Health and Disability

Research led by Dr. Paul Harch, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that treatment with hyperbaric oxygen nearly three years after injury significantly improved function and quality of life for veterans with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. The findings are available online now in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

n the U.S. each year almost 100,000 people above the age of 65 years are admitted to hospital because of emergencies caused by adverse drug events. According to the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, of the thousands of medications available, it is a small group of blood thinners and diabetes medications that cause two-thirds of all emergency hospitalizations.

Frontotemporal dementia affects regions of the brain that cause aberrant changes in behavior and emotion.

Loved ones face great challenges, first dealing with the puzzling symptoms and efforts to get an accurate diagnosis, and later facing the fact that the personality of the person they love has changed dramatically.

The disease often leaves families isolated and challenged by health care issues.

Worth watching to the end.

For some time now, we’ve thrown out ideas as to what an Alzheimer’s friendly city would look like.  I found a perfect example in last week’s Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times.  This is a weekly piece printed every Monday that resembles letters to the editor, but the subject has to be specific to the quirks of New York City.  I love it.  Sometimes the letters leave you with a smile but more often than not they are truly laugh-out-loud funny.  I think you’ll understand why I want you to see this one.  Pay attention to the two last paragraphs. Here it is:

Aging and health issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender baby boomers have been largely ignored by services, policies and research. These seniors face higher rates of disability, physical and mental distress and a lack of access to services, according to the first study on aging and health in these communities.

The study, led by Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen and colleagues at the University of Washington's School of Social Work, indicates that prevention and intervention strategies must be developed to address the unique needs of these seniors, whose numbers are expected to double to more than 4 million by 2030.

Learn How to Successfully Age in Place:

• What are Your Home Care Options?
• Learn About Successful Strategies for Managing Elder Care.
• Learn How Home Care Keeps Seniors Home for Life!
• Learn More About Options Available in Universal Design.

A new study finds that people 75 years old or older are less likely to receive any pain medication in hospital emergency departments than middle aged people - those between 35 and 54 years old.

And these differences remained even after researchers took into account how much pain the patients were having, said Timothy F. Platts-Mills, MD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Welcome to MedFolio!

**Discount Code: aip (get aginginplace.com discount of 15% off MSRP/FREE shipping in the continental USA)  

I met Julie Fulmer-Mason Pharm. D. the President and designer of the MedFolio at an ASA conference. Julie is a real pharmacist (authentic person)—I liked her immediately, and her product was one I wanted to offer my visitors. We have both encountered the sad state of  polypharmacy  in the clinical setting and agree the issue is a threat to successful aging in place. Julie’s medical management system is a synergy between the old-fashioned “pill box” and 21^st century technology. The MedFolio will alert you (or a loved one) to take the next dose of medications by an audible sound and a unique visual LED-lighting system; and for those with active life styles, alerts by email or text messages. The system also offers a one-of-a-kind medication identification system right at your fingertips.

In a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers showed it was possible to communicate with and detect awareness in people in a vegetative state using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI.

The team then tried far less expensive, portable equipment to get a better idea of how many people classified as being in a vegetative state are actually aware of their surroundings.

The researchers instructed 16 people in a vegetative state to imagine they were making a fist with their right hand or wiggling their toes, and then measured brain activity while electrodes were attached to their scalp.

"It was possible to detect that these patients were actually aware" despite being diagnosed as being "entirely unconscious" using standard clinical assessments, said Professor Adrian Owen of the Center for Brain and Mind at the University of Western Ontario. Findings from the newer study were published in the British journal Lancet on Wednesday.

If you think the information in your medical or billing record is incorrect, you can request that the health care provider or health plan amend the record. The health care provider or health plan must respond to your request.  If it created the information, it must amend the information if it is inaccurate or incomplete.  If the provider or plan does not agree to your request, you have the right to submit a statement of disagreement that the provider or plan must add to your record.

For further information on this topic, please refer to 45 C.F.R. §§ 164.508, 164.524 and 164.526, and OCR’s Frequently Asked Questions.