Monthly Archives: November 2012
Health Care for Your Heart
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Thanksgiving Reflections
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you all for reading my blog. I reflect back a year and consider what blessings I am thankful for. This blog is one of them. It has provided me a good outlet for all the information I enjoy learning, sharing and teaching. So to the 11,ooo viewers to day, a very grateful thank you.
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Have you heard of the Let’s Talk Turkey campaign?
The Let’s Talk Turkey Campaign
This is a campaign to remind families while they are together to take some time to talk turkey. Talk about what matters to you in terms of your healthcare and your end of life wishes. It isn’t an easy talk but it is an important one. Express you wishes and desires. Make it so no one questions what you want. Make the decisions together, earlier rather than later. So when you are done eating turkey, take the time to talk turkey.
Sixty percent of people say it is “extremely important” to them that their family is not burdened by tough decisions.
Fifty-six percent have not communicated their end-of-life wishes.
One conversation can make all the difference.
It’s not easy to talk about how you want the end of your life to be, but it’s one of the most important conversations you can have with your loved ones. It isn’t just about filling out forms. It’s about talking to loved ones about what you or they want for end-of-life care.
Advance Care Planning can help you start this process. If you suddenly became unable to communicate, your family members would be asked to make numerous medical care decisions for you. Would they know what you want?
Click to access FINAL-2009RevisedACPBooklet-Excellus-Color-Web.pdf
http://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication/advance-care-planning
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Paradigm
The Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm program is designed to improve the quality of care people receive at the end of life. It is based on effective communication of patient wishes, documentation of medical orders on a brightly colored form and a promise by health care professionals to honor these wishes.
Effective communication between the patient or legally designated decision-maker and health care professionals ensures decisions are sound and based on the patient’s understanding their medical condition, their prognosis, the benefits and burdens of the life-sustaining treatment and their personal goals for care.
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The Heart: An Incredible Electric Machine
A quick primer on the electrical system of the heart followed by two major breakthroughs in pacemaker technology this year.
A leadless, subcutaneous defibrillator makes the list of 5 biggest medical breakthroughs of the year.
Boston Scientific has begun marketing a FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND DEFIBRILLATOR after receiving FDA approval in September. The implantable device, which protects against sudden cardiac arrest, was developed by a California firm purchased by Boston Scientific and is expected to be a financial win for the Natick-based company. Unlike others on the market, the S-ICD does not touch the heart, instead sending electrical pulses to correct abnormal rhythms through wires implanted just beneath the skin.
No More Batteries: Piezoelectric Pacemaker Powered By The Heart
An experimental device converts kinetic energy from beating hearts into electricitythan can power a pacemaker, meaning the chance for no more batteries in the future, according to a talk at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012.
The study is preliminary but a piezoelectric approach is promising for pacemakers because they require only small amounts of power to operate. Batteries must be replaced every five to seven years, which is costly and inconvenient. Piezoelectricity might also power other implantable cardiac devices like defibrillators, which also have minimal energy needs.
“Many of the patients are children who live with pacemakers for many years,” said M. Amin Karami, Ph.D., lead author of the study and research fellow in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “You can imagine how many operations they are spared if this new technology is implemented.”
Researchers measured heartbeat-induced vibrations in the chest. Then, they used a “shaker” to reproduce the vibrations in the laboratory and connected it to a prototype cardiac energy harvester they developed. Measurements of the prototype’s performance, based on sets of 100 simulated heartbeats at various heart rates, showed the energy harvester performed as the scientists had predicted — generating more than 10 times the power than modern pacemakers require. The next step will be implanting the energy harvester, which is about half the size of batteries now used in pacemakers, Karami said. Researchers hope to integrate their technology into commercial pacemakers.
Two types of energy harvesters can power a typical pacemaker: linear and nonlinear. Linear harvesters work well only at a specific heart rate, so heart rate changes prevent them from harvesting enough power.
In contrast, a nonlinear harvester, the type used in the study, uses magnets to enhance power production and make the harvester less sensitive to heart rate changes. The nonlinear harvester generated enough power from heartbeats ranging from 20 to 600 beats per minute to continuously power a pacemaker. Devices such as cell phones or microwave ovens would not affect the nonlinear device, Karami said.
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/no_more_batteries_piezoelectric_pacemaker_powered_heart-96003
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Coronary Heart Disease
Rehabilitate Your Heart 