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Greenfield RH. Acupuncture for chronic headache. Altern Med Alert 2004;7(5):58-59.
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Soy as part of a healthy diet. Altern Med Alert 2004;7(Suppl 5):S1-S4.
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Before Virtua Health instituted a Six Sigma project to improve its congestive heart failure program, the hospital systems average length of stay (LOS) was 6.5 days, compared with the Medicare benchmark of 4.2 days. After a pilot project at one of the Marlton, NJ-based nonprofit health care providers four hospitals, the LOS dropped to four days with a savings of $116,000 per year in staff and room costs.
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For case managers working in an acute-care environment, advocacy is a fundamental principle of the services they provide. Advocacy may be described simply as wanting, getting, and doing what is in the best interest of the patient and the family. In practice, however, case managers find themselves acting as advocates not only for the patient and family but for the hospital and provider of care as well.
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A new preadmission program at the University of California (UC) Davis Health System is building a stronger link between hospital and physicians office and identifying issues much earlier in the process issues that might affect length of stay (LOS).
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Dr. Robert Gilman convened an important symposium on neurocysticercosis at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. During that symposium, Dr. Theodore Nash from NIAID reported on the increasing evidence indicating that calcific neurocysticercosis is not necessarily clinically inactive, but may be a cause of seizures and focal symptoms associated with episodic perilesional edema.
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Travelers returning from Africa are at risk for having acquired spotted fever rickettsiosis. The diagnosis can be missed if convalescent sera are obtained too early; therefore, convalescent specimens should be obtained at least 28 days after the onset of illness.
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The cytokine interleukin-6 plays an important role in triggering the rapid damage to heart muscle function that can develop in people with septic shock following infection with meningococci, a condition that often is fatal. The team making that discovery says it will be important to investigate IL-6 as a target for therapeutic agents.
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Irelands first major effort in stem cell research is getting off the ground at the National University of Ireland (Galway). The National Center for Biomedical Engineering Science at the college has secured EUR 15 million from Science Foundation Ireland and another EUR 4 million from industry partners to establish the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI), which plans to develop approaches to treating vascular disease and arthritis based on genetically modifying adult stem cells.
