Health Auxiliary

Over the past decade the world has seen rapid growth in cell phone users. Everyone from older adults to kids in high school seem to carry one glued to their ears, without understanding the possible health ricks associated with the use of cellular telephones.

To begin with, a recent scientific journal published in 2007 titled Long term use of cellular phones and brain tumors, concluded after assessing results from many different studies that use of cell phones for more then 10 years does show increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma. Adding that the risk is highest for ipsilateral exposure, meaning tumor on the same side of the brain where phone mostly held.

Research scientists behind this journal assert that most studies to date on cell phone use and brain tumors have been mostly conducted with an insufficiently long latency period. This journal report gives excellent reviews of other studies and evidence of data entry errors, systematic bias and mathematical errors within those studies.

Argument against studies which used short term recall of mobile phone use, is well argued by giving evidence that actual use of cell phones is usually underestimated by light users and overestimated by heavy users, reducing the data strength of interphone studies. In the same way, results showing increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma from various other studies on use of mobile phone for more then 10 years are given supporting their conclusion.

Furthermore, another study published in 2006 completed by 3 scientists in Sweden also conform a increased risk for malignant brain tumors in groups with use of cellular and cordless phones for more then 10 years. Similar to the above study, the scientists associated with this report also mention the weakness of so-far studies to be their too short a latency period.

Evidence of errors in other studies for example, Danish interphone study, in which many data entry errors had occurred due to problems in understanding words of Galioma patients due to paralysis has been well argued. They propose that their method of assessing the use of cellular and cordless phones by questionnaires to be more sensible.

Moreover, interesting evidence brought up in this journal report about a completed REFLEX-study is important to mention here. The REFLEX-study which tested for genotoxic effects in cells exposed to radio frequency electromagnetic fields at SAR (whole-body Specific Absorption Rate) levels between 0.3 and 2 watt/kg showed evidence for. Increase in single and double strand DNA breaks finding of choromosomal aberrations were observed in fibroblasts and intracellular increase of free radicals in HL-60 Cells.

Evidence from the REFLEX-study coupled with the evidence from their own study, the Swedish scientists concluded that the current allowed SAR of 2 watt/kg in Europe is inappropriate.

Conversely, it is important to make known to our readers that the maximum SAR level in United States and Canada has been capped at 1.6W/kg (FDA).

Finally, a journal published in 2007 Mobile phone use and risk of glioma is 5 North European countries, show somewhat mixed results. This particular studies results were based on combined data from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Southeast England, where mobile phones have been widely used for at least a decade. This study looked at reasonably large group of people. Total of 2,530 glioma patients and 6,581 controls had participated in this study.

Nonetheless, it is surprising to know that their conclusions are not as clear as in previous studies we mentioned. This study claims to find no elevated risk of Glioma among groups most exposed. Neither did they find any significant association across, categories with duration of use, years since first use, cumulative number of calls or cumulative hours of use.

They also claim to find no increased risks when analogue and digital phones were tested separately. However, this study did find one set of analyses which indicates a possible connection. This connection was between, reported ipsilateral use 10 or more years ago associated with significantly increased risk of glioma and there was also an increasing tread with years since first use on the ipsilateral side.

Lastly, we recommend that consumers seek information about what SAR level their cell phone uses. SAR information is easily found in instructional materials that come with the phone or can be found on many web sites. We recommend consumers to use cell phones that operate at lowest possible value of SAR, and to try to limit the use of cell phones or invest in a hands free headset for cell phones until more absolute evidence is obtained.

Choosing a dentist is one of the most important things you have to do for yourself and your family. A dentist is one of the few health professionals who works to improve your health and your appearance at the same time. And this aspect of your appearance is a crucial one, as studies by the American Association of Cosmetic Dentists (AACD) revealed that 99.7 % of Americans consider a smile an important social asset.

To make sure you get the best results, you need to find a dentist that combines science, artistry, and empathy to give you the smile you desire without trying to force services on you that you neither need nor desire. To make sure your dentistry has the qualities you should be looking for to find one who is right for you, here is a list of questions you should be asking any prospective dentist.

Experience

• Where did you receive your dental training?

• How many years have you been a licensed dentist?

• How long have you been serving this community?

• Have you undergone advanced training in dental methods and science recently?

• High-quality technology

• What makes you decide to invest in any new technology?

• What is the most recent technology you have added to your practice?

• Have you received specialized training in the technology?

• Have you seen good results with the technology?

• Quality of Care

• Do you have before and after pictures I can look at?

• Do you have testimonials from former clients?

Affordability

• How do your prices compare with those of other area dentists? If they are more expensive, what makes them a good investment?

• Do you offer financing?

Comprehensive Care

• What services do you offer? Do they include specialty services like neuromuscular dentistry, snoring treatment, or breath treatment?

• What services can you provide that other dentists in the area cannot?

• What services would you recommend to improve my smile?

Personal Service

In addition to all the above questions, you want to make sure that your dentist is personal, that he or she makes you feel at ease. After all, you are going to be trusting your smile to them, and if they are going to perform oral surgery, your life as well. So pay attention to the dentist’s answers. The doctor should answer all your questions thoroughly and easily, and should not seem condescending, tired, or impatient. The answers should not be just rehearsed spiels, but should come from a genuine concern for you as a person and a possible patient. The dentist should be happy to answer follow-up questions, and should provide answers that are particular to your situation, giving your multiple options depending on your finances and your comfort level with more invasive dental treatments. The dentist should also not hesitate to go over before and after pictures with you, rather than simply leaving you with a book or computer.

You should interview several dentists when trying to find one to perform your dentistry procedures, especially if you are considering something as comprehensive and expensive as an extreme smile makeover. Don’t settle on the first one, but make sure that you have one you are comfortable with.

There are many trends in healthcare information technology to cover. With the US government’s economic stimulus package geared to improve heathcare IT, there will be areas were expertise will be greatly needed.

Outlined below will touch on 5 hot trends that will be need qualified professionals to help implement the large efforts of the healthcare industry:

1. EMR (electronic medical records) or EHR (electronic health records) - This is going to a huge effort on the part of many medical establishments. This system will take the “health history” of an individual and create a so called electronic medical record that will follow a patient anywhere for patient safety and more accurate treatments. All of the is over a huge network and storage systems along with integrating several applications.

Job Title Examples: Developers, Programmers, Project Managers, Billing and Coding specialists, systems analysts but most will say EMR or EHR.

2. Informatics -  Informatics as it related to healthcare will include using medical information from clinical, nursing, medical, biotechnology and similar disciplines into an electronic format to be either stored, retrieved, shared, analyzed to help make informative medical decisions.

Job Title Examples: Clinical informatics analyst, Informatics consultants, medical informatics – employers may seek specific degrees in the discipline (ie. RN, BSN, Biotechnology )

3. Enterprise Architecture -  Enterprise architecture with work within a healthcare organization like in other institutions. It is most commonly used to better outline a method of business and uses tools to understand and best document the structure of an organization. Very much strategic in nature.

Job Title Examples: Almost always will have the terms “enterprise architecture” or “data architecture” or “data modeler” in the title. Usually a mix of SOA, data warehousing, ER modeling, Diagram modeling, frameworks, and strategy.

4. Patient Safety related systems & Quality - This area of healthcare will use systems and applications to reduce with the goal to eliminate medical errors in and efforts to drastically increase healthcare quality and communication.

Job Title Examples: Quality and patient safety will usually be part of the title and are non technical. The technical positions will be developers/programmers or applications tester of these types of applications.

5. Interoperability - Overall this area covers bringing together healthcare information technology systems together and integrating them in order for them to work together across locations and then have the ability to deliver quality useful information to service it’s end user.

Job Title Examples: Project management, software engineer, sometimes within informatics, architect and, analysts.

There is so much to know within each of these 5 but there is much opportunity for one with technical skills to seek out so many facets of healthcare.