by Annie Cardi on August 24, 2009
by Annie Cardi on August 24, 2009
Other children’s health stories we’ve been reading:
by Claire McCarthy on August 24, 2009
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
There were days last spring at Martha Eliot Health Center when I felt like all I was seeing was swine flu. Patient after patient had the classic symptoms of high fever and cough. Even when I was doing a routine checkup on a patient, it was not uncommon for a sibling to be in the room coughing–and when I touched them, hot with fever. In my nearly 20 years of being a primary care pediatrician, I had never seen anything like it. Full story »
by Annie Cardi on August 21, 2009
Other children’s health stories we’ve been reading:
- Vice President Joe Biden announced that nearly $1.2 billion in grants will go towards helping hospitals and doctors utilize electronic health records. The grants, funded by the $787 billion economic stimulus plan, will be available on October 1. Full story »
by Annie Cardi on August 21, 2009
Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he gave some great suggestions for kid-friendly films.
And now, here’s this week’s Ask the Mediatrician query:
Q: My son is entering 3rd grade and is an only child. When he has playdates at his friends’ homes, sometimes the moms allow video games above my son’s age level, usually because my son’s friends have older siblings. It makes me uncomfortable, but I’ve noticed that a lot of parents don’t appreciate it when I ask that they not play any video games during the playdate—it’s viewed as trying to control what happens in their home, or as some judgment upon them for allowing the younger child to play age-inappropriate games. I don’t want to tell my son he can never go to their houses, so do you have any advice? I usually try to have kids over to my house so that it’s not an issue, but at some point, the other parents want my son to come to their home.
-Problems with Playdates in Evanston, IL Full story »
by The HealthMap Team on August 21, 2009
This is the second of what will be weekly H1N1 updates from the HealthMap team of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program.
- A new study in the journal Science says vaccinating students should be a priority this year. CHIP researcher John Brownstein, PhD, was quoted this week in an AP story about the study.
- This week, World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 1,799 people have died from H1N1 worldwide.
- South Korea, Japan, Ghana, Madagascar, Yemen, Malta, New Caledonia (France), Kuwait, and Cook Islands each reported their first H1N1 fatalities. French Polynesia reported its first death, but diagnostic tests performed in France raised questions about the validity of this report.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Belarus each reported their first confirmed H1N1 case.
- In the United States, federal officials urged businesses to prepare for a resurgence in swine flu. Recommendations included flexible sick leave, cross-training individuals with mission critical tasks, limiting face-to-face meetings and travel and encouraging hand washing. Full story »
by Matt Cyr on August 20, 2009
Earlier today, I attended a meeting with leaders from Nursing, Emergency Management, Safety, Pharmacy, the Emergency Department and other areas where we discussed the intensive and complex preparations Children’s Hospital Boston is making to deal with a possible H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak this fall and winter. Tomorrow, Boston Mayor Tom Menino is hosting the first-ever Boston Influenza Preparedness Summit, which is expected to bring together officials from hospitals, businesses, schools and religious and community organizations. The HealthMap team in the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program is tracking H1N1′s progress on a minute-by-minute basis.
Yet a new Washington Post-ABC News poll suggests that most Americans aren’t worried about H1N1.
Are you? Are we all getting worked up over nothing? Or does all this preparation and hoopla make you feel better?
For more information on Flu (seasonal and H1N1) from Children’s Hospital Boston, visit http://www.childrenshospital.org/patientsfamilies/Site1393/mainpageS1393P385.html
by Childrens Hospital Boston staff on August 19, 2009
By Tricia Garcia-Dergay
Riley arrived on July 6, 2007, via c-section at a hefty 9 pounds and 10 ounces. She was gorgeous, plump and hairy. The doctors mentioned she had a heart murmur, but probably nothing we needed to worry about.
Fast-forward two weeks. Riley is home but has been fussy for a few days and not eating. She’s grunting and her color is off. Her dad and mom (who is herself dealing with a bout of Bell’s Palsy) take her to her pediatrician. He takes one look and goes into full “I’m more heroic and ‘take charge’ than Dr. Green from ER!” mode and rides with Riley (now in respiratory distress) in an ambulance to New England Medical Center (NEMC).
Riley spent the new two weeks at NEMC. While there, she underwent a cardiac catheterization to better diagnose the underlying problem. We knew she had pulmonary hypertension and mitral valve regurgitation. But we were still uncertain about the underlying cause. Full story »
