Archive for April, 2012

Fairs and festival season will soon be in full swing and the Centers for Disease Control offer detailed advice on protecting yourself and your family from bad food that can make you sick. The article According to the CDC, the consumer should consider these questions before buying food from a vendor at a fair or festival or on the street.

• Does the vendor have a clean/tidy workstation?
• Does the vendor have a sink for employees to wash their hands?
• Do the employees wear gloves or use tongs when handling food?
• Does the vendor have refrigeration on site for raw ingredients or pre-cooked foods?
• Has the vendor been inspected? Temporary and mobile vendors, like those at fairs and carnivals, should have a license to sell food and beverages. Check to see if the vendors are licensed and if a food inspection has been completed.

A 2012 study by Virginia Commonwealth University is the first national quantitative research to explore the relationship that keeping pets in the workplace may have to reducing stress.

The study, published in the March issue of “The International Journal of Workplace Health Management,” found “that dogs in the workplace may buffer the impact of stress during the workday for their owners and make the job more satisfying for those with whom they come into contact,” according to this University News Center story.

A significant review of research drawing data from 94 different studies shows that drugs that treat incontinence caused by overactive bladder “offer modest benefits to women and often come with significant side effects,” reports Web MD. The article

The review compared darifenacin (Enablex), fesoterodine (Toviaz), oxybutynin (Ditropan, Oxytrol), solifenacin (Vesicare), tolterodine (Detrol), and trospium (Sanctura). The study,  published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The health talk of the nation this week: Do you really need to have that test or screening done and, if so, at what benefit and at what cost?

This week (Wednesday, April 4) doctors came together in a national public information campaign “Choose Wisely” that made headlines and TV news spots everywhere. Medical specialty societies representing 374,000 physicians shared lists of “Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question.” Their idea is to recognize, according to the Choose Wisely Web site, “the importance of physician and patient conversations to improve care and eliminate unnecessary tests and procedures.” The New York Times suggested this effort by doctors to recommend fewer tests is a “move likely to alter treatment standards in hospitals and doctors’ offices nationwide.”

This effort is on the vanguard of a national movement to manage health care costs better. In a short article about the project in the online edition of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the authors note that “some estimates suggest that as much as 30% of all health care spending is wasted. ^,,,​ To reduce unnecessary tests and procedures, physicians will need to play a leading role—their decisions account for about 80% of health care expenditures.

These lists prepared by physicians’ organizations represent specific, evidence-based recommendations physicians and patients should discuss to help make wise decisions about the patient’s care. What tests and procedures should patients and physicians talk more about? Read the lists.

For more information:

• Choosing Wisely web site
• New York Times article
• JAMA article