Category Archives: Respiratory

WHOs on first alert; enlisting the aid of healthcare practitioners worldwide to monitor the epidemiology of three demons of respiratory disease: H5N1 (Bird Flu), H7N9; a new bird flu strain with frightful potential and a Novel Corona virus with the new moniker: Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS – CoV). A Reuter’s article from June 10 quotes Andrew Harper, WHO special…
Read More

The Novel Corona Virus akin to SARS now has a name: “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus or (MERS-CoV)”, an NBCNEWS.com article reports. MERS, like its cousin SARS causes cold-like symptoms that quickly escalate to severe and even fatal respiratory infections. Though the search for effective treatment continues with great urgency, The World Health Organization remains disconcerted: ‘“We know that when…
Read More

Quiet, peaceful, serene; just the way a hospital unit ought to be so that patients can get the rest they need to recover and get well. Except, there are no patients. The unit has been abandoned. Like a ghost town it sits empty, still, eerie. According to Wikipedia: “A ghost town is an abandoned village, town or city, usually one…
Read More

“Alive! It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE!!!” (Dr. Frankenstein, pronounced FRONK-en-steen, in Young Frankenstein.) A while ago, the FDA gave life to the Son of Advair, otherwise known as Breo Ellipta, the new face of COPD pharmaceuticals. The GSK website makes the following celebratory announcement: “GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE: GSK) and Theravance, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRX) today announced that the Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee…
Read More

For some time now, several of my colleagues and I have been discussing the transformation of healthcare and how transparency, pay for performance, quality initiatives and the like will impact the way we provide healthcare for ever more.  Just this week, CMS made headway toward pushing operational information into the hands of anyone wishing to find it! The CMS News Release…
Read More

Blebs; the telltale signs of diseased and damaged lungs, have long indicated the point of irreparable parenchymal destruction producing the stereotypical signs and symptoms of late stage COPD. But the bleb’s days may be numbered. According to snippet in the RC Currents section of the May issue of the AARC Times, John’s Hopkins researchers noted, “using hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)……
Read More

The respiratory therapist is certainly found on the front lines of some hellacious halitosis. Some breath odors are helpful; giving clues to certain patient conditions; sweet smelling breath perhaps indicating the presence of ketones or the distinctive odor of pseudomonas for example. In recent years the technology of breath measurement or “breathprint”, as some have branded it, has begun to…
Read More

Each year, regulatory ‘junkies’ like myself look forward to the spring AMRPA meeting because their sessions are geared to prepare facilities to meet with legislators to discuss and influence judgements through testimony related to their level of service and how they see proposed mandates affecting access to care and reimbursement. Invited guests have firsthand knowledge of everything we need to be concerned about in today’s ever-changing regulatory white…
Read More

Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO George Halvorson makes no bones about laying out the coming days of healthcare. According to FierceHealthcare, he is quoted in a New York Times profile forecasting “We think the future of healthcare is going to be rationing or re-engineering (and) key to re-engineering healthcare for greater efficiency is moving care away from the hospital setting.”…
Read More

The Novel Corona Virus (NCoV) is a new and notorious cousin of the common cold and something akin to SARS. Torn straight from the pages of “The Stand,” a novel by Stephen King, this newcomer to the Corona family prophetically poses the threat of worldwide calamity. Though ostensibly isolated (for now) to regions of the Middle East and Britain, according…
Read More