Embrace is a low cost infant warmer designed for the developing world: 

“Embrace is a sustainable social enterprise that is addressing the issue of global infant mortality through an innovative warmer that costs less than 1% of a traditional incubator. 

The design looks like a miniature sleeping bag, but in reality, will saves lives of vulnerable infants. It is a new, low cost solution to help keep low birth weight babies’ body temperature warm so they can survive and thrive in developing countries.

Embrace is currently in the final stages of product development for the Transport Infant Warmer. We plan to pilot the product and business concepts in India, and then roll out to the rest of the developing world.”

It may be hard to make observations concerning other health conditions through the body of the baby (color change, bleeding, etc.) due to the opacity of the warmer but still it is a nice attempt to keep the costs low. Though, the nurses should be more alert and check on the babies more often to see if everything is under control. Considering most hospitals don’t have too many nurses and each nurse ends up having to check on 10-15 babies at one time, it will require a lot of effort to do a good job. 

The American government published a report on the use of prescription drugs in 2008. Key Findings were:

+ Over the last 10 years, the percentage of Americans who took at least one prescription drug in the past month increased from 44% to 48%. The use of two or more drugs increased from 25% to 31%. The use of five or more drugs increased from 6% to 11%.

+ In 2007-2008, 1 out of every 5 children and 9 out of 10 older Americans reported using at least one prescription drug in the past month.

+ Those who were without a regular place for health care, health insurance, or prescription drug benefit had less prescription drug use compared with those who had these benefits.

+ The most commonly used types of drugs included: asthma medicines for children, central nervous system stimulants for adolescents, antidepressants for middle-aged adults, and cholesterol lowering drugs for older Americans.

“Along the same lines of losing our near vision, we also lose our hearing, or “go deaf” in the same manner as each other. If we can fit gloves, reading glasses, or shoes so easily, why then do hearing aids cost thousands of dollars?”

An interesting article from kevinMD.com 

An article by Kevin Pho, M.D. from kevinMD.com

An article by Leslie A. Saxon, M.D. from the Fast Company website.

September 27, 2010

Berlin shares her experiences of a support group meeting she recently attended. The article and the comments create and interesting discussion on the function of support groups.

Click for a larger version from the GE website.

How healthy are hospitals in the US? The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. The Joint Commission’s 2009 Annual Report on Quality and Safety, the basis for this application, shows continual improvement among accredited hospitals over a seven-year period (2002-2008) in quality measures reflecting the best evidence-based treatments. Still, the quality of our hospitals varies.

An article from KevinMD.com on a doctor’s method to keep his patients take their drugs for their chronic psychiatric conditions. Dividing the ‘forever’ into managable time compartments helps patients take their drugs at least for that 3-6 month time period. When the patient and the doctor see each other after several months, they are ready to discuss whether the patient needs to continue with the same drugs. The patient is no longer stressed about committing to taking a certain drug for a lifetime.    

An article by Jay Parkinson. Click to read it.

What is a two year old thinking when their pediatrician is coming at them with a needle? What is a four year old thinking when they’ve got a fever of 103 and their body hurts? What does a 10 year old with leukemia think about death? What’s going on in their minds??

Jay Parkinson, M.D. of Future Well shares his literature study findings on the topic. Click to read the article.