Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Gardner.
Spectrum Healthcare Solutions, the potentially powerful marriage of software operations at International Business Machines and Baxter Healthcare Corp., has held its own but hasn't jelled as quickly as observers had hoped. While the venture gears up, it faces stiff challenges from competitors.
Telemedicine is advancing rapidly, and with it the diagnostic and treatment possibilities. X-ray and MRI images, tissue specimens and medical record data are being transmitted between distant cities even now. For rural hospitals, this means having around-the-clock access to radiology expertise--without having to compensate a full-time radiologist. And for off-site clinics, it means fewer trips out to have an image interpreted.
What's a community hospital to do when the world-renowned Mayo Clinic comes to town? In Jacksonville, Fla., Baptist Medical Center is protecting its turf by strengthening its pediatrics partnerships with other healthcare organizations and by expanding its referral base.
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Despite years of talk about the coming day when there will be a computer at every bedside, terminals are still an uncommon sight in hospital rooms. While hospitals that have installed bedside systems rave about the quality-of-care improvements and time savings they've reaped, most administrators have opted to wait. For many hospitals, the systems currently available just don't fit their clinical needs or their budget limitations.
The start-up of the National Practitioner Data Bank is only weeks away, but hospitals and physicians still are raising questions about the system's pros and cons. While most laud the data bank's original mission--to prevent practitioners from concealing a history of incompetence--many physicians claim the scope of the system has grown too big and fear abuse of the information.
Most hospitals use less than a quarter of their computer system's abilities, but vendors aren't much help in getting their clients to use a system properly, concludes a survey of 620 hospitals conducted for Modern Healthcare. More risk-sharing by vendors may help resolve the situation, the study suggests.
Hospitals buy systems for their "qualitative" benefits and not just to save money or cut costs. But these "soft" benefits can be nearly as elusive as hard-dollar savings, concluded a study conducted for Modern Healthcare by Coopers & Lybrand and Zinn Enterprises. Second in a series.
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We studied a large kindred with a history of colorectal cancer of early onset. Proctosigmoidoscopic examination of 51 family members identified only 2 with familial polyposis coli, which strongly predisposes those who have it to colorectal cancer and which is defined as the presence of more than 100 polyps in the colon. However, eight family members had 2 to 40 colonic polyps. We suspected that in this family, colorectal cancer was the result of a mutation in the gene on chromosome 5 that is responsible for familial polyposis coli. To test our hypothesis, we obtained genotypic information on 81 family members with respect to seven polymorphic DNA markers previously shown to be linked to the locus for familial polyposis coli. Multilocus analysis of the data demonstrated genetic linkage (lod score, 5.58) between these markers and the locus responsible for the defined syndrome of colonic polyps or colorectal cancer in this kindred. These findings constitute evidence that the genetic defect in this family is a mutation in the gene that causes familial polyposis coli. We conclude that mutations at the genetic locus for familial polyposis coli may be the cause of other, more subtle syndromes involving an inherited susceptibility to colonic adenomatous polyps and colorectal cancer.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.