Computerized Doctors’ Orders Reduce Medication Errors
Doctors are famous for sloppy scribbling — and handwritten prescriptions lead to thousands of medication errors each year. Electronics to the rescue: U.S. hospitals that switched to computerized physician order entry systems saw a 66 percent drop in prescription errors, according to a new review of studies.
Illegible handwriting and transcription errors are responsible for as much as 61 percent of medication errors in hospitals. A simple mistake such as putting the decimal point in the wrong place can have serious consequences because a patient’s dosage could be 10 times the recommended amount.
FDA grants speedy review for new class of HIV drug
U.S. regulators will review Isentress, an investigational drug for HIV infection, on a priority basis, and a decision is anticipated by mid-October, Merck & Co. said on Wednesday.
The oral drug is the first in an HIV drug class called integrase inhibitors. It is generically known as raltegravir, and formerly known as MK-0518. The drug blocks the insertion of HIV’s genetic material into human DNA and thereby prevents the virus from replicating. It should be taken twice daily, and can be taken with or without food.
C-section not linked to poorer infant health
Despite some concerns to the contrary, babies delivered by cesarean may not make more visits to the doctor’s office or hospital early in life, a study has found.
Some research has suggested that C-sections may affect children’s long-term health, possibly increasing their chances of conditions such as asthma, allergies and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Florida man’s headache mystery solved by a bullet
A Florida man awoke with a severe headache and asked his wife to drive him to a hospital, where doctors found a bullet lodged behind his right ear, sheriff’s deputies said.
“The nurse looked at him and said, ‘It appears that you’ve been shot,’” the Fort Pierce Tribune quoted St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara as saying. “And he said, ‘No way.’”
Sex, substance use make teens feel older
Teens who have sex, drink or use drugs feel “older for their age” than their less-experienced peers, a new study shows.
But it’s not clear if feeling older makes teens more likely to engage in sex or try substances or if these experiences themselves make adolescents feel older, the researchers say. “It could be a bidirectional relationship,” Kelly J. Arbeau of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.
