Intel Health Guide

According to this article on eWeek, a small touch screen PC that includes a new online interface released by Intel that allows patients to connect with their doctors has won approval by the FDA.

The Intel Health Guide will be able to handle a series of patient care services. The system will take the burden away from insurance companies, since the monitoring of patients with chronic and outgoing patients will be done at home instead of the hospital.

Louis Burns, VP and general manager of Intel's Digital Health Group mentions:

"With more people living with chronic diseases, we believe care can be increasingly moved outside of the hospital to the home. Through our research, we've learned that a home-based model of care becomes more than just delivering care to patients at home—it is about creating connections to family, friends, caregivers, and the care team."

Glucose monitors, blood pressure monitors, and other medical devices can be attached to the Intel Health System, and the information gathered can be shared with doctors on the Internet through a secure host server. We can expect the Intel Health System to reach the US market by end of 2008 or by the first quarter of 2009.

Could you be asked to Sign Away Your Rights?

Trisha Torrey from the Patient Empowerment Blog wrote about a new service offered by Medical Justice, which will ensure that patients do not make any comments about their experiences with the doctor on the internet. This process requires patients to sign a form of release before beginning any examinations, diagnoses, or treatment recommendations.

Medical Justice promises that any physician who pays for this service will not suffer from comments a patient might make about their practice on the web. There is a growing concern though, that many patients will sign away documents without even knowing what the form is for. Also, patients might not fully trust a physician who will not allow them to pass judgments and critique their services.

Heart Bypass Surgery Care: Is it Flawed?

According to this article on BBC News, patients undergoing heart bypass surgery might not be receiving the best possible care. A worldwide study conducted by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death on 20,000 patients suggests among of third of the patients who did not survive, delays were to blame.

Problems were found in all processes beginning from start to finish. Delays after a referral to the cardiologist, the way tests were carried out, communication between doctors, and post-op treatment and care all attributed to the death of many patients. An example is given of how one patient was referred to a cardiologist by his general doctor, but since the cardiologist went on vacation the letter remained unopened for a whole month. The patient’s condition worsened dramatically and he died shortly after the operation.

The Chairman of NCEPOD, Professor Tom Treasure mentions:

"Coronary surgery will not always succeed and death comes to us all in the end but if the means at our disposal are not deployed effectively and in a timely way, appropriate to the circumstances, lives that might have been saved will be lost."

Latest Study Ties Air Pollution to Increased Blood Cots

The NY Times reports that a study conducted on 871 deep vein thrombosis patients in Italy shows that in areas where air pollution is higher, the conditions of blood cots worsen.

The study compared the 871 D.V.T. patients to 1,210 healthy patients in a controlled environment where the levels of air pollution were carefully measured using monitors. According to the study which was published in The Archives of Internal Medicine on May 12^th, for every increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter in particulate matter, the risk for blood cots increased by 70 percent.

The effects of air pollution were smaller in women and those taking hormone therapies. Air pollution is not the only risk for D.V.T., but it is an important factor.