MIT bio-bandage can stop bleeding almost immediately
Popular Science
Bleeding out on the battlefield — far from trauma wards and triage units — is a scenario soldiers simply have to live with. But thanks to a nanoscale breakthrough at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the chances of it happening could be significantly reduced. Researchers have created a nanoscale coating that can stop bleeding nearly instantly using a clotting agent already found naturally in blood.More

10 apps that can save a patient's life
Emergency Physicians Monthly
No matter how skilled the emergency physician, or heroic his or her efforts, it is too often the case that the patient's fate was decided before even entering the emergency department. The most heartrending times are when relatively minor interventions early on could have changed your patient's future. MedGadget.com presents the top 10 smartphone applications that can save a patient's life, before they get to the ED. More

Study: Insurance status doesn't affect inpatient imaging access
Health Imaging
Insurance status doesn't affect the quantity or value of imaging services received by patients in a hospital in-patient setting, according to a study appearing in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Researchers wrote that approximately 51 million Americans are uninsured, and while it is known that uninsured Americans generally receive fewer healthcare services, what's less understood is the specific types of services with reduced access for the uninsured.More

Broken hearted: Grief may increase heart attack risk
Time
Grief is a powerful emotion, and the latest research shows just how damaging it can be, especially for the heart. The sobering results, appearing in the journal Circulation, are the first to compare how grief affects an individual's heart-disease risk within a period of time. Previous studies have documented that people losing loved ones tend to have more heart problems than those who aren't bereaved.More

Dental visits found to reduce diabetes hospitalization
Medscape (registration)
Patients with diabetes were one third less likely to visit an emergency department or be hospitalized for the disease when they got regular dental care, researchers report in the Journal of the American Dental Association. The lead author cautioned the retrospective study could not prove dental care directly reduced patients' risk for a diabetic emergency, saying it could suggest people with good dental care also have good general healthcare.More

Florida bill would require ER visits for accident victims
The Associated Press via Crestview News Bulletin
A bill that would force all accident victims to go to emergency rooms instead of their family doctor — even for minor injuries — has cleared a Florida banking and insurance House subcommittee. The bill aims to cut down the fraud that is rampant in the state's personal injury protection, or PIP, coverage.More

Asian-Americans more apt to die in hospital after heart attack
HealthDay News
Asian-Americans are more likely to die in the hospital following a heart attack than whites, new research reveals, although this disparity was reduced over time in hospitals participating in a quality improvement program. In the study, doctors examined certain measures of care — such as whether a patient was prescribed aspirin or heart drugs at the time of discharge — on 107,403 Asian-American and white heart attack patients.More

Internet flu searches may warn ERs of outbreaks
HealthDay News via U.S. News & World Report
Keeping an eye on Internet search traffic about the flu can provide hospital emergency departments with an early warning system about potential surges in seasonal flu cases, a new study suggests. The approach may be more effective than waiting for outdated government flu case reports, said Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, who tracked Google Flu Trends data with data on people seeking care for flu at Johns Hopkins Hospital.More

Old age, emergency admission ups risk for postoperative mortality
Medscape (registration)
Older patients, patients with significant comorbid conditions or poor general health, and patients who present as emergency admissions have the greatest risk of dying within 48 hours of surgery, according to a study published in The Surgeon. The findings, although consistent with risk factors identified in previous studies, help underscore the biggest challenges in preventing postoperative mortality, the authors note.More

Why athletes need to be aware of the concussion threshold
Yahoo Sports
Recent studies have focused on determining a concussion threshold in athletes. Although the impact and problems associated with concussions have been studied extensively, the latest research has focused on finding a dangerous threshold. Since concussions are often unavoidable in many sports, the researchers wanted to discover the limit before serious and irreversible brain damage occurs.More