more at: http://current.com/vanguard

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Obtaining health care in foreign countries is, according to the book Patients Beyond Borders by Josef Woodman, less costly for a number of reasons: standards of living are more modest, doctors and staff command lower wages, government-subsidized health care keeps private health care costs down, and malpractice attorneys are, if not docile, at least considerably more restrained. A fortuitous confluence of actions that allow medical tourism to flourish across the world.

While you can arrange all aspects of a trip abroad for medical services, many opt to use a medical tourism facilitator. Medical tourism facilitators are a new breed; assisting patients, employers, and insurers in finding trusted overseas facilities. The advantage of using a facilitator is their expertise and knowledge, and referrals to accredited and certified foreign providers. While there are a large number of facilitators, finding a reputable one can be difficult. Try Healthbase: Healthcare Beyond Boundaries, an award-winning facilitator which operates in the U.S.

Source: HealthNews

Obtaining health care in foreign countries is, according to the book Patients Beyond Borders by Josef Woodman, less costly for a number of reasons: standards of living are more modest, doctors and staff command lower wages, government-subsidized health care keeps private health care costs down, and malpractice attorneys are, if not docile, at least considerably more restrained. A fortuitous confluence of actions that allow medical tourism to flourish across the world.

While you can arrange all aspects of a trip abroad for medical services, many opt to use a medical tourism facilitator . Medical tourism facilitators are a new breed; assisting patients, employers, and insurers in finding trusted overseas facilities. The advantage of using a facilitator is their expertise and knowledge, and referrals to accredited and certified foreign providers. While there are a large number of facilitators, finding a reputable one can be difficult. Try Healthbase : Healthcare Beyond Boundaries, an award-winning facilitator which operates in the U.S.

Source: HealthNews

In greater Chicago, IL, for example, Northwestern Memorial Hospital tops the list of 46 ranked institutions. In the Denver, CO metro area, first place belongs to the University of Colorado Hospital, followed by 13 others.

The magazine based these metro bragging rights on the same data and methodology that produce its annual “Best Hospital” rankings, which are released during the summer. Of the 600-plus institutions in the metro rankings, 132 are among the 152 already identified by US News & World Report last year as the best.

More on this at medscape

Investigators, led by Lauren E. Wisk, a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in the School of Medicine and Public Health at University of Wisconsin, Madison, examined data from the 2001-2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys on 6,273 families with at least one child. Excessive financial burden was defined as insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health care expenses exceeding 10 percent of family income. Delayed or forgone care was defined as putting off or going without medical care or prescription medications for a parent or child due to cost and/or insurance-related reasons.

Results showed that experiencing excessive financial burden, having a child with an ongoing activity limitation and a parent having intermittent insurance all increased the likelihood that families would delay or go without care. However, when the parent and child had the same insurance, they were more likely to get the care they needed. Additionally, significant racial/ethnic and income-related disparities existed in the experience of delayed or forgone care. For example, non-Hispanic black families were less likely to report delayed or forgone care than non-Hispanic white families. Meanwhile, families whose income was less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level were more likely to delay or go without care than families with incomes at or above 400 percent of the poverty level.

Even when families are insured, they still bear part of the burden of health care costs (through premiums, deductibles, co-pays, etc.), she noted. When these costs exceed a certain threshold relative to a family’s available income, they delay or forgo health care. More details at: medicalnewstoday.com

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, a fatal brain disease that affects memory, thinking, behavior and the ability to handle daily activities. It is increasingly placing a heavy burden on societies and economies across the world.

More on this at Fox News

Three sessions of yoga a week also improved quality of life, lowering the depression which often plagues patients with this condition, according to research at the annual meeting of the American College of  Cardiology in New Orleans.

More on this at Business Week.

Two western qualified cardiothoracic surgeons Dr. T. Sunder FRCS (Cardiothoracic) & Dr. Paul Ramesh Thangaraj FRCS (Cardiothoracic) have established the “Coromandel Cardiothoracic Surgery Practice” at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, India in 2006.

Cardiothoracic Surgery is a specialized area of surgery to treat heart, lung and other chest diseases. By its very nature this requires close monitoring after major heart and lung operations. Traditionally, the team is headed by only one consultant and comprises of junior surgeons of varying experiences.

Dr. Paul Ramesh & Dr. Sunder are the first to join to form a group practice among cardiothoracic surgeons in India,  a practice emulated from the West. Both the consultant surgeons scrub up and are present for all operations. Also, this practice ensures Consultant input to patient care at all times, even if one is away.

Dr. Paul Ramesh strongly believes that a multi-disciplinary approach is needed particularly in the treatment of advanced heart and lung disease. To that end he formed a “Centre for Advanced Heart & Lung Disease” at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, India comprising of a cardiologist Dr. S. Shanmugasundaram, an intensivist Dr. N. Ramakrishnan and two surgeons–Dr. Paul Ramesh & Dr. T. Sunder.

Surgery for Heart Failure is recently emerging as a separate specialty. Patients with very weak hearts now have an option of evaluation and assessment by the team at the “Centre for Advanced Heart & Lung Disease” and appropriate management strategies are suggested after a joint discussions among the specialists. This may be adjustment of medications, life style modifications, high risk conventional heart surgery or even consideration for heart transplantation.

CPET Cardio Pulmonary Exercise Testing is done on a sophisticated treadmill which allows assessment of the patients’ heart, lung, circulatory system and exercise capacity and allows quantification of maximal oxygen utilization (VO2max). This in turn allows the specialists to assess response to treatment and decide on further course. These facilities are available at the Centre and form an important component of the assessment tools.

Treatment options like surgery for emphysema (Lung Volume Reduction Surgery) are also considered for patients with advanced lung disease.

In 2008, Dallas Wiens met with an accident in Texas, and his face was severely burned and disfigured. After twenty two surgeries, he ends up in Boston at one end of a groundbreaking procedure. A team of 30 doctors, lead by Bohdan Pomahac, the lead plastic surgeon performed face transplant for Dallas Wiens at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The surgery went for about 15 hours. He has become the first person in the U.S. to undergo a full face transplant.