At the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in Bronx, NY a medical procedure cost $38k. That same procedure cost $637k at the Stanford Hospital in Stanford, CA.
One million babies die each year on the day they are born, according to a new study released by the international nonprofit Save the Children.
In its annual “State of the World’s Mothers” report, the group has ranked which countries are best (Finland) and worst (DR Congo) at helping newborns survive their first day of life.
Two-thirds of American office workers experience pain on the job and a quarter expect it. Not from physical exertion, but from too much hunching, sitting, clicking and staring at screens.
According to a recent study from the American Osteopathic Association, the average “work potato” misses the equivalent of three days on the job each year simply because they don’t move enough.
Did you hurt yourself walking into a lamppost? Were your struck by lightning? Did you stab yourself while crocheting? Rest assured. Starting in 2014, your doctor will be prepared…there’s a U.S. health care code for all your injuries.
The first baby has been cured of HIV, researchers announced Sunday. The case was publicly unveiled at the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.
The infant, who is now two and a half years old, was born to a “high-risk” mother in Mississippi. The mother was not diagnosed with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) until delivery, and therefore did not receive the typical prenatal treatment for the disease that could have prevented transmission to the baby.
Confirmation of the baby’s HIV status came from Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University. Go here for the conversation with Dr. Luzuriaga about her team’s research.
About 700 new chemicals are created each year. Last year the Environmental Protection Agency set a goal to review 40. It finished only 3.
In 2011, the EPA was set to cite evidence of cancer risks in hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical found in tap water that was brought to light in the film “Erin Brockovich.” Yet a special EPA panel urged the agency to delay action. Learn about the shocking truths revealed in this investigation.
Dr. John Ross:
The only medical fact known about Shakespeare with certainty is that his final signatures show a marked tremor. Compared to other Elizabethans, Shakespeare had an unhealthy obsession with syphilis. D. H. Lawrence wrote, “I am convinced that some of Shakespeare’s horror and despair, in his tragedies, arose from the shock of his consciousness of syphilis.”
According to contemporary gossip, Shakespeare was not only notoriously promiscuous, but was also part of a love triangle in which all three parties contracted venereal disease. The standard Elizabethan treatment for syphilis was mercury; as the saying goes, “a night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury.” Mercury’s more alarming adverse effects include drooling, gum disease, personality changes, and tremor. (In the eighteenth century, mercury was used in the manufacture of felt hats, leading to the expressions “hatter’s shakes” and “mad as a hatter”). Did Shakespeare’s writing career end prematurely due to side effects of mercury treatment?
Adding “reading” to the check-up list: National literacy program Reach Out and Read’s new breed of pediatricians — part doctor, part teacher — help parents share books with their children to encourage cognitive development.
But why the doctor’s office? Because that’s the one place where all children, including those most at risk, go regularly before they enter school.
Without some school experience before first grade, most low-income children are almost guaranteed to begin school behind everyone else.
And we are talking about a lot of children here; 5.1 million American children under the age of 5 are growing up in poverty. So what are states doing to get these kids ready for first grade? See for yourself.
Only 10 states and the District of Columbia tell schools they must provide full day kindergarten; 34 states require half-day programs, and six states do not require any kindergarten at all.
Preschool programs like Head Start reach about one-third of 3- and 4-year-olds. And in spite of their proven success, early education programs are now being cut.
That leaves it to programs like Reach Out and Read to pick up the slack. About 11,000 children a year come through the clinic at Bellevue. All are from low-income homes and, for most, English is their second language… More
NOTE: After this segment was filmed, Bellevue Hospital was flooded by Hurricane Sandy and almost all the program’s books were lost. Help rebuild their library by making a monetary contribution here (Donation Category: Reach out and Read) or contact Marie Betancourt at roramarie1@aol.com to determine other ways you can help.
"It’s almost like a video game, where you have to place patients, move patients, keep the flow going. And if you don’t, it stacks up, and then the waiting room backs up."
— Pete Nicks, director of “The Waiting Room,” a documentary that chronicles life at a large, under-resourced urban public hospital
