Organization helps Jefferson Parish residents with community health fair – Video

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Organization helps Jefferson Parish residents with community health fair
Fresh produce, access to health care and free legal advice were just a few of the options available as a local food pantry reached out to the community Saturday. Subscribe to WDSU on YouTube...

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Organization helps Jefferson Parish residents with community health fair - Video

Zimbabwe: MSF Breathes Life Into Gokwe North Health Care System

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By Moses Mugugunyeki

When Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) arrived in Gweru in 2004, in a joint operation with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the effort brought amazing improvement in the city's health delivery system.

Passengers push a truck along the muddy Nembudziya-Mashame road recently... The poor road network has immensely contributed to the demise of the health delivery system in Gokwe North.

The people of Gweru were happy with the new health services brought to them. Seven years down the line however, it depressingly dawned on the people that what they had believed to be a life-long health menu, was in fact a temporary meal ticket.

While the government was aware that it was a temporary health delivery arrangement, it failed to capitalise on the availability of the health expertise to impart knowledge to local personnel to enable the continuation of such a health delivery system at the expiry of the joint venture.

So, when the MSF Gweru contract came to an end in 2011, the inadequacy was exposed. Serious challenges in the treatment of HIV and Aids and tuberculosis (TB), especially drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), resurfaced.

MSF, which had by then moved on to Gokwe North, apparently noticed the problem that had befallen Gweru and were determined not to let the same thing happen at their next port of call.

"The strategy that we used in Gweru created gaps in the health delivery system after MSF had left," said Stambuli Kim, communications officer for MSF. "Our objective in Gokwe North was then to reduce morbidity and mortality as a result of especially HIV and Aids and TB. We also ensured that activities would continue independently after MSF pulled out."

Zhomba Clinic

The international aid organisation wrapped up its operations in Gokwe North at the end of last year having breathed life into the district's health delivery system.

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Zimbabwe: MSF Breathes Life Into Gokwe North Health Care System

Calif. Strike Highlights Larger Issues With Mental Health System

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A Kaiser mental health worker with the National Union of Healthcare Workers looks through a pile of signs Monday during day one of a week-long demonstration outside of a Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Francisco. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

A Kaiser mental health worker with the National Union of Healthcare Workers looks through a pile of signs Monday during day one of a week-long demonstration outside of a Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Francisco.

This past week, more than 2,000 mental health workers for the HMO health care giant Kaiser Permanente in California went on strike.

The strike was organized by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The union says Kaiser Permanente patients have been the victims of "chronic failure to provide its members with timely, quality mental health care."

On Thursday, about 150 Kaiser Permanente employees picketed the Woodland Hills Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley. One of them was therapist Deborah Silverman. In her eyes, the biggest problem at Kaiser right now is understaffing.

Silverman says there are so many patients waiting to see therapists, that Kaiser sends new patients to see her, even if she's already overbooked. She says for three days over a two-week period she had four people she didn't know.

"I have to put them some place, and I didn't have any appointments for at least three weeks. So that's a huge emotional cost to me," Silverman says. "I either have to try to find someone else who has an open slot, which means the person has to switch, or people have to wait, and they've come to see you. It makes you feel it really bumps up against our ethical standards."

Silverman says switching therapists often makes it difficult to establish a bond and make progress.

John Nelson, Kaiser Permanent's vice president of government relations, says the company delivers some of the highest-quality mental health care in California and in the country. But, he says, they absolutely want to get better.

"Really the only way we can do that is by working together," Nelson says. "So we need our therapists and psychologists and others to be working with us, and constructively on how to get better, and not walking away from patients and being gone for seven days."

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Calif. Strike Highlights Larger Issues With Mental Health System

Surviving small: rural healthcare in Iowa

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The nation's health care systems are in transition. And while hospitals across the country are grappling with changes to payment systems and quality measures, the tiniest hospitals in rural areas must work even harder to keep up.

In Iowa, the rural health care system is made up of 82 Critical Access Hospitals a special Medicare designation for smaller 25-bed facilities and 142 rural health clinics, making it one of the largest rural health systems in the country, said Gloria Vermie, director of the State Office of Rural Health Director, which is part of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

These facilities care for the more than 1.4 million people or about 46 percent of the state's population living in a rural community and are vital economic drivers in the communities they serve.

But planning their futures whether that be attracting physicians, fundraising or dealing with aging infrastructure can be a challenge.

Iowa has some of the best rural hospitals and clinics in the nation, Vermie said Improving access to quality, whole-person health care while ensuring organizations and health care professionals stay on course with state and federal changes requires vigilant dedication.

As health care evolves, small hospitals don't want to be left behind, said Kirk Norris, Iowa Hospital Association president and chief executive officer.

Shifting focus to increase the quality of care could benefit small hospitals, he said, because, with fewer patients, they frequently can respond quickly to problems areas. But at the same time, because there are limitations on how long Critical Access Hospitals can keep patients, he noted some quality measure such as infection rates really can't be applied to them.

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Surviving small: rural healthcare in Iowa

Gene tied to profound vision loss discovered by scientists

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An exhaustive hereditary analysis of a large Louisiana family with vision issues has uncovered a new gene tied to an incurable eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, according to an examination led by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). It is a family of eye diseases that affects more than 200,000 in the United States and millions worldwide

The retina converts images into electrical signals that can be processed by the brain. It acts much like the film in a camera. Retinitis pigmentosa damages this film (the retina) and its early symptoms include decreased night vision and peripheral vision. Once it starts, the loss of vision is relentlessly progressive, often ending in blindness.

In the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, UTHealth's Stephen P. Daiger, Ph.D., and his colleagues report their discovery of a new gene tied to retinitis pigmentosa, which brings the total of genes associated with this sight-threatening disease to more than 60. The gene is called hexokinase 1 (HK1).

This information is important because it helps affected families cope with the disorder, helps explain the biologic basis of these diseases and suggests targets for drug treatments and gene therapy, said Daiger, the report's senior author and holder of the Thomas Stull Matney Ph.D. Endowed Professorship in Environmental and Genetic Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health.

"The challenge now is to block the activity of these mutations and clinical trials are underway to do just that," he said.

"Dr. Daiger is trying to make a breakthrough in potentially blinding diseases with no known treatments," said Richard S. Ruiz, M.D., professor of ophthalmology and holder of the John S. Dunn Distinguished University Chair in Ophthalmology at UTHealth. "Right now, we address the symptoms of the disease and help patients make the most of their existing vision."

For approximately three decades, Daiger, a member of the Human Genetics Center at the UTHealth School of Public Health, has been following the progress of hundreds of families across the country with retinitis pigmentosa. "We've found the cause of disease in 80 percent of the families we have studied," Daiger said. "Our goal is to find the cause in the remaining 20 percent."

Equipped with the genetic profiles of family members, Daiger's team has identified differences in the genetic makeup of those with the disease. The researchers also use family histories and DNA tests to glean information about the condition's hereditary nature.

There are different types of retinitis pigmentosa and Daiger's laboratory is focused on the autosomal dominant type. This means that only one parent needs the mutation in order to pass the disease to a child. This type accounts for about a third of all cases and many of its disease-causing genes have been discovered, several by Daiger's research group.

"The story of the HK1 mutation is itself interesting. What we found is a mutation present in families from Louisiana, Canada and Sicily. Our evidence suggests the mutation arose in a common ancestor who lived centuries ago," Daiger said. "The mutation spread in Europe and North America, and may be common among Acadians in Louisiana. This is called a founder mutation."

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Gene tied to profound vision loss discovered by scientists

Exponential and combinatorial futures: all depends on ethics (Futurist Gerd at Tedx) – Video

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Exponential and combinatorial futures: all depends on ethics (Futurist Gerd at Tedx)
This is a short excerpt from my talk at TedXBrussels Dec 1 2014 on #digitalethics see http://youtu.be/DD5XVDKcuSo for the entire video Gerd Leonhard Futurist...

By: Gerd Leonhard

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Exponential and combinatorial futures: all depends on ethics (Futurist Gerd at Tedx) - Video