Bausch & Lomb asks Europe: Do You have “The Winning Look”?

Bausch & Lomb announces the launch of an exciting campaign to drive consumers into opticians’ stores in celebration of the newest addition to the SofLens® daily disposable family: SofLens® daily disposable Toric for Astigmatism.

Crocs’ Compliance with OSHA Standards

In 2002, who would have thought a boating shoe would become the craze of the healthcare industry, particularly for nurses. Crocs (“Croslite^TM,) were originally designed for boaters, who loved the slip resistant soles and holes on the top with vents on the side for drainage. They are made of a plastic resin, a material that enables production of a soft and lightweight, non-marking, slip and odor-resistant shoe

Five years later and Crocs became the nursing shoe of choice. Their ergonomic design and shock absorbing properties benefited nurses, who were on their feet for long hours.  However, they failed OSHA’s requirements. Hospital members raised concerns that the Crocs with holes on the top did not comply with the “Protective Footwear”, which requires footwear that protects against “falling or rolling objects, or objects piercing the sole.” The second failure dealt with the “Bloodborne Standard, which required employees to wear foot wear that provides protection against needle sticks and splashing from blood or OPIM (Other Potentially Infectious Materials) spills.

To combat these matters, Crocs partnered with the American Nurses Association (“ANA”) in early 2007 to come up with a newly design “Nursing Croc” that met OSHA’s Bloodborne Standard.  They developed four models, three that was fully enclosed and one with a closed top and side ventilation that channeled liquids away from the feet. After communicating with OSHA, Crocs and ANA were informed that they only had to meet one of the two standards, i.e. OSHA’s Bloodborne Standard, 1910, 1030, section (d)(3(i).  OSHA stated it “does not qualify specific shoes or brands, but requires employees to wear shoes that protect from potential blood or OPIM splashing. Each hospital or healthcare facility should review the standard recommendation and decide if they will restrict brands or models. If shoes with ports or holes are allowed, shoe coverings are recommended” to be provided by employers.

Croc Corporation continues to work with healthcare associations and organizations to ensure OSHA compliance. Thanks to Crocs, many healthcare workers rely on their Crocs for comfort and relief of foot and back problems.

Diet Programs and Other Health News

Study Explores Whether Diet Programs Work

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine emphasizes that the mix of carbohydrates, fat, and protein in four diets to which people were assigned didn’t make a difference in whether they lost weight, Katherine Hobson reports. The findings point to behavioral factors rather than macronutrient metabolism as the main influences on weight loss. In other words, any type of diet, when taught for the purpose of weight loss with enthusiasm and persistence, can be effective. The bad news: Those pesky “behavioral factors,” i.e., our penchant for eating too much and exercising too little, seem to win out over the enthusiastic and persistent teaching. After two years, the average participant in the study had lost less than 9 pounds, and the trend was toward weight slowly creeping up again.

A study published in 2007 had similar findings. If you’re trying to lose weight, consider these 7 tips to shed pounds and try more traditional ways of eating.

A Quarter of Americans Suffer Food-Borne Illness Each Year

As many as 25 percent of Americans get a food-borne illness every year, and cases are not always tied to high-profile epidemics such as the recent salmonella and peanut product outbreak, the San Jose Mercury News reports. There are about 250 known types of food-related illnesses in all. Norwalk-like viruses are the most common; they comprise about two thirds of reported food poisoning cases. Campylobacter bacteria are the next most common culprit, accounting for 14 percent of food poisoning cases; salmonella falls next in line at 10 percent of cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated 10 years ago that there are about 76 million food poisoning illnesses annually, which cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths each year, according to the Mercury News. Updated CDC numbers are not available, but the Associated Press estimates the current figure to be 87 million annual cases, resulting in 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths.

This primer on common sources of food poisoning gives the lowdown on how to banish bad bugs from your kitchen. The recent salmonella outbreak may be the scariest one yet because it involves peanut butter and peanut paste that manufacturers bought by the tanker-load and mixed into hundreds of products on supermarket shelves. Here’s how to reduce your risk of becoming ill.

A Breakthrough Weapon to Fight Flu and Bird Flu?

U.S. News’s Nancy Shute recently talked about the latest influenza news with Wayne Marasco, an associate professor of medicine in the department of cancer immunology and AIDS at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Marasco is one of the developers of a new approach, which uses monoclonal antibodies, that’s being studied to treat and protect against influenza. If the research pans out, the approach could be used as a treatment for bird flu and seasonal flu and also as the basis for a vaccine against many different flu strains, including the H5N1 strain that has caused so much worry about a possible pandemic. Read Marasco’s explanation of how this approach would work if it were approved as a flu treatment.

Here’s advice for how to keep your family safe from flu and bird flu. Also, learn how bird flu infected an Indonesian family.

MCOs see value in personalized medicine

Plan sponsors are concerned with rising prescription costs but are willing to adapt to medical and scientific innovations, according to experts.

“More plan sponsors are seeing value in measures to ensure patients get more precise pharmacy care, such as gene testing,” says Janine Nowatzky, senior director, market strategy, Medco’s Systemed. “Or they attempt to better manage patient care either through wellness or disease management.”

A study conducted on behalf of Medco by Haldy McIntosh and Associates polled 295 pharmacy benefit decision makers from leading corporations, as well as nonprofit, labor, and public sector groups with at least 500 eligibles. The study assessed perceptions regarding the pharmacy benefit and understand current and future approaches plan sponsors are relying on to control prescription drug costs.

Specialty drug costs are becoming a larger driver of pharmaceutical spending, since these treatments are gaining greater use.

“With some drug regimens costing thousands of dollars annually for a patient, it is a growing concern for any plan sponsor,” says Nowatzky. “An aging population is also a big factor in driving of demand for pharmacy care.

However, health plan sponsors are not helpless to mitigate some of these dynamics either through plan design or utilization management.”

Additionally, adverse drug events result in 100,000 deaths and more than 2 million hospitalizations in the United States each year, according to the Mayo Clinic, so drug use must be approached with care.

“The promise of personalized medicine or pharmacogenomics offer opportunities to reduce these risks, thereby reducing healthcare costs and improving the quality of life for patients,” says Nowatzky.

Managed care executives should be aware of medical innovations that can help improve safety and reduce wasteful spending, according to Nowatzky. “Gaining a clear understanding of how genetic tests—or personalized medicine—can help physicians prescribe the right drug at the right dose for the right duration early in a patients treatment regime, will lower overall healthcare costs for the payer,” she says.

Medco has enrolled 100 clients in its Personalized Medicine Program.

Individual insurance reform dies in Michigan

A vocal minority of Michigan Senate Republicans prevented compromise health insurance legislation from being reported out of a bipartisan legislative committee on December 18.Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) asked state lawmakers to reform the state’s individual insurance market because it is “broken” and “financially unsustainable.”

Losses in BCBSM’s individual lines of business are projected to be $264 million in 2009 and it reported financial losses over the first nine months of 2008 of $111 million for these individual lines of business.

“Losses in Blue Cross’ guaranteed-coverage individual pool are driven by the practices of for-profit insurance carriers who continue to reject people with medical histories and send them to the Michigan Blues,” says Andrew Hetzel, BCBSM vice president of corporate communications.

Because of commercial “cherry picking,” Hetzel says that Blue Cross covers 84% of all the unhealthy people in the individual market.

Over the last 14 months, the Michigan legislature has studied reforming the individual insurance market in the state to update laws that date back to 1980.

“The legislation would make changes in rate setting and regulatory practices in the individual health insurance market in Michigan,” says BCBSM spokeswoman Helen Stojic. “The individual purchase of health insurance is growing.”

The proposed changes would have changed the law covering the individual insurance market in Michigan, but would not affect laws in other states, according to Stojic, who adds that other states have already reformed their individual insurance markets.

“Most states do not regulate health insurance premiums in the way other insurance might be regulated where they set rates or rate bands,” says MHE Letter of the Law columnist Barry Senterfitt, managing shareholder in the insurance industry practice of Greenberg Traurig, Austin, Texas. “Some states however limit the amount by which rates may be increased upon renewal.”

“Nineteen states have enacted rate bands. In Michigan, we have two separate regulatory environments—a highly regulated Blue Cross and virtually no or very little regulation of for-profit commercial insurers,” says Stojic. “This type of environment is unsustainable in the long-run.”

Under the proposed compromise legislation in the committee report, BCBSM would have remained nonprofit and an insurer of last resort.

Opponents of the legislation feared premium hikes for Michigan consumers, which could mean an increase the number of uninsured.

“It sounds like [Michigan consumers] could be staring at significant premium increases soon,” Senterfitt says.Stojic says that the changes would have stabilized the individual market in the long-run by encouraging a better mix of healthy people and those who need medical services.

“Until the legislature acts to create a fair and balanced regulatory system that holds for-profit insurers more accountable for rejecting the sick and allow Blue Cross to better compete for younger and healthier individual subscribers, Blue Cross financial losses on individual insurance lines will continue to mount,” Hetzel says.

Transitional care lacking in elderly

The most vulnerable population in the United States is the elderly, and the highest-risk phase of care for these patients is at discharge.

However, in most cases, hospitals provide no coordination in transitional care for elderly patients. Information doesn’t transfer from one point to the next in the delivery of care, leaving elderly patients discharged from hospitals with unresolved issues and with care needs too complex for themselves and their caregivers to handle.

For example, in the course of an acute exacerbation of an illness, a patient might receive care from a primary care physician or specialist in an outpatient setting, then move to a hospital physician and nursing team during an inpatient admission before moving on to another care team at a skilled nursing facility. Finally, the patient might return home, where he/she would receive care from a visiting nurse. Each of these shifts is defined as a transition.

“The physical movement of an elderly patient from location to location is certainly achievable and happens every day” says Kate O’Malley, RN, senior program officer for the California Healthcare Foundation in Oakland, Calif. “The real challenge is taking the sum total of knowledge of that elderly patient’s condition and making sure that it transfers from one healthcare setting to another.”

Part of the problem is the “silo” effect of healthcare. A hospital physician is focused on the acute event that brings the patient into the hospital, while the next physician is focused on rehabilitation or other post-hospital care.

“We may give fantastic care at a hospital and at a nursing home,” says James E. Lett, MD, senior medical director for health process improvement for Lumetra, a San Francisco-based healthcare consulting company. “But if they [the hospital and nursing home] aren’t in sync, then the patient is not well-served.”

Perhaps the most serious issue in the lack of transitional care has to do with prescription medications. In one clinical study by the University of Pennsylvania, 70% of patients experienced some form of medication reconciliation error during care transition.

Eric Coleman, MD, director of Care Transition Programs at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Aurora, Colo ., says that it is important for elderly patients and their caregivers to become more active participants in their transitional care.

A lack of transitional care directly leads to a high readmission rate within 30 days of discharge, which leads to higher healthcare costs.

Many of these readmissions could be prevented by improved transitional care, says Mary Naylor, RN, professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Naylor and her staff have done numerous studies analyzing the cost and outcomes of transition care.

One of the most common reasons for the hospitalization of elderly patients is heart failure, and patients with heart failure typically have multiple chronic conditions.

In 2005, according to Naylor, there were 600,000 indexed hospitalizations for elderly patients being admitted to hospitals for heart failure. The readmission rate within 30 days was 27% and by 90 days, the rate was nearly 40%.

CMS is taking a hard look at the issue. It has begun a three-year pilot project that will examine readmission rates of elderly patients to hospitals, especially within 30 days, from the same diagnosis. The agency will seriously consider not paying hospitals that readmit patients for the same diagnosis within 30 days or substantially reduce payments, according to a spokeswoman.

Alcohol Use and Cancer Risk and Other Health News

A Drink a Day May Increase Your Cancer Risk

Consuming as little as one alcoholic drink per day may increase the risk of several types of cancer in middle-aged women, according to a new study published online yesterday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study involved more than 1.2 million British women, making it the largest study ever to look into the role of alcohol use in women’s cancer risk. During the seven-year follow-up period, 68,775 women in the study were diagnosed with cancer. Cancer risk increased as the consumption of alcohol rose, and the kind of alcohol the women drank didn’t seem to make a difference. Moderate drinking, the study suggests, accounts for about 13 percent of cancers of the breast, liver, rectum, and upper respiratory/digestive tract in women, HealthDay reports.

Alcohol consumption affects more than cancer risk; in fact, in some women, alcohol may protect against heart disease and fractures—if it’s not abused. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis reported last year that alcohol use and alcoholism are on the rise in women, though not in men.

Lost Your Health Insurance? Consider Planned Parenthood Clinics

It’s no surprise that as the economy falters, many women are praying that their birth control doesn’t fail, and some women have consciously decided to postpone having a baby in this recession. Many of those without insurance have been swarming into Planned Parenthood clinics to get free or subsidized contraception, Deborah Kotz reports. In fact, a spokesperson from Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania says it has seen a 10 percent increase in the number of women coming into its local centers in the past three months, and many of them are recently unemployed. The Yuma Planned Parenthood in Arizona saw 260 new patients from November 2008 to January 2009, up from 171 new patients during the same period a year earlier. And the affiliate in east-central Iowa now adds about five or six women each day to its patient roster where it used to add about that many a week.

Has the recession claimed your job—and your employer-sponsored health coverage? Remember, when shopping for private health insurance, cheaper isn’t always better. Here are some smart tips for buying health insurance online. Also, consider this advice for women and for recent college graduates who are in the market for health insurance.

Marion Barry’s Transplant: Why a Living Donor Beats a Cadaveric Kidney

Former Washington, D.C., mayor and current city council member Marion Barry, who is recovering from a kidney transplant, was lucky: A 47-year-old woman described as a friend donated the kidney. That meant Barry didn’t have to wait on a long list to receive a cadaveric kidney—one from a deceased donor. The 78,000-plus people on the waiting list for kidney transplants at the moment make up the bulk of the nearly 101,000 people waiting for all types of organs (a list that also includes liver, pancreas, heart, lung, and intestines), according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. “The worst thing that can happen, obviously, is to have patients die while waiting for organs,” says Bradley Warady, director of dialysis and transplantation at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and a medical adviser for the National Kidney Foundation. “But it happens every day.”

The question of kidney donation from living donors raises thorny issues of donor safety and psychological motives. Still, it’s an important option because kidney exchanges between strangers help to ease the organ shortage.

Obama’s Push for Healthcare Reform and Other Health News

Obama Expected to Call for Healthcare Reform in Tonight’s Speech

President Obama is expected to issue a call for overhaul of the healthcare system in a speech tonight before a joint session of Congress, the Associated Press reports. His speech comes just as a report is out from the Department of Health and Human Services that says healthcare costs in the United States will average more than $8,000 per person this year. Medicare’s hospital trust fund is running out of money and may become insolvent by 2016, which is three years earlier than previously predicted. And the government’s portion of the nation’s healthcare tab is only expected to expand in the near future. For one thing, as many people lose their jobs (and their private health coverage) in this recession, government programs like Medicaid are expanding. Also, baby boomers will soon begin reaching age 65, when they can sign up for Medicare coverage. Such trends suggest that the government will be footing the bill for more than half of the country’s healthcare by 2016, according to the AP.

Related: The recession may be hurting women’s health, but there are steps you can take to ward off, for instance, recession-related wrinkles and frown lines. Also, consider these 5 ways to get a good workoutduring the recession.

Robert Tauxe: Progress in the Fight for Food Safety

The salmonella outbreak in peanut butter that has killed nine people and sickened more than 600 has earned the dubious distinction of being the biggest foodborne outbreak in American history, and it’s still ongoing, Nancy Shute reports. She talked with Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Division of Foodborne, Bacterial, and Mycotic Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about why this outbreak is raising such concern. Among the reasons: It’s “driven by an ingredient, one that got into an extraordinary number of products,” Tauxe says. “That ingredient happened to have a name and flavor that people are familiar with. But were it a less obvious ingredient, it would have been quite hard to pick up at all.”

This salmonella outbreak may be the scariest one yet because it involves peanut butter and peanut paste that manufacturers bought by the tanker-load and mixed into hundreds of products that went on supermarket shelves. Here’s how to reduce your risk of becoming ill. If you’re into online social networking, consider tracking the effects of the salmonella outbreak on Twitter and Facebook. The Peanut Corp. of America plant in Georgia that shipped the tainted ingredients was contaminated with potentially deadly salmonella as far back as 2007, according to tests the company did then. Some stores have begun calling customers about potentially dangerous peanut products.

Ways to Boost Black Women’s Health

Two new publications, The Black Woman’s Guide to Healthy Living and the American Cancer Society’s report “Cancer Facts and Figures for African Americans,” shine a spotlight squarely on black women’s health. And for good reason: They’re more likely than white women to succumb to top killers. African-American women are 35 percent more likely to die from heart disease, for example, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center. African-Americans overall don’t get the same level of heart disease care as whites because they don’t undergo the same tests and treatments.

A lack of standard care can lead to late diagnoses of cancer, resulting in lower survival rates for African-Americans than for whites. The Black Woman’s Guide to Healthy Living, which was compiled by editors at Essence, lists the top cancer threats for black women as those of the lung, breast, and colon. African-Americans are less likely than whites to survive five years after being diagnosed with most types of cancer, according to the ACS report. And while the racial disparity in death rates from cancer is declining, the death rate for all cancers combined in 2005 was 16 percent higher for African-American women and 33 percent higher for African-American men than for white women and men, respectively.

If you’re a black woman, consider these 4 ways to boost your health. Also, learn about the epidemic of HIV among black women, and read about one woman’s battle with HIV.

Avoid Unnecessary Infections: Proper Disinfection of OR Surfaces

Sterility of all instruments and consumables are expected and required within a surgical environment.  However, when it comes to surfaces that are frequently used in the OR, sterility can not be the expectation simply due to logistics.  OR surfaces are routinely and in most cases continuously exposed to the environment.  Reduction in the chances of infection to patients or OR staff can simply be achieved by thorough disinfection of these exposed surfaces.

Blood and other protein rich substances can prevent a disinfectant from reaching the surface that needs to be cleaned ultimately rendering it useless.  In order for a disinfectant to be effective the surface must be clean, therefore a detergent needs to be applied first to be sure that the surface is clear of debris.  What is the difference between a detergent and a disinfectant?  Simply stated a detergent removes organic materials and a disinfectant reduces the number of microorganisms on a surface.

When determining what type of disinfectant to purchase, one needs to look at a variety of factors.  Most facilities want one disinfectant to handle all of their needs.  When deciding, take a look at products that will address the microorganisms of concern, the types of surgery performed, costs, ease of use and the potential impact it may have on patients and staff.  A facility will also need to review the requirements of the EPA, FDA, OSHA, and JCAHO as applicable.

By simply being proactive and knowledgeable of disinfectants the number of infection risks can be greatly reduced.  This reduction will be a great benefit to the patients, the OR Staff and your facility

Flu-Fighting Potential and Other Health News

New Study Shows Promise for Fighting the Flu

New research may one day lead to drugs that combat the flu virus and a vaccine that could work against a wide range of flu strains, according to a new study published online yesterday in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology . “We identified new human antibodies that inactivate influenza, not just bird flu but any of the seasonal influenza viruses that affect us in the winter,” researcher Wayne A. Marasco, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told HealthDay. The researchers found 10 monoclonal antibodies that were able to bind with a protein found in flu viruses; that kept the viruses from invading other cells. The antibodies also provided protection for mice from the H5N1 avian flu, which many experts think could one day lead to a worldwide flu pandemic.

While the new research is promising, the annual flu vaccine for now remains the best way to stave off the flu. Even though last season’s flu vaccine was an inexact match for the flu strains that caused most of the illness, it is still worth being vaccinated during such years, health officials note, because doing so may keep you from getting as sick as you would otherwise and may shorten the duration of your illness if you do get sick. If you’re a parent, consider U.S. News’s Deborah Kotz’s take on whether flu vaccines are necessary for kids. Nancy Shute also offers advice on whether you should vaccinate your child against the flu and explains how to keep your family safe from bird flu.

What Rihanna Can Teach Us About Domestic Violence

A photo was leaked to TMZ last week that purportedly shows Rihanna, who was allegedly beaten up by boyfriend (and fellow pop star) Chris Brown. News reports claim that the tattoos visible in it match those the singer is known to have, Deborah Kotz reports. The Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement saying that the “photo has the appearance of one taken during a domestic violence investigation” and calling it an “unauthorized release of a photograph.” Reaction to the alleged beating is mixed: Some say the couple should work it out, while others favor Rihanna leaving Brown for good.

But can men who are abusive change? Kotz asked Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Some can, but it’s unlikely, and there’s not a lot of public support for a change in their behavior,” she says. As an example of unsatisfactory public reaction, Smith points to blogs “expressing support for Brown’s alleged actions, saying that Rihanna is jealous and possessive, as if she’s somehow responsible for the violence.” In a way, Smith says, the leaked police photo might help people focus on the victim. “There’s no way you can look at this photo and think this woman got what she deserved. What can anyone do to deserve this?”

Women can suffer chronic health problems even years after being abused. And women aren’t the only ones who can be victims of domestic violence; the problem can affect men, too.

Is Your Job Killing You? How Work Influences Longevity

In an attempt to live longer and protect against health problems, you may have given up trans fats, started to monitor your cholesterol, or learned to work the elliptical trainer at the gym. But there’s increasing evidence that another factor may be just as important: your job. A constellation of work-related factors—whether you’re employed, how secure you are in your job, how much you enjoy your work—may influence both your day-to-day health and how long you live, Katherine Hobson reports. And that has serious implications, not only for those affected by the current recession but for everyone, all the time.

Our work is intricately tied up with our well-being, says Nortin Hadler, a professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an attending rheumatologist at that university’s hospitals. And we know that losing a job is bad for your health, not only from a financial perspective but from a psychosocial one, too. When you lose your job, you lose social ties and often the very structure of your life. After a major downsizing among municipal workers in Finland, the risk of death from a heart attack went up fivefold for those who lost their jobs. It’s unclear whether the same mortality trends seen in Europe persist here; studies are ongoing. William Gallo, a research scientist at the Yale School of Public Health, says evidence in the United States has been mixed, but research has found that people who lost a job in their 50s were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke in the next decade as peers who didn’t lose their jobs. .

If longevity is your goal, consider these 10 health habits that will help you live to age 100 and explore these 5 common myths about aging. Also, learn why we may face a trade-off between cancer risk and aging.

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