-
Although federal regulations require health care providers to provide assistance to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) including translation and interpretation services when necessary there are no objective standards or guidelines for who may work as an interpreter for health encounters. As a result, most hospitals and primary care providers have sketchy programs for communicating with non-English-speaking patients.
-
Record numbers of U.S. children are being treated for depression and receiving prescriptions for antidepressants. Some mental health experts, however, fear many of these patients actually suffer from more severe illnesses and are being misdiagnosed.
-
-
If it was ever necessary to conduct mass smallpox immunizations to protect the general populace, millions of people with atopic dermatitis would have to weigh the risk of smallpox vs. their potential fatal reaction to the vaccine.
-
If the worlds existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons and weapons-usable nuclear materials can be secured reliably, nuclear terrorism can be prevented. Simple enough, but therein lies the challenge. A recent analysis of the situation commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative concludes that a fast-paced global partnership is urgently needed to secure the worlds nuclear stockpiles before terrorists and thieves get to them.
-
In a grim but frank assessment, a leading national security expert tells Bioterrorism Watch that it is only a matter of time before terrorists detonate a nuclear warhead in the United States. You read that correctly.
-
Once very near execution, smallpox remains on death row. Eradicated in nature, the infamous killer survives in two official repositories in the United States and Russia.
-
Disease eradication in the current age of bioterrorism inevitably raises the possibility of a defeated pathogen being weaponized. Thus, though smallpox has been eradicated in nature, it lives on as a potential bioweapon.
-
The Leapfrog Group, based in Washington, DC, has developed the first public web-based compendium of incentive and reward programs aimed at improving health care in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
-
A study published on-line by the journal Health Affairs indicates that hospital nurses working shifts of 12.5 hours or more are three times more likely to make an error than nurses working shorter shifts.
