May Health News

“Americans Overwhelmingly Want Federal Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills”

“Three-quarters of the public — including a majority of Republicans — want the federal government to protect patients from being stuck with surprise medical invoices after they are unwittingly treated by doctors or medical facilities that are out of their insurance network, a poll released Wednesday found” (California Healthline). Read More

“Israeli Scientists 3D-Print Heart with Human Tissue in World First”

“A team of Israeli scientists “printed” a heart with a patient’s own cells in a world first, researchers say…The heart, about the size of a rabbit’s, is too small for a human, but the process used to create it shows the potential for one day being able to 3D-print patches and maybe full transplants, the team said. Because the heart is made from the patient’s own biological material, it reduces the chance the transplant would fail, according to the research paper” (USA Today). Read More

“Google Searches for Ways to Put Artificial Intelligence to Use in Health Care”

“One of the prime movers is a sister company called Verily, which this year got a billion-dollar boost for its already considerable efforts. Among its projects is software that can diagnose a common cause of blindness called diabetic retinopathy and that is currently in use in India. Verily is also working on tools to monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes, as well as surgical robots that learn from each operation…But medical data aren’t typically collected for research purposes, so there are gaps. To close those, Verily has partnered with Duke University and Stanford University in an effort called Project Baseline, which seeks to recruit 10,000 volunteers to give tons more data to the company” (NPR). Read More

“Does Taking Time for Compassion Make Doctors Better at their Jobs?”

“When health care providers take the time to make human connections that help end suffering, patient outcomes improve and medical costs decrease. Among other benefits, compassion reduces pain, improves healing, lowers blood pressure and helps alleviate depression and anxiety… Compassion also seems to prevent doctor burnout — a condition that affects almost half of U.S. physicians… Evidence shows that connecting with patients makes physicians happier and more fulfilled (NPR).” Read More

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