Springhill Group: Treat Childhood Obesity

You may find fat kids cutie ones but they may be starting to suffer from obesity.  Obesity is a serious medical condition that often leads to serious diseases.  Childhood obesity often carried out until adulthood, more health complications may occur.  And obesity plays a significant role in causing certain so called ‘adult ailments’ in our children such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Childhood obesity is usually caused by eating too much and not getting enough exercise.  While there are some genetic and hormonal causes of childhood obesity, studies show the primary cause of children being overweight is due to lifestyle issues such as eating more calories than is needed to support their growing bodies, daily activities and metabolism.


All experts agreed that obesity is a health risk that may result to the following health problems for children.

Hypertension
Type 2 Diabetes
Orthopedic
Sleep
Depression
Asthma
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Height and BMI
Heredity
Signs of stress of weight on lower limbs and joints
Absence of logical thinking

How to treat obesity in children:

 If your child has a weight problem you should a consult a doctor or nutritionist.  A healthy eating plan is strongly suggested. This is also to make sure that no serious health problems have developed.  Some parents delay this action in the hopes that the problem will just go away but this delay can cause more complications and illness and I will get worse.

Not only obesity can cause many health problems but it can also cause variety of emotional problems.  Their being obese can lower their self-esteem.  So do not make them feel bad more about themselves, they had enough from school instead just need to help them by developing healthy eating and exercise habits, and lots and lots of moral support.

You should be aware avoiding making their weight as an issue, if you will encourage him to focus on his weight tendency is that their self-esteem will suffer more rather it is best to show them how maintaining a healthy weight will lead to extra energy and fewer health problems.

Express your unconditional love. Remember to make them fell loved no matter what.  Overweight children need support, acceptance, and encouragement from their parents.


This is probably the most important and maybe the best solution.  Be a good role model. Parents are responsible for putting healthy foods in the kitchen at home, as well as leaving unhealthy foods on the grocery store shelves.  You cannot really blame the kids because you maybe is the problem.  Practice what you preach!  After all you are the one responsible of what food to put in the table.


Do not set food as rewards and put realistic goals.  It is also better if you will spend time together exercising, in this way he will be more excited to do it because he is with you.  Make them feel that you are together with this.

Highly Pathogenic H5N1: Deadly to Birds and to Humans

http://springhillmedgroup.com/


Influenza A virus or more known to us as H5N1 is an avian (bird) flu, an influenza A subtype that has caused outbreaks in domestic poultry in parts of Asia and the Middle East.  This is deadly to them and is considered “highly pathogenic” meaning highly disease causing.  Although the virus does not usually infect people but infectious that these viruses occurred in humans.  Most of these cases have resulted from people having direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces.



There are three types of viruses, A, B, and C, that can cause flu to human.  The type A is characterized not only to human but to other mammals and birds too.  The virus transmitted by air.  The type A virus is composed of two obligatory protein components. One is called hemagglutinin and is lettered H, and the other—neuraminidase (N).  And there are 13 variants of hemagglutinin and 9 of neuraminidase, which then can characterized what type of virus it is.  Making H5N1 is just out of the many possible variants of the virus structure.



Many parts of the world has been infected by the virus such as Asia, parts of Europe, the Near East Africa, birds as well as half of the humans infected did not survive.  The outbreaks infected poultry and wild birds, and humans who have direct contact with the infected animal.  In most cases, healthy children and young adult and have resulted from direct contact with H5N1-infected poultry or contaminated surfaces were infected.



The H5N1 virus does not infect humans easily and in general it remains very rare disease in people.  If the person is infected it is not that easy to spread it to another human.  However, there has been some human-to-human spread of the virus although it is limited.



But scientists are anxious that H5N1 virus one day could infect humans then spread easily from person-to-person because viruses such as influenza have the ability to change.



Although at the moment that the virus do not commonly infect humans, there is little or no protection against them and if the virus will change and could begin to spread from human-to-human there will likely result a very high deaths.



To know whether infected by the virus, people may show as follows:

Symptoms:

Fever and cough
Acute respiratory distress
Shortness of breath/difficulty breathing
Abdominal pain
Diarrhea
Muscle aches
Conjunctivitis
Breathing problems (severe cases)
Pneumonia (severe cases)
Complications:

Pneumonia
Respiratory failure
Shock
Altered mental state
Seizures
Failure of multiple organs (e.g. kidney failure)
Death


If someone with H5N1 experienced diarrhea followed rapidly by a coma without developing respiratory or flu-like symptoms.  Studies showed of the levels of cytokines in humans infected by the H5N1 flu virus.  Of main concern is an elevated level of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, a protein that is associated with tissue destruction at sites of infection and increased production of other cytokines.  A flu virus-induced increase in the level of cytokines is also associated with flu symptoms including fever, chills, vomiting and headache.  Tissue damage associated with pathogenic flu virus infection can ultimately result in death.

Warning! Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to your Health!

Article from the Springhill Group

Did you know that the leading cause of premature death in the United States is no other than cigarettes?  A preventable death but it claims almost half a million lives each year.  To the extent that the government required larger and more prominent warnings on cigarette packaging and advertisements as part of the strategy to help consumers quit smoking and prevent young people from starting.  But despite of this it seems like tobacco users are not conscious about it.

The effects of cigarette smoking to human health are really serious and in fact deadly.  There are approximately 4000 chemicals that are present in the chemical composition of cigarette and hundreds of which are toxic.

 Smoking effects on the human body are destructive and widespread.  The ingredients in cigarette affect everything from the internal functioning of the organs and target the efficiency of the body’s immune system.  Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.

Here are some facts cigarette smoking can cause you.  Toxic ingredients in cigarette smoke travel throughout the body, causing damage in several different ways.    Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells, preventing affected cells from carrying a full load of oxygen.  Cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) in tobacco smoke damage important genes that control the growth of cells, causing them to grow abnormally or to reproduce too rapidly.  The carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene binds to cells in the airways and major organs of smokers.  Smoking affects the function of the immune system and may increase the risk for respiratory and other infections.  There are several likely ways that cigarette smoke does its damage.  One is oxidative stress that mutates DNA, promotes atherosclerosis, and leads to chronic lung injury.  Oxidative stress is thought to be the general mechanism behind the aging process, contributing to the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and COPD.  The body produces antioxidants to help repair damaged cells.  Smokers have lower levels of antioxidants in their blood than do nonsmokers.  Smoking is associated with higher levels of chronic inflammation, another damaging process that may result in oxidative stress.  Nicotine reaches the brain within 10 seconds after smoke is inhaled.  It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.

Due to these facts, it is now known that cigarette smoking is deadly.  An estimated 443, 000 deaths, or nearly one of every five years, each year has been noted in United States alone.   It is more than the deaths caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.   Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.  An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.

This is very bothering.  That is just some of the diseases that one can get from cigarette smoking.  Smoking can also increased heart heath risks, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cancer not to mention infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Springhill Group: Happiness Starts at Being Healthy

 http://springhillmedgroup.com/2012/11/springhill-group-happiness-starts-at-being-healthy/

It is important to monitor your health and start young but for most people out there who hold back because of their age, it is never too late to change your lifestyle and start living a healthy life. It has been a genre that if you wanted to get fit and healthy you must go to the gym and slog yourself to maintain your fitness. Sure it can help you but did you know that just by changing your general daily activity can particularly improve your health and energy?

Keeping healthy and staying fit is quite a challenge but will definitely make a big change in your emotional wellbeing, ease physical symptoms, lighten your loads and can make you see brighter outlook of life.

Here are tips on how to stay healthy with lesser effort:

Did you know that walking can be a great form of exercise? Yes, as simple as walking can make you healthier.

• Lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol)
• Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol)
• Lower your blood pressure
• Reduce your risk of or manage type 2 diabetes
• Manage your weight
• Improve your mood
• Stay strong and fit
• Provides many of the same benefits as more vigorous forms of exercise, but with less chance of injury
• Fits into any lifestyle, so you're more likely to do it regularly and stick with it
• Doesn't require special equipment, apart from a pair of supportive shoes
• You don't need special facilities, its FREE
• You can combine it with other activities like walking your dog.

After a few weeks or so, you will realize that you fell lighter and stress-free. Your energy levels increase, you do not get to tire easily.

Your daily habits can affect your health entirely as well. As you adapt to every changes in your daily activities you can notice many differences in your energy level.

· If your workplace is too far for walking and you need a means of transportation yet is too near to drive, you can use your bicycle instead.

· Takes stairs instead of the lift or escalators.

· Hand carry your groceries instead of using a trolley.

· Walk your dog in the afternoon.

· Do physical activities instead of turning into television and computers if bored.


Those are just examples of what you can do; maintain the habit and you will see changes in no time. Do not be impatient, as they say “no pain, no glory”.

Shave off calories! Body weight depends on a balance ‘calories in’ and ‘calories out’. Calories are another name for the energy content of food and drinks. Weight increases if these calories intake are higher than the calories that are being burned by your body. Calories are burned through the use of that energy. You must take off 600 calories energy intake everyday. Recommended target intake of calories for men is 1,900 and 1,300 for women. Avoid eating high-fat foods and alcoholic beverages they are high in calories. Eat variety of foods and avoid saturated fats.

Many factors are affecting your health for some reason there are factors you cannot change. But you can do something about your lifestyle and food intake. And as important as your diet and exercise are, your mind set, your mood and outlook in life play a big part for you to become a healthier you.

Fraud Blog | Taking the air out of airbag scams

Blogged by cecania80 at  livejournal

Source: http://www.insurancefraud.org/blog/

Imagine you’re driving home after a pleasant dinner with friends one night. An oncoming vehicle veers and slams into your car. Glass flies and metal buckles in that terrifying split second, but your airbag doesn’t open.

Zhensong flooded the U.S. market with tens of thousands of counterfeit bags made at his plant in China. A suspected cohort named Igor Borodin allegedly sold 7,000 of the knockoffs. All told, some 250,000 bags could be out there, either installed or waiting to be installed, the feds say. Zhensong has 37 months in federal prison to rethink his career choice.

How big is airbag fraud nationally? That’s anybody’s guess; nobody keeps total stats.

And most body shops are honest, but some knowingly install worthless airbags after the valid original bags deploy during a crash. Buy a $50 knockoff from the internet or a shady street dealer, and charge the insurer several hundred dollars.

Body shops also shove beer cans, packing peanuts, old sneakers and other junk into the airbag compartment. Or they just leave the compartment empty.

Sometimes a body shop will even pull out an airbag that hasn’t deployed, then lie to the insurance adjuster that the bag had opened during the accident.

Used and salvaged vehicles are especially vulnerable to these scams, but so is your new car if it crashes. So let’s return to Zhensong. Alarmed carmakers have set up call centers that drivers like you can contact to see if your airbag is counterfeit.

Innocent drivers have died or been grievously injured without airbag protection. San Diego-area teenager Bobby Ellsworth died when the Dodge pickup truck in which he was riding crashed. A body shop had stuffed the airbag compartment with paper and glued it shut. Even the dashboard light was disabled so it wouldn’t flash a warning.

Nursing assistant Damaris Gatihi was driving along Interstate 5 in Seattle. Her Toyota Corolla was bumped from behind, then spun around and hit another vehicle head-on. Her airbag didn’t deploy; she died from massive bleeding in her heart. A body shop had cut out the airbags and glued the covers back on to make the bags look functional. A local TV investigation discovered numerous used cars for sale without airbags and phony compartment covers.

Laura Vega of Houston was badly injured and her mother killed when their car was hit head-on. Neither air bag worked. The passenger-side airbag had been previously deployed, then stuffed back in and the cover taped shut. There was no driver-side airbag at all.

Connie Van Slyke’s used minivan crashed. The Kansas City, Mo. woman was killed instantly, possibly after falling asleep at the wheel. Her neck was broken, relatives told reporters. Connie had bought the minivan used, just two weeks prior. The vehicle had been in an earlier crash and the airbags had deployed. Nobody reconnected the bags, and the dashboard warning light was removed. Connie was a single mother; she left behind three young sons.

Najma Ladhani was driving alone in her car outside of Vancouver, Canada. She swerved into an oncoming car. She was found dead, crushed over the steering wheel. A piece of foam filled the compartment instead of an airbag.

Ok, enough of these terrible deaths. Point made: Airbag cons are a nasty insurance ripoff, but a far worse threat to the lives of everyone in a vehicle.

You can turn the odds in your favor with by taking these life-saving steps:

Check the dashboard airbag safety light. It should blink for a few seconds then turn off. If the light doesn’t come on or keeps blinking, you may have a faulty airbag;

Have a certified mechanic you trust inspect the airbags of any used or salvaged vehicle you’re considering buying. Don’t try to take off the lid yourself; it might trigger an explosion;

Use a commercial service to search the history of a used vehicle you’re considering buying. See if it has been in a crash or salvaged; and

And once again, contact your carmaker call center and see if your airbag is bogus.

It’s time that every driver mobilizes to take the air out of airbag scams. This is one speed limit we should all break.

NBC Bay Area | Los Angeles Man Tied to Series of Fraud Cases Sentenced in Medicare Scheme

From nbcbayarea.com

A Los Angeles man was sentenced to six years in prison last week for his role in a power wheelchair scam, topping what prosecutors say has been a series of Medicare fraud cases.

David James Garrison, 50, a former physician assistant, was found guilty by a federal jury for his role in submitting $18.9 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for power wheelchairs and other equipment.

The wheelchair case is the third time Garrison has been accused of Medicare fraud. In 2009, Garrison pleaded no contest to tax evasion for his role in what prosecutors described as a fraudulent medical clinic. He pleaded not guilty in October to charges that he forged prescriptions as part of an OxyContin ring that sold 1 million pills on the streets. That case is ongoing. Garrison's attorney did not return a call for comment about the cases.

Garrison's physician assistant license lapsed in 2009, said Russ Heimerich, a spokesman for the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees many state licensing boards. He said the board examined the tax evasion case and did not see it as grounds for discipline.

According to court documents, Garrison's cases involved the use of “cappers” or “marketers” who recruited Medicare beneficiaries to submit to unneeded care or hand over their personal information. That information was used to bill the program for medications, services or supplies that the patients didn’t need.

In the wheelchair case, prosecuted by the Los Angeles U.S. attorney's office, one witness testified that  marketers had to recruit beneficiaries as far as 300 miles from Los Angeles because so many local people had already been used in other fraud schemes.

In the first health fraud case linked to Garrison, he was described as an “at large” suspect in October 2007 when then-Attorney General Jerry Brown announced arrests in a $1.5 million health fraud scam. "The suspects create a fake healthcare clinic to line their own pockets rather than help the sick and elderly," a 2007 statement from Brown said.

In that case, Garrison was accused of ordering medically unnecessary diagnostic tests at Scott Medical Center in Burbank, where he had worked since 2003. Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries were recruited to go to the clinic, where expensive tests were ordered and billed to the government.

Garrison pleaded no contest to tax evasion in 2009 related to his earnings from the clinic.

When federal authorities arrested Garrison in the wheelchair scam in 2010, he was also charged for keeping a .357 handgun in an unlocked hatbox near the front door of his Inglewood apartment. Garrison pleaded no contest in 2010 to being a felon in possession of a firearm.  Heimerich said while the gun case was prosecuted by the state, it arose from a federal arrest that did not trigger a notice to the physician assistant licensing board. Also, he said a state court clerk was required to notify the board but did not. During a two-week trial, evidence showed that Garrison worked at Van Nuys and Los Angeles clinics where he wrote prescriptions and ordered tests on behalf of six doctors, including one whose photo he couldn't identify. With Garrison’s prescriptions in hand, co-defendant Edward Aslanyan sold them for $1,000 to $1,500 to owners of about 50 different medical equipment firms. The medical supply companies used the prescriptions to buy the chairs from wholesalers for about $900, then billed Medicare for up to $5,000 per chair.

The hefty profit margins have made the wheelchairs a major target for Medicare fraud throughout the U.S. Garrison and Aslanyan wrote and sold the prescriptions from March 2007 to September 2008, prosecutors said. A jury found Garrison guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, six counts of health care fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Aslanyan pleaded guilty to his role in the scam and was sentenced to six years in prison as well.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kirman, the medical equipment firms included one run by a pastor, Christopher Iruke, who relied on members of the Arms of Grace Christian Center to perpetuate Medicare fraud. Court documents show that two Garrison acquaintances told a defense investigator that he was their children's track and field coach and was honest and well-liked. One parent said Garrison's "integrity is unshakable."

In November, Garrison faces trial on drug charges related to a clinic that allegedly forged prescriptions for the addictive and powerful painkiller OxyContin, which was sold on the street for up to $30 per pill. Prosecutors say he worked there from the summer of 2009 to February 2010. He has pleaded not guilty.

In that case, federal prosecutors allege that Garrison worked as a physician assistantat an Eighth Street clinic in Los Angeles where recruiters offered Medicare and Medi-Cal patients cash or free medical care to go to the clinic. There, Garrison and others met briefly with patients and issued prescriptions of 90 top-strength OxyContin pills. Other members of the alleged drug ring went with the patients to obtain the pills from pharmacies and gave them to another man who sold them on the street.

Garrison told investigators that he issued the prescriptions if he felt the patients needed pain medications or had been taking OxyContin.

Asian frogs becoming extinct before they can be identified, biologists warn

 from:  guardian.co.uk, Fiona Harvey in Jeju, South Korea

Scientists fear amphibian destruction will be disastrous, with many species disappearing uncatalogued.

Frogs and other amphibians are being wiped out at such a rapid rate across Asia that many are going extinct before scientists even have a chance to identify them as new species, biologists warned at an international conservation meeting in South Korea this week.

The scale of the destruction – caused by habitat loss, disease, pollution and other factors – is hard to quantify, but scientists fear the result will be disastrous. Amphibians have been suffering a wave of devastation all around the world, in part because of the spread of the fungal disease Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, known as BD or chytrid fungus, which has wiped out whole populations within the space of a few years.

But while conservation and monitoring efforts have so far focused on the Americas and Europe, little work has yet been done in the world's most populous continent, with the result that many amphibian species there are as yet uncatalogued and unstudied. For instance, according to one researcher, there are probably at least three to four times as many amphibian species in India alone as are currently catalogued.

Frogs and other amphibians are among the most threatened creatures in the world today – globally, at least a third, probably 40%, of amphibian species are in urgent danger of extinction, making a total of more than 2,000 species of amphibian so far documented to be officially "threatened", "endangered" or "vulnerable", classifications used by scientists to describe the level of threat. "This is higher than any other terrestrial animal," said Jaime García-Moreno, executive director of the Amphibian Survival Alliance.

The plight of frogs and other amphibians is of particular concern to scientists because many think the devastation afflicting them could be a foretaste of that in waiting for other creatures. Their physiognomy makes amphibians particularly sensitive to small changes in their environment, including temperature changes such as global warming, and to water and air pollution.

This sensitivity, some scientists believe, could be behind the sudden and unexpected extinction of certain species even from well-protected areas. Waldman pointed to the golden toad of Costa Rica which "disappeared from a pristine habitat".

Scientists could also learn more about the deadly chytrid disease from studying Asia, noted Mi-Sook Min, research professor at Seoul National University. Some indicators suggest the disease could even have come from the continent, as most cases to date have been found in other continents which may indicate a long history in Asia whereby amphibians have evolved to live with the disease. However, there are also indications in other research that the disease could have been existing in Latin America since the 1880s.

The scientists, presenting their work at the World Conservation Congress, the quadrennial meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in Jeju this week, called for more research into amphibians in Asia as a matter of urgency.

Samsung, Sony renew rivalry in medical devices

From: KoreaTimes written by Cho Mu-hyun

After trading blows over the last two decades for supremacy in the consumer electronics market, Samsung Electronics and Sony are set to continue their rivalry in the new arena of medical devices.

Only a decade ago, the Japanese company led almost every sector in the information technology industry while its Korean competitor trailed behind trying to catch up. Now, Samsung finds itself ahead in major markets such as smartphones and other consumer electronic goods. It remains to be seen whether Sony can strike back in the medical equipment market, where it’s experience and sophistication in optical technology and systems could provide an advantage. Both firms are planning aggressive investment in the business during the second half of the year.

Following a change of leadership from Howard Stringer to Kazuo Hirai in April, Sony has been vocal about its intentions to find new growth engines, one of them being the medical business. New CEO Hirai said during his inauguration press conference on April 11 that the company plans to make the medical sector a “business worth 100 billion yen ($1.25 billion) in the mid- and long-term.”According to statements released on the same day, Sony has set a sales target of 50 billion yen ($629 million) for its 2014 fiscal-year. It is planning to purchase 58.18 percent share of subsidiary Sony Entertainment, which in turn holds 55.19 percent of M3, a medical service provider. The main motivation behind the purchase is to take managerial control of M3.

Out of some 280,000 doctors based in Japan, around 200,000 are reportedly subscribed to an Internet information service offered by M3.

The Japanese firm is also planning to buy shares of Shinjuku-based lens maker Olympus, which saw its stock price plummet after admitting guilt to the biggest accounting fraud in the country’s history. Olympus makes the best endoscopes in the world, a must-have business for Sony in order to successfully venture into the medical arena.The electronics maker has seen a fourth consecutive fiscal-year loss, which it attributed to last year’s floods in Thailand that hampered its supply chain there, the global recession and a strong yen. It posted a record loss of $5.7 billion for the financial year that ended in March.

It has been trying to find leeway outside its electronics division, its established mainstay business, especially from Sony Pictures. Though Hirai vowed to regenerate the company’s television business to its “former glory,” the sector is currently dominated by the world’s biggest television manufacturer Samsung.

The Korean firm toppled Sony in 2006 and has been the top television maker for 26 straight quarters, according to research agency DisplaySearch. The agency said it had a global market share of 28.5 percent in terms of revenue. Samsung posted a record quarterly profit for the second quarter of $5.9 billion thanks to skyrocketing smartphone sales. But the company is leaving no stone unturned and has chosen medical equipment and biologics among five new key growth engines (the others being solar energy, car batteries and light emitting diode display panels) that together could bring in 50 trillion won ($44.1 billion) in revenue by 2020. The group acquired medical equipment maker Medison and renamed it Samsung Medison, and recently absorbed eight of its subsidiaries based overseas into the one here. The outfit is speculated to be looking into merging companies making equipment for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography.

“Samsung is considering various ways to expand into the medical business as we have chosen it as one of our new growth engines,” said a Samsung spokesman. He declined to comment on specifics of which companies in what country the group is looking into buying. The spokesman said that Samsung will manufacturer X-ray computed tomography equipment while Samsung Medison will make magnetic resonance imaging machines.

Doctors still trying to diagnose mysteries of hantavirus

The CDC has tracked every case of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome across the U.S. since it was first identified in the country in 1993. That year, 48 people became ill. From 1994 to 2011, an average of 28 people got the disease each year. Above, a researcher from the University of New Mexico, shown in this 1996 photo, weighs a mouse caught in traps during a study of hantavirus. (Paul Bearce, Associated Press /January 1, 1996).

By Kate Mather and Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

Nearly 20 years after hantavirus was first identified in the U.S., doctors are under pressure to quickly learn more about the pervasive and deadly disease.

In his 30-plus years as a doctor, Bruce Tempest had never seen anything like it.

A Navajo man having trouble breathing showed up at the emergency room of a small hospital in Gallup, N.M. Less than an hour later, he was dead. The man had been young, athletic and otherwise healthy. His fiancee had died days before, also from sudden breathing problems.

"This is something different," Tempest, now 76, remembered thinking of the 1993 illnesses. "It just doesn't fit."

Tempest contacted area doctors, looking for other cases. Then he asked the University of New Mexico for help. Soon, the patients were being airlifted to Albuquerque. They arrived with chills and aches but soon were in complete respiratory distress. Physicians were at a loss: Was it sepsis?Influenza? Bubonic plague?

Doctors had confronted a medical mystery, and they knew it had to be solved quickly. Patients were showing up at the hospital "not feeling well one day and being dead the next," said Gregory Glass, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.

When the cases hit television, a lucky clue came in. A doctor called and said the illness sounded a lot like a virus he had observed in Korea in the 1950s. It was called hantavirus.

This summer's hantavirus outbreak in Yosemite National Park has served as a sobering reminder: Mystery still surrounds the disease.

"The biggest mystery is we don't have a good explanation," said Barbara Knust, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist. "For Yosemite, why this year of all years is there an increased number of cases?"

Nearly 20 years after being identified in the U.S., hantavirus is better understood but no less vexing. Researchers now know it causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severerespiratory disease. It is transmitted through the droppings and urine of deer mice, and not through person-to-person contact. Treated early, patients have a better chance of survival. But there is no cure, and more than one-third of patients die.

The Yosemite cases follow the pattern: Three of the eight visitors who fell ill died. Officials have called the outbreak unprecedented — more than one hantavirus infection from the same location in the same year is very rare.

The National Park Service has closed the cabins believed to be at the heart of the outbreak. State and federal scientists are scouring the park, trapping mice and conducting laboratory tests. Public health officials are warning doctors worldwide to watch for possible symptoms, which can be confused with the flu and can take weeks to show up.

And the California Department of Public Health said the risk of new cases remains, even as the summer surge of visitors wanes....moreover

Asia Ends Down, China Hits March 2009 Lows

Asian shares edged down in choppy trade on Monday, encouraged by a fresh report of a potential framework for the European Central Bank's new bond buying scheme, as well as hopes of a strong easing from the Federal Reserve.

Central bank sources told Reuters on Friday that the ECB is considering setting yield band targets under the bond-buying program to shield its strategy from speculators, but the decision would not be made before its Sept. 6 policy meeting.

There is a dearth of major economic data in Asia on Monday, meaning the market's focus in the short-term will remain fixed on Europe, with longer-term focus on the annual U.S. Jackson Hole meeting of central bankers and economists later this week.

The FTSE CNBC Asia 100 Index [.FTFCNBCA  6030.29     58.37  (+0.98%)], which measures markets across Asia, slipped 0.7 percent.

Seoul stocks edged down slightly as Samsung shares slumped after a U.S. court ruled against Samsung Electronics in a smartphone patent claim by Apple [AAPL  676.27     6.04  (+0.9%)                ].

The slump offset news that rating agency Moody's had upgraded South Korea's credit rating to match those of China and Japan.

Samsung Electronics closed down 7.5 percent, its largest single-session drop since Oct 2008 that wiped $12 billion from its market capitalization since Friday.

Other group companies included in Samsung's smartphone manufacturing value chain were also hit, with Samsung C&T Corp, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, and Samsung SDI all down 1 to 6 percent.

write ups from  Reuters with CNBC.com

Researchers build software to map criminal networks

ItNews | Phone calls, social networks on the radar - Sydney researchers are developing an open source tool that could allow security professionals to detect and visualise unusual behaviours in two dimensions.

Called GEOMI (Geometry for Maximum Insight), the Java-based tool has been under development at the faculty since 2005, with version 2 released last year.

Sydney University professor Seok-Hee Hong said the tool could be used to analyse complex relationships in social networks, email and phone records.

By presenting information as two-dimensional visuals, she said the tool could allow police and security specialists to look for various relationships and abnormal behaviour, such as 'short cycles'.

The term 'short cycle' refers to chains of connections that loop back to the original source in only three or four steps.

Hong described GEOMI as a research prototype and generic visual analytics tool that had yet to be commercialised for specific domains.

Besides law enforcement, the tool could also be used to map biological networks -- including protein-protein interaction, gene regulatory networks and biochemical pathways.

Hong said GEOMI algorithms were "superfast", capable of running in "O(n log n) time [compared to] existing ones [in] O(n2) time, where n represents the size of the graph".

Earlier this month, the New Zealand Police agreed to commercialise its Environment for Virtualised Evidence (EVE) technology, used to mine seized electronic devices like mobile phones and PCs for clues.

*GEOMI used to detect viruses in in an email network.

source: from the article of Juha Saarinen on Itnews

Briefs: New Scientist - Chicago Tribune

originally posted on: chicago tribune

First Case of Alleged Stem-Cell Fraud Enters US Courts

Six people in the U.S. are suing biotech company RNL Bio for alleged fraud over controversial stem-cell treatments

The days of "stem-cell tourism" could be numbered. Six residents of Los Angeles are suing South Korean company RNL Bio and associates in a California court for alleged fraud. They claim the company convinced them to travel to clinics in South Korea, China or Mexico to donate fat tissue and have stem cells from it re-administered to cure diseases and even reverse aging.

Stem cells hold great medical promise, but only one treatment is licensed in the U.S. and that is for a rare blood disorder. Others are experimental and it is illegal to offer them commercially. Yet some companies tout stem-cell "cures" that are carried out outside the U.S. RNL Bio calls its fat-tissue stem cells "safe technologies" for treating various disorders.

There have been protests against these treatments for years, but this is the first civil lawsuit for damages, says Paul Knoepfler of the University of California-Davis. It "serves notice to the purveyors of unproven stem-cell treatments" that they may face litigation if they market in the U.S., says Bernard Siegel of the Genetics Policy Institute, a stem-cell watchdog in Palm Beach, Fla.

Drinking red wine could benefit seniors

originally posted on springhill group medical and health news

A component of red wine has been found to improve mobility for older people, according to a new study.

Researchers from a university in Pittsburgh have specified resveratrol, a natural-occurring compound that is also present in red wine, could aid in improving mobility of older people and subsequently prevent falls.

The group of researchers fed old and young lab mice a diet that includes resveratrol for a period of 8 weeks while testing their ability to walk around a balance beam. They then took note of the number of times each mouse made a misstep. Initially, the older mice found it difficult to traverse the obstacle but on the 4th week, they made significantly fewer missteps and seemed to perform as well as the young ones.

“Our study suggests a natural compound like resveratrol, which can be obtained either through dietary supplementation or diet itself, could actually decrease some of the motor deficiencies seen in our aging population. And that would, therefore, increase an aging person’s quality of life and decrease their risk of hospitalisation due to slips and falls,” said Dr. Jane Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh has presented the results at a conference of American Chemical Society held in Philadelphia, noting that motor-related problems like difficulty in walking or balancing are the leading causes of injury among people over the age of 65.

Several medications could aid in alleviating some of the motor-related effects of Parkinson’s disease, though there is currently no such treatment for improving walking and balance in adults.

But despite the promising results, they are warning anyone who would use this as an excuse to drink red wine indiscriminately: resveratrol is something that is poorly absorbed by the human body. Actually, a 150lb individual needs to ingest 700 (4oz) glasses of red wine per day to absorb enough of the compound and achieve any beneficial effect.

They are now actively exploring similar compounds that could yield the same effects and will be more easily absorbed by the human body. Also, they are trying to figure out just how much resveratrol goes to the brain when ingested.

Previous studies have concluded that resveratrol, typically found in dark-skinned fruits and red wine, has the potential in reducing cholesterol, risk of cancer and heart disease.

About the Medical Group

Springhill Group Services offers the healthcare market with customized departments that put emphasis on nearly every area of the healthcare industry. Medical Facility Staffing

We provide local, regional, and national staffing services to healthcare facilities through specialized divisions.

Springhill group on Non-medical care

Springhill Group Services companions are available on an as-needed basis to assist seniors, new and expectant parents, and other individuals who may need non-medical care or additional help around the house.

Springhill Group

http://www.yelp.com/biz/springhill-group-spring-hill

Category: Medical Centers

Birdie Ln
Spring Hill, FL 34606

(352) 585-2205

http://springhillmedgroup.com/

Let's get social....

....spread the news all over the world with just one click thru the social media sites.

Medical Services

More information about the U.S. Department of Commerce Safe Harbor Program can be found at http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/ .

MGMA is the premier membership association for professional administrators and leaders of medical group practices. http://www.mgma.com/

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) represents medical groups and organized systems of care, including some of the nation’s largest, most prestigious integrated healthcare delivery systems.  http://www.amga.org

Springhill health services

We provide patients with the care they need and the comfort and independence they deserve:

• Clinical Service Delivery:

• Patient-Centered Care

• Quality Improvement

• Healthcare Technology

Springhill Group Report Fraud

To help protect yourself and Medicare from fraud and identity theft you should report it.

Whenever you get a payment notice from Medicare review it for errors. The notice shows what Medicare was billed for, what Medicare paid, and what (if anything) you owe. Make sure Medicare was not billed for health care services, medical supplies, or equipment you did not get.

Before you contact your health care provider, Medicare, or the Inspector General’s hotline, carefully review the facts, and have the following ready:

• The provider’s name and any identifying number you may have.

• The service or item information you are questioning.

• The date the service or item was supposedly given or delivered.

• The payment amount approved and paid by Medicare.

• The date on your Medicare Summary Notice.

• Your name and Medicare number (as listed on your Medicare card).

• The reason you think Medicare should not have paid.

• Any other information you have showing why Medicare should not have paid.

Report Errors

HHS Office of Inspector General

Phone

1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477)

TTY: 1-800-377-4950

Internet

Report Fraud Online

Mail

HHS Tips Hotline

PO Box 23489

Washington, DC 20026-3489

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

Phone

1-800-Medicare

1-877-486-2048

Mail

Medicare

Beneficiary Contact Center

PO Box 39

Lawrence KS, 66044

Yelp Map - Springhill Group

Birdie Ln, Spring Hill, FL 34606

Disney Touche Allows Wireless Control over Appliance

Scientists at Disney Research in Pennsylvania, Springhill Group and Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new touch-and-gesture recognition technology called Touche, envisioning a future where almost every item could be controlled with a touch sensor.

Their project obviously aims to illustrate more applications of touch sensitivity in everyday items like water, tables and door handles using a person’s body as the control.

Touche could also have limitless applications in the workplace. One example is setting a door handle to various states just by grasping it in a different way. You could also activate touch sensitivity on the doorknob that would lock and unlock depending on the pressure you put on the handle.

Another fancy example is the capability of the Touche system to give you control on your living room appliance. You can program the TV to automatically turn on once you sit down on the sofa and turn it off when you fall asleep.

Disney’s Touche uses Swept Frequency Capacitative Sensing (SFCS) in monitoring and responding data points from a user’s Bluetooth wristband. But unlike touch screens that can only recognize whether it is being touched or not, SFCS recognizes the manner in which the object is being touched. A flat palm, two-finger touch or single-finger touch could be programmed with various responses.

The system works when an electrical signal passes through the item changes once it touched a conductive material like the human finger. This capacitative sensing is already being used in smartphones, the only difference is that they use only one frequency of electrical signals compared to Touche’s array of frequencies. Multiple frequencies enables the system to differentiate among various touch gestures and can determine if it’s a full-hand grasp, multiple fingers or a single one. Moreover, it only takes one sensing electrode attached to the item at one end and a PC unit on the other, analyzing the alternating signals to determine the specific gesture in use.

Disney Research appeared to have stepped away from making animated characters to look into more complex uses for touch-based technology saying that “it is not inconceivable that one day mobile devices could have no screens or buttons and rely exclusively on the body as the input surface.”

According to the proponents, the research was inspired by the disappearing computer theory of Mark Weiser in 1991. His idea was that physical devices will eventually fade into the background and new interaction with technologies will emerge in the future. But a manufacturer of touchscreen devices have nothing to worry yet as Touche is still in its concept stage.

The Disney researchers are set to present their technology at the Springhill Group Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems next week in Austin, an event hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.

How to Prevent Medicare Fraud - Springhill Group

Over the years, Medicare has been proactive in its efforts to bring awareness to Medicare fraud, a national problem that costs the program millions of dollars each year. The Medicare program relies heavily on a number of sources to assist them in the detection and prevention of Medicare fraud including professionals of the healthcare industry.

Overview of Medicare Fraud

Medicare fraud generally refers to willfully and knowingly billing medical claims in an attempt to defraud the Medicare program for money. Anyone found guilty of Medicare fraud is subject to exclusion from participation in the Medicare program in addition to fines and possibly imprisonment. Most Medicare fraud occurs in these areas:

• Billing for DME

• Billing for physicians services

• Billing for institutional services such as nursing homes, hospitals, hospice, etc.

Be Aware of Common Schemes


There are four popular Medicare fraud schemes.

1. Medical Equipment Never Provided The most common area of Medicare fraud is billing for Durable Medical Equipment (DME). DME refers to any medical equipment necessary for a patient’s medical or physical condition. It includes wheelchairs, hospital beds, and other equipment of that nature. The provider will bill Medicare for equipment that the patient never received. Mobility scooters have been particularly popular for Medicare fraud schemes.

2. Services Never Performed In this instance, the provider bills for tests, treatment or procedures never performed. This can be added to the list of tests a patient has actually received and never be noticed. A provider may also falsify diagnosis codes in order to add on unnecessary tests or services.


3. Upcoding Charges Misrepresenting a level of service or procedure performed in order to charge more or receive a higher reimbursement rate is considered upcoding. Upcoding also occurs when a service performed is not covered by Medicare but the provider bills a covered service in its place.

4. Unbundling Charges Some services are considered all inclusive. Unbundling is billing for procedures separately that are normally billed as a single charge. For example, a provider bills for two unilateral screening mammograms, instead of billing for 1 bilateral screening mammogram.


Medicare Fraud Indicators

There are certain indicators that are common in the detection of Medicare fraud. Is your practice:

• Routinely waiving copayments and deductibles for Medicare patients without checking for their ability to pay?


• Charging higher rates to Medicare patients compared to other persons for similar services?

• Missing treatment documentation such as physician or nurses notes?


What to Do If I Suspect Fraud?

It is your responsibility as a representative of the healthcare industry to be aware of and report any fraudulent activity suspected. If you would like to report suspected Medicare fraud, contact the Department of Health and Human Services or the Office of Inspector General for further assistance.

International Travel Health Insurance Tips - the Springhill Group

written on springhill group

When you are traveling around the world these days there is a lot you need to be concerned with. International travel health Insurance is one of them. When you travel internationally you never know what can happen to you, but you need to prepare for the unexpected.

If your health insurance does cover international care, then it may have a time limit. Thirty days is a common limit on care for international travel health insurance. Again, you want to make sure on this because if you get special insurance for international travel, you don’t want to get duplicate insurance.

If for some reason you become very ill and need to stay in a hospital for an extended period the current health insurance you have may not cover you for a longer period.

If you are a senior citizen, it’s important to note that Medicare doesn’t cover you abroad.

According to the U.S. Center For Disease Control and Prevention half of U.S. travelers abroad will have some sort of health problem.

There are many types of international travel insurance plans. There are short term international travel health insurance plans, there are long term travel health insurance plans and there are plans that deal with non medical issues. These issues may be non medical to begin with but they can make you feel sick later. An example of non medical travel insurance is trip cancelation for international travel.  read complete article

Study: Medicare Contractors Vulnerable to Conflict

write up from springhill group

Firms that are paid tens of millions of dollars to root out Medicare fraud are bidding on contracts to investigate companies they are doing business with _ sometimes their own parent companies, according to a government report released Tuesday.

Two-thirds of the companies that bid on contracts during a nearly year-and-a-half time period beginning in October of 2010 had financial ties to claims processors _ and in some cases also processed Medicare claims themselves, according to the study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector-general. The report blames what it calls a flawed bidding system and an inadequate conflict-of-interest policy.

The study looked into bids from about 100 potential contractors and subcontractors and found nearly 2,000 relationships that posed potential conflicts. For example, one company submitted a bid to investigate Medicare fraud even though its parent company provided two types of Medicare coverage in all 50 states.

Medicare fraud contractors are often tied to a large number of providers, but the report doesn’t break the numbers down by each contractor.

The federal government requires Medicare fraud contractors to identify their potential conflicts and their financial interests in other companies when submitting bids, but the report found they often failed to provide all the information. Even when they did, it was sometimes inconsistent or unclear, according to the study, which urged federal health officials to adopt formal, clear guidelines for companies to follow when submitting bids.

Tuesday’s report examined only companies bidding on springhill group Medicare-fraud contracts, not those with existing contracts. But a 2011 congressional survey of companies providing Medicare reimbursements revealed that some had financial relationships with the contractors investigating them.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency overseeing Medicare, said in a statement that it has a robust program for identifying potential conflicts among providers and that it has taken the proper steps to vet these contractors. Contract bidders who identify a potential conflict must submit a separate plan for how they will mitigate the issue, according to the agency, which added that it has not awarded deals to companies with significant conflicts of interest.

When Medicare began in 1965, Congress mandated that private contractors process and pay claims. Under 1996 legislation, Medicare hired a separate set of contractors to monitor fraud, reasoning it was wise to separate claims payments from the fraud-detection side.

Medicare currently pays 4.4 million claims worth more than $1 billion per day. Contractors comb through thousands of claims to find spikes in billing patterns in an effort to stop an estimated $60 billion a year in fraud.

Lawmakers say the potential for conflict has grown as the manner in which contracts have been assigned has changed. In the past, contractors were assigned to investigate certain regions of the country, so it wasn’t a big concern if they had an association with a company in another region. But now that they are moving to a national model, lawmakers warn there is a bigger potential for the contractors to oversee companies with which they have financial relationships.

“If (contractors) with conflicts of interest become less vigilant in combating fraud, then taxpayer dollars may be wasted on payments to unscrupulous providers,” the report concludes.

The study was commissioned by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Carper said it is critical to improve the system “because these private-sector contractors perform many of the key payment, oversight and other administrative functions in Medicare.”

Facebook – Springhill Group on Statins Can Cause Diabetes, Memory Loss

Health regulators are including warning to the medicine labels of popular cholesterol-lowering drugs that they might increase blood sugar and possibly cause memory loss.
FDA has publicized last week that there has been alterations in the safety information labels of statins of Merck & Co’s, AstraZeneca and Pfizer — medicines that are used by millions of Americans.
Statins have long proven that it is effective in reducing the risk of heart attack and other heart disorders and, according to FDA, this new development must not scare people into halting the use of the medicines.
FDA announced that they know of studies wherein several patients taking statins might have an increased risk of having high sugar levels in the blood and, eventually, of being diagnosed with diabetes.
They have apparently known for 4 years now that statin ‘slightly’ increases blood sugar but they are insisting that this does not change that statins are effective in reducing heart risk for patients.
This is the first time that FDA has officially connected the use of statin to cognitive disorders like confusion and forgetfulness, even though several patients have already reported those problems for years. The drugs affected include big brands such as Vytorin, Crestor, Zocor and Lipitor.

see more on springhill group facebook page