Submit an Innovative Idea to Improve Hospital-Acquired Infection Rates

Hill-Rom, a leading manufacturer and provider of medical technologies, has partnered with Edison Nation Medical to identify new solutions for controlling hospital-acquired infections and they want to hear your BRIGHTEST ideas!

When patients contract an infection while receiving medical treatment in a healthcare facility, it is called a hospital-acquired infection (HAI). These HAIs can cause extreme illness and disability for patients; approximately 100,000 patients die from an HAI every year in the United States alone.

Licensed ideas will receive a $2,500 minimum advance on 20 years percentage of sales or buyout. They split the licensing royalties 50/50 with you on the products that they select. Royalties vary based upon the product but we always earn industry-leading rates.

Innovators can submit their ideas confidentially and securely at http://www.EdisonNationMedical.com/HillRom through November 18, 2013.

The Essential Importance of STD Testing

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) or sexually transmitted infections (STI)  are reportedly on the rise nationwide, with an increasing number of incidents reported each year. Unsafe sexual practices are spreading infection and illness through people from all backgrounds, requiring medical intervention in many cases to prevent septicemia, infertility and even death. STDs are no laughing matter, and those who engage with multiple partners or without adequate protection are at most risk. Because many of these conditions can be symptom-less in the early stages, those who suspect they may be infected need to arrange to be tested for a range of the most common conditions.

Image source: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumblarge_131/1174289173yDSOph.jpg

The first thing to do if you suspect you may have an STD is to arrange an appointment with your physician. For some, this may be an embarrassing experience, and one they may be initially reluctant to pursue. This is understandable, and most doctors and healthcare professionals are sympathetic to these feelings. There is a rise in companies offering the ability to order tests from the privacy of your own home (such as STDCheck.com) so that is a new option. However, from a health perspective, it is essential that you are seen by a doctor at an early stage in the process, so you can confirm diagnosis and receive the right prescription treatments for your condition. The effects of STDs can vary, depending on the nature of the infection, but it is always wise to seek medical attention to prevent these conditions from worsening.

GE Healthcare AgileTrac RTLS tracking hand washing in hospitals

Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) aren't just being used to track hospital beds and wheelchairs. RTLS is being used to track hand washing in hospitals. Using sensors in the ID badges of medical personnel along with sensors on sinks/soap dispensers, GE is now able to provide hospitals with the ability to track all hospital employees and their hand hygiene; ensuring doctors, nurses, and more wash their hands as they enter a patient room and as they leave.

Here's a snippet from a recent press release about this:

GE Healthcare and HCA’s Summerville Medical Center have collaborated to develop and deploy a data driven technology solution that tracks hand washing data as it relates to patient care through the use of small sensor tags. The new GE Healthcare AgileTrac RTLS (Real-Time Location System) solution provides a more complete picture of clinicians’ hand-washing behaviors than traditional manual programs, which by nature aren’t able to capture as many data points on a daily basis. The automated system collects up to 5,000 data points a day vs. 700 per year with manual observation.

You can learn more here.

Every hospital may end up with Xenex robots to sterilize rooms

Hospital-associated infections (healthcare-associated infections) still remain a significant problem today, even though we have so many antimicrobial agents at our disposal. What we need is an automated robot that can go into every room and

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/26/technology/xenex_robot/

Contaminated cantaloupe leading to 13 deaths and 72 illnesses

Do you enjoy eating cantaloupe? There have been 13 deaths and 72 illnesses reported as a result of people eating cantaloupe contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. You can read more about this on CNN here.

I think it's important to make sure that everyone is aware of the potential risks and consequences this could have on individuals based on their health status. Listeria monocytogenes causes listeriosis, the leading cause of death among foodborne bacterial pathogens, with fatality rates exceeding even Salmonella. Every year, listeriosis kills approximately 500 people.

The FDA is warning consumers not to eat Rocky Ford Cantaloupe shipped by Jensen Farms and to throw away recalled product that may still be in their home.

Jensen Farms is voluntarily recalling Rocky Ford Cantaloupe shipped from July 29 through September 10, 2011, and distributed to at least 17 states with possible further distribution.

While all people are susceptible to Listeria, older adults, persons with weakened immune systems and pregnant women are at particular risk.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month

August is typically recognized as National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). This awareness month highlights the need for improving national immunization coverage levels and encourages all people to protect their health by being immunized against infectious diseases.

While CDC does not sponsor this month, CDC does support and encourage the efforts of state and local health departments and other immunization partners to celebrate NIAM and use this month to promote back to school immunizations, remind college students to catch up immunizations before they move into dormitories, and remind everyone that the influenza season is only a few months away. It’s a great reminder to our nation that people of all ages require timely immunization to protect their health.

Learn more about National Immunization Awareness Month and access immunization materials here.

MIT researchers developing technology that could "cure nearly any viral infection"

Wow, did you see this article from MIT News?

New drug could cure nearly any viral infection
Researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Lab have developed technology that may someday cure the common cold, influenza and other ailments.

Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.

Todd Rider invented the PANACEA and DRACO antiviral therapeutics, and previously invented the CANARY (Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields) sensor for rapid pathogen detection and identification.

You can read the story here at MIT News.

FDA acting to remove fraudulent STD products from the market

FDA, FTC act to remove fraudulent STD products from the market

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced a joint effort to remove products from the market that make unproven claims to treat, cure, and prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Among the products targeted in today’s action are Medavir, Herpaflor, Viruxo, C-Cure, and Never An Outbreak.

The agencies issued multiple letters to companies warning that their products violate federal law. These products, sold online and in retail outlets, have not been evaluated by the FDA for safety and effectiveness. The joint action is the first step in keeping these unproven items from being sold to the public and preventing consumers from being misled.

Better Hand-Washing Through Technology

Infections continue to be a significant problem in hospitals and other health care settings. How can physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals improve hand-washing in these settings to reduce the spread of infections?

There's an interesting NY Times Blog article titled, "Better Hand-Washing Through Technology" and the author notes an interesting concept: a health care professional would wear an electronic badge (sensor) that would detect whether he had recently washed his hands (or used an alcohol-based sanitizer). Then, when he enters a patient room, the sensors in the room would know whether he had washed his hands recently.

Now, that sounds like it would work, except I would want my physician to wash his hands after he enters the room, not before he enters. So, maybe they'll place sensors around the patient's bed. Then again, maybe the patients will wear sensors around their necks. Or, maybe we simply need each patient to ask his/her doctor/nurse a simple question: "Did you wash your hands?"

FDA warns companies to stop making MRSA claims for over-the-counter products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued four warning letters to companies that manufacture and market over-the-counter (OTC) drug products, including hand sanitizers, that claim to prevent infection from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA).

Labeling and marketing materials for the affected products also claim that they can prevent infection from other disease-causing agents. In addition, the labeling of some of the firms’ hand sanitizing drug products make claims related to preventing infection from E.coli and/or H1N1 flu virus. The FDA does not have sufficient evidence demonstrating that these products are safe and effective for these purposes.

Here is how you can diagnose dengue fever

You can now diagnose dengue fever, thanks to a new test called the DENV Detect IgM Capture ELISA test. This test was approved by the FDA last Friday:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed marketing of the first test to help diagnose people with signs and symptoms of dengue fever or dengue hemorrhagic fever, a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics.

The dengue virus is transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. As many as 100 million people worldwide are infected by the virus each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Symptoms of dengue fever include high fever, severe headache, severe pain behind the eyes, joint pain, muscle and bone pain, rash and mild bleeding involving the nose or gums, and easy bruising.

NDM-1 (New Antibiotic Resistance Gene) is a serious global public health threat

The term "superbug" has been used before to describe a variety of antibiotic-resistant organisms. Advances in drug development technology have led to effective antibiotics to combat MRSA and VRE. I think we all knew that it wouldn't be long before we started seeing bacteria that are resistant to the latest antibiotics.

New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) is a new antibiotic resistance gene that was first identified in December 2009 in New Delhi. A hospitalized patient had Klebsiella pneumoniae. NDM-1 was later detected in bacteria in India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Now, we face a global threat because the NDM-1 gene can spread from one strain of bacteria to another (via plasmids, which will allow the gene to be readily transferred between different strains of bacteria by horizontal gene transfer).

What does this mean? What are the public health implications of NDM-1? Let's hope that pharmaceutical companies will develop novel antibiotics that can effectively target these bacteria.

HAI WATCHDOG* Community

The HAI WATCHDOG* Community is a new online program launched by Kimberly-Clark to allow health care professionals to discuss best practices for defeating Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs).

The HAI WATCHDOG* Community allows members to start discussions, post photos, videos and even enter the 2010 HAI WATCHDOG* Awards. Entering the awards program not only allows healthcare providers to share and learn from each other, but also gives contest participants the opportunity to be rewarded for their efforts with an educational grant.

You can learn more by visiting: http://haiwatchnews.com/

Zolinza (Vorinostat) to fight HIV/AIDS?

David M. Margolis, MD at University of North Carolina is approaching the fight against HIV/AIDS using a novel approach. He's testing the Merck cancer drug Zolinza (Vorinostat). Given that Zolinza blocks HDAC, it could push out latent HIV hiding in infected cells. Sounds interesting, doesn't it? Let's wait to see what ends up happening.

Thanks to BusinessWeek for the interesting story.

What's Eating You? People and Parasites

If you live near Philadelphia, you won't want to miss this lecture and book signing.

Eugene H. Kaplan is the Donald E. Axinn Endowed Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Conservation (emeritus) at Hofstra University. His many books include Sensuous Seas: Tales of a Marine Biologist (Princeton) and A Field Guide to Southeastern and Caribbean Seashores (Peterson Field Guides). His latest book, What’s Eating You? will be published by Princeton University Press in May 2010. In What’s Eating You?, Dr. Kaplan recounts the true and harrowing tales of his adventures with parasites, and in the process introduces readers to the intimately interwoven lives of host and parasite.

Thursday, June 03, 2010 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (ET)
Philadelphia, PA

Sponsored by the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Register here.

World Tuberculosis Day 2010

Today is World Tuberculosis Day 2010.

The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2001 building upon the Stop TB Initiative that was launched by WHO in 1998 and following a call at the Amsterdam Ministerial Conference in 2000. Its aim is to realize the goal of eliminating TB as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB. It comprises a network of international organizations, countries, donors from the public and private sectors, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and individuals that have expressed an interest in working together to achieve this goal.

The year 2010 marks the halfway point for the Global Plan to Stop TB (2006-2015). It is clearer than ever that we must scale up efforts and continue to seek new and innovative ways to stop TB if we are to achieve our targets. We have made considerable progress. But the evidence points to an urgent need to do more, do it better and do it faster.

To learn more about World Tuberculosis Day, click here.

Mumps outbreak reaches nearly 2,000

Wow, there's a huge mumps outbreak in New Jersey and New York and it has reached nearly 2,000 people! According to CNN, "Health officials note that lack of vaccination is not to blame in this mumps outbreak..." 

So, what's going on? The outbreak is affecting mostly adolescent and young adult males in Orthodox Jewish communities. Public health officials at the CDC report that the outbreak origin was a summer camp in Sullivan County, New York, last June.

Reducing deadly infections in the hospital

The March 2010 Consumer Reports magazine has an article titled, "Deadly Infections." How can hospitals reduce deadly infections? The Consume Reports article actually talks about central lines and calls out the fact that it adds about $42,000 when an ICU patient gets a central line infection. The article has a picture of central line locations, but neglects one of the most common sites - the groin. The femoral vein is a common site during emergent situations, but it's also a common site for medical students, interns, and residents who are not confident in placing a central line in the chest/neck area.

As we see further advances in medical care, we may see innovative ways to reduce hospital infections in patients who are critically ill. Hand washing still remains a critical infection control measure. I personally believe that the use of digital alerts can significantly help reduce the risks for infections in the hospital.  More hospitals will be incorporating electronic health records (EHRs) and computerized order entry (CPOE) as they leverage ARRA funds.

Should patients get scrubbed when they get admitted to the hospital?

Infection control is a really hot issue these days. A big part of the reason is because we've seen an increase in multi-drug resistant organisms causing serious life-threatening infections in the hospital. Some examples include MRSA, VRE, and others. So why are we seeing these superbugs? One reason is because antibiotics are overused. Patients are developing superbugs because they may take antibiotics when they don't really need them.

Should patients get scrubbed from head-to-toe when they get admitted to the hospital? Have you ever scrubbed for the OR (operating room)? Would you want to take one of those sponges and scrub your entire body with it? I don't think so.What if patients are colonized with a superbug? MRSA is in the community. Could they transmit these organisms to someone else? Certain sections of hospitals (such as bone marrow transplant centers) are full of patients who are seriously immunocompromised. A mild skin infection could be lethal to someone who has a weakened immune system.

Soon, we'll be irradiating patients to sanitize them before they enter the hospital. That's the future of medical technology in hospitals. We just need hundreds of CT scanners built into the hospital admission area of every hospital. Would you sanitize someone if you passed them through a CT scanner multiple times? I'm sure radiologists will love the increased volume of CT scans and pathologists will love to biopsy all the incidentalomas we find.

Short doctor visits and confusing messages

Since managed care entered the healthcare industry, visits with doctors (especially primary care physicians) have gotten shorter and shorter. As a result, physicians don't have the luxury to sit and chat with patients like they used to do in the good 'ol days. Don't you miss those days?

CNN has a catchy story titled, "What your doctor doesn't have time to tell you." It's actually a republished article out of Real Simple, but it lists a few points that I found somewhat interesting. These are not necessarily evidence-based points and some of these short sentences may be easily misunderstood, so make sure to always receive medical advice from a physician and not from CNN (or a blog for that matter). I like many of the points addressed in this article, but here are a few points that could cause confusion or controversy in such a short article:

• Instead of burning your meat, what about reducing meat consumption? Do we know it's the high heat and not the heme, the animal fat, or some other component of red meat? At the end of the day, I wonder what we'll learn about the risks of cancer and meat consumption. If you want to avoid colon cancer, you're probably better eating less red meat.
  
• Birth control pills. There are many different types and for some people, the risks may outweigh the benefits. Discussions regarding the pill (actually, there are so many types now, that it can be misleading to call it "the" pill) should be tailored for each patient based on individual risk factors.
• Postcoital voiding (urinating after intercourse) to avoid a UTI. Do we have enough evidence that this actually helps? It probably doesn't hurt to do this, so it's a reasonable suggestion, but I wonder if we'll ever see robust evidence behind this one. Fortunately, we have a good deal of evidence behind cranberry juice, so I hope you like juice.
  
• Here we go with resveratrol again. I'm a big fan and I don't sell any supplements, but I'm eager to see where we end up with resveratrol. I just hope people don't drink too much wine thinking that may reverse aging. It will do just the opposite.
  
• Hit the party circuit? I hope we don't have any teens or college students reading this to justify their partying habits.

At the end of the day, I hope you'll have the opportunity to spend more time with your physician. Always write your questions on a piece of paper and take that with you when you go see your doctor. This way, you won't forget any of those important questions.