How Technology Is Advancing Emergency Response And Survival During Natural Disasters

The use of social media, drones, satellite imagery through GIS, real-time disaster modeling, and widespread connectedness means more efficient and necessary information flow. Immediate information on the most damaged areas of a city or locations of where people remain stranded saves lives. Real-time data allows emergency management to develop more targeted response plans, a technological leap from search and rescue strategies decades ago.

Automatic External Defibrillators - Truth & Fiction

Few innovations have had such immediate and sweeping popularity as Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs). However, there is no centralized registry to collect data on the use and effectiveness of AEDs. What?

Avoiding Emergency Rooms

Experts report that more than half the problems patients bring to emergency rooms either do not or would not require hospital-based care if an alternative source were readily available.

CPR Needs Resuscitation & Resuscitation Needs CPR

Sudden cardiac arrest outcomes continue to remain dismal despite CPR. But, anybody can perform CPR, including children. It's not how well CPR was done, but whether it was done at all!

Imaging Centers: Useful or Harmful?

Imaging centers have proliferated in the past decade. You would think that the potential to develop cancer years or decades after an imaging procedure would ensure that imaging centers are as safe as possible. Think again!

Imaging Studies - Our Children are Glowing

Children have ten times the risk for CT Scan caused cancer compared to adults. Ultrasounds and MRIs, whenever appropriate, should be substituted especially in the younger population.

Medical Helicopters - Are They Worth the Risk?

Medical transport by air remains controversial primarily because of its cost and dismal safety record! Do medical helos really make a difference?

Milk, Bread and... Medical Care? Healthcare goes Retail

Retail medical clinics have done what the healthcare industry has been unable or unwilling to do - give consumers what they want...fast, convenient and affordable care for minor problems.

Stroke - Can We Turn It Around?

Not only is stroke incidence increasing but there is usually no effective treatment. In the meantime controlling the risk factors of high blood pressure, diabetes and weight may help decrease your risk.

Stroke - Is the Treatment Worth the Risk?

It's sad to say that customary stroke treatment is similar to how heart attacks were treated before the 1970's. New technology is needed, not just clot busters. In the meantime know where the nearest stroke treatment center is.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest? Is There Hope?

Evidence suggests that the number of people resuscitated from Sudden Cardiac Arrest may double simply with the use of hypothermia. Yet, most EMS systems & hospitals still have not embraced it. Why?

Sudden Cardiac Death in Young Athletes - Is It Stoppable?

The sudden death of any young athlete is tragic and often comes as a shock not only to the individual’s immediate family and friends, but also to the affected community.

The Decline of Emergency Care

Trauma centers and emergency departments across the U.S. have been closing at alarming rates. The people who stand to lose the most are those already put at a disadvantage by the health-care system.

The Emergency-Care Crisis in Uganda

A program that trains nurses to take over from badly overextended physicians could be part of the solution.

The Failure of Our ‘Just Go to the ER’ Medical System

Currently, in American health care, experts are wringing their hands in confusion. I mean, people have insurance, right? And yet health care is still expensive and dang it, people just keep going to the ER. Visits are climbing everywhere, and I can speak from personal experience when I say that we’re tasked with more and more complex and multi-varied duties in the emergency departments of the 21st century.