role in determining where and when to intervene, improving the quality of care, increasing accessibility of service, finding more cost-effective delivery modes and preserving patient confidentiality while satisfying the needs of the research community for data accessibility.

Nursing Case Management
Kathy K. Wright, MSN, RN, C-PNP, assistant professor, nursing at American Sentinel University says using GIS for public health and nursing case management can be a tremendous asset to the community.

Through the use of GIS, a nurse case manager can see where the community resources are in proximity to their patients such as therapy providers, home health agencies and pharmacies. This information is beneficial for patients in rural locations who need care and for a community to access the need for expanding resources or seeing where there is a need for a certain resource they might lack.

The use of GIS technology can actively address disparities in access to health care. And GIS tools can grant health care resources to more of the community without exhausting public resources.

Human Resources for Nursing
The nursing shortage has been well documented, but traditional HR routes don’t always work to find good nurses. That’s why Stanford University Medical Center used GIS to analyze the nurse population density of various geographic areas.

“Recruiters have had hunches for decades about which features – such as pay, shift, and location – would be attractive to nurses,” says David Schutt, who handles human resources workforce planning and analytics for Stanford University Medical Center. “GIS analysis has once and for all laid the location controversy to rest. We found that the nurse comfort zone for Stanford University Medical Center is about a 12-mile radius. Looked at another way, this is also a retention factor.”

Since practically every external clinical professional at any hospital must be state-licensed and registered, Schutt says it is easy to map the geographic location of nurses. GIS analysis and mapping of this external data, combined with internal human resources workforce data, provides an overview of the hospital nursing supply and demand, as well as employee commute patterns and distance traveled to work.

This knowledge helps anticipate and mitigate potential interruptions to continuity of care to avoid the astronomical costs associated with hiring and training replacements, Schutt said. “Because of GIS analysis, we can potentially free up approximately $22.5 million over the next two years that would otherwise be spent on replacement and training costs,” he says.

Geomedicine
In its free Geomedicine e-book, ‘Geomedicine: Can Geographic Information Make Me Healthy,’ Esri notes that patients benefit from a more precise clinical understanding of the links between their health and where they live, work and play and found that there is currently little health-relevant geographical information available to the clinician.

But, that is changing.

The e-book’s author, Bill Davenhall, is the global manager of Esri’s Health and Human Solutions Group and is one of the leading advocates for the use of GIS to help solve the challenges in health and human services, argues that geographical information will help clinicians better understand their patients just as they look for predispositions to diseases.

“Geographic place will provide the context within which the clinician can assess environmental factors and make judgments about diagnosis, treatment and prognosis,” says Davenhall. “Geomedicine has the potential to transform the way physicians see patients and the potential to provide a more holistic view of the many hidden factors that often defeat achieving successful long-term health outcomes.”

GIS technology offers tremendous potential to benefit the health care industry and its many uses are is just now beginning to be realized. The need for GIS professionals will be even greater as organizations develop innovative ways to harness the data integration and spatial visualization power of GIS.

“As health care becomes more digitized, GIS professionals will play a more vitally important tool in understanding the health care provision,” says Schmidbauer.

PENTAX Lifecare, a division of HOYA Corporation has launched the world’s first HD video bronchoscope at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) annual congress in Amsterdam. The new HD bronchoscope, the EB-1990i, sets a new standard for state-of-the-art bronchoscopy.

PENTAX has been an industry leader in high definition endoscopy and the latest EB-1990i HD bronchoscope is the first HD bronchoscope with a megapixel CCD that delivers clear high resolution images with accurate colour reproduction.

The EB-1990i HD bronchoscope is the latest in the family of HD endoscopes from PENTAX. The EB-1990i HD bronchoscope provides users with excellent image quality and leading ergonomics. Built on PENTAX’s industry leading HD processors the EB-1990i helps physicians clearly visualize the bronchial airways for increased clinical confidence in their diagnosis.

Dr Foccoli, Director of Respiratory Endoscopy in “Spedali Civili di Brescia”, Italy said “The PENTAX EB-1990i HD bronchoscope provides a significant improvement in image resolution over standard systems, with clear enhancement of anatomical details of the bronchial mucosa like longitudinal elastic bands, mucosal glands and vascularity.”

“Instilling greater clinical confidence by delivering high performance, reliability and value to our customers is at the core of everything we do,” said Chris Japp, Global President of PENTAX Lifecare. “Bronchoscopy has proved to be an important and indispensable diagnostic tool in pneumology and PENTAX took giant strides to offer the technological advances in the field of bronchoscopy to our customers and the patients they care for.”

The EB-1990i is currently only available for sale in Europe.

BioAlliance Pharma announces oral communication of the Phase II clinical trial results of its orphan product Livatag at the annual congress of ILCA (International Liver Cancer Association), the only international organization devoted exclusively to liver cancer research with participation of worldwide best specialists.

Pr. Philippe Merle, Professor of hepatology at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and principal investigator of the Phase II trial, presented preliminary survival results observed in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (primary liver cancer). Out of the total 50 patients planned, 28 were randomized and have received intra-arterial injection of Livatag (n=17) or chemoembolization (n=11), according to a 2/1 scheme (2 patients with Livatag for 1 patient with chemoembolization). Livatag® was administered every 4 weeks, up to 3 injections.

Although the trial had been put on hold due to severe pulmonary adverse events, the assessment of survival has been continued based upon the recommendation of the Independent Data Safety Monitoring Board.

The survival results for patients treated with Livatag showed a significant increase compared to the control group with 31.7 months median survival versus 15 months (p<0.05). Patients who received 3 injections had an even better response with an increased median survival (33 versus 15 months) (p<0.05).

Pr. Philippe Merle concluded on the promising opportunities offered by the new slow intravenous administration route, enabling a better control of pulmonary effects, considering the substantial survival benefits showed in a pathology where therapeutic solutions are rare.

These results have also been accepted for a presentation during the AFEF (Association Française pour l’Etude du Foie) congress in Paris, from September 28 to October 1, 2011.

« Livatag is the leading product of our « orphan oncology products » portfolio that comprises also two other products in clinical phase (clonidine Lauriad in phase II in the treatment of mucositis and AMEP, in phase I in the treatment of metastatic melanoma)”, declared Judith Greciet, CEO of BioAlliance Pharma. “This development strategy in an orphan disease is a key driver of the Company growth. The strong interest for Livatag from the scientific and medical community confirms our choice to expand in such area where there is a crucial medical need”.

About Livatag

Primary liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma, is the fifth cancer in incidence and the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. This cancer is highly chemo-resistant, very often diagnosed at an advanced stage and still represents a high unmet medical need. Livatag is a treatment presented in nanoparticles able to deliver doxorubicin in chemoresistant cells. Livatag was granted an orphan drug status in Europe and in the United States.

Livatag is today the leader in the orphan oncology products portfolio, also including clonidine Lauriad in the prevention of radiotherapy-induced oral mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer (phase II) and AMEP® in metastatic melanoma (phase I).

A new AstraZeneca sponsored online survey of 1000 Americans reveals that the majority of American adults surveyed (57%) were concerned about their cholesterol, yet only 34% of people know their current cholesterol level. The survey also found that only 40% of those surveyed know that high cholesterol can cause atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a serious disease which causes plaque buildup in the arteries over time.

Since September is National Cholesterol Education Month, AstraZeneca is encouraging adults to have their cholesterol levels checked. Adults with high cholesterol and additional risk factors–such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or family history of early heart disease–may be at increased risk for more plaque buildup in their arteries and should take steps to manage their high cholesterol. People who may have high cholesterol should work with their doctors to develop a cholesterol-management plan to help them reach their cholesterol goals.

When doctors check cholesterol levels using a blood test, they evaluate both LDL (bad) cholesterol and HDL (good) cholesterol plus another substance called ‘triglycerides’.3,4 LDL cholesterol is considered “bad” because too much of it in the blood can contribute to the slow buildup of plaque in the arteries over time, a serious disease called atherosclerosis.1

Adults over the age of 20 should have their cholesterol levels checked at least once every five years, according to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines.3 Total cholesterol is based on LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglyceride counts.3,4 Generally, lower total cholesterol levels (under 200 mg/dL) are considered desirable.2

If you or someone you know has high cholesterol, a doctor will likely recommend lifestyle changes, which can include quitting smoking, eating more healthy foods, and exercising more often.5 For some people, diet and exercise alone may not be enough, so it is important that people talk with their health care provider about their treatment options.

A doctor may recommend CRESTOR® (rosuvastatin calcium) when diet and exercise alone are not enough. Along with diet, CRESTOR is proven in adults to lower bad cholesterol by up to 52% (at the 10-mg dose vs 7% with placebo). CRESTOR is also FDA approved to slow plaque buildup in arteries as part of a treatment plan to lower cholesterol to goal.6 CRESTOR is not right for everyone, including anyone who has previously had an allergic reaction to CRESTOR, anyone with liver problems, or women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. Please see additional important safety information below.

The AstraZeneca-sponsored survey described in the first paragraph was conducted by StrategyOne using Toluna field services, was fielded online between May 19 and May 23, 2011 among a nationwide cross-section of 1,000 adults in the US aged 18 and older. The overall margin of error was ± 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence interval.

About CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium) Tablets

In adults, CRESTOR is prescribed along with diet to lower high cholesterol, and to slow the buildup of plaque in arteries as part of a treatment plan to lower cholesterol to goal.

Important Safety Information about CRESTOR (rosuvastatin calcium) Tablets

CRESTOR is not right for everyone, including anyone who has previously had an allergic reaction to CRESTOR, anyone with liver problems, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or who may become pregnant. Your doctor should do blood tests before and during treatment with CRESTOR to monitor your liver function. Unexplained muscle pain or weakness could be a sign of a rare but serious side effect and should be reported to your doctor right away. Elevated blood sugar levels have been reported with statins, including CRESTOR. Be sure to tell your doctor if you are taking any medications. The most common side effects are headache, muscle aches, abdominal pain, weakness, and nausea.

A revolutionary medical device that dramatically suppresses uncontrolled bleeding in the groin and inguinal areas of wounded servicemen is making its way onto the battlefield.

The Combat Ready Clamp (CRoC) is a vise-like tourniquet designed to manage difficult bleeds when hemorrhage control in tactical environments is not possible with traditional methods and standard tourniquets.

Hemorrhaging is the leading cause of combat preventable deaths. Approximately 25 percent of potentially survivable deaths are due to uncontrolled junctional bleeding, most of which is attributed to pelvic hemorrhage. The CRoC increases soldier survivability by replacing manual pressure with compression placed on large vessels and direct pressure to problematical wounds by screwing tightly its vise-like clamp design.

Combat Medical Systems of Fayetteville, N.C., maker of the CRoC, recognized the need for an atypical tourniquet device to tackle injuries occurring below soldiers’ body armor in the pelvic and groin area as a result of gunshot wounds and Afghan insurgents’ use of improvised explosive devices.

Easily employed and removed, the mechanism is a slip-proof expandable aluminum clamp that is durable, collapsible, lightweight and compact.

A recent article in the U.S. Army Medical Department Journal reported that stemming uncontrolled bleeding could prevent the deaths of as many as three soldiers a month.

Not all exercise equipment needs to be plugged into the wall. Some exercise machines produce electricity to power the machine while the user exercises on the machine. Here’s news of the SportsArt Fitness S770 Pinnacle Trainer (their Self-Generating equipment line) which includes ellipticals, cycles and the S770.

The S770 features include a self-generating design that requires no outside power to operate. The S770 also monitors heart rate and includes a bracket for an entertainment device while exercising.

Link
Buy equipment from Amazon

Most American women feel more independent today than they did five years ago (64%), reporting the greatest strides in women’s independence were in career advancement (65%), education (55%) and politics (46%). But when it comes to their health, women don’t claim independence — nearly half of women (47%) believe society values men’s health more than women’s health, according to a new survey of 2,500 Americans.

Almost seven in 10 women (67%) say they put their family’s health needs ahead of their own. More than one-third of employed women (35%) use most of their sick days for someone else and nearly one-quarter (24%) of all employed women feel like they are at a disadvantage because they are typically the one who uses sick days when a family member gets sick. This is especially true for moms with kids living in the household (40%).

“Women are sacrificing their own well-being in the pursuit of trying to balance demands at home and at work,” said Monique da Silva, Head of North America Healthcare for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and a working mother of three. “Because many women feel that their health is being undervalued, we must reassess as a society how we value women and find ways to ensure that they have the support they need to dedicate time and resources for their own health.”

The survey also found that when money is tight, one in four women (26%) have paid for others’ drug prescriptions instead of their own. A majority of women agree that their families rely on them to be in charge of health-related decisions (62%) and over half of all women fear that if they become sick, their family will have difficulty managing everyday activities (56%).

“Especially in light of health reform which is seeking behavior modification and prevention to reduce stress on the healthcare system, these data reinforce the importance of building a sustained connection with women at the places or through the media channels they are already using to drive continual behavior change,” adds da Silva. “It is critical that we truly understand and uncover the key pressure points that will get women to stop, consider and act on health information.”

Additional key findings from the survey include:

The majority of U.S. women (55%) are concerned that the most recent health care reform will slow the advancement of women’s health.
Many women think that until they are better represented in government (50%), become leaders in the pharmaceutical industry (47%), or start to enter the medical field as doctors or surgeons (44%), women’s health will not be a priority. Even with all that being said, one in every five women (22%) still tends to choose male doctors over female doctors for themselves and their family.
Working moms* carry a heavier load when it comes to health than working dads* with moms being more likely than dads to take off from work to care for a sick child (62% vs. 47%)
More moms than dads believe their families would find it difficult to manage everyday activities if they became sick (84% vs. 63%)
Moms are relied on to be in charge of their family’s healthcare related decisions (90% vs. 64% of dads)
Moms feel like they are at a disadvantage because they are typically the ones who use sick days when a family member gets sick (40% vs. 23% of dads)

About the Survey:

Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide developed the study with the objective of understanding Americans’ perspectives on women’s independence, specifically related to healthcare. TNS Global conducted the online survey among a nationally representative sample of 2,500 Americans ages 18 and over. The survey was fielded June 21 to June 22, 2011, and has a margin of error of +/-2.0% at the 95% confidence level.

GE Healthcare today announced FDA clearance of Optima XR220amx, Optima XR200amx and Brivo XR285amx – a new platform of user-friendly, mobile x-ray systems offering improvements from its predecessors in reliability, accessibility and flexibility to help address the increasingly specialized radiographic needs of patients.

These systems are designed to provide healthcare professionals with fast, low-dose, high quality images that can aid in accurate diagnoses as early as possible in challenging clinical settings.

GE Healthcare’s latest mobile x-ray technology is the result of years of research and collaboration between technologists, physicians, engineers and administrators seeking to craft an intuitive, practical and integrated mobile system. The digital Optima XR220amx, digital-ready Optima XR200amx and Brivo XR285amx are more compact and powerful than their predecessors. They feature intuitive touch screens, immediate start-up capability, more storage and the high image quality required in today’s radiographic environment.

Mobile x-ray is designed for use when it is not safe or practical to move a patient from his or her bed to the radiology department. Specifically, Optima XR220amx is built to bring digital x-ray directly to the patient in the emergency room, intensive care unit and other clinical settings, while offering ergonomic improvements that can streamline transportation and patient positioning. Optima XR220amx also immediately integrates with GE’s revolutionary FlashPad* digital wireless detector.

Integrating FlashPad – a durable and adaptable wireless digital detector – with GE’s new mobile x-ray platform can impact diagnostic confidence while maintaining high image quality at low-dose levels. FlashPad also operates on a dedicated frequency spectrum using sophisticated ultra-wideband technology, thereby avoiding the congestion and competition found on many busy hospital wi-fi networks.

Medicus Insurance Company, one of the fastest growing medical professional liability insurance (MPLI) carriers in the country, lowered its base rates for physicians and medical professionals in Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. Medicus sells insurance in 24 states from coast to coast.

These rate decreases demonstrate Medicus’ commitment to supporting the medical community with affordable, quality insurance and exceptional service. “Medicus provides security to our physicians in an affordable way so they can practice medicine with peace of mind,” said Eugenie Shea, President, Medicus Insurance Company. “We continually look for new ways to better serve doctors.”

Medicus lowered rates in Arizona 19.0%, in Kansas 15.0%, in Nevada 9.9%, in Ohio 9.9%, in Texas 9.5% and in Virginia 9.1%. These percentages are an average of rates that vary by specialty and territory.

These rate decreases follow in a line of product innovations from Medicus. For example, Medicus Advantage Gold is a groundbreaking policy endorsement that protects insured’s electronic medical records along with a suite of other policy enhancements available at no additional cost to the insured. Medicus was one of the first to offer such an endorsement, which is now essential for medical professionals practicing in the post-medical reform era.

Dr. Bill Bailey, Vice President of Medical Relations for the company, said, “Physicians want to practice medicine and help people. We reduce their business costs with our competitive insurance rates.”

A prospective study of initially healthy women aged 45 and over found that smoking is a potent risk factor for symptomatic peripheral artery disease, or PAD. PAD is a serious, often debilitating disorder, caused by narrowing of the arteries in the lower extremities. Symptoms of PAD include pain in the legs with normal activity and a feeling of tiredness in the leg muscles.

“This study showed that—as has been previously shown for heart attacks and for lung cancer—that smoking is actually very harmful for the development PAD,” said Eruna Pradhan, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study. “This is significant because PAD is a disease that not only causes a lot of pain and discomfort with usual, daily activities but it also increases the risk of heart attack.”

Researchers followed 38,825 women for an average of 12.7 years to determine if smoking increased a woman’s risk for PAD and if smoking cessation reduced that risk. The women were questioned about their smoking history and if they currently smoked cigarettes. If so, they were asked to disclose how many they smoked per day. During the course of the study, patients periodically filled out questionnaires about their health and smoking habits. Surveys were given twice during the first year and then once per year for the remainder of the study and follow-up period. Participants were asked to report any symptoms of PAD.

The researchers found that smoking increased a woman’s risk for PAD 10-fold. Smoking cessation reduced the risk, but even after abstaining from cigarettes for 20 years, the risk did not lower to that of a woman who had never smoked.