All Scrubbed Up

I've been engaging a lot recently with the notion of an electronic health record. For those of you who don't know, this is usually an online version of collated data to do with your health. Simply - your pathology, your doc notes, all the hospital visits, illnesses and drug usage are kept in one secure place. You can access it and most of the time, so can a healthcare provider. For those of you that are not in tune with the medical world - this is something you have to know about as it is the backbone of the Obama administration. By having an electronic health record, there is a saving on administration as well as all the good things a centralised database brings. eg. Less duplication of tests and better management of healthcare. Discovery Health in South Africa is launching one next year. It'll be interesting to see how the "population" engages with it. This blog is very interesting in that it clearly outlines the fact that your medical records belong to YOU. M...

It’s a problem that still plagues most third world countries because the level of awareness is pretty low, because the people are not educated enough, and because HIV/AIDS is still rampant. The most important thing on an HIV positive pregnant woman’s mind is the fear that she will pass on the dreaded disease to her unborn child, and most women opt for an abortion rather than put their child through the same torment that they undergo every day. But the truth is, if you follow the right precautions, babies with HIV mothers are unaffected by this virus. Combination antiretroviral therapy must be provided to the mother during pregnancy and during labor, and to the child after birth. Breastfeeding must be avoided as much as possible, and if the mother insists on it or if the child is allergic to other forms of sustenance, they can try the preventive method suggested by a study conducted by the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill. According to this study, providing the infant wit...

Quick excerpt here from a 2001 study that proves tobacco laws reduce smoking. This is damn old. We're getting better at it. The source site is also great for other South African public health statistics . Tobacco consumption declines by Mokgadi Pela 2001-03-16 Tobacco consumption in South Africa has fallen for eight consecutive years since 1991, a meeting to discuss the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control heard in Sandton, Johannesburg, on the 12th of March. Delivering the keynote address, Dr Derek Yach, of the World Health Organisation, said this was a result of sustained tobacco control measures. He said in 1998-99 more than 30 billion cigarettes were released for consumption, down by 17 percent from the 36 billion released in 1993-94. The work of public health advocates in South Africa thrived. Led by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's tobacco control story is now a shining example for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control of public excellence...

For those of you who don't know... Smoking laws are getting stricter. YES! Good on ya, South Africa. If only they'd extend it to alcohol (btw, when is SAB going to STOP making quarts in glass bottles? Have you SEEN Friday night at Bara??) Although he pokes fun and says that smoking laws do nothing - this is not true. There have been large changes in the prevalence of smoking of the first set of laws were passed in South Africa. Same for you overseas? Another post on this soon. More on iMod .

Great article on understanding hospitals, the do's, don'ts, knows and nots. While hospitals can provide a secure refuge when you are seriously ill, remember that hospitals can be scary places! For one thing, the very fact that your doctor wants you to be admitted into hospital means that he thinks you are quite ill and this in itself can generate considerable anxiety! Even worse, hospitals can be very unfriendly places. Not only do hospitals strip you of all your dignity (having to wear a half-open hospital gown which barely covers your body properly does not do much good to your ego!), but also they subject you to painful routines and humiliating rituals performed by a retinue of strangers. Moreover, you could be woken up at any time of the day, (or night), deprived of your privacy, forced to eat unpalatable food, cut off from friends and family, and denied a lot of the independence which you take so much for granted in daily life. Also, remember that hospitals can be danger...