Telehealth Can Be a Useful Communication Tool in the ICU
A Penn Medicine study finds that a video-based telehealth platform could improve communications between clinicians and a patient's family members in the always-busy ICU. A telehealth link could be more beneficial to... read more
Signatures of Subacute Potentially Catastrophic Illness in the ICU
The severity of the original insult often determines prognosis, and the risk of death is further increased by events that occur during the stay, such as acute respiratory failure, sepsis, and hemorrhage. These new insults... read more
Artificial pancreas could save lives
An Asheville doctor-and-son team have an idea they say could save at least 100,000 lives a year. Leon and Jeremy DeJournett have patented an artificial pancreas, a system that uses a form of artificial intelligence to ensure... read more
Driving Risk Factors Behind Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia
Ventilators that help patients breathe can be life-saving devices; however, they also have the power to cause deadly ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).... read more
Earlier Renal Replacement Therapy for AKI? Not So Fast, Says Dr Berns
The AKIKI study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine; ELAIN was published in JAMA. If you have not read them, you should, if for no other reason than that your colleagues are likely to ask about them.... read more
Early Palliative Care Improves Quality of Life for Terminal Cancer Patients
The new study included 350 patients recently diagnosed with incurable lung or gastrointestinal cancer. They were randomly assigned to one of two care groups. One group received early palliative care integrated with cancer... read more
Study Finds Two Ways to Reduce HAIs
The risk for hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) is reduced by conducting fewer patient transports and limiting urinary catheter use, according to a study conducted at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, New Jersey.... read more
Few ICU Patients with Pneumonia Tested for Virus Infections
Researchers investigated the clinical practices of testing for respiratory virus infections in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with suspected community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) or hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) and... read more
Children’s palliative care hit by nurse shortage
A worrying shortage of nurses working in children’s palliative care is having a negative impact on care, a charity has warned Nursing Times ahead of a new drive to promote the specialty.... read more
Blood lactate concentrations predict ICU deaths
Blood lactate concentration is a strong predictor of mortality, more so than other measures of acidity in the blood, according to Australian researchers.... read more
Penn studies including families in ICU medical rounds
Unlike at many hospitals, the medical team at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania\'s surgical intensive care unit has embraced the idea of including families in physician rounds...... read more
Study shows retinoic acid could prevent postsurgical lymphedema
A study conducted at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California showed that 9-cis retinoic acid (alitretinoin) could significantly prevent postsurgical lymphedema.... read more
Deworming drugs could treat deadly C. difficile infection
A class of drugs used to deworm animals may have the potential to treat even the deadliest strains of Clostridium difficile in humans, new study suggests.... read more
Digital PCR Detection of Cancer Mutations from Liquid Biopsies
Guest Editor, Randall Evans, Ph.D of Biodesix, discusses the recent success of a clinical trial of a diagnostic blood test.... read more
VIB-Ghent University research provides insights into septic shock
Researchers at VIB and Ghent University have discovered an important mechanism of sepsis, an overreaction of the body's immune system to an infection.... read more
Language barriers impede treatment of children with special health care needs
Language barriers can have dangerous consequences for children with special health care needs, according to a new paper. Children with special health care needs account for two-thirds of pediatric hospital admissions and... read more
