- Updated International Classification of Diseases: The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) have routinely collaborated with injury epidemiology partners to develop standard injury surveillance case definitions based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
- United States Life Tables 2017: There are two types of life tables: the cohort (or generation) life table and the period (or current) life table. The cohort life table presents the mortality experience of a particular birth cohort—all persons born in the year 1900, for example—from the moment of birth through consecutive ages in successive calendar years.
- Leading Cause of deaths for 2017: This report presents final 2017 data on the 10 leading causes of death in the United States by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin. Leading causes of infant, neonatal, and post neonatal death are also presented. This report supplements “Deaths: Final Data for 2017,” the National Center for Health Statistics’ annual report of final mortality statistics.
- Anesthesia study yields new insights into neuroscience of sleep: In a recent study in the journal Neuron, the NIH-supported lab of Fan Wang at Duke University, Durham, NC, used general anesthesia as a tool to learn more about mammalian brain activity. When they placed mice under multiple classes of general anesthesia, a cluster of neurons were activated in the brain’s hypothalamus that produce slow, oscillating waves similar to those observed in the brains of mice that were sleeping deeply.
- Quality Payment Program releases 2017 physician compare data and sees increase in clinical participation rates and success for 2018: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is deeply committed to ongoing data transparency and creating a patient-centered healthcare system, where clinicians are challenged to lower costs and increase the quality of care they provide.
- Moderate calorie restriction in young and middle-aged adults reduces metabolic risk factors independent of weight loss: Moderately reducing caloric intake over a period of two years significantly improved cardio-metabolic risk factors in young and middle-aged, non-obese adults.
- Electricity-conducting bacteria may inspire next-gen medical devices: Technological advances with potential for improving human health sometimes come from the most unexpected places. An intriguing example is an electricity-conducting biological nanowire that holds promise for powering miniaturized pacemakers and other implantable electronic devices.
- NIH study links air pollution to increase in newborn intensive care admissions: Infants born to women exposed to high levels of air pollution in the week before delivery are more likely to be admitted to a newborn intensive care unit (NICU), suggests an analysis by researchers at the National Institutes of Health.
Monthly Data Update. July 2019
- Competition as the engine for lowering healthcare costs: Turning our healthcare payment system into a government-run monopoly is a recipe for high costs and long wait times.
- When it comes to our health – every second counts: Health care: American’s favorite debate topic. While there is much to debate, we can all agree that the patient-provider relationship has been strained by unnecessary regulations and reporting requirements.
- Progress toward 3D printed human organs: There is considerable excitement that 3D printing technology might one day allow scientists to produce fully functional replacement organs from one’s own cells. While there is still a lot to learn, this video shows just some of the amazing progress that is being made.
- Medicaid program integrity: A shared and urgent responsibility: The Medicaid program has grown from $456 billion in 2013 to an estimated $576 billion in 2016, largely fueled by a mostly federally financed expansion of the program to more than 15 million new working age adults.
- Social acceptance helps mental health after ware trauma: A traumatic event is a shocking, scary, or dangerous experience that affects you emotionally. During war, people can be exposed to many different traumatic events. That raises the chances of developing mental health problems—like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression—and poorer life outcomes as adults.
- Gut-dwelling bacterium consumes Parkinson’s drug: Scientists continue to uncover the many fascinating ways in which the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body influence our health. Now comes yet another surprising discovery: a medicine-eating bacterium residing in the human gut that may affect how well someone responds to the most commonly prescribed drug for Parkinson’s disease.
- Elevated blood pressure in first trimester increases risk for blood pressure disorder later in pregnancy: Elevated blood pressure in the first trimester of pregnancy, or an increase in blood pressure between the first and second trimesters, raises the chances of a high blood pressure disorder of pregnancy, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- Using virtual reality to improve health: Virtual reality—often referred to as “VR”—used to be science fiction. Today, it is everywhere. All you need is a smartphone and a headset to immerse yourself in 3-D virtual worlds or games. This booming technology may also be useful for health care and research.