Medical

Medical Treatments for Erectile Dysfunction

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The 1980s saw a progressive shift away from psychological treatments of sexual dysfunction to an emphasis on surgical and medical solutions for improving sexual health. Simultaneously, there was a progressive shift within the medical community and public at large, towards viewing the etiology of sexual dysfunction as organic, rather than the psychogenic understanding emphasized by sex therapists. Use of improved sophisticated diagnostic procedures, such as duplex sonography and cavernosograms (although not necessarily improving treatment) added credibility and imprimatur to the importance of organic pathogenesis. This was particularly true in the area of erectile dysfunction, where urologists established dominance, with the successful marketing and use of various intracavernosal and intraurethral systems. Although highly touted by urologists, the treatment efficacy of these products was offset by their intrusiveness into the patients bodies and reduction in spontaneity, their patterns of use required.

Initially, there were few oral treatments for erectile dysfunction, being used by urologists, such as yohimbine based products, trazodone, and bupropion. They had only modest proerectile capability. Pharmaceutical companies were inspired to pursue oral treatments with the promise of less intrusiveness and even greater profits. The first visible evidence of fulfilling that promise was the sildenafil launch. Subsequent to Pfizers success, multiple companies simultaneously pursued clinical trials of easy-to-use treatments for male sexual dysfunction. Among others, these included additional PDE-5 type compounds and other oral treatments, such as ixense (TAP Holdings, Deerfield, IL, USA), and topically applied compounds (MacroChem, Lexington, MA, USA). Additionally, PT-141 (Palatin Technology, Cranbury, NJ, USA) is a nasally administered peptide that is under development, which is presumed to work through a central nervous system mechanism.

Currently, there are three highly efficacious PDE-5, FDA-approved treatments for erectile dysfunction: sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil. Reviews of long-term extension studies and published accounts of use in clinical practice show that sildenafils effectiveness was maintained with long-term treatment. “Significantly improved erectile function was demonstrated for sildenafil compared with placebo for all efficacy parameters analyzed (P , 0.02 to 0.0001), regardless of patient age, race, body mass index, erectile dysfunction etiology, erectile dysfunction severity, erectile dysfunction duration, or the presence of various co morbidities. Long-term effectiveness was assessed in three open-label extension studies.” Vardenafil (launched in 2003) “is a potent, selective PDE-5 inhibitor, which improved erectile function in a broad population of men with erectile dysfunction and in characteristically challenging-to-treat groups such as diabetic and post prostatectomy patients.” Tadalafil also launched in 2003, when taken, “as needed before sexual activity and without restrictions on food or alcohol intake, significantly improved erectile function. It allowed a substantial proportion of patients to achieve a normal IIEF erectile function domain score, exhibited a broad window of therapeutic responsiveness and was well tolerated in a representative population of patients with broadspectrum erectile dysfunction.”

Medical

The Truth About Home Based Medical Transcription Work

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Here are the truths about medical transcription that you can use as a guide if you are thinking of going into this industry and taking up proper medical transcription training.

1. The medical transcription sector is growing.
This is true. Along with the global increase in demand for health care services, the transcription sector is also growing. As more and more patients require proper health care, the efficient recording and retrieval of patient’s records, analysis and doctor recommendations is becoming more critical to performing fast and accurate service. This caused an increase in demand for well trained medical transcriptionists.
Since technology is the primary platform when doing transcription tasks (connected computers and data access and retrieval), it can be performed in any location as long as those who perform the transcription have fast and dependable way to receive audio recordings, process the recordings to text format and send it back to the source of the audio recordings.
This gives rise to work at home transcriptionists who have dependable internet connection, fast computers at home, and have the necessary transcription equipments.

2. You don’t need to become a certified medical transcriptionist.
At present, a valid certificate is not yet a government mandated requirement when applying for medical transcription job though it is ideal to get certified since it will add to your reputation. On most occasions hospitals and companies hiring medical transcriptionists won’t even ask if you are or not a certified medical transcriptionist. What matters most is you have the proper training and appropriate work experience.

3. Medical Transcription Job requires specialized knowledge.
Some people may say that performing a transcription task is easy and won’t require proper knowledge or can be easily learned. This is wrong. The truth is a transcription jobs require specialized knowledge. Sure, using a computer and word processing software is easy but that doesn’t mean you can easily adapt to the language used by doctors. Converting the audio recordings to its text equivalent will require a working knowledge of all the medical terms, procedures and human anatomy. Most of the audio to be transcribed will contain medical abbreviations, and the transcriptionist is required to understand these abbreviations and medical terms.

4. You need proper education.
Similar to what I mentioned above, a transcription job will require specialized knowledge. So, if you are really thinking of starting a career in this industry then be prepared to take formal training. Proper education is required when you’ve decided to start a transcription career and presently you have two options for training. One is to take the training online (which will allow you to study at your own pace at the comfort of your house). Online training usually take up to 8 months to 1 year. If you want classroom interaction then you can apply for an on-campus training which on average will take you up to two years to finish.

5. Medical Transcription is not a get rich quick scheme.
Just to make sure that we are on the same page, keep in mind that a transcription job is not a get rich quick scheme.
So if on your search for a medical transcription job you bump into an ad that tells you how you can make money overnight with medical transcription even for those without experience and ask you to pay them for a list of where to apply, then it should turn-on a red light.
A medical transcription job is something you’ll have to study for or have years of experience doing before you can apply for available jobs or become a home based transcription professional.

Medical

Medical Packaging and You

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When it comes to products and tools in general — the level of sterility, precision, and quality youll find in a hospital is virtually unparalleled. This is hardly surprising.

Healthcare is one of the most important facets of our lives. Where would we be without it? From open heart surgery to basic modern medicine, the healthcare industry has made the impossible possible, and preserved life where it might never have a chance. But to meet the very unique requirements of modern medicine, a wide variety of products and technologies have been developed to package, protect, and deliver the many life saving tools that are used today.

To regulate these products, a number of standards have been developed to make sure that when health care is involved, production standards are held to a particularly high standard. For example, the EN868 and ISO 11607 standards both come together to ensure that sterilized plastic packaging used everywhere from operating rooms to doctors offices are held to very specific quality standards regulating their production, packaging, quality control and more.
The prevalence of these standards highlights the monumental importance of medical packaging. Think about it, without effective medical packaging how would the pace makers, the syringes, the scalpels, tongue depressors, and thermometers be delivered safely and hygienically?
When surgeons are performing any sort of procedure, they frequently must rely on the many tools that come with the job whether they are installing a new set of lungs or removing a tumor.

In both cases, any sort of contamination could mean the difference between a successful procedure and a serious infection. This is why so many standards are in place to ensure that medical packaging is safe and effective. At the same time, design is also of major importance. Imagine a medical tool or device is requested by a doctor in sealed packaging, only to end up being impossible to open. Not only does this present a challenge in a time-sensitive environment, but it also risks damaging the medical equipment.

Apart from medical devices and instruments, medical packaging is also vital for pharmaceuticals especially when it comes to unit dose packaging used everywhere from hospitals and doctors offices to the nurses office in your local school. Apart from medical devices and instruments, medical packaging is used in this way to also ensure sterility and accurate doses of medication all the time.

So next time you visit the doctor or the hospital and rely on medical instruments or tools to get well, think about what got those tools to your bedside safely and effectively.

Medical

Medical Negligence Why You May Need Legal Representation

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Some of the stories about medical malpractice are so bizarre that it seems that these occurrences could never happen to you or a loved one. The most peculiar cases in recent history involve:

A doctor using a screwdriver to support a mans spine in place of medical grade titanium rods.
A surgeon removing the wrong leg of a patient in a botched amputation procedure.
A patient having a healthy lung removed due to a misdiagnosis of lung cancer.
A patient left on an IV so long that it damaged nerve cells in her ears and made her deaf.

However rare these circumstances may seem, medical malpractice is unfortunately becoming an epidemic in the United States and has been found to cause up to 98,000 deaths per year. The most common of these medical mistakes are medication errors. These drug-related injuries occur in the hundreds of thousands each year and they can result in extra medical costs, loss of wages, permanent disability, emotional trauma and even loss of life.

How do you make sure that an error or negligence does not happen to you? Firstly, the single most important thing is to be actively involved in your own care. Make sure you tell your doctor all your symptoms. Also, ask questions about treatment and testing that may be administered. Telling the doctor about your medical history is beneficial as well, since some hospitals or clinics may not have access to your personal file. When you visit a hospital you may be in a state of illness or debilitation so staying active in your health care may be difficult for you. If that is the case, make sure to bring an advocate who can articulate your needs and scrutinize the path of your care. Coordination and communication between you and your health care team is critical to preventing the avoidable mistakes and to combating negligence.

However, even after precautions, the standards of care may not be upheld or an error may be made. This could cost you or your loved ones dearly. If this happens, negative physical, emotional and financial effects can be compensated in select cases. To determine if a claim is appropriate the patient should contact an attorney with specialized experience in this part of the law. There are local Fort Worth injury lawyers and Fort Worth wrongful death attorneys available to examine your case and determine the next course of action. You can find them through Hart Laws Texas board certified advocates.

Medical

How Radiology Technology Helps To Ease The Medical Office Workload

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In decades past, many of the routine tasks associated with the running of a medical facility that offered radiology services had to be performed by hand, because that was the only option available at the time. Now, however, with inexpensive personal computer technology becoming widely available, there has been a shift to moving many of these radiology tasks to a digital environment for ease of use, increased productivity, and cost reductions.

One of the most sought-after pieces of radiology technology is the fully functional PACS system. For those working in a radiology or cardiology department, a Radiology PACS or Cardiology PACS can help with everything from viewing digital images to storing them or distributing them.

The amount of work to process even a single film x-ray is burdensome, and in medical facilities that’s multiplied by hundreds of times throughout the course of a work year. The images need expensive chemicals for developing, which takes time. You have to work with hard copies of film, which must then be handled by humans for filing and archiving, not to mention retrieval of images.

Using cardiology PACS in your cardio unit eliminates all of this extra work. By using the DICOM digital imaging format, images taken from a variety of modalities can all be read by the radiology PACS equipment, and it allows you to view your digital medical images within seconds after taking them, unlike film images.

PACS radiology technology also allows for the storage of DICOM digital images. The PACS appliance can be used as a server to store many terabytes of digital medical information saved in the DICOM format. When there is a need for handling a large volume of studies, the radiology PACS has also been successfully used as a router as well, automating what can be a very cumbersome job of making sure everyone on each patient’s medical team receives the proper information. The servers may be located at the site of your medical facility or offsite, which helps you to stay within HIPPA compliance concerning disaster recovery of medical records.

Using a PACS also make distributing medical records much easier. No longer must you rely on postal mail or couriers to deliver hard copies of patient film x-rays. Instead, you can simply send the proper DICOM digital images to consulting physicians on your local-area network, wide-area network or on a virtual-private network in seconds, greatly improving the productivity of the entire medical system in place, and enhancing patient care at the same time.

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