Opinion | Optimize Muslim Patient Health by Learning About Ramadan
When caring for any patient, having a basic understanding of their culture and values can go a long way towards building trust and improving their experience and outcome. This rings true especially during Ramadan, considered the most sacred month of the year in the Muslim calendar. A basic understanding of Ramadan will help promote shared […]
Opinion | There’s Something Magical About the Interface of Baseball and Medicine
When I moved from New York City to Dallas in 2004, I needed to make many personal adjustments. Surprisingly, one of the most prominent shifts was related to — baseball. In New York, baseball was essential to the city’s identity. Whether someone rooted for the Yankees or Mets (or Brooklyn Dodgers), baseball was tied inextricably […]
Like Bruce Willis, I Have Aphasia. Here’s What Life Is Like With This Incurable Disorder.
When news broke on March 30 that Bruce Willis is retiring from acting (at least for the time being) because of aphasia, it may have been the first time many people had heard of the condition. For me, however, aphasia has become a core part of my constant reality, affecting me every day, all day […]
The art of smell: Research suggests the brain processes smell both like a painting and a symphony
What happens when we smell a rose? How does our brain process the essence of its fragrance? Is it like a painting — a snapshot of the flickering activity of cells — captured in a moment in time? Or like a symphony, an evolving ensemble of different cells working together to capture the scent? New […]
Don’t Wait, Ablate to Prevent VT Episodes After an ICD Shock?
WASHINGTON — Researchers made a strong case that earlier was better when it comes to catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardias (VTs) in people with implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs). After a first ICD shock, 23 patients with ischemic or non-ischemic cardiomyopathy soon underwent radiofrequency VT ablation and ended up with 4% incidence of worsening heart failure […]
Unwinding Medicaid’s Pandemic Protections Won’t Be Easy, Experts Say
When the public health emergency (PHE) ends, pandemic-era protections that allowed Medicaid enrollees to remain in the program regardless of changes to their eligibility, will also end. Will states and the federal government be ready for the transition, or will beneficiaries fall through the cracks? “The stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Kinda Serafi, JD, a […]
Critical signature sound when rocks crack
Finding the specific sound a rock makes when it cracks and breaks seems impossible when surrounded by other subsurface noises. But Texas A&M University researcher Dr. Siddharth Misra, the Ted H. Smith, Jr. ’75 and Max R. Vordenbaum ’73 DVG Associate Professor in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering, discovered a way to hear […]
Artificial hail for more accurate weather forecasts
When the low-pressure system dubbed Bernd decided to park itself over part of Central Europe in the summer of 2021, the hazards associated with excessive rainfall events were made dramatically apparent in the form of the resultant catastrophic flooding. Weather records show that extreme natural occurrences such as drought, but also heavy rainfall and hail […]
8 Health Issues You Didn’t Know Your Pharmacist Can Help With
Pharmacists are there for us when it’s time to refill our prescriptions or when we need a play-by-play on how best to take a new medication (complete with giant side effects pamphlets) — but if these are the only things you go to your pharmacist for, you’re missing out. Even though pharmacists in the community […]
If You’re Going To Google Your Health Symptoms, Here’s How To Do It Right
If the first thing you do when you feel a sniffle or twinge is head to the internet to try to figure out what’s going on, you’re in good company. Surveys suggest about 90% of patients Google their symptoms before they talk to their doctor. But it can, of course, quickly go awry. Mental health […]