Pulse on Health by Jeff Hansel

Head and neck treatment moving to Mayo Clinic's Gonda

Mayo Clinic plans to move the Department of Otorhinolaryngology into the 12th floor of the Gonda Building in Rochester, Minnesota soon.  

"Otorhinolaryngology is a diverse and comprehensive surgical and medical specialty concentrating on disorders and diseases involving the head and neck. The name stems from the Latin roots for ear ("oto"), nose ("rhino") and throat ("laryngo"). In the past century, the specialty has grown in scope and expertise to encompass a vast multitude of treatments for disorders of these regions, and the head and neck region as a whole," says MayoClinic.org.

"Remodeling" will discontinue patient-elevator access to the 12th floor from July 6 through August 12, according to an employee newsletter.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Michael Jackson death brings awareness to vitiligo

The death of Michael Jackson has awakened recognition of vitiligo, a condition that, according to MayoClinic.com, causes loss of skin pigment. 

"Vitiligo affects all races, but may be more noticeable and disfiguring in people with darker skin. Vitiligo usually starts as small areas of pigment loss that spread with time," Mayo's site says. "These changes in your skin can result in stress and worries about your appearance."

According to an article written by CNN's Elizabeth Landau says vitiligo "affects 1 million to 2 million people in the United States" and that Jackson made his condition public in 1993.  The condition can obviously cause difficulty with self esteem, something likely a struggle for someone who was in the public eye for his entire life.

For more information, try the National Vitiligo Foundation.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

President Obama asks for Americans' input on health reform

[Barack Obama as a presidential candidate.  Click to enlarge.  Copyright.]

President Barack Obama is asking for input from the American people about health reform via WhiteHouse.gov.  He's asking online for U.S. residents to make video questions of about 20 to 30 seconds, post them in a video reply to his YouTube post and he'll answer them Wednesday July 1, 2009 in an "online town hall."  

"Inaction is not an option," Obama says.  "Our current health-care system is bankrupting families and forcing businesses to shut their doors as premiums are rising three times faster than wages."

He notes the back-and-forth discussions that have occurred.  

"Ultimately your engagement on this issue is just as important as that of our lawmakers.  I've always believed that real change doesn't come from Washington.  It comes from the American people — and we won't be able to achieve reform without you," Obama says.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Farrah Fawcett death and colorectal cancer

I'm sorry that Farrah Fawcett's death might have been overshadowed by the also-untimely death of Michael Jackson.

Fawcett had been chronicling her experience with anal cancer in a documentary. 

"Cancer is a disease that is mysterious and makes its own rules," Fawcett says in "Farrah's Story" on NBC. A conversation between Fawcett and one of her friends who was filming for "A Wing and a Prayer goes, "At one point she looks up at me through this projectile vomiting and she says, 'Why aren't you filming this?' and I said but honey, I don't, I don't want to do that. And she said, 'No, no, this is what cancer is.'"

According to MayoClinic.org, risk factors for anal cancer include age of 50 or older; human papillomavirus infection; frequent redness, swelling and soreness; abnormal anal openings; and cigarette smoking.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Mayo Clinic adjusts holiday hours to save $

Mayo Clinic expects to save $5.8 million in 2009 through "changes to holiday scheduling."

"Because patient volumes historically are low around the holidays, Mayo will extend holiday hours, closing some administrative areas or operating with reduced staffing on specific dates around the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays.  These holiday hours will not compromise patient safety," clinic administrators wrote in an employee newsletter.  Staffing will be cut to "50 percent or less if demand dictates" on Nov. 27, Dec. 24, Dec. 28, Dec. 29, Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, closing at 3 p.m. a couple of those days (Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve).  

Employees are still allowed to use paid time off (PTO).  Presumably, though, many workers will simply take the time off and save their PTO to pad their vacation time.  Officials at the $7 billion (in terms of total revenue) nonprofit said earlier this year that they will need to decrease expenses and/or increase revenue by $142 million in 2009 to perform well financially.  Mayo officials said they broke even in 2008 (and reported a 2008 profit margin of zero).  

In 2005, Mayo said its profit margin goal was 3 to 4.5 percent.

In 2007, Mayo said its goal was 2.9 percent

In 2008, CEO Dr. Denis Cortese said Mayo would need an endowment of $6 billion to pay for all its activities.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Fears realized with biotech drift

Here's a post for readers worried about biotech development.

Consumers who have concerns about biotechnology have, indeed, found real evidence of some problems.  This is worth mentioning as Minnesota heads full-force into the biotech age.  People who worry about biotech development have for many years focused on the importance of safety testing.

This might be of special concern locally, since it's believed that genetically engineered crops will be used to grow proteins for the emerging Elk Run biotechnology project in Pine Island, Minnesota.

The book "Trust Us We're Experts" expresses a fear for farmers that they'll lose the ability to save seed to plant the next year's crop (because genetically engineered traits in seed will be owned by seed companies).  

That book was published in 2001, the same year as reporter Anthony Shadid, then at the Boston Globe, reported about a farming couple who experienced "genetic drift."

"The husband-and-wife team set up barriers of bushes, shrubs, and trees, planted the right crops in the right places, and bought corn seed guaranteed to be free of genetic engineering. No matter. The Fitzgeralds found themselves victims of "genetic drift,' a relatively new and disturbing phenomenon," the Globe reported. "When the harvest came, they tested their corn. To their surprise and dismay, genetically engineered kernels showed up in the hopper: a pesticide-producing seed known as Bt whose pollen apparently made its way from a neighbor's field, swept by wind or carried by birds or insects."

There's a fee to obtain the full article from the Globe.  But if you're interested in the topic, it might be worth going to the site and paying the fee to read the article.  

Of course all of this is 'old news.'  It's just that most Americans do not realize that they often eat genetically modified food, so it's worth mentioning.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Biotech conference in Rochester today

The Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology research symposium kicks off in Rochester today.  

BICB is a collaboration between the Hormel Institute in Austin, Minnesota; Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; the University of Minnesota Rochester and IBM, both in Rochester.

"The vision of the Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology (BICB) program is to conduct research and provide education through the establishment of academic and research programs. All BICB academic and research programs collaborate among the University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR), the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMTC), the Mayo Clinic, IBM, and the Hormel Institute to advance informatics and computation and to support a strong life science industry in Minnesota," the BICB Web sites says.

Combined with the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics; the Pine Island, Minnesota Elk Run biotechnology project; and the Minnesota Biobusiness Center in Rochester, it's clear the state has made biotechnology a top priority.

Today's symposium discussion topics at Mayo Clinic include biomarker identification, data mining related to schizophrenia and drug-discovery tools.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Pick your own? Try southeast Minnesota

Hankering some sun-warmed fruit that you can pick yourself?  Try one of the regional pick-your-owns.  It can be a fun outing for kids that will be a neat memory when they grow up, and wandering around the berry patch or orchard is also great exercise for the whole family.  Try strawberries in Mabel, for example, where the short berry season is expected to end Monday (June 29, 2009).  Or make plans for an orchard this fall, such as Apple Ridge in Mazeppa.

And the next time you're planning a trip somewhere, consider the possibilities for pick-your-own by checking out pickyourown.org.

"This website provides local listings of pick your own (also called U-pick or PYO) farms in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries," the site's home page says.  If you ever travel to South Africa, for example, you can pick your own cherries, blackberries and youngberries (which I've never heard of before).  In other words, use caution and check places out ahead of time.  But it might be a fun, exercise-filled healthy food alternative either locally or while traveling.  The berry season is over by June in South Africa, so also check the local growing season if you plan to pick while traveling.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

Minnesota likely to hit 500 cases of H1N1 this week

[CDC image of the H1N1 virus. Please click to enlarge.]

Minnesota will almost certainly reach 500 cases of H1N1 influenza this week.  The state reports 497 cases as of Thursday, the vast majority coming from the Twin Cities metro area.  But cases are climbing in other regions of the state as well.  In the southeast, 9 confirmed cases have been reported so far, with 23 in the southwest, but more than 400 in the metro region.

"State health officials are monitoring the H1N1 novel influenza situation closely and have increased disease surveillance," the state reports on its Web site.  The numbers listed there indicate 39 people are from "unknown" areas of the state.  

"This number does not include anyone from out of state; those we know to be non-MN residents are not included in our totals," Department of Health spokesman Doug Schultz said in response to an inquiry from Pulse on Health.  Sometimes it takes a while to learn the address for the person a sample came from, and there might be delays between the time a sample tests positive and the time when data gets entered.  

So the regional statistics might seem a little skewed, compared to what's going on 'on the ground' at the time.  Health officials continue to advise that you wash your hands often and well, that you teach your kids to wash their hands well, that your family makes sure to catch coughs or sneezes in their shirt sleeve, that you stay home from work or group activities when sick and that you ask your employees to stay home if sick.  

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904

  

Didn't get your lab results? Worry!

A research study has found that patients who don't get their lab results after a doctor appointment often think that means their tests went well.

Wrong.

It turns out patients often do not receive lab results — even bad ones, says an article titled "Patients Not Always Told of Lab Results" on women.webmed.com by Bill Hendrick.

"The takeaway message for consumers is clear -- if you don't hear within two weeks, call your doctor's office," Hendrick quotes Dr. Lawrence P. Casalino of Weill Cornell College as saying.

One out of every 14 abnormal test results were either not reported to patients, or there was no record that patients had been told.  I personally asked that a note be placed in my medical record that I always want a printout of my lab results mailed to me.  

The answer.  Can't do that.  You've got to give us permission each time.  

If you don't get your results, call and ask for a copy.

Pulse on Health

By Jeff Hansel, member Association of Health Care Journalists

Health Reporter for the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 18 1st Ave. S.E. in Rochester, Minnesota 55904