News Brief
The Joint Commission, the accrediting body for hospitals in the U.S., has issued new guidelines to help prevent medication errors in children. An earlier story highlighted the seriousness of medication errors made for the youngest patients.
These guidelines also are for parents as well as hospitals. Print and save this one.
CBS NEWS
“Preventing Hospital Pediatric Medication […]

News Brief
The prestigious Institute of Medicine has issued a report which asks, in public, what everyone in health care has been worrying about for 10 years.
Who will care for the biggest generation, baby-boomers?
The report shows serious shortages of all kinds of care-givers just as the need may begin to peak.
One caveat about these projections of […]

News Brief
Oxygen. Without it, we stop breathing.
This study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that keeping our oxygen intake levels up keeps us breathing for many more years than we might otherwise.
Medpage Today
.Vigorous walking for about an hour a day five times a week can chop a dozen years off the biological age […]

News Brief
Among teenagers, there can be “epidemics” of suicide, brought on by those following the first suicide among their peer group. Other known causes: media reporting about suicides committed or dramatic presentations in television programming.
The Internet likely hasn’t been on most adults’ radar as a source of “pro-suicide” information. These sites are not the type […]

News Brief
Although teenagers made text-messaging hot, parents have picked up on it as a way to check in with their kids without seeming over-bearing.
As you read this story, though, there are many ways text-messaging could be helpful in an illness or when someone is in the hospital.
Flat-rate cell phone plans are key to avoiding crazy […]

News
One in five of 1,400 scientific professionals, working in 60 countries, said they had used neuro-enhancer drugs for non-medical reasons. This information comes from an informal survey conducted by Nature Magazine—- widely read by scientists. Improving concentration was reported as the main reason for using these medications.
First, read what Nature’s editors say about why […]

News Brief
Remember that rat studies are the starting point for most research, so we do not want to raise premature hopes here.
Nevertheless, this is the first use of “reprogrammed” skin cells which showed that they could become part of the nerve system and have a positive affect a neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson’s.
This is a […]

News Brief
As the number of elderly people grows, the question is, who will be there to take care of them? This is a world-wide concern.
In Japan, a country with population growth below replacement levels, this question especially is an urgent one.
Now, the Japanese may be on the way to a solution. Japan, the story notes, […]

News Brief
A World Health Organization (WHO) study, published in the British medical journal, Lancet, shows world-wide violence against women in intimate relationships follows a consistent and deadly pattern, regardless of culture, race or class.
The women lived in South America, Asia and Africa.
Another expert, writing for Journal Watch/Psychiatry notes that leaving the relationship raises the […]

News Brief
(Please see News Brief below on infants and toddlers, sleep hours and weight.)
Children often think of being able to stay up as late as you want as being one of the big benefits of being a grown-up.
The Washington Post says that, “Researchers have found that hours spent asleep are dropping for a growing number […]