Category: health care

  • Rife vs Ripe: Which is Right?

    Rife vs Ripe: Which is Right?

    I noticed a couple of things about one of the President’s many new Executive Orders, which was “ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN COMMISSION,” or MAHA for short. It was posted on February 13, 2025. One thing it reminded me of is the tax filing season, which is upon us (everything reminds me of…

  • FDA Has Yet to Decide on What to Do About the Clozapine REMS Program

    FDA Has Yet to Decide on What to Do About the Clozapine REMS Program

    I checked on what the FDA is doing about changing or closing down the Clozapine REMS program. It doesn’t look like they’ve taken any action yet. Recall there was a Clozapine REMS Advisory Committee meeting about this on November 19, 2024 that I posted about recently. The upshot was that the committee voted overwhelmingly (14…

  • How About Artificial Intelligence for Helping Reduce Delirium in the ICU?

    How About Artificial Intelligence for Helping Reduce Delirium in the ICU?

    I got the Winter 2025 Hopkins Brain Wise newsletter today and there was a fascinating article, “Using AI to Reduce Delirium in the ICU: Pilot Study will explore AI headset can help reduce delirium and delay post-delirium cognitive decline.” The article has exciting news about what researchers are doing which will, hopefully, reduce the incidence…

  • Artificial Intelligence in Managing Messages from Patients

    Artificial Intelligence in Managing Messages from Patients

    I ran across another interesting article in the JAMA Network about Artificial Intelligence (AI) with respect to health care organization managing messages from patients to doctors and nurse. The shorthand for this in the article is “in-basket burden.” Health care workers respond to a large number of patients’ questions and it can lead to burnout.…

  • Is Edinburgh Manor in Iowa Haunted?

    Is Edinburgh Manor in Iowa Haunted?

    I have no idea whether an old former county home in Jones County is one of the most haunted places in the Midwest or Iowa or the USA. And I wouldn’t be saying that if Sena and I had not watched a TV show called “Mysteries of the Abandoned” (broadcast on the Science Channel) which…

  • Music Therapy in End of Life Care Podcast: Rounding@Iowa

    Music Therapy in End of Life Care Podcast: Rounding@Iowa

    I just wanted to make a quick shout-out to Dr. Gerry Clancy, MD and Music Therapist Katey Kooi about the great Rounding@Iowa podcast today. The discussion ran the gamut from how to employ music to help patients who suffer from acute pain, agitation due to delirium and dementia, all the way up to even a…

  • Could Artificial Intelligence Help Clinicians Conduct Suicide Risk Assessments?

    Could Artificial Intelligence Help Clinicians Conduct Suicide Risk Assessments?

    I found an article in JAMA Network (Medical News & Perspectives) the other day which discussed a recent study on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in suicide risk assessment (Hswen Y, Abbasi J. How AI Could Help Clinicians Identify American Indian Patients at Risk for Suicide. JAMA. Published online January 10, 2025. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.24063). I’ve published several posts…

  • Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trying to Defeat Humans?

    Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trying to Defeat Humans?

    I just found out that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been reported to be lying as far back as May of 2024. In fact, because I can’t turn off the Google Gemini AI Overview. Gemini’s results always appear at the top of the page. I found out from my web search term “can ai lie” that…

  • Don’t Shovel Your Heart Out

    Don’t Shovel Your Heart Out

    We’re waiting for the next snowfall. We’ve had a couple of light ones so far and we used shovels to clear our driveway and sidewalk. They didn’t amount to much, but we’ll get a heavy snow here pretty soon. We’ve been using shovels for years. I’m aware of the risks for heart attacks in certain…

  • Should We Trust Artificial Intelligence?

    Should We Trust Artificial Intelligence?

    I‘ve read a couple of articles recently about Artificial Intelligence (AI) lately and I’m struck by how readily one can get the idea that AI tends to “lie” or “confabulate” and sometimes the word “hallucinate” is used. The term “hallucinate” doesn’t seem to fit as much as “confabulate,” which I’ll mention later. One of the…