On the Economic Burden of Health Inequities

The Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies, a leading think-tank on health inequities and the SDOH (they co-sponsored Unnatural Causes), commissioned a paper on the economic burden of health inequities. The paper, produced via a collaboration between researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Michigan is available open-access here (PDF). Here is the delightfully succinct Executive Summary:

We estimated the economic burden of health disparities in the United States using three measures: (1) direct medical costs of health inequalities, (2) indirect costs of health inequalities, and (3) costs of premature death. Our analysis found:

Burn victims exposed to superbug

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On healthzone.ca, you can view a map of walk-in clinics in your area

In the past two years, 28 burn patients were sent to hospitals in New York State because there were not enough beds in Ontario and nearly all of them returned infected with the deadly superbug MRSA, according to Canada's largest burn centre.

Patients with severe burns and open wounds are vulnerable to blood infections, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a hospital superbug that can cause nasty complications and lengthen hospital stays. MRSA is a strain of S. aureus that is resistant to a large group of antibiotics.

Keeping Your Brain Trained

One of the most complex organs in the human body is the brain. It holds our memories, hopes and dreams. As we age, so does our brain.

It does not, however, have to age badly, because, like our body, if we take care of our brain it will last a little longer.

One of the things that researchers say can ward off or may mitigate dementia in older people is to constantly keep thinking and using their minds.

It is never too late to pull out a crossword puzzle and give your brain a challenge.

"Basically, there is some research that the brain can continue to form new connections even when you are older, so the best way to do that is to give your brain something to work on," said Anne Glass, assistant director at the Institute of Gerontology at the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia.

Animal/human hybrids, saviour siblings OK in UK

In an overwelming vote, Britain's House of Commons has voted to allow the creation of animal/human hybrids and paved the way for tissue from the mentally ill and Alzheimer's patients to be used in the experiments.

The vote was 355 to 129.

The controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was only able to pass after sections that would liberalize access to abortion were set aside following a wave of protest. The new abortion laws could now be delayed up to two years.

A last minute amendment to the bill would allow researchers to take tissue from the infirm to create the animal/human hybrids, which would then be used for medical research.

Canada under attack

Canada's health care system came under attack in Las Vegas this afternoon at the Health Care Globalization Summit.

Sally Pipes, a Canadian researcher and writer who has long been a critic of health care in Canada, said the system is expensive and leads to long waiting lists.

"We have rationed care. We are told that at a certain age there are some procedures you can't get," she told the conference. She relayed the story of her aging mother, who was told she was too old to get an MRI. "This is not the kind of care Americans want," she said.

She was also sharply critical of the health care plans of the two Democratic presidential candidates, saying both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are proposing plans for universal care that will one day lead to Canadian-style single-payer (ie, government) medicine.

Experts: Over-55s Should Take Blood Pressure Drugs

Everyone aged 55 and over should be taking drugs to lower their blood pressure, even if their current reading is normal, an expert said.

Publishing a review of almost 150 studies, Professor Malcolm Law said the drugs lowered the risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke, regardless of somebody's current reading.

He and colleagues published their findings from the largest review yet of clinical trials involving blood pressure drugs in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

They found most types of drugs to treat blood pressure had similar effects, cutting the risk of heart attacks and heart failure by around a quarter and the risk of stroke by about a third.

Hard choices loom on health care

One of the unwritten rules of provincial budgeting is that medicare is sacrosanct.

Governments may warn that health spending is growing at an unsustainable rate. They may promise to rein it in. But they almost never do.

When the Liberals took power five years ago, they told Ontarians: "Health-care costs cannot continue to grow faster than the economy. This can only lead to the continued crowding out of available funding for other priorities."

They vowed to curb the rate of increase in their first budget. At that time, Ontario was spending $28.1 billion a year – 38 cents out of every tax dollar – on health care. Today, the province is spending $40.5 billion a year – 42 cents out of every tax dollar – on health care.