Health Imaging & IT - April 2008 - (Page 48)

sTaT sheeT u.s. voters ready for health IT The majority of U.S. voters (70 percent) said they would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who supports the creation of a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), according to a survey commissioned by Computer Sciences and published by Government Technology. The survey of 1,000 U.S. residents found that: › 84% of respondents ages 18 to 24 said they would vote for a candidate who supports the creation of a NHIN, compared with 68 percent of those over the age of 25; › 67% said they have never heard presidential candidates discuss health IT or electronic health records; › 60% said they believe that quick, secure access to EHRs can improve patient care, especially during an unexpected crisis; › 48% said they believe EHRs will reduce hospital costs and hassle; and › 36% said they believe EHRs will lead to fewer hospital errors. Chronic pain alters brain activity Patients with chronic back pain showed different patterns of brain activity than healthy volunteers while performing a simple task, indicating that chronic pain widely disrupts normal brain activity. Researchers at Northwestern University said their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicate that chronic pain leads to broad changes in resting brain activity, affecting regions not traditionally associated with pain signaling. Researchers monitored brain activity with functional MRI scans while participants performed a simple target-tracking task. Findings indicate that the brain of a chronic pain patient is altered by the persistent pain in a way similar to other neurological conditions associated with cognitive impairments. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of respondents said that a national EHR system could address some of the country’s most critical health issues, such as improving the quality of care and expediting medical research. Music can enhance stroke recovery Listening to music has been shown to enhance cognitive recovery and improve mood after a middle cerebral artery stroke, according to findings published in Brain. Patients who listened to music of their choice soon after a stroke also had a more positive mood than those who did not listen to anything or who listened to audio books. Although many patients spend the first few post-stroke weeks in non-therapeutic activities, the researchers said this is an ideal time to start rehabilitation. They found that it’s possible that music may help patients cope with the emotional stress of a stroke, stimulate the recovery of damaged areas of the brain and have general effects on brain plasticity. WHY WE sCratCh that itCh Functional MRI studies of the brain show that scratching increases brain activity in some areas and decreases it in others. Researchers from Wake Forest University, in findings published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, sought to understand why scratching an itch is pleasurable. Scratching induced deactivation of the perigenual anterior cortex and in the dorsal and ventral posterior cingulate cortex, bilaterally in all cases. Peak Z scores ranged from 2.31 for the right ventral posterior cingulate cortex to 4.05 for the left dorsal posterior cingulate cortex. When participants reported the most intense sensation from scratching, the level of deactivation in the anterior cingulate cortex was highest. 48 Health Imaging & IT | april 2008 Living to 100 is in reach Even people who develop heart disease or diabetes late in life can live to see 100, according to research published in Archives of Internal Medicine. About two-thirds of the more than 700 people who had reached the age of 100 had avoided significant age-related medical problems. The rest developed an agerelated disease before reaching the age of 85, but still functioned almost as well as their disease-free peers. Healthimaging.com http://Healthimaging.com

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Health Imaging & IT - April 2008 Contents On the Web The Enterprise News Update Cracking Down: CT Radiation Dose 3D Rendering: Options Galore Thinking Thin-Client Modality Review Ergonomics & Design Special Section: Storage Strategies Imaging Tools Technology Outlook People & Technology Technology Review IT Trends Reader's Resource Stat Sheet

Health Imaging & IT - April 2008

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