Veterans More Likely to Delay Seeking Health Care—Possible Link to Long Wait Times for VA Care--Military veterans are more likely to report delays in seeking necessary healthcare, compared to the US general population, reports a study in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice…(read more)

Nonprofit Hospitals Earn Substantial Profits--Seven of top 10 most profitable U.S. hospitals are nonprofit— Seven of the 10 most profitable hospitals in the United States in 2013 – each earning more than $163 million in profits from patient care services – were nonprofit hospitals, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Washington and Lee University…(read more) 

Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.--Physicians advocate for changes in how deaths are reported to better reflect reality— Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S….(read more) 

Study Contradicts Myth That Cancer Protects Against Alzheimer’s– Despite studies that claim people with cancer are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease--raising the possibility that what triggers cancer also prevents the neurodegenerative disorder--a new investigation finds a more somber explanation. Many cancer patients don’t live long enough to get Alzheimer’s…(read more)

The Search for Better Bone Replacement: 3-D Printed Bone with Just the Right Mix of Ingredients— To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30 percent pulverized natural bone with some special man-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3-D printer. That’s the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University in a paper published in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering…(more) 

Older Lung Cancer Patients Experience Excellent Survival Following Surgery--Patients aged 65 years and older are living longer after lung cancer surgery, and with older people representing a rapidly growing proportion of patients diagnosed with lung cancer, this improved survival is especially significant, according to an article posted online today by The Annals of Thoracic Surgery…(read more)

Men Also at Risk for Osteoporosis--Men are not regularly screened for the condition common in women--Screening women for osteoporosis is now routine, however, when it comes to men, most are never screened and therefore suffer the consequences of the disease. In the U.S., nearly 1.5 million men over 65 have osteoporosis, and another 3.5 million men are at risk for developing the disease…(read more)  

Dispensing Eye Insert Shows Promise for Patients Struggling to Take Daily Prescription Eye Drops--Silicone ring that rests on the eye releases medication slowly over six months, could help lower risk of vision loss among seniors with the disease--A new device that slowly releases eye medication may one day be a promising option for the many glaucoma patients who struggle with administering their own daily prescription eye drops…(read more)