Research presented at a virtual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society showed that using an artificial intelligence model to diagnose and detect breast lesions on ultrasound improved all readers' average diagnostic accuracy from 0.818 area under the curve to 0.852 AUC. "If incorporated as a decision-support tool, we believe that AI has the potential to improve the diagnostic accuracy of breast ultrasound and significantly decrease the number of benign biopsies performed," researcher Jamie Oliver said.
Transvaginal and transabdominal ultrasounds are an alternative to WB-DWI/MRI and CT in evaluating ovarian cancer progression, according to a study published in Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology. The study involved 67 ovarian cancer patients between March 2016 and October 2017.
Advancing Health Equity Health care leaders see equity as crucial not only to their patients but to their own ultimate success. The challenges are many, but the stakes are too high not to act. Join SmartBrief and a panel of experts from across health care for a virtual roundtable discussion of health equity challenges and solutions. Register Now
A 10-member multidisciplinary team of health information and informatics specialists that collected and prioritized EHR optimization requests was able to get some problems fixed immediately through additional training, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Open. The team was able to get other problems solved quickly by updating order sets, adding documentation templates and creating autotext, and a majority of clinicians said the team improved their EHR proficiency.
Telemedicine can improve health equity, but access to hardware and fast internet connections, along with the skills needed to use telemedicine effectively, are uneven and don't follow societal patterns of inequality. To expand the reach of telemedicine, "we must appreciate the nuances of patients' experiences and innovate with them rather than for them," write emergency physicians Rama Salhi, Mahshid Abir and Bisan Salhi.
Long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care likely will include having a mix of in-person and virtual care, more home care and monitoring, and increased reliance on cloud-based platforms, experts told the virtual CHIME21 Spring Forum. Cook Children's Health Care System CIO Teresa Meadows said the pandemic will lead to greater consumerization of health care, with a focus on health literacy and care provided outside hospital and office settings.
Adults who slept six hours or fewer per weeknight at age 50 or 60 were more prone to developing dementia than those who slept seven hours a night, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers followed almost 8,000 people for 25 years, and they found a link between persistent short sleep duration and 30% higher dementia risk among adults age 50, 60 and 70, independent of behavioral, cardiometabolic, sociodemographic and mental health factors.
A study published in the journal BMC Public Health found adults with severe obesity had more socioeconomic disadvantages and three times the risk of heart failure or all-cause and cardiovascular disease-related mortality, when compared with those who were overweight. "More effective policies and weight-management interventions are needed urgently to address this increasing burden and associated adverse health outcomes," said researcher Barbara Iyen.
Carefully -- yet quickly -- crafting a thank-you note after a job interview can tip the scales in your favor, career counselor Robin Ryan writes in this commentary. Ryan outlines the three main components of the note and says email delivery is OK during the pandemic.
Negotiate a win-win deal by staying positive, watching for body language cues and helping the other party in ways that won't hurt you, writes Chi Whitley. "A good rule of thumb is to have a couple of backup plans and to know what you'll do if you can't negotiate a deal," Whitley writes.
House Democrats plan to release portions of legislation targeting drug prices, including a measure that would permit HHS to negotiate drug prices, according to a senior aide. Lawmakers hope to see the provisions included in President Joe Biden's American Families Plan, which is expected to be released next week.
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Have you passed one of the examinations required for a credential (RDMS, RDCS, RVT, RMSKS) but haven't earned the credential yet? Please remember there's a five-year time limit on earning a credential once you've passed the first examination (i.e., you passed the SPI examination but haven't passed the specialty examination, or vice versa). Learn more about the five-year rule.
