Health
Care and Health
This
page provides links to assist in reporting on Health and Health
Care and also includes older blog items that may be of interest
to those reporting on health. The blog items are listed at the
bottom of this page. Please click here to
access those items.
Please let the Institute
know about links that do not work, or about sources we should
add. If a resource here helped you in covering a story, please
let us know by emailing al.cross@uky.edu.
ORGANIZATIONS
Lung Cancer Alliance,
http://www.lungcanceralliance.org/
"The Lung Cancer Alliance is the only national non-profit
organization dedicated solely to advocating for people living
with lung cancer or those at risk for the disease. Our initiatives
aim to educate public policy leaders of the need for greater
resources for lung cancer research while changing the face of
lung cancer and reducing the stigma associated with the disease.
We offer unique patient education and support programs focused
on helping people directly affected by lung cancer."
National Rural
Health Association, http://www.nrharural.org/
"The association’s mission is to improve the health
and wellbeing of rural Americans and to provide leadership on
rural health issues through advocacy, communications, education,
research and leadership. The NRHA membership is made up of a
diverse collection of individuals and organizations, all of
whom share the common bond of an interest in rural health."
Public Health
Reports, http://www.asph.org/document.cfm?page=713
"We [The Association of Schools of Public Health] publish
this peer-reviewed journal bi-monthly--six issues offering articles
in three main areas: public health practice, research, and viewpoints/commentaries.
In the past five years we have tackled such topics as tobacco
control, teenage violence, occupational disease and injury,
immunization, drug policy, lead screening, health disparities,
and many other key issues. The Journal's authors are on the
front line of public health, and we present their work in a
readable and accessible format."
Association of
Health Care Journalists, http://www.healthjournalism.org/
"The Association of Health Care Journalists, Inc. is an
independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public
understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve
the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting,
writing and editing. "
Skindeep,
http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/
This site offers news about the safety of popular health &
beauty products.
HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY
Department of
Health and Human Services, http://www.hhs.gov/
"The Department of Health and Human Services is the United
States government's principal agency for protecting the health
of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially
for those who are least able to help themselves."
Healthcare Informatics
Online, http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/
This site is a good source for healthcare-related story ideas.
BlueCross Blue
Shield Health Issues, http://bcbshealthissues.com/
Another source of ideas, but watch for slant from health insurance
company.
Hospital Compare
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/
Compare how hospitals treat different medical conditions.
Office of Rural
Health Policy, http://ruralhealth.hrsa.gov/
(dir Marcia Brand---Clinton appointee retained by Bush folks---
301-443-4619 mbrand@hrsa.gov)
Technology for
long-term care, http://www.techforltc.org/ltc.cfm
"Technology for Long-Term Care is a free government funded
resource containing information on hundreds of technology products
to improve quality of life and care for people in long-term
care settings such as nursing homes, assisted living, boarding
care, and adult day care programs."
MEDICAL RECORDS
My Personal Health
Record, http://www.myphr.com/
A guide to understanding your records.
RESEARCH TOOLS
Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, http://www.ahrq.gov/
This offers a variety of sites including information on funding
and health research.
MedicineNet,
http://www.medicinenet.com/healthcare_issues/index.htm
Here you can find answers to various health care questions.
National Institutes
of Health, http://www.nih.gov/about/ethics_COI.htm
NIH offers material on conflicts of interest in research.
AMEDEO "The
Medical Literature Guide," http://www.amedeo.com
This site lets you research medical topics and each week it
will email you bibliographic lists of new scientific literature
on those topics and links to abstracts of the articles themselves.
Medical search
site, http://www.healthline.com/
"Search the web's best health sites."
Population Reference
Bureau, http://www.prb.org/
Search population and health data on 95 demographic variables
for 220-plus countries in the world. Provides stories on a variety
of trends.
Atlas of Children's
Health and the Environment,
World
Health Organization
The World Health Organization's atlas covers threats such as
contaminated drinking water, indoor smoke, and the presence
of dioxins and furans. A country-by-country breakout of the
estimated effects around the world is provided.
United Health
Foundation's Health Rankings, United
Health Foundation
Find out where states rank nationally in health, and what some
states are doing to be ranked healthier than others.
Past
Blog Items on Health and Health Care
(for the full item, click on the headline)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Paper spotlights Appalachia's high rate of cervical cancer, a sign of lack of access to health care
A high rate of cervical cancer indicates lack of access to health care in poor communities, and those communities tend to be rural. In parts of Appalachia, for example, death rates from cervical cancer are as high as in many poor, underdeveloped countries. Today, The Courier-Journal of Louisville takes a close look at the problem in Eastern Kentucky. (C-J map, from Kentucky Cancer Registry)
We're talking about "a preventable cancer that has largely been controlled in the United States," Ungar notes. A report from the National Cancer Institute says cervical cancer is high among "Appalachian and other rural whites; rural African Americans, particularly those in the Deep South; Latinas living near the Texas-Mexico border; and Vietnamese American and other Asian women, particularly those in California." For a copy of the report, which has maps showing the range of cancer rates for every county, click here . For Ungar's story and others, click here.
Tuesday,
May 22, 2007
National
Rural Health Association announces its 2007 award winners
The National Rural Health
Association has
announced its 2007 award recipients. (Click link for individual
summary)
Rural Health Practitioner
of the Year - Raymond D. Wells, MD; Inez, Kentucky
Louis Gorin Award
for Outstanding Achievement in Rural Health Care - Sally
K. Richardson; Executive Director, West Virginia University
Institute for Health Policy Research, Charleston, West Virginia
Outstanding Rural Health
Program - East Tennessee State University, Rural And Community
Health and Community Partnerships, Bruce Behringer,
Assistant Vice President; Johnson City, Tennessee
Outstanding Researcher
- Sara A. Quandt, PhD, Professor, Department of Epidemiology
and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest
University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Outstanding Organization
- Mount Desert Island Hospital Organization, Arthur
J. Blank, CEO / President, Bar Harbor, Maine
Rural Health Quality
Award - Tennessee Hospital Association, Bill Jolley,
Vice President, Rural Health Issues, Nashville, Tennessee
Distinguished Educator
- John R. Wheat, MD, Professor of Community and Rural
Medicine, University of Alabama
Monday,
May 21, 2007
The
South posts another lead in a leading health problem: strokes
Strokes
are most common in the South, according to the first state-by-state
rankings of the No. 3 cause of death for adults in the U.S.
The rankings come from a 2005 Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention survey of 356,000 civilians, which didn't
include people in nursing homes or other institutions.
Nationally, 2.6 percent of respondents answered
"yes" when asked, "Has a doctor or other health professional
ever told you that you had a stroke?" States higher than the
national average were Mississippi, 4.3%; Oklahoma (and the District
of Columbia), 3.4%; Louisiana, 3.3%; Alabama and Nevada, 3.2%;
Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, 3.1%; Arkansas, Illinois,
Michigan, Texas and West Virginia, 3%; Georgia and South Carolina,
2.9%; Florida, Hawaii, and North Carolina, 2.8%; and Virginia,
2.7%. Some of the leading states are also some of the nation's
more rural states.
The
study was published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report. "The journal also includes a separate
study showing that fewer than half of U.S. stroke patients get
to the hospital within two hours of the onset of stroke symptoms,"
writes Moranda Hitti of WebMD Medical News. "Swift
treatment is essential for clot-busting stroke drugs."
(Read
more)
Friday,
May 4, 2007
Problems
of meth use worse in rural areas, where best treatment is scarce
Rural
users of methamphetamine may suffer more severe problems in
certain respects than urban users, according to a study at the
University of Nebraska. The average starting
age of a rural meth user is 3.6 years younger than urban users.
Rural users showed much higher rates of intravenous use and
alcoholism. They also displayed more signs of psychosis than
urban addicts, reports The Associated Press.
“These results suggest that rural meth users
face higher risks associated with their drug use,” writes
Eric Chudler of the University of Washington in
Neuroscience for Kids. “For example,
the higher rates of intravenous drug use may lead to more people
with infectious diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS. Higher
levels of alcohol abuse may lead to more cases of alcoholism
and liver disease. Unfortunately, rural areas often lack the
mental health and medical facilities necessary to treat drug
addiction.” (Read
more)
Dr. Jennifer Sharpe Potter, an opiate specialist
at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital
in Belmont, Mass., told AP there are few options to
treat meth addiction and the best aren't usually in rural areas.
(Read
more)
Wednesday,
May 2, 2007
Bill
allows rural Mo. physicians’ assistants to operate semi-independently
The Missouri Legislature has passed a bill allowing
physicians’ assistants in rural health care clinics to
operate unsupervised a third of the time. “The bill allows
physician assistants, or PAs, to treat patients unsupervised
34 percent of the time as long as their supervising doctor is
on site 66 percent of the time,” reports Kathleen O'Dell
of the News-Leader in Springfield. Without
the new guidelines, the Board of Healing Arts would have required
doctors to be present 100 percent of the time, effective in
August, which would have been the most restrictive such law
in the country.
Some had feared that rural health care access
would be threatened if PAs were required to always have doctors
present all the time, because those doctors may be hard to come
by in rural areas, reports O'Dell. “Some health clinics
would have been forced to reduce operating hours or close completely,
leaving thousands of Missourians to travel greater distances
for medical treatment, or go without, said Paul Winter, president
of the Missouri Academy of Physician Assistants.”
When not on site, each clinic’s doctor must
still be readily available for consultation via telecommunication
and must be within 30 miles of the facility, reports O'Dell.
“Among other bill provisions, a supervising physician
and PA together may apply to the Board of Healing Arts for alternate
amounts of on-site supervision if they are in designated "Health
Professional Shortage Areas," where there is a recognized
shortage of primary care providers. With a waiver, the PA could
practice up to 50 miles from the supervising physician.”
Monday,
April 30, 2007
Rural
areas, key source of troops, are lacking in health care for
veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs
has been criticized for providing inadequate access to health
care for rural vets though a disproportionate number of soldiers
come from rural areas. “Realigned in the 1990s to concentrate
specialized care in urban areas, the system now finds itself
overwhelmed by the wounded from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
-- engagements that have, even more than other modern-day conflicts,
been fought by soldiers from rural America,” writes Charles
Sennott of the Boston Globe.
Research by the National Rural Health
Association found that about 44 percent of recruits
have come from rural areas, while these areas make up only about
20 percent of the national population. “There is evidence
the VA has known for some time about the need to focus more
on rural care,” Sennott writes. “A 2004 VA study
of 750,000 veterans found that those living in rural areas tended
to have more serious and costly health problems than their urban
counterparts.”
Jeff Hall, the VA's rural outreach coordinator
for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans in Wisconsin and Minnesota,
has seen a close in the urban-rural gap in care, but the system
is complex, reports Sennott. “There is, Hall said, a disconnect
between the military and the VA computer systems that can confound
efforts to coordinate treatment, or even to simply identify
those veterans living in areas far from the VA hospital centers.”
Rural vets may find themselves unenrolled in the VA health care
program if they fail to fill out the proper forms. “Another
common complaint among veterans is that rural medical care providers,
tired of the paperwork and long delays involved in the federal
benefit system, often do not accept TRICARE, the military's
health insurance for active-duty soldiers and their families.”
(Read
more)
Thursday,
April 26, 2007
Clot-busting
drug treatment, guided by phone, saves rural stroke patients
"Stroke patients in rural hospitals can get
safe, effective treatment with the use of a clot-busting drug
when a doctor from a larger hospital is on the telephone guiding
the treatment," reports Newswise, a research-reporting
service." These new findings have important implications
for overcoming barriers to optimal stroke care in rural settings,"
using a clot-buster that must be administered within three hours
of the stroke.
“Expert guidance of this treatment over
the telephone appears to be safe, practical, and effective,”
said the author of the study, Dr. Anand Vaishnav of the University
of Kentucky Medical Center.
The study evaluated 121 stroke patients who were
treated with the drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) at
a rural community hospital by a stroke neurologist who was on
the telephone guiding the treatment. It found that 2.5 percent
of rural patients treated by telephone had symptomatic bleeding
in the brain, and 7.5 percent died, compared to 6.4 percent
and 17 percent, respectively, in an urban study several years
ago.
Vaishnav will present his research May 2 at the
meeting of the American Academy of Neurology
in Boston. (Read
more) For more information about the academy, visit http://www.aan.com.
Friday,
April 6, 2007
Lack
of rural transport can pose health risks, by delaying treatment
Lack of transportation can pose a health risk
for rural residents, who may be delayed in seeking help for
their conditions, according to a 2006 study commissioned by
the Connecticut Office of Rural Health. At
least three local organizations offer low-cost transportation,
“but advance scheduling is required and services are not
always available when needed,” writes Jim Moore of the
Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn. A senior
center's rides are limited to seniors and the disabled.
Health care isn’t the only transportation
concern for rural residents, reports Moore. Ellen Schroeder,
director of the Blanche McCarthy Winsted Senior Center,
said medical appointments get priority and someone
who needs groceries may have to work around the schedule of
the van. A follow-up study is being conducted to address non-emergency
transportation needs nationwide. The study should be complete
by the end of May and results will help to identify ways transportation
services could be combined to be more efficient. It will also
help to make the case for more funds for these providers, if
needed. (Read
more)
Thursday,
April 5, 2007
Laws
drive meth labs from rural America to Mexico, which ships to
U.S.
Tighter state regulation of chemicals needed to
make methamphetamine has driven meth labs from rural America
to Mexico. To meet U.S. demand, Mexican “superlabs”
have begun to appear, churning out a more potent and dangerous
product than have been made in “mom and pop” labs,
reports Howard Berkes of National Public Radio,
part of a NPR series on the Mexican meth problem. (Listen
to the story)
Starting in 2004, restrictions on chemicals needed
for meth, such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, common components
of cold medicine, have reduced the number of meth-lab busts.
They are down 88 percent in Nebraska, 73 percent in Iowa and
Kansas, and 55 percent in Missouri. But seizures of meth on
the California-Mexico border has risen 40 percent in the last
year, and border seizures at El Paso, Tex., have increased an
exponential 479 percent since 2002.
Superlabs put out “Ice” or “crystal,”
a purer, more addictive form of the drug. One of these labs
can make 10 pounds of meth in one batch, enough for 150,000
hits, reports NPR's Carrie Kahn. “Treatment counselors
at Ozark Center in Missouri say their meth
patients become addicted sooner and longer. The center's flow
of meth patients didn't ease up one bit when small local labs
began to decline,” reports Berkes. The estimated number
of meth users has doubled in the past five years and more of
those users have become addicted, according to the National
Survey on Drug Use and Health. (Listen
to the story)
Chemicals needed for meth, such as the decongestant
pseudoephedrine, are easy to get in Mexico. “According
to the U.S. State Department, Mexico is now
the world’s second largest importer of pseudo,”
Kahn reports. As recently as 2004, Mexico’s legal pseudoephedrine
imports topped 200 tons, nearly three times the amount Mexicans
need to control their colds each year. Add to that the pseudoephedrine
smuggled into the country, like last year’s seizure of
5.1 million tablets hidden in the shipment of ceiling fans from
China, and the country is awash in chemicals.” (Listen
to the story)
Sunday,
March 25, 2007
Where
rural meets urban, deer carry ticks that bring Lyme disease
As housing developments expand into rural areas,
wildlife often remain. Deer can be the most noticeable, and
the most troublesome, dining on landscape plants. Increasingly
in some areas, they carry the threat of lyme disease, carried
by ticks. "Lyme disease has become a way of life"
and "a serious public health issue" in Fairfax County,
Virginia, reports Amy Gardner of The Washington Post.
"Suburban lots with azaleas and rhododendrons
is just like laying out a buffet for deer," Jorge R. Arias,
who fights disease-carrying insects for the county, told Gardner.
"We have created in suburbia what is essentially a perfect habitat
for them." He said about 15 percent of deer ticks in the area
have the bacteria of Lyme disease, which can lead to cause heart,
mental, nervous-system and arthritic complications. (Read
more)
Friday,
March 23, 2007
Rural
youths more likely to abuse prescription drugs, get them from
home
Youths in rural areas and small metropolitan areas
are more likely to abuse prescription drugs than their urban
counterparts. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and
Health by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, most of those who abuse prescription
drugs are between 12 and 25. Pain killers such as codeine, Vicodin
and Percocet are those most often used. “The NHSDA shows
that the annual number of new users of pain relievers has been
increasing since the mid-1980s, from about 400,000 initiates
to 2 million in 2000. Other drugs being increasingly abused
are stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives,” reports
the Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix.
Rural youths don’t need a dealer to find
prescription drugs because they don’t get them off the
street, these drugs come from home, reports the Phoenix. However,
the solution for parents is not to lock up their medicine cabinets,
said Jackie Luckey, a prevention associate at Area Prevention
Resource Center, part of Green Country Behavioral
Health Services Inc. Children need to be raised with
more boundaries, he said. Narconon Arrowhead, a non-traditional
drug rehabilitation and education facility in Canadian, Okla.,
blames much of the abuse problems on the availability of these
drugs. (Read
more)
Thursday,
March 1, 2007
Rural
areas struggling to recruit and keep doctors use incentive tactics
To attract doctors to underserved areas, rural
communities have hired recruiters, applied for federal grants
and offered to pay back school loans from medical school. There
is a high turnover rate for doctors in rural areas where there
is less money to be made and they may be unprepared for a small
town lifestyle, reports Chana Joffe-Walt of Marketplace,
a radio service of American Public Media.
“Rural areas across the U.S. struggle to
find family doctors,” reports Joffe-Walt. “The money
is in specializing. Plus the workload in a small town is intense
— you have no colleagues, and you have to convince your
spouse to move to the sticks.” Foreign doctors seeking
American citizenship have been made to work in underserved communities
for a mandatory amount of time, but they often leave once that
time is up. Doctor Syed Zafar ismoving from Pomeroy, Wash, population
1,400, to Atlanta, where he won’t be the only Bangladeshi.
This week the National Governors Association
has been meeting in meeting in Washington and rural health coverage
is among the lobbying, reports Joffe-Walt. “But the problem
is only expected to get worse. Baby boomers are aging and fewer
Americans are going into the medicine. The situation will be
especially bad in rural areas.” (Read
more)
Friday,
Jan. 26, 2007
Rural
children, especially Latinos, behind in health coverage
As many as 1 in 4 children in rural Oregon do
not have health insurance, well behind the state’s urban
average. Race also factors into the equation. Overall, 12 percent
of children in the state have no insurance, but 23 percent of
Latinos and Native Americans are not covered, reports Bill Graves
of The Oregonian.
“Rural counties in Oregon are also more
economically disadvantaged than urban areas, with more unemployment,
lower salaries, and higher rates of abuse, infant mortality,
dental decay and other problems affecting the health and well-being
of children, according to a report on the status of children
released by Children First for Oregon,”
writes Graves.
According to 2005 data from the National Survey
of Children's Health, 90.3 percent of children in small rural
and isolated areas had health insurance, only slightly lower
than the 91.2 percent average of children nationwide. The study
found that in rural areas 4.9 percent of white children, 5.2
percent of black children, 23.8 percent of Hispanic children,
6.1 percent of multiracial children and 15.2 percent of Native
American children lacked health coverage. (Read
more)
The
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
helps non-metropolitan media define the public agenda in their
communities, through strong reporting and commentary on local
issues and on broader issues that have local impact. Its initial
focus area is Central Appalachia, but as an arm of the University
of Kentucky it has a statewide mission, and it has national
scope. It has academic collaborators at Appalachian State University,
East Tennessee State University, Eastern Kentucky University,
Georgia College and State University, Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, Marshall University, Middle Tennessee State University,
Ohio University, Southeast Missouri State University, the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University
of
Tennessee-Knoxville, Washington and Lee University, West Virginia
University and the Knight Community Journalism Fellows Program
at the University of Alabama. It is funded by the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Kentucky, with
additional financial support from the Ford Foundation. To
get notices of Rural Blog postings and other Institute news,
click here.
