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NEWS:
Woman Receives Double Lung Transplant After Being Turned Away from Over 20 Hospitals
She was deemed too “high risk” for surgery but the transplant team at UCLA accepted the challenge of treating her.
Miriam Merianos was a healthy woman in her 40s when she got the flu. The virus attacked her lungs and Miriam was placed on a machine called ECMO that worked for her heart and lungs and kept her alive. Her only chance for survival was a double lung transplant, but she was told she was too high-risk for surgery. However, her family was not willing to take “no” for an answer.
“We knew we had to find a hospital that was willing to take my mom’s complicated case because she wanted to live and be there for her three children. Knowing that made our voice stronger for her,” said Miriam’s daughter, Elaine Kramer.
After being rejected by more than 20 transplant programs, they turned to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where Dr. Abbas Ardehali reviewed Miriam’s case and accepted h
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American Nurses Association Joins Letter Urging Public to Wear Masks to Stop the Spread of COVID-19
The American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Medical Association (AMA) and ANA issued an open-call-to-action urging the public to take the steps that we know to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives. This includes wearing a face mask, maintaining physical distancing, and washing hands.
An open letter to the American public,
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have urged the American people to protect themselves, their neighbors and their loved ones amidst the worst global health crisis in generations. After months of physical distancing and staying at home, infections and deaths began to decline.
But in the weeks since states began reopening, some of the steps that were critical to the progress we made were too quickly abandoned. And we are now watching in real-time as a dramatic uptick in COVID-19 cases is erasing our hard-won gains. Hospitals in some s
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ASCP to Collaborate with ASCLS and ASM in Choosing Wisely Campaign
By request from the ABIM Foundation, ASCP has collaborated in working with the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) and the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) as they participate in the Choosing Wisely initiative.
The Choosing Wisely campaign, launched by the ABIM Foundation in 2012, aims to reduce test overuse and encourage clinicians and patients to question which tests are really necessary.
The ASCLS released its first set of recommendations, reviewed by ASCP, of which laboratory tests should be questioned.
Do not order a factor V Leiden (FVL) mutation assay as the initial test to identify a congenital cause for a thrombotic event. First, order a phenotypic activated protein C resistance (APCR) ratio assay.
Do not use herpes simplex virus (HSV) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for genital HSV infection screening in adults and adolescents. Real-time
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Study Indicates that Medicaid Expansion Has Led to Earlier Cancer Detection Among Individuals with Low Income
New research found that the likelihood of being diagnosed with advanced cancer decreased among individuals with low income after expansion of Medicaid coverage. The findings are published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid coverage for most adults in the United States with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, and many states opted to do so starting in 2014. This led to increased enrollment in Medicaid, with most new enrollees reporting that they had previously been uninsured.
Providing insurance coverage to these individuals may lead to more consistent care, including a greater likelihood that people will be routinely screened for cancer. To examine whether Medicaid expansion has led to earlier cancer detection, Uriel Kim, PhD, a medical student and researcher at Case Western Rese
