The FDA has approved a new weapon to treat COPD. It is called Breo, an inhaled drug by GlaxoSmithKline of Britain and Theravance of the United States. It consists of a corticosteroid, fluticasone furoate, and a long-acting beta-agonist called vilanterol. The product is delivered through a palm-sized device called Ellipta. It is known as Relvar ...

The top 10 cities for allergies have been identified. They are, in order from worst to better, Jackson, Miss.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; McAllen, Texas; Louisville, Ky.; Wichita, Kans.; Dayton, Ohio; Memphis, Tenn.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Baton Rouge, La.  A recent article in USA Today warns to brace for a ''hard-nosed allergy ...

As the blog before Christmas, let's take a short break from our usual chatter. I want to wish each of you a Merry Christmas. Whether you are working the night shift, managing a vent all day or just standing by in the emergency department, I hope you have a ''silent night'' and that all is calm and bright for you. I hope you get to eat cookies and ...

My BS-o-meter has a pretty narrow scale. One of my many, many faults is that I hate feeling like someone is abusing me, my time, or my talents. Many of you feel the same though you may not admit it. In the hospital, I tired quickly of patients who already knew everything, doctors with attitudes, and nurses who did not know a BiPAP mask from a ...

In Missouri, it has been a long, hot summer. Triple digit temperatures were the norm, as they were in many states. The Midwest was hit hard by drought. Surrounded by wildfires, people really did not have much choice on where to go for vacation. Seems like Mother Nature wanted us all to stay home! Some allergens notorious for sending people to ...

A conference I recently attended brought up an interesting topic: home-based respiratory care services. The speaker was not talking about DME services but actual respiratory therapists in the homes of patients providing services to keep them out of the hospital, tending to their home ventilators and breathing machines, and seeing patients shortly ...

Does licensure work? The Institute of Justice recently did a study of over 100 occupations (respiratory therapy was not one of them) and found that it probably does not. It does, however, raise costs and keeps competition, one of the best things about America, in check.  In the 1950's, one in 20 people needed a license to work. Now, the ...

A rash of incivility has hit the nation. Experts agree that being less than civil, especially in the workplace, is the ''thing'' people are doing. Often, it is not that a person wants to be rude, but that they do not know how to be any other way. In health care, this is an important issue. We all have had our bad days, our ''needy'' patients, our ...

Dr. Jack Kevorkian felt that assisted suicide with the help of a medical professional is a civil right. He liked to think of his work related to works of other notable characters in history, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. ''Dr. Death,'' as he became known, oversaw 130 deaths of gravely ill people in his career. A pathologist, ...

Some say that ''clothes make the man.'' Health care workers are taking that mantra to heart. In some cases, hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices, and other facilities are going retro, moving back to nurses in white and departments in assigned colors. We have all seen them in their white skirts or pants, with their nursing caps on. They do ...