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Nurse Explains How She Evacuated Baby
Fri, Nov 02, 2012 @ 02:22 PM
Topics: baby. evacuate. Hurricane Sandy, nurse
Sandy's Most Delicate Rescue Was Fertility Clinic's Embryos
Fri, Nov 02, 2012 @ 02:12 PM
By KATIE MOISSE (@katiemoisse) Nov. 1, 2012
Among all the rescues carried out during the chaos caused by Sandy, the most delicate was the mission to save embryos in rows of incubators that were in jeopardy when the NYU Fertility Center lost its power.
The Manhattan clinic lost power shortly after Sandy struck Monday night. A generator perched atop the 8-story building kept incubators running through the night, but flooding in the basement cut off its fuel supply.
"The generator ran out of gas around 8:15 Tuesday morning," said Dr. James Grifo, the clinic's director.
Without power, the incubators housing delicate embryos at womb-temperature for in vitro fertilization began to cool. But Grifo and his team took action, hoisting five-gallon cans of diesel fuel up darkened stairwells to feed the failing generator.
"It was really a privilege to be part of that," Grifo said of his staff's "heroic" efforts.
The fuel bought the team enough time to transfer the embryos into liquid nitrogen, where they can be stored indefinitely.
The embryos were secured as another urgent issue arose.
At 10 a.m., a patient arrived for an egg retrieval -- a surgical procedure timed down to the hour after a two-week run of expensive fertility drugs.
Grifo loaded the woman into his car, along with her husband and their baby, and rushed them to a colleague's clinic uptown.
"It's amazing what people can do when everyone's on the same page," Grifo said, adding that the rest of the clinic's patients were booked into clinics throughout the city to "salvage" their cycles.
"It's a testament to the people in New York who work in medicine," he added. "Some of our most vicious competitors offered assistance."
Sandy spawned record-breaking tides around lower Manhattan, prompting power outages from East 39th Street to Battery Park at the southern tip of the island. The NYU Fertility Center is on First Avenue and 38th street, just a block from the overflowing East River.
The storm forced the nearby NYU Langone Medical Center to evacuate 300 patients in gusts of wind topping 70 miles per hour. Cells, tissues and animals used for medical research were left to die in failing refrigerators, freezers and incubators.
But thanks to Grifo and his team, eggs and embryos at the fertility clinic were spared.
"Hopefully we'll get some babies out of it, and that'll be a nice story as well," he said.
Sandy was an example of what some fertility clinics call an "act of God," an unfathomable tragedy that patients are warned about before starting the IVF process.
"There's so much riding on this," said Dr. James Goldfarb, director of the University Hospitals Fertility Center in Cleveland. "Even when everything's going smoothly, it's stressful for women. But add the stress of having to start all over again, that's extremely stressful."
Topics: hurricane sandy, embryos, fertility clinic, rescue
Backup Generator Fails; NYU Medical Center Evacuated
Fri, Nov 02, 2012 @ 02:01 PM
Paramedics and other medical workers began to evacuate patients from New York University Langone Medical Center due to a power outage caused by Tropical Storm Sandy, followed by a failure of backup generators at the hospital, New York City officials said Monday night.
About 200 patients, roughly 45 of whom are critical care patients, were moved out of NYU via private ambulance with the assistance of the New York Fire Department, city officials said. ABC News' Chris Murphey reported a long line of ambulances outside of NYU Langone waiting to transport patients to other hospitals in the city.
The hospital had a total of 800 patients two days ago, some patients were discharged before tonight's evacuation, which was described by emergency management officials as "a total evacuation."
According to ABC's Josh Haskell, 24 ambulances lined the street, waiting to be waved in to pick up patients from NYU Langone Medical Center
"Every 4 minutes a patient comes out and an empty ambulance pulls up. The lobby of the Medical Center is full of hospital personnel, family members, and patients," Haskell reports.
The patients were moved to a number of area hospitals and according to officials at NYU, the receiving hospitals would notify family members.
Sloan Kettering Hospital spokesman Chris Hickey confirmed to ABC News' Gitika Ahuja that it is receiving 26 adult patients from NYU, at their request. Hickey said she didn't know whether they had been admitted yet or what their conditions were.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital spokesman Wade Bryan Dotson said it is also accepting patients from NYU at both campuses, Columbia and Weill Cornell.
Meanwhile, ABC News affiliate WABC captured footage of patients being evacuated; among the first patients brought out of the hospital on gurneys was a mother and her newborn child.
On Monday morning, NYU Langone Medical Center had issued a press release that indicated the hospital's emergency preparedness plan had been activated and that there were "no plans to evacuate" at the time.
Shortly after the reports of an evacuation at NYU Langone, city officials reported that a second major New York City hospital, Bellevue Hospital, was about to lose backup power due to a generator failure.
Topics: hurricane sandy, evacuate, nurses, doctors, patients
Poor sleep and sleep habits in adolescence may raise health risks
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 03:20 PM
From CNN
Lack of quality sleep for adults may negatively impact heart health. Evidence now suggests that sleep problems during adolescence may increase health risks as well.
The research appeared Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
"When most people think about cardiovascular risk factors and risk behaviors, they don't necessarily think of sleep," said Dr. Brian McCrindle, senior author and cardiologist at SickKids in Toronto, Ontario. "This study ... shows a clear association between sleep disturbance (in adolescents) and a greater likelihood of having high cholesterol, high blood pressure and being overweight or obese."
"These findings are important, given that sleep disturbance is highly prevalent in adolescence and that cardiovascular disease risk factors track from childhood into adulthood," noted Dr. Indra Narang, the lead study author and director of sleep medicine at SickKids.
The researchers examined data from the 2009/2010 school year for adolescents in the Niagara region of Ontario.
More than 4,000 ninth-grade students completed questionnaires asking about their sleep duration, quality, disturbances, snoring, daytime sleepiness and the use of any sleep medications during a period of one month. Their average age was 14.6.
The students also answered questions about their physical activity, time spent in front of a computer or television and nutrition.
Researchers studied participants' height, weight, waist circumference, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. They adjusted for those with family history of cardiovascular disease, so they could be confident of the association found.
Participants slept, on average, 7.9 hours during the week and 9.4 hours on weekends. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adolescents get 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night.
Almost one in five reported their weeknight sleep as "fairly bad" or "bad." One in 10 said the same was true for their weekend sleep. In addition, almost 6% of respondents said they had used medications to help them sleep.
"What happens with these kids is they have very poor sleep habits and sleep hygiene, so they're sleepy and tired and have poor energy during the day, so they hop themselves up on caffeinated beverages and then that just perpetuates their problem and a lot of them wound up taking some kind of sleep medication," McCrindle said. "So they get in a cycle."
Narang said 6% was "quite a lot" of adolescents taking over-the-counter and prescription medication to help them sleep.
"It really shows that some adolescents are experiencing very disturbed sleep that they're then needing sleep medication," she said.
Common sleep disturbances reported by the adolescents included waking up during the night or early in the morning, not being able to fall asleep within a half-hour, feeling too hot or too cold, having to use the restroom and bad dreams.
Those who reported sleep disturbances more often consumed soft drinks, fried food, sweets and caffeine, the research showed. They also reported less physical activity and increased screen time. In addition, the adolescents with shorter sleep routines reported less physical activity and more screen time.
In the short term, poor sleep impairs daytime function.
"It can affect (your) learning, it can affect (your) memory," Narang added.
Parents concerned about their child's sleep can intervene in several ways.
McCrindle suggests trying to minimize media use in the bedroom.
"Do (the adolescents) really need to have a TV, a computer, all their video games in the bedroom?" he asked.
Instead, ensure kids have down time before bedtime.
Narang feels consumption of high-energy caffeine drinks may largely be to blame.
But the big picture, she says?
"Everybody involved in the health care of a child - a nurse, a physician, a teacher - needs to promote well sleep, and that would involve a certain number of hours a sleep and routine of sleep," Narang said.
The routine would keep them on the same sleep schedule all week long, she added.
Topics: sleep, poor health, lack of sleep, adolescents
Newborns may benefit from fast genetic test
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 03:07 PM
Genome sequencing is rapidly changing modern medicine, and a new study shows its potential impact on seriously ill newborn babies.New research published in the journal Science Translational Medicine this week makes the case for a two-day whole-genome sequencing for newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
After 50 hours, the test delivers to doctors a wealth of information about what could be causing newborns’ life-threatening illnesses. This would allow them to more efficiently and quickly tailor therapies to the babies, when possible, and identify problematic genetic variants that multiple family members may share.
“We think this is going to transform the world of neonatology, by allowing neonatologists to practice medicine that’s influenced by genomes,” said Stephen Kingsmore, the study's senior author and director for the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, at a press conference Tuesday.
There are more than 3,500 diseases caused by a mutation in a single gene, Kingsmore said, and only about 500 have treatments. About one in 20 babies born in the United States annually gets admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, he said. Genetic-driven illnesses are a leading cause of these admissions at Kingsmore’s hospital.
One example of how a genetic test would help newborns is a condition called severe Pompe disease, Kingsmore said. Children with this disorder die if they are not treated by age 1. They will live longer, at least four years, if they receive an enzyme replacement therapy.
The study shows how two software programs, called SAGA and RUNE, work together to help physicians pinpoint the genes that could be causing problems in the children. A company called Illumina developed a rapid genome sequencing device that incorporates the programs.
Researchers reported diagnoses as a result of this genetic test in the study for six children. Two of these tests were done retrospectively, after the children had died.
The test extends beyond the ill baby; genome sequencing can also identify genetic traits in multiple family members, the researchers said. Carol Saunders, the study's lead author, explained at the news conference how one baby and his 6-year-old brother both have a congenital heart defect and heterotaxy, meaning some internal organs are located on the wrong side of the body.
While some children will still die from incurable genetic disorders after being tested for them, the knowledge about diagnosis and likely outcomes for future children is beneficial for parents, experts say.
“Knowing the marker or defect may provide some information regarding the prognosis so the family knows what to expect,” Saunders said. "Importantly, it also allows them to have accurate genetic counseling regarding their risk to have another affected baby, and to make informed decisions about their reproductive future.”
Families value the diagnoses derived from this genetic test because it gives an answer, and alleviates guilt that something happened during pregnancy, Kingsmore said in an e-mail.
“It gives time for maternal bonding and saying goodbyes and last rites that can be planned,” Kingsmore said. “This is all complex but very real.”
The test costs roughly $13,500, but costs of whole-genome sequencing are quickly falling – experts believe a $1,000 genome sequence is not far off, Kingsmore said.
Children’s Mercy Hospital plans to offer this testing before the end of the year. Next year, Kingsmore and colleagues plans to offer testing at other hospitals for NICU patients.
Kingsmore estimates that about 5,000 babies a year could benefit from this technology.
“Ultimately, it will be used for every child with an illness that may be due to a genetic disease,” he said.
It made sense to start with the NICU because of the costs involved, he said.
Overheard on CNN: Less pink, more cures for breast cancer
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 03:01 PM
From CNN
Many CNN commenters expressed skepticism about the so-called “pinkwashing” of October, echoing the sentiments of some women quoted in my recent article who don't feel connected to all of the awareness efforts.
KtinME writes that the color pink is particularly vexing to her because it has come to represent the commercialization of breast cancer awareness:
I criticized my hospital for using pink envelopes when mailing out mammogram results and was told in no uncertain terms that pink was the color of caring and compassion and that I obviously had issues with fear of breast cancer. I don't have a fear of breast cancer, but I will agree I have issues with the commercialism and complete co-opting of the color pink.
Pink envelopes with mammogram results are creepy. Pink shoes on football players are stupid. Pink merchandise is just plain silly. I used to like pink.
[…] a COLOR is meaningless when it comes to what cancer patients need and a COLOR is an easy way out for people to think they're being supportive of cancer awareness, cancer patients, and cancer survivors. How about instead we give them rides for their treatment, clean homes to come to, meals to eat, affordable access to medical care at home? How about we make sure their employers keep their jobs open for them? How about we make sure they have insurance now and forever? THOSE things would mean a lot more than sporting a pink bracelet or buying something pink. Enough with the pink!!!
Several readers such as Anthony Quatroni believe that “it’s all about money” – in other words, curing diseases isn’t as profitable as long-term treatments, so a cure will never be found.
But prattguy, self-identified as someone who works in medical research, pointed out that polio is a disease that was cured, yet foundations are still working to eradicate it worldwide.
Klur added that cancer is not one disease, it’s many diverse diseases even within a single organ. But there’s good news:
Many women who get breast cancer now survive to live a long and fruitful life thanks to advancements in cancer research. So, no, the reason for research investment is not greed!!! Furthermore, people who work in academia doing research are not getting rich- believe me- they are overworked and highly underpaid for the research that they dedicate their lives to.
Bschneid agreed, reminding fellow commenters that a lot of people dedicated to cancer research aren’t making such big profits:
Most cancer researchers do not make a lot of money, but are either cancer survivors themselves or have a loved one who has cancer or died of cancer. They have plenty of motivation. My husband, a cancer researcher, goes to work seven days a week while dealing with chemotherapy himself. To suggest that greed is the reason there is no "cure" for cancer is ignorant.
Some pointed out that other awareness months don’t get nearly as much attention. TexasRunner wrote:
This isn't a man vs. woman issue. September is National Prostate Awareness month but does it garner as much attention as the PINK does for breast cancer in October? No, it doesn't. Men deal with our own forms of cancer like prostate cancer and testicular cancer yet the drives to find a cure for those forms of cancer pale in comparison, usually because it hits a lower number for testicular cancer and for prostate cancer it happens at an older age. Do you not think men who have testicular cancer aren't aware of the jokes surrounding it?
So regardless of whether or not you like the slogans at least people pay attention and are aware and donate to find a cure.
Topics: breast cancer, cure, funding
Breakthrough Technique Images Breast Tumors in 3-D With Great Clarity, Reduced Radiation
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 02:59 PM
ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2012) — Like cleaning the lenses of a foggy pair of glasses, scientists are now able to use a technique developed by UCLA researchers and their European colleagues to produce three-dimensional images of breast tissue that are two to three times sharper than those made using current CT scanners at hospitals. The technique also uses a lower dose of X-ray radiation than a mammogram.
These higher-quality images could allow breast tumors to be detected earlier and with much greater accuracy. One in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime.
The research is published the week of Oct. 22 in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The most common breast cancer screening method used today is called dual-view digital mammography, but it isn't always successful in identifying tumors, said Jianwei (John) Miao, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and researcher with the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.
"While commonly used, the limitation is that it provides only two images of the breast tissue, which can explain why 10 to 20 percent of breast tumors are not detectable on mammograms," Miao said. "A three-dimensional view of the breast can be generated by a CT scan, but this is not frequently used clinically, as it requires a larger dose of radiation than a mammogram. It is very important to keep the dose low to prevent damage to this sensitive tissue during screening."
Recognizing these limitations, the scientists went in a new direction. In collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France and Germany's Ludwig Maximilians University, Miao's international colleagues used a special detection method known as phase contrast tomography to X-ray a human breast from multiple angles.
They then applied equally sloped tomography, or EST -- a breakthrough computing algorithm developed by Miao's UCLA team that enables high-quality image-reconstruction -- to 512 of these images to produce 3-D images of the breast at a higher resolution than ever before. The process required less radiation than a mammogram.
In a blind evaluation, five independent radiologists from Ludwig Maximilians University ranked these images as having a higher sharpness, contrast and overall image quality than 3-D images of breast tissue created using other standard methods.
"Even small details of the breast tumor can be seen using this technique," said Maximilian Reiser, director of the radiology department at Ludwig Maximilians University, who contributed his medical expertise to the research.
The technology commonly used today for mammograms or imaging a patient's bones measures the difference in an X-ray's intensity before and after it passes through the body. But the phase contrast X-ray tomography used in this study measures the difference in the way an X-ray oscillates through normal tissue rather than through slightly denser tissue like a tumor or bone. While a very small breast tumor might not absorb many X-rays, the way it changes the oscillation of an X-ray can be quite large, Miao said. Phase contrast tomography captures this difference in oscillation, and each image made using this technique contributes to the overall 3-D picture.
The computational algorithm EST developed by Miao's UCLA team is a primary driver of this advance. Three-dimensional reconstructions, like the ones created in this research, are produced using sophisticated software and a powerful computer to combine many images into one 3-D image, much like various slices of an orange can be combined to form the whole. By rethinking the mathematic equations of the software in use today, Miao's group developed a more powerful algorithm that requires fewer "slices" to get a clearer overall 3-D picture.
"The technology used in mammogram screenings has been around for more than 100 years," said Paola Coan, a professor of X-ray imaging at Ludwig Maximilians University. "We want to see the difference between healthy tissue and the cancer using X-rays, and that difference can be very difficult to see, particularly in the breast, using standard techniques. The idea we used here was to combine phase contrast tomography with EST, and this combination is what gave us much higher quality 3-D images than ever before."
While this new technology is like a key in a lock, the door will only swing open -- bringing high-resolution 3-D imaging from the synchrotron facility to the clinic -- with further technological advances, said Alberto Bravin, managing physicist of the biomedical research laboratory at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. He added that the technology is still in the research phase and will not be available to patients for some time.
"A high-quality X-ray source is an absolute requirement for this technique," Bravin said. "While we can demonstrate the power of our technology, the X-ray source must come from a small enough device for it to become commonly used for breast cancer screening. Many research groups are actively working to develop this smaller X-ray source. Once this hurdle is cleared, our research is poised to make a big impact on society."
These results represent the collaborative efforts of senior authors Miao, Bravin and Coan. Significant contributions were provided by co-first authors Yunzhe Zhao, a recent UCLA doctoral graduate in Miao's laboratory, and Emmanuel Brun, a scientist working with Bravin and Coan. Other co-authors included Zhifeng Huang of UCLA and Aniko Sztrókay, Paul Claude Diemoz, Susanne Liebhardt, Alberto Mittone and Sergei Gasilov of Ludwig Maximilians University.
The research was funded by UC Discovery/Tomosoft Technologies; the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health; and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft-Cluster of Excellence Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics.
Topics: technology, breast cancer, radiation, 3D, tumor
Study: Multivitamins may lower cancer risk in men
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 02:42 PM
America's favorite dietary supplements, multivitamins, modestly lowered the risk for cancer in healthy male doctors who took them for more than a decade, the first large study to test these pills has found.
The result is a surprise because many studies of individual vitamins have found they don't help prevent chronic diseases and some have even caused problems.
In the new study, multivitamins cut the chance of developing cancer by 8 percent. That is less effective than a good diet, exercise and not smoking, each of which can lower cancer risk by 20 percent to 30 percent, cancer experts say.
Multivitamins also may have different results in women, younger men or people less healthy than those in this study.
"It's a very mild effect and personally I'm not sure it's significant enough to recommend to anyone" although it is promising, said Dr. Ernest Hawk, vice president of cancer prevention at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and formerly of the National Cancer Institute.
"At least this doesn't suggest a harm" as some previous studies on single vitamins have, he said.
Hawk reviewed the study for the American Association for Cancer Research, which is meeting in Anaheim, Calif., where the study was to be presented on Wednesday. It also was published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About one-third of U.S. adults and as many as half of those over 50 take them. They are marketed as a kind of insurance policy against bad eating. Yet no government agency recommends their routine use "regardless of the quality of a person's diet," says a fact sheet from the federal Office of Dietary Supplements.
Some fads, such as the antioxidant craze over vitamins A and E and beta-carotene, backfired when studies found more health risk with those supplements, not less. Many of those were single vitamins in larger doses than the "100 percent of daily value" amounts that multivitamins typically contain.
Science on vitamins has been skimpy. Most studies have been observational -- they look at groups of people who do and do not use vitamins, a method that can't give firm conclusions.
Dr. J. Michael Gaziano, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and VA Boston, led a stronger test. Nearly 15,000 male doctors who were 50 or older and free of cancer when the study started were given monthly packets of Centrum Silver or fake multivitamins without knowing which type they received.
After about 11 years, there were 2,669 new cancers, and some people had cancer more than once. For every 1,000 men per year in the study, there were 17 cancers among multivitamin users and more than 18 among those taking the placebo pills. That worked out to an 8 percent lower risk of developing cancer in the vitamin group.
Multivitamins made no difference in the risk of developing prostate cancer, which accounted for half of all cases. They lowered the risk of other cancers collectively by about 12 percent. There also was a trend toward fewer cancer deaths among multivitamin users, but the difference was so small it could have occurred by chance alone.
Side effects were fairly similar except for more rashes among vitamin users. The National Institutes of Health paid for most of the study. Pfizer Inc. supplied the pills and other companies supplied the packaging.
The main reason to take a multivitamin is to correct or prevent a deficiency, "but there may be a modest benefit in reducing the risk of cancer in older men," Gaziano said.
Cancer experts said the results need to be confirmed by another study before recommending multivitamins to the public. These participants were healthier -- only 4 percent smoked, for example.
For people who do want to take multivitamins, doctors suggest:
--Be aware that they are dietary supplements, which do not get the strict testing required of prescription medicines.
--Ask your doctor before taking any. Vitamin K can interfere with common heart medicines and blood thinners, and vitamins C and E can lower the effectiveness of some types of chemotherapy. For people having surgery, some vitamins affect bleeding and response to anesthesia.
--Current and former smokers should avoid multivitamins with lots of beta-carotene or vitamin A; two studies have tied them to increased risk of lung cancer.
Topics: cancer, multivitamins, reduce
Cultural, economic barriers mean higher breast cancer mortality rates for women of color
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 02:42 PM
By Angela Hill
Shyanne Reese prefers to call herself a "conqueror" rather than a survivor of breast cancer. She revels in her personal triumph, defeating the foe that threatened her life in 2008, and is now moving forward with poise and purpose.
However, Reese didn't always feel so confident. In fact, as an African-American, she says cultural myths long held her back from seeking treatment or even giving herself breast exams.
"Culturally, it's been taboo to discuss cancer in the African-American community, so a lot of women suffer in silence or don't seek treatment when they should," said Reese, 59, who works in the insurance industry and volunteers as a community health advocate for the Women's Cancer.
Cancer "conqueror" Shyanne Reese, who volunteers for the Women's Cancer Resource Center, is photographed in Oakland on Sept. 12, 2012. (Kristopher Skinner/Staff) Resource Center in Oakland. She reaches out to women at churches and health expos, leading the center's Sister to Sister support group for black women and even helping them navigate the health care system. "And I had my own personal battles. My mother had instilled in me a belief that it was wrong or sinful to touch myself, so I had never done self exams."
Indeed, as health advocates work to draw attention to the disease for all women during October's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many point to recent studies -- such as one from Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago, which examined statistics from 25 major U.S. cities -- that confirm a fact physicians and advocates have known for decades: while Caucasian women have a higher incidence of breast cancer, women of color are more likely to die from it, chiefly because of cultural, social and economic factors that lead to late detection and treatment.
"There's a history of silence around cancer in the African-American community," said Peggy McGuire, executive director of the Women's Cancer Resource Center, which provides programs for low-income black women and Latinas. "Part of the problem is that they see themselves as the caregivers of the family and put themselves second. There's a reluctance to admit they are ill."
In addition, many say there's embarrassment and guilt -- as though a woman has done something to cause the disease. That combined with a "what I don't know won't hurt me" mentality is a recipe for avoidance behavior.
"There's also distrust of the medical community," McGuire said. "And, of course, poverty is the most significant factor because women likely lack health insurance, have poor nutrition -- even just living in neighborhoods with violence is a factor. The stress accompanying that has a significant effect on immune systems."
At Latinas Contra Cancer in San Jose, advocates have encountered unique cultural barriers for Latino women.
"For Latinas, cancer is often seen as a death sentence. It's kind of, 'If I've got it, that means I'm gonna die, so I don't want to know,' " said Ysabel Duron, Latinas Contra Cancer founder, KRON-TV news anchor and a cancer survivor/conqueror. "And there are religious barriers. Some see it as a punishment from God, that they must have done something wrong and deserve it. Or they'll say their husbands won't let them get a checkup -- no other man should be touching them.
"These are the things we try to break through. It's really about getting into those communities and literally taking them by the hand and navigating them through this."
Angelica Nuno, 24, of Oakland, did just that with her aunt a few years ago, helping her with translations, filling out forms, sitting with her in the doctor's office. Nuno now volunteers as a community health advocate for the Women's Cancer Resource Center.
"I saw how hard it was for my aunt with the language barrier, so I wanted to help," she said. "A lot of women in that situation are scared to even approach a hospital. They don't know you can get free mammograms and support."
While the medical community is learning more about societal issues affecting Latinas and African-American women with breast cancer, even less research has been done for Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander or other groups, Duron said.
"They're where African-American and Latinas were 15 years ago as far as research goes," she said.
Advocates in nonprofit assistance organizations hope health care reform will address some of the disparities in mortality rates by increasing cultural sensitivity training for mainstream care providers, Duron said. In the meantime, much of that kind of support falls to independent groups. And to volunteers like Reese.
By 2008, Reese was making big changes in her life. She had reached her weight-loss goal, dropping 101 pounds. And through her increasing education about women's health, -- which she said she had to go outside her family to find -- she had finally become comfortable with self breast exams.
"Something felt different," she said. "I didn't know if it was because of the weight loss. But going in to get it checked out -- I still felt embarrassment and guilt, like maybe I had caused this myself somehow because of carrying the weight for so long."
When her cancer was diagnosed, the same week she was laid off from her job, she was asked at the hospital if she wanted to have a social worker as a support person. She said no.
"It was all just overwhelming, and when I did decide I needed support, I wanted someone who looked like me, but there was no one available. It was so embarrassing to say that I needed help that way. African-American women are taught they don't need help and suffer isolation sometimes. So the challenge was to say, yes I want help."
Reese, who had surgeries on both breasts, has been cancer-free for nearly three years now.
"For me, breast cancer has been a gift," she said. "I knew I had a purpose in life, and it's finally been revealed -- to do what I do now, to reach out and help other women."
Topics: diversity, cultural, breast cancer, culture
19 TECHNOLOGIES THAT CHANGED NURSING FOREVER
Fri, Oct 26, 2012 @ 11:28 AM
Anyone who has been in the nursing field for an extended period of time will tell you that a lot has changed. In fact, the twentieth century brought – literally – a technological “invasion” to nursing.
According to Kaplan Nursing, from small advances, like digital thermometers, to sophisticated strides, like laser surgery, health care as a whole has been on quite a rollercoaster - and nurses have been along for the ride.
Medical advancements and information technologies of the twentieth century have not only changed the face of the nursing – they have become part of the intricate fabric of the field.
But what are the technologies responsible for this monumental transformation?
One nursing professional – and author of a site called The Nurse Lady- offers these 19 technologies that changed nursing forever.
1.Electronic IV monitors
There was a time when IVs had to be administered with a nurse’s constant attention to ensure a steady flow. Manual IVs were highly sensitive to a patient’s movement and the flow of the IV could be sped up or slowed to a crawl by a subtle movement. To prevent this, nurses had to directly administer an IV from beginning to start. With the advent of IV pump infusion and electronic monitoring, nurses are freed up to initiate an IV and allow a machine to monitor and regulate the process. If there is an error, the system tries to correct it, and otherwise contacts the nurse via remote monitoring.
2.The Sphygmomanometer
The sphygmomanometer is simply a fancy term for electronic blood pressure cuffs that also measure heart beat rate automatically. Gone are the days when a nurse had to measure blood pressure manually. According to one nurse, this is the technological change that makes the biggest daily difference.
3.Information management
As computer technologies become the primary means of managing patient information, nurses have had to adapt their record-keeping practices and increase their computer skills. Nursing informatics is a specialty that has emerged, combining IT skills and nursing science.
4.The portable defibrillator
Manual CPR can only do so much and for the longest time this was the only method available to many nurses for reviving someone’s heart. Now, even school nurses stand a fighting chance to save the life of a person whose heart has failed. The few minutes after heart failure are critical, and the portable defibrillator allows for immediate resuscitative action.
Sturdy, portable IT devices
Tablet computers and mobile wireless computer stations are now a standard part of the day-to-day methods of delivering care to patients. Charts are updated continuously, in real time, providing nurses with immediate access to essential patient information.
6.Readily accessible base of information
Wireless Internet connections quickly make reference materials available. This can prove very helpful for diagnosis, especially when using a resource like WebMD.
7.The sonogram/ultrasound
Ultrasound devices provide nurses working with pregnant patients the ability to see inside the womb. Ultrasound has been nothing short of revolutionary in the field of Women’s Health and pregnancy, allowing nurses and doctors to noninvasively identify the health of the baby throughout pregnancy. Now, with the advent of 4-D ultrasound, unprecedented detail is available for diagnosing fetal well-being. In addition to pregnancy monitoring, sonogram technology also offers many other new diagnostic advances such as the ability to easily identify cancer tumors in the bladder, and to tell whether the liver is enlarged.
8.Local wireless telephone networks
These systems significantly reduce communication delays. Not only is this type of communication technology being utilized between nursing staff, but also between patients and staff, changing the dynamics of the relationship between patients and their nurses.
9.Hands-free communication devices
Hands-free devices such as Vocera’s Call Badge provide the ultimate in communication while a nurse is engaged in active patient care or associated tasks.
10.Communications options
It is not uncommon for patients and nurses (and doctors) to communicate via e-mail or even web cam; a practice that is becoming common for parents of children in neo-natal intensive care units.
11.Patient remote monitoring
In addition to high-tech and ultra-sensitive vital signs monitoring equipment, web cams and other technologies make the close monitoring of multiple patients much easier, changing how environments are staffed and operated.
12.RFID technologies
RFID-enabled devices make monitoring hospital assets easier, ranging from drugs and equipment to records and patients. They also enhance safety and security with less effort and lower long-term cost.
13.Compact, portable medical devices
Combined with portable IT and communication equipment, these small, high-tech types of devices allow well-equipped nurses to take their skills on the road. They can travel to patients’ homes and treat conditions that once had to be treated on an in-patient basis.
Neo-natal nursing advancements
New, more affordable portable devices for the care of tinier and more health-compromised babies.
15.Drug management technologies
High-tech systems of medication retrieval and delivery, such as bar coding and verification, have greatly reduced the potential for dangerous error. Infusion equipment advances have made the delivery of slow-administer drugs much easier, with computerized machines able to control dosages and rates.
16.Configurable nursing environments
Configurable work spaces increases efficiency and safety, reduces stress, and prevents accidents and injuries.
17.Learning technologies
The availability of individual and off-site learning opportunities and degree programs, via specialized software and online classes, allows for more rapid career advancement.
18.Video conferencing
The ability to interact with nursing professionals throughout the world, through such means as video conferencing, offers advantages and opportunities like never before, both in terms of the further development of the nursing profession and the continued improvement in patient care outcomes.
19.The blogosphere
Medical technologies have brought changes to the process of life and death and the role of the nurse. The Internet allows nurses to share their experiences and feelings. As technology transforms the profession, nurses adapt and change as well. The big question is: What will the rest of the twenty-first century bring?
Topics: nursing, technology, improve