Home Health

This company has a tempting and comforting value proposition for new parents: around-the-clock baby monitoring without so much sleep deprivation. Sensible Baby, a new start-up, is hoping its high-tech onesie can calm some parents’ anxiety stemming from sudden infant death syndrome.[read more]

Medicare telehealth

Telehealth is becoming more prevalent and almost a staple in administering healthcare. Great strides are being made to increase reimbursement payments and provide consistency among payers (Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance). But we have a long way to go.[read more]

Insomnia is bad for you

Having trouble falling or staying asleep? Insomnia may be an important indicator of future hospitalization among middle-aged and older adults, according to a new study published online in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.[read more]

Photo: Tara Higgins, Fosse Photography

The trouble with the current system, Neuhofel argues, is not that patients havehealth insurance, but rather that they are entirely dependent upon it. "I tell people that insurance is best reserved for expensive, unexpected events," he explains. For health maintenance and minor problems, he believes, most people should probably be paying out-of-pocket.[read more]

sciatica home remedy

Burning, tingling, shooting, throbbing: sciatica pain is brutal. Here are the best medication-free methods to relieve the pressure on your sciatic nerve, while reducing inflammation in your lower back.[read more]

elder care robots / shutterstock

The aging population plus fewer family caregivers, fewer available human aides and relentless advances in technology are making the routine use of robotic assistants for the elderly all but inevitable. If and when I get old and am on my own, I’ll be ready for my robot or robots.[read more]

caregiver/shutterstock

Increasingly, family caregivers with no formal training are doing the kind of work more commonly associated with hospital-based nurses: operating dialysis machines and ventilators, administering IVs and injections, and using monitors for blood glucose, oxygen saturation and more.[read more]

new mobile app

You can take your own temperature or someone else’s right from the iPhone using the Kinsa Smart Thermometer. The device simply connects to the iPhone headphone jack. The app will display the patient’s temperature almost immediately on the screen.[read more]

medication mix-up? / shutterstock

Medication mix-ups are a well-known source of errors in the hospital, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it happens in the home. "Medication Errors in the Home: A Multisite Study of Children With Cancer" documents the high rate of errors in at-home administration of medications for pediatric cancer.[read more]

patient-centered

In healthcare, it’s common to hear buzzwords thrown around. While patient-centered medical homes and Medicaid health homes share some similarities, there are key differences in how each model enhances care for those with chronic conditions and supports aging in place. Here's a breakdown.[read more]

sedentary americans / shutterstock

A new government study says that Americans are more sedentary than ever, and that includes people who exercise regularly. Americans, on average, take 5,117 steps a day, far short of the averages in western Australia, Switzerland and Japan. The American Heart Association recommends 10,000.[read more]

micheal j. fox

The 7-month study at patients' homes and outpatient clinics at two academic medical centers sought to examine the feasibility, effectiveness and economic benefits of using web-based videoconferencing (telemedicine) to provide specialty care to patients with Parkinson disease at their homes.[read more]