An interesting article came out in the British popular press last week that states some chronic low-back pain can be cured by antibiotics. The writing is fairly clear that only certain cases would benefit from this approach and it includes links to the two scientific abstracts the article is based on: ...

This week during the show ''The Voice'' on NBC, Aflac aired a 60-second commercial showing the Aflac duck working with a physical therapist to recover from some injuries. (The injuries were aired in earlier commercials). I think Aflac is marketing services their clients receive while off work due to injury, including money for bills and other ...

New York state has made remarkable changes to the way it's administering Medicaid. The Medicaid Redesign Team has enacted changes that will completely alter the current practices and expectations of both providers and patients. As of May 1, all long-term home health programs will cease to exist and patients must enroll in a managed long-term ...

Last week I promised a statistical discussion about an article that appeared in The Washington Post. Before you get all down on statistics, let me make a confession. It wasn't until I reached the end of writing last week's post that the statistics even hit me. I'd glanced right over them and accepted their validity -- something I've cautioned ...

I've read about social security running out of money, reduced reimbursement rates, a decrease in the number of qualified providers, quicker discharges and supposedly better recovery after surgery. Where does this leave everyone? Social security has to be there to provide care for the blind and disabled; a reduction in reimbursements will always ...

Last week my ADVANCE colleague, Janey Goude, wrote a piece about the Medicare plan to charge penalties to hospitals with excessive readmission rates. I had to reluctantly agree with her assessment... the plan isn't working the way it should. This is one of the problems of public health. The field tries to ensure that the population is protected ...

A recent article in the Washington Post boasts a national reduction in hospital readmissions of Medicare patients within 30 days of discharge. According to the article, Jonathan Blum, a top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, credits the provisions in President Obama's healthcare law for this reduction. The article goes on ...

I read this article on NPR (National Public Radio) about how people of a certain age, which includes me, are less fit than their counterparts of two decades ago. How can this be? With all the advances in knowledge and availability of information, how can this group of people have missed the boat? Actually, we haven't missed the boat on ...

As many readers of this blog know, I'm fairly passionate about fall prevention and have been trying to incorporate my work in that arena into my public health work. The potential impact on our aging population, and cost the rest of us will bear as a result, is significant and deserves attention. I was at a seminar last week about this very topic ...

February is American Heart Month and as we see more red-dress pins and other symbols recognizing the impact of heart diseases, I thought this would be a good time to review the signs and symptoms of two major pathologies impacting our patients' health: Stroke (cerebral vascular accident) and heart attack (myocardial infarction). Cerebral ...