I found this article at MedicineNet on the success of a Heart Failure Program that standardizes care for HF patients.  The program was organized by GlaxoSmithKline and is called Optimze HF.

Optimize HF provides health care facilities and providers with materials and tools to standardize patient care throughout a hospital stay including items like: standing orders for all HF patients, discharge checklists, pocket cards, medical chart stickers, best-practice algorithms and critical pathways.

The program supported care through consistency of care.  This is something we, in the pre-hospital setting, sometimes have problems with.  You know what I mean.  Some of our colleagues are medical accidents waiting to happen.  Their skills aren’t sharp, their knowledge is dated, and when a critical incident happens — they drop the ball and make a poor decision.

A program like this could benefit us in the field as well.  Hold mini-training sessions.  Ten minute cardiac emergency drills to encourage fast and accurate diagnosis and decision making.  Make it fun, make it consistent.  Make it repeatable.  When we can make the right decision in practice time and again, when it doesn’t count.  We can make the right decision once, when it really does!

Welcome to Episode 77

The MedicCast is a proud member of the Blubrry Podcast Network.

Right click to download this episode or click the little arrow to listen here.

A podcast for EMT’s, Paramedics, and other medical providers of all kinds.

Fill out our Survey!

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MedicCast Listener Deals at GoDaddy.com –

Code BLU27 gets you 10% off your order at checkout
Code POD27 gets you 10% off any web hosting order at checkout
Try them out and get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com!

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Link of the Week: Snopes.com debunks Cough CPR

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News:

Katrina Doctor Acquitted in Hurricane Deaths

New Radio Systems

Numbers of Providers affecting health

Recently Discharged Patients and DVT and PE

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Tip/Trick of the Week — NIH on Pulmonary Embolism

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Med of the Week — Coumadin

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Visit the MedicCast Forums

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Thanks for Supporting the MedicCast!

Rate the podcast at iTunes or at EMS Village or Vote at Podcast Alley

Visit the MedicCast Store!

Get the New MedicCast Newsletter — Sign up now — it’s free!

Other Podcasts: MedicCast News and MedicCast Live!

Contact Me!
Call the Voice Mail Line — (941) 306-3342

send me a note at podmedic@mac.com

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Music from the Podsafe Music Network by Carlina — How Long Will You Be Gone?

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Until next time, Scene safety, BSI!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

I got this story from a neo-natal monitoring equipment industry press release.  It points out why we all need to maintain our knowledge of neonatal and maternity care.

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Waltham, Massachusetts (PRWEB) July 24, 2007 — Millennium Research Group (MRG) has conducted a detailed analysis of the neonatal and perinatal device market in its US Market Opportunities in Neonatal/Perinatal Monitoring 2007 report. The analysis reveals that a growing trend of women using assisted reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization, combined with the increasing average age of mothers giving birth, will lead to more premature births.

Due to the growing rate of these premature births that will be characterized by low birth weight, more perinatal and neonatal devices will be needed in hospitals. Incubators, warmers, monitoring devices, and ventilators are being used more than ever to help newborns survive during the critical early stages of life.

“The large focus of resources towards neonatal care in hospitals combined with the large volume of births that occur in the US annually, will drive the markets for neonatal and perinatal devices,” says Ryan Goren, Analyst at MRG. “The health status of newborns is among the highest levels of priority in hospitals in the US and as a result, this will ensure that modern devices continue to be purchased in the future.”

blubrry.com

The so-called HIV medics were released by Libya this week after 8 years of imprisonment, tortured confessions, and death sentences.  The 5 nurses and one doctor were imprisoned after unfounded allegations that they willfully infected over 400 Libyan children with HIV during a research study there.  Although proven to be false by world health officials, the North African nation refused to back down.  More on this story here.
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I report on this and other EMS news in the most recent episode of the MedicCast News at the Podcaster News Network.

Jamie

the Podmedic

Thanks to Chris Black for sending me this link.  It is a story about a woman who is a top musician in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  She is retiring from there at the age of 59 and pursuing a career in EMS as a paramedic.

Check out the link here.

What this story points out to us is that there is never a time in our lives when we can’t bring something new to the table.  Whether it is a career change like in this story or maybe refocusing on new education, new opportunities or even a spiritual change.  As we live longer, more productive lives, a woman in her late fifties can look forward to ten, fifteen, or twenty or more years in a new career.

But all of this hinges on a long and healthy life.  Choices made about healthy lifestyles can have a huge impact on us later on.  We see the carnage reaped by smoking, overeating, and other choices we make so easily when we are younger.  We can learn a lesson from this woman about why we should not try to “burn out young.”  Life can be more than most of us expect.

Welcome to Episode 76

The MedicCast is a proud member of the Blubrry Podcast Network.

Right click to download this episode or click the little arrow to listen here.

A podcast for EMT’s, Paramedics, and other medical providers of all kinds.

Fill out our Survey!

—————————-

MedicCast Listener Deals at GoDaddy.com –

Code BLU27 gets you 10% off your order at checkout
Code POD27 gets you 10% off any web hosting order at checkout
Try them out and get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com!

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Link of the Week: Pediacast Podcast Site

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News:

Commentary on Kids and Heat Emergencies

Pharmacy by Vending Machine

Chronic Fatigue Study

Mature Heart Cells May Regenerate

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Tip/Trick of the Week — Diabetes (a review)

NIH Tutorials and Other Resources on Diabetes

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Med of the Week –Avandia Revisited (what’s all the hub bub about?)

Recent Avandia Study and Link to Heart Disease

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Visit the MedicCast Forums

———————————–

Thanks for Supporting the MedicCast!

Rate the podcast at iTunes or at EMS Village or Vote at Podcast Alley

Visit the MedicCast Store!

Get the New MedicCast Newsletter — Sign up now — it’s free!

Other Podcasts: MedicCast News and MedicCast Live!

Contact Me!
Call the Voice Mail Line — (941) 306-3342

send me a note at podmedic@mac.com

————————————————

Music from the Podsafe Music Network with Lee Alexander

Venus Rising, click the button below to buy at iTunes and let the artist know you liked his song.

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Until next time, Scene safety, BSI!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

It has come to my attention that iTunes is not successfully downloading the latest MedicCast Live episode: MedicCast Live — Leading the Code Team.

I’m working on the problem.  In the meantime, you can click on the MP3 link below to listen or right click and select download file to pick up the episode.

Right Click Here

You can also listen live or download over at the direct Talkshoe link at MedicCastLive.com

Sorry for the inconvenience.  This problem is not affecting the regular weekly podcasts.  They are downloading just fine so stay tuned for another new episode tomorrow night!

blubrry.com

I found this article on a study put out in the July 2007 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter. In it they lay out common triggers for heart attacks. What are some of the most common triggers? One that stands out to me is just getting up in the morning. The body’s natural response to waking is to release stress hormones to help wake us up. In a person with heart disease, even these small changes in the body’s regulating hormones can cause a cardiac event. Bummer! Check out the article for more info.
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I report on this and other EMS news in the most recent episode of the MedicCast News at the Podcaster News Network.

Jamie

the Podmedic

I got this press release from a doctor who has set up a gripe site for doctors to talk about those patients that they just see too much of.  It appears that they have frequent flyers, too.

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Millions of Patients Don’t Know How to Be… Well… Patients!

New York (PRWEB) November 20, 2005 — StopPagingMe, LLC, run by C.E.O. and NYC Cardiologist, Jordan Safirstein, has announced a new concept for Doctors and Patients around the world – an online place to examine, complain and learn from each other. How to Be a Patient allows anyone in the non-medical sector to have conversations with the medical sector, under the direction of doctors who actually care about this subject.

Do you have a morbid curiosity about doctors?  Do you annoy doctors?  Do you want to know what doctors really say behind closed doors?  Want to know what they write down on their notes?  Want to know how not to screw up your first doctor-patient interview; or how to be a good patient; or what to have with you and what to do and how to dress when you go to your first doctor’s appointment?  Are there things you should say or not say?  What things do you say that might give doctors the wrong impression?  If you go to your appointment smelly and disheveled, well… doctors are people, too.  How do you know your doctor doesn’t think of you as a hypochondriac or crazy person? If you’re even a little curious in regards to the judgments your doctor is making about you, How to Be a Patient is the place for you.

Don’t expect to have questions about your diseases answered; for that you’ll need to visit your family physician.  Of course, the difference is that you’ll be charged for those answers.  All information for StopPagineMe.com comes free of charge, including the new section: How to Be a Patient.

“We’re like Scrubs and the Daily Show, online and on speed.”  Jordan Safirstein, Founder and CEO of www.StopPagingMe.com <http://www.StopPagingMe.com>

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Maybe we should start up the same thing for EMS patients who “bug” us.

Think you know everything there is to know about sunscreen and sun protection?  Well you might be as surprised as I was by the article I found at CNN.com called “A Parent’s Guide to Sun Safety.”  It discusses topics like reflected sunlight and beach umbrellas, sunlight through car and house windows, clouds and sun protection, and vitamin deficiencies and sunscreen.

The long and the short of this topic is that, whether you are a parent or not, this is important information. When you work outdoors as much as EMS providers do, it is important to take care of your skin and eyes.  UV A and B rays are damaging to us and protecting us from the premature aging that the sun causes will keep us young in more than just looks.

Stay safe, from scene dangers on the ground and from above.

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