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Vitamin D Deficiency In Senior Citizens

February 11, 2012 by tooldtowork 3 Comments

This is not a sexy EMS post. If anything, it’s related to the kind of stuff that people want to do with EMS 2.0.

Study finds high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in seniors

Researcher Stefan Schilling administered vitamin D tests to more than 1,500 seniors in German nursing homes. The results showed that 89 percent had insufficient levels, while 64 percent had severe deficiencies.

This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Many years ago, while working BLS, I noticed that year after year we responded to more patients with hip fractures after falls during the winter months. In fact, during the summer months it was pretty much unheard of. I knew it was seasonal, but I had no idea why or how to determine why. I thought it might be a good idea for a study, but no one was focused on this sort of thing in the 1980s. At least no one that I knew of.

Schiller largely blamed the problem on a failure of seniors to get adequate sun exposure. He pointed out that vitamin D levels tend to fluctuate with the seasons in younger people, with levels dropping in the winter months when there is less sun. However, this was not seen in his participants, suggesting that there is no time of year when they get adequate sun exposure.

Intuitively this makes sense. There is less sunlight during the winter and it’s colder. People tend to stay indoors, especially elderly people. Ironically, they stay in doors because they are often afraid of falling on ice or snow if they go outside.

It would be interesting to see how much Vitamin D levels fluctuate in areas where winters are more mild or even non existent.

Do Vitamin D supplements help as much as real sunlight? Should assisted living centers and SNFs build “sun rooms” where occupants can go even during the winter months to get exposure to sun light?

Not only do people with Vitamin D deficiency run a greater risk of orthopedic injury, but this study says they run a greater risk of Stroke.

Lack of Sunlight, Vitamin D Tied to Stroke Risk

NEW ORLEANS — Too much sunlight is bad for the skin, but not enough may be a risk factor for stroke, according to a study presented here at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference.

Of the more than 16,000 black and white patients followed, those who lived in areas that had shorter exposure to sunlight had a 56% increased risk of stroke, Leslie McClure, PhD, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Ala., and colleagues found.

 

Reasonable exposure to sunlight would help, the study suggests.

Interestingly, the protective benefit of sunlight was virtually eliminated in the Southeastern stroke belt and buckle, which comprises parts of the coastal plains of Georgia as well as North and South Carolina, McClure told MedPage Today.

Diet. Southern cuisine is many things, but heart and brain healthy generally aren’t on that list. Which brings me to a pet theory. When public health advocates talk about “health care disparities” among minority communities, I wonder if they take diet into account? African-American cuisine is in many respects the same as Southern cuisine. The two groups, southerners and African Americans, have similar health care problems. Hypertension, diabetes, strokes, cardiac disease. Just an observation and pet theory on my part, it’s certainly not science.

It will be interesting to see where this research leads, especially in cold winter area.

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Filed Under: Medicine

But, They Caught It On The First Bounce

January 25, 2012 by tooldtowork 2 Comments

From the media coverage, you’d think that the heart had bounced out of the cooler and was flopping around on the sidewalk. The organ was triple wrapped in plastic and protected from the elements. It’s embarrassing to the “medics” involved, but neither the heart nor the recipient suffered any injury. Both are together and doing fine.

Mrs. TOTWTYTR wanted to know if the five second rule applied, but I told her I didn’t think so.

Oh, and I don’t know that the people doing the transfer were “medics” doctors, nurses, or UPS guys. Chances are that the media doesn’t know either. Which is typical of the laziness that passes for journalism these days.

 

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Filed Under: Everything Else, Medicine

Living Like The Homeless

October 22, 2011 by tooldtowork 2 Comments

Medical Triage at Encampment

Note the misuse of the word “triage”. Doesn’t seem to be much of that going on here.

On to the article,

As temperatures dip and the Occupy Wall Street protesters head into their sixth week of camping at Zuccotti Park, health professionals say they are treating activists for ailments ranging from hypothermia to skin infections, the effects of living outside in crowded conditions with little more than sleeping bags and tarps.

I’d guess that what they are seeing is not much different than what we and EDs see among the homeless population. Pre industrial living conditions quickly result in pre industrial health problems. Lots of communicable diseases to be caught too. Vaccinations will provide a lot of protection, but not completely immunize the inhabitants.

At a medic tent at the Lower Manhattan encampment volunteer doctors and nurses treated more than 100 patients one day this week for a variety of conditions, many of which were related to the rainy and increasingly chilly weather.

“One person had a dislocated shoulder, another with asthma,” said Mary O’Brien, a member of Physicians for a National Health Program who volunteered Tuesday evening at the tent. Another had a seizure disorder and no medication, she said.

Other than the Asthma, doesn’t seem like a whole lot of “weather related” illnesses and injuries. Yet. Wait until it gets really cold. They are apparently already seeing hypothermia, likely a result of people not knowing how to dress for cold weather. As the mountaineers say, “Cotton kills”.

The 21-year-old CPR-certified Brooklyn resident was mincing garlic and ginger on Thursday. “I’m the herbalist here,” he said, explaining he would combine the ginger and garlic with apple cider and cayenne pepper to make what he calls fire water. The concoction, he said, is “for congestions and colds.“

Too bad that there aren’t any CVS, Rite Aids, or Walgreens in New York City. Too small I guess.

“Everyone I saw yesterday had no health insurance,” said Maria Fehlig, an NNU member who left her family and hospital job in Las Vegas to volunteer for three weeks.

Possibly because no one you saw has a job Ms Fehlig. How else can they spend six weeks protesting the lack of jobs? Shame Borders went belly up.

In a rumpled suit and with a copy of the Occupied Wall Street Journal in his jacket pocket and a stethoscope around his neck, Dr. Berall surveys the park to see if anyone needs medical help. His main piece of advice: that protesters and visitors refrain from shaking hands. He suggests they do a “fist bump” instead.</blockquote>

My main piece of advice would be to wash their hands after they piss on the sidewalk. Or whatever they do. Stop living like savages and you’ll stop getting the diseases that savages get.

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Filed Under: Medicine, Politics

More Great Health Care News

September 28, 2011 by tooldtowork 1 Comment

From formerly Great Britain of course. Thanks to Lissa for the link.

Relatives ‘need to help care for sick in hospital’, says nursing leader

Relatives should go into hospitals to help staff care for the elderly, according to a nursing leader.

Dr Peter Carter, head of the Royal College of Nursing, said families should be encouraged to assist patients during mealtimes and take them to the toilet.

Let me turn on the bureaucratese translator for you.

What he is saying is that the National Health Service doesn’t have enough money or staff to take care of your elderly relatives personal needs when they are in the hospital.

He [Carter] also said untrained healthcare assistants with no medical qualifications now carry out many tasks once reserved for nurses, such as helping patients to eat and drink, cleaning bedsores and taking blood samples.

Let me see if I’ve got this one right. One the one hand he wants families to help patients go to the “loo” and eat and drink. Then, on the other hand, he decries “untrained healthcare assistants with no medical qualifications” doing the EXACT SAME THING.

I have to wonder if Dr. Carter is a moron? Actually, that’s a rhetorical question since the answer is self evident. Res ipse locutor as my attorney friends say.

Official NHS figures show that last year 214,888 patients were discharged from hospital with some form of malnutrition.

 The Care Quality Commission watchdog this year found that in some hospitals the elderly were going without food for several days.
Systematic starvation of patients entrusted to the hospitals care. Great. Sounds like the eminent German physician Dr. Mengele is in charge of the NHS hospitals.
But remember, it will be so much different when the same system is fully implemented here.
Read the whole article and peruse the comments. Several readers point out that there are a lot of elderly people (and others no doubt) who have no relatives or no relatives in close proximity. Not to mention that many people, even in Britain, work for a living so they don’t have time to sit with their relatives for hours on end.  I wonder if the next round of riots in Britain are going to involve middle class tax payers carrying torches, ropes, pitchforks, bags of feathers, and buckets of tar. How much more of this will they tolerate before people like Dr. Carter are hanging from light poles in front of Parliament?
This reminds me of a story I was once told by someone who worked for the US government doing “things” in foreign countries. In one country where he was stationed it was the responsibility of the families of prisoners to bring them food if they were in jail. No family, no food. So, he taped a big sign to his refrigerator that said “Feed Bill”. This was a reminder to his family to bring him food if he was arrested by the local police.
Seems that Formerly Great Britain is moving towards the same compassionate type of system only in their hospitals.

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Filed Under: Medicine, Politics of Medicine

End Of The World First Aid Kit, Part II

September 22, 2011 by tooldtowork 5 Comments

Part 1 generated a lot of comments, all of them good, with some great suggestions. Since not everyone reads comments, I thought I’d take some of the suggestions and make a second post. Besides, it’s an easy way to generate another post!

First a suggestion. In doing research of various things, I’ve found that Amazon has a lot of these items and those on my original list as well. It’s amazing what they have.

One thing I forgot about and should have had on the list was some sort of emergency dental kit. A broken tooth or denture or even a filling that falls out can result in agony. Absent bringing a dentist with you,  you should consider  an emergency dental kit. You can make your own, using Oil of Clove and zinc oxide for filling material, or you can buy a commercial kit. Buy a few basic dental tools (mirror, pick, spatulas) and you have the makings of an emergency kit. Oil of Clove numbs the nerves, but be aware that it also kills them. A root canal will probably be needed when you return to civilization or civilization returns to you. If that isn’t likely an extraction might be in order, but I’m not going to go into that much detail here.

Two ideas from reader tlczek,

1. My ice pack at home are these little freezable pouches (reuseable ice cubes) about the size of large ice cubes (mine happen to be Thermos brand) that I keep in a plastic bag. They also sell smallish sheets of them. Both are really convenient for icing injuries and last about as long as water ice. This may be a good option if you’re going somewhere that may not have ice cubes readily available, but a place you can freeze things.

2. Benadryl (diphenhydramine) for allergic reactions or sedation. Obviously it’s not as good as epi for allergies or a benzodiazepine for sedation, but it’s safer and easy to pack away. (Plus, it’s non prescription) Again, it depends on your environment, but in unknown territory, you don’t know what can cause an allergic reaction. Benadryl could keep an airway open long enough to help.

As I noted in the original post, Benadryl is excellent for a number of things. Also, if you or someone in your party have allergies, get a prescription for Epi Pens.

OldNFO and Danny have suggested feminine hygeine supplies for emergency bandages. Even if you don’t use them as bandages, it’s a good idea to have them along for their original purpose. Just in case you have females in your group and they didn’t plan to be without them when it was the time they needed them.

Mule Breath suggests benzoin and/or betadine if you are going to carry Steristrips. Betadine is a pretty good antiseptic for cleaning wounds. I’d suggest that these and any other liquids be stored in zip lock bags, separately.

Medic3 suggests super glue, but it might be worth it to spend a bit more and get the medical grade Dermabond.

Dave H points to contact lens saline solution as good substitute for bottled saline. It’s sterile and slightly pressured which makes it good for irrigating wounds. He also points to a thread on the NYShooters Forum that lists a number of references for what to do when no doctor is around. Some of those references are free, some cost. Dave also recommends the Boy Scout First Aid book.

A number of readers have suggested some sort of clotting agent for wounds that are bleeding a lot. I’m not completely convinced on this yet, but it’s certainly worth considering.

Divemedic suggests Immodium in addition to Pepto Bismol and Space Blankets. His reasoning for Immodium is if the Pepto doesn’t control the diarrhea, then dehydration will kill the patient well before any bacteria. Space Blankets are a great supplement for regular blankets because they help to preserve heat. They are not a replacement, though.

Greg Friese writes,

My recommendations usually start with the things that can’t easily be improvised – pocket mask, watch, pen, exam gloves, and eye protection. Wound dressings are fairly easy to improvise. Medications not easy to improvise. I would also add prevention supplies such as items for wound cleaning, water purification, sun block, etc. The kit is also a good place for a book of matches or lighter, whistle, and a pocket knife with tweezers because a zombie attack is unlikely but an untreated splinter that becomes infected could lead to sepsis which could lead to death (and becoming a zombie).

As a Wilderness Medical Associates lead instructor I have had lots of students in courses that are looking for basic first aid skills for urban disaster situations when the normal healthcare system might not be fully functional. It is great training to have, but of course I am biased.

Matches are a good idea, I like the strike anywhere kind and of course a waterproof container is necessary for them. Again, wilderness first aid training is great for disaster situations. In fact I’ve suggested to friends that it should really be renamed “First Aid in Austere Conditions” so that people stop thinking that it can only be used out in the woods. It can be used when your town becomes the wilderness due to hurricane, earthquake, blizzard, or even zombie apocalypse. There are a growing number of self defense courses that include first aid as part of the curriculum. While many people focus on the possibility of getting shot while at the range or out hunting, the truth is that there is a wide range of medical disasters that can befall anyone at any time. Being prepared to care for yourself and your loved ones is the best plan of all.

 

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Filed Under: Everything Else, Medicine

The End Of The World First Aid Kit

September 20, 2011 by tooldtowork 30 Comments

A few weeks ago The Feral Irishman sent me an email asking for suggestions for a The End Of The World As We Know It first aid kit. He was looking for something that he could take with him if he had to bug out in a hurry. I thought about it and asked a couple of people what they would suggest and came up with a list. Granted, it’s not really for TEOTWAWKI, it’s more for use around the house or when camping or even in your car if you’re on the road a lot. It’s by no means all encompassing and I’m sure some of my readers will have suggestions for changes and additions. At least I hope so. I’ve even made a couple of changes since I sent my reply to the email.

Here is the slightly expanded list with some comments added.

4×3 dressings (sometimes 4×4 depending on who makes them) Good for covering wounds too big for a band aid.

5×9 dressings A bit more absorbent than 4x3s. And obviously bigger.

One or two trauma dressings These are big and cover a wide area. Very absorbent, but if you have a would big enough to need this, you are out of do it yourself territory.

Tape in various sizes, but remember if you have two inch wide tape you can always cut it down. There are various types, but I like the “Durapore” surgical tape because it combines strength with flexibility and it sticks well. You can also get “cloth” tape, but I’ve never found it to stick as well. Get some “Coban” too if you can find it. It’s stretchy and sticky, good for people who are sweaty.

Band aids in various sizes. Get a big box, you’ll likely use a lot of them.

Steristrips They work well when you need something to hold a wound together and don’t have access to sutures. If you know how to suture, then get some various sizes of suturing material as well.

Ace wraps The come in 3″ and 6″ sizes, get a couple of both sizes. In addition to being good for sprains and strains, they form a nice compression bandage to hold dressings in place over open wounds. They are also great for the “swath” part of a “sling and swath” immobilizer, much better than gauze or another cravat.

Roller gauze bandage Good for holding dressings on arms and legs. Comes in various sizes, but can be cut to size so get a biggest ones you can find.

Triangular bandages, also known as Cravats. Good for making slings and holding things in place. Get a few of these as well.

Tourniquet  There are a number that can be placed one handedly, which will help if you are injured and alone. Keep in mind that you need to get to a doctor fairly quickly to avoid permanent damage. An injury that is serious enough to need a tourniquet is likely to need surgery. Or at least a surgeon to sew up the wound. There is the co called “Israeli bandage” and other brands.

Sterile water, although you can always boil it if you have to. Good for cleaning wounds. Avoid hydrogen peroxide as it can cause tissue injury and slow healing.

Antibiotic cream Good for smaller wounds to keep them from getting infected.

Pepto Bismol Good for diarrhea and nausea or vomiting. Better than Immodium if you aren’t going to be able to get to a doctor for a few days. Immodium can trap bacteria in your gut which can lead to serious problems. Pepto Bismol also calms down nausea and vomiting, which Immodium won’t.

Tylenol and Motrin They do different things and work in different ways. Tylenol works better for me, other people like Motrin (and related drugs) better. The big difference is that Motrin can cause stomach upset.

Pocket Mask Good if you have to give mouth to mouth.

Gloves. Get various sizes. They protect you and the patient from each other. Exam gloves are fine, they are clean but not sterile.

SAM Splint We don’t use them, but they are very versatile and I’ve used them in training classes. You can get the original orange ones, or the tacticool military ones. Get a couple of different sizes.

Vaseline Gauze Good for chest wounds, although if someone has a chest wound serious enough to require this, they are going to require a surgeon and a hospital.

Also, put aside a couple of blankets and some sheets and towels. They don’t need to be sterile, but you want them clean and sealed against the environment. Get army style wool blankets and cheap white sheets. Put them into a large zip lock bag or if you have a way to vacuum seal the bag, do that. Keep in mind that injured or ill people should be kept warm so you’ll want blankets under them as well as on top of them. You can also get disposable blankets, but personally I like stuff that can be rewashed and reused. Some sort of ground cloth too if you are going to be outside.

An eye wash kit is a good idea too. You can get them commercially. Don’t get an “eye wash station”, because they aren’t portable.

I’m not a big fan of commercial “ice packs” since they only last about ten minutes or so. At home I use zip lock bags and ice cubes. Put in a bit of water to keep the cubes from sticking and you have an ice pack that will last for hours. Don’t forget to put a dry face cloth or towel between the injured area and the ice pack.

Antiseptic towelettes Good for cleaning up areas covered with blood that aren’t part of the injured area. Or cleaning your hands for that matter.

Scissors Trauma sheers to be exact. Get a couple of sets.

Medications If you are a family member are on prescription medications, be sure that you have an adequate supply to get you through for a while. How long that will be, it’s hard to predict. I suggest at least a weeks supply, just in case you can’t get to a pharmacy.

Also a first aid course, one tailored to wilderness medicine if possible. You might not be out in the woods, but in a civil disaster of large enough proportions you might as well be because the infrastructure most of us rely on is going to be disrupted or just plain gone. Just having the knowledge is worth while, even if you can’t use all of it.

Update: Two ideas from reader tlczek,

1. My ice pack at home are these little freezable pouches about the size of large ice cubes (mine happen to be Thermos brand) that I keep in a plastic bag. They also sell smallish sheets of them. Both are really convenient for icing injuries and last about as long as water ice. This may be a good option if you’re going somewhere that may not have ice cubes readily available, but a place you can freeze things.

2. Benadryl (diphenhydramine) for allergic reactions or sedation. Obviously it’s not as good as epi for allergies or a benzodiazepine for sedation, but it’s safer and easy to pack away. (Plus, it’s non prescription) Again, it depends on your environment, but in unknown territory, you don’t know what can cause an allergic reaction. Benadryl could keep an airway open long enough to help.

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Filed Under: Everything Else, Medicine

This Time, We Really, Really, Really, Really, Know The Answer

September 4, 2011 by tooldtowork 1 Comment

Prolonging CPR Doesn’t Help

September 2, 2011– Increasing the time spent administering CPR to cardiac arrest patients won’t increase their chances of survival, researchers said Wednesday, putting to rest one of the raging debates in emergency medicine.

“Our study definitively shows that there is no advantage to a longer period of initial CPR,” said Dr Ian Stiell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), one of the entities leading the study.

Definitively, I’ll say that the matter is settle until the next study comes out. Little in medicine is definitive. I was discussing medicine with one of the ED physicians I know pretty well. We were talking about an interesting case where the patient appeared to be having an MI, but wasn’t. Everyone thought it was, everyone treated the patient as if she were having one, and it was only in the cath lab that the MI was ruled out. As it happened, the treatment for what she did have (which I plan to write a blog post about) was identical to what we would do if she was having an MI. Got that? Anyway, the doctor mentioned that medicine was really more art than science in reality we don’t know that much about how the human body works. We know some things, and can usually guess at many of the others, but in many cases we are like blind hogs rooting about for acorns. Every once in a while, we find one, but most of the time we don’t.

H/T to Central Mass Medics for the link and a line that I only wish I could have come up with,

Evidence-based medicine is only as good as the evidence that begets it.

Which of course brings me back to that whole skepticism about studies thing.

I wonder if any systems will change the protocols after this definitive study?

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Filed Under: Medicine, Paramedicine, Paramedicine/The Job

From The Journal Of Iatrogenic Medicine

September 1, 2011 by tooldtowork 1 Comment

Of course there is no such thing as the Journal of Iatrogenic Medicine, but sometimes I wonder if there should be.

For the record Iatrogenic is death, illness, or injury caused by a medical practitioner. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the subject. Iatrogenia is a frank violation of the real first rule of medicine Primum non nocere, which is Latin for first do no harm. Which, despite it’s inclusion in the Hippocratic Oath apparently only dates to the 19th century. Still the principle is sound and often requires medical folks to do nothing because the cause of the problem is totally opaque. I’ve often told co workers that they shouldn’t just do something, but stand there until they know what to do. I think that’s a more sound course of action than trying a treatment because of the compulsion to “do something”. Every treatment, procedure, or medication has some degree of risk of harming the patient. The more we learn, the more it seems that things that we were taught might help, but couldn’t hurt, actually can hurt. Oxygen therapy and spinal immobilization come to mind in the case of EMS. As more studies are done on both topics, we learn that either can cause more harm than good when done under the wrong circumstances.

Every once in a while I’ll encounter a patient who is extremely ill or even dying and I’ll have no idea what is causing this. It’s a helpless feeling to see a sick person and not know exactly what to do to help them. At times like this I practice minimalist medicine. Which is to say that I stick with the ABCs, Airway, Breathing, and Circulation and use a large bolus of diesel fuel to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. In those cases it’s a relief to go back a few hours later and have the physician tell you that he couldn’t figure it either and turfed it to a specialist. It doesn’t make me feel smarter, just less dumb.

Herewith are three cases of Iatrogenic medicine. Fortunately none of them were committed by EMS practitioners.

DOCTOR CUT OUT THE HEALTHY PART OF MY HUSBAND’S BRAIN

A FORMER paramedic had the wrong part of his brain removed by a bungling NHS surgeon during an operation he didn’t even need.

Not only did they remove the wrong part of his brain, he didn’t need the operation in the first place. Speaking as a paramedic myself, I know that I don’t have enough brain that I can spare any in a needless operation.

Richard Kennedy, chief medical officer, said: “I very much regret the tragic outcome for Mr Tunney and his family and on behalf of the trust would like to ­apologise.

“Since 2008, this case has been thoroughly reviewed through our governance process and I am confident that measures have been put in place to prevent this type of incident reoccurring.

“For example, we now collaborate with expert clinicians at other trusts in these kinds of cases.”

So, they need to consult experts at other hospitals before they open up a patient’s skull and start hacking out parts of their brains. I wonder what the expert clinicians tell them other than to hack out the right part of the brain and to make sure that said part needs hacking out before commencing. Obviously the folks at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust are no brain surgeons. I’m not making light of this because Mr. Tunney is now permanently and severely disabled. Iatrongenic medicine at it’s finest.

Hospital Admits Mistake After Teen Left Paralyzed

A British teenager was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down after an epidural anesthetic was left in her spine for too long after a routine operation to remove a hospital has admitted.

Sophie Tyler, 17, from Newport, South Wales, was 14 when staff at Birmingham Children’s Hospital left the painkiller in her back for two days, Sky News reported Wednesday.

You’d think that they’d notice that, especially after she started to have signs and symptoms and while just maybe it was early enough to do something to stop the damage. But no, they didn’t. Maybe they didn’t want to interrupt their afternoon tea or something. Rank incompetence.

Both of these cases are from Once Great Britain and it’s tempting to blame their national health care system, but the truth is it happens here too.

Parents get $7m in death of infant

A Suffolk County Superior Court jury awarded a South Hamilton couple a judgment of $7 million yesterday in the 2004 death of their newborn daughter at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, according to their attorney.

Jurors found Dr. Janet Lloyd and nurse practitioner Michele Ambrosino negligent in the care of Katherine Bellerose, who was born about two months early at the hospital on June 13, 2004, and developed a condition that caused her intestinal tissue to die.

Once again a preventable death if only someone had paid a bit closer attention to the patient and the family’s concern.

And they tell me that guns are dangerous.

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Filed Under: Medicine, Paramedicine/The Job, Uncategorized

Someone Is Taking The Threat Seriously

August 18, 2011 by tooldtowork 9 Comments

A couple of weeks ago in What The F***? I wrote about the threat of potential hackers attacking insulin pumps, implanted defibrillators, and pacemakers. It seems that some people are taking the threat seriously, because there is an article on line at Technology Review discussing the threat and a potential way to block hacking attempts.

A wearable jamming technology could protect patients with implants from potentially life-threatening attacks.

It’s a very interesting concept, but I think that the long term goal would be to build this technology into the devices, not as an add on. Still, for the next several years, there will lots of people walking around with the current generation of implanted devices and they will need protection.

Created by researchers from MIT and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the laptop-sized device, called “the shield,” emits a jamming signal whenever it detects an unauthorized wireless link being established between an implant and a remote terminal (which can be out of sight and tens of meters away). Although no attack of this kind is known to have occurred , “it’s important to solve these kinds of problems before the risk becomes a tenable threat,” says Kevin Fu, an associate professor of computer science at UMass and one of the developers of the shield. Fu was Technology Review’s Young Innovator of the Year in 2009 for his work in uncovering the previously unsuspected danger that hackers pose to implant wearers.

I’m confident that Borepatch would say that no attack has occurred YET, but that if someone can think of the possibility then someone else is trying to make it a reality. It will be interesting to see if a wearable device is developed and what the market is for it.

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Filed Under: Medicine

Why I’m Skeptical Of Research

August 10, 2011 by tooldtowork 4 Comments

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal reports that retractions of medical studies are on the rise. For a variety of reasons, including outright fraud, more and more publications are retracting published studies. One instance cited in the article dates to 2003 and that study prompted a change in the way many doctors prescribe anti hypertensive medications. Turns out it wasn’t true and instead of helping patients, the combination may in fact harm them.

Since 2001, while the number of papers published in research journals has risen 44%, the number retracted has leapt more than 15-fold, data compiled for The Wall Street Journal by Thomson Reuters reveal.

That’s quite an increase. The article mentions Andrew Wakefield and his now discredited research on a link between autism and vaccines, but that’s not the only case of bad research passing through the process and The Lancet is not the only publication to be duped.

There is a lot of competition for money for research grants and even more pressure for researchers to produce a break through study. Human nature being what it is, some people are going to yield to the temptation to “fudge” things to get a study published. It’s fraud and should be treated as such both civilly and criminally. In addition it undermines the credibility of the researchers and confidence in the research itself.

The article contains more details, but requires a paid subscription so a link won’t be of much benefit. There is however a blog that tracks retractions. Appropriately enough it’s called Retraction Watch. That there needs to be such a blog should be a cautionary tale about blind reliance on published research, especially a single “breakthrough” study.

 

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Filed Under: Medicine, Politics of Medicine
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  • Scaredy Fish
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  • The Unwired Medic
  • Transport Jockey

EMS and Related Blogs

  • 9-ECHO-1
  • Adventures of GuitarGirl RN
  • Ambulance Driver Files
  • Better And Better
  • Bullet Points
  • Burned-out Medic
  • Central Mass Medics
  • Confessions of a Street Pharmacist
  • EMS Haiku
  • EMS In The New Decade
  • EMS Newbie
  • Fire Geezer
  • Former Action Guy
  • I aim to misbehave.
  • Insomniac Medic
  • JB on the Rocks
  • Life in Manchvegas
  • Life Under The Lights
  • M.D.O.D.
  • MEDIC 914 HAS COMMAND, INVESTIGATING, DIVISION ONE…
  • Medic Diaries
  • Medic Three
  • Mill Hill Ave Command
  • Minimedic's Blog
  • Musings of a Dinosaur
  • Pink, Warm, and Dry
  • Prehospital 12-Lead Blog
  • Rescuing Providence
  • Respiratory Therapy 101: Just Keep Breathing
  • Respiratory Therapy Cave
  • Retraction Watch
  • Statter 911
  • Street Watch: Notes of a Paramedic
  • The Fire Critic
  • The Fixit Shop
  • The Happy Medic
  • The Lawdog Files
  • Zero – The Project To End Prostate Cancer

Non EMS Blogs

  • 18 Wheels and a 1911
  • 3 Boxes of BS
  • Argghhh!!!
  • Bayou Renaissance Man
  • Black Man With A Gun
  • Borepatch
  • Clayton Cramer's Blog
  • DaddyBear's Den
  • Double Tapper
  • Ed Driscoll
  • Excels at Nothing
  • Fatale Abstraction
  • Fighting for Liberty
  • Freedom Is Just Another Word…
  • Grouchy Old Cripple
  • Gun Owners Action League
  • Home on the Range
  • In Jennifer's Head
  • Instapundit
  • Iowahawk
  • Jigsaw's Thoughts
  • Jumblerant
  • Last of the Few – An Englishman's View
  • Lawyer With A Gun
  • Listen To Uncle Jay
  • Live from the Alamo City
  • Looking for Lissa
  • Lucrative Pain
  • MArooned
  • Men Are Not Potatoes
  • Michael Yon
  • My Muse shanked me
  • National Rifle Association
  • Nobody Asked Me
  • Of Arms and the Law
  • Of Mule Dung and Ash
  • Oleg Volk
  • Panem et Circenses … et Plumbum
  • Power Line
  • Random Acts Of Patriotism
  • Rattail Bastard
  • Scotaku In America
  • Sharp as a Marble
  • SnarkyBytes
  • SteynOnlline
  • Stormbringer
  • Tactical Pants Blog
  • Tekmage's Blog
  • The Armed Citizen
  • The Box o Truth
  • The Breda Fallacy
  • The Drawn Cutlass
  • The Feral Irishman
  • The Firearm Blog
  • the munchkin wranger.
  • The Newbius Papers
  • The Transmogrifier Files
  • Tim Blair
  • Tractor Tracks
  • Trailer Park Paradise
  • View From the Porch
  • Weer'd World Arrrr
  • Works and Days

Inactive but worth reading

  • David Konig
  • Jules Crittenden
  • Medic 22
  • Medic 999
  • On The "Bus"
  • Press Hard 3 Copies
  • The Remittance Man
  • Xavier Thoughts

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