Raquel Prendkowski, director of the emergency department for Sinai Health System, thinks some of the death and suffering from COVID-19 could have been avoided if more seniors had regular treatment for chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes and heart disease. She’s hopeful that Illinois’ new policy of providing public health insurance for all low-income noncitizen seniors will help more of them seek treatment.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times
As a nurse manager for one of Chicago’s busiest safety-net hospitals, Raquel Prendkowski has witnessed COVID-19’s devastating toll on many of the city’s most vulnerable people, including those who lack health insurance because of their immigration status.
New Data Strengthen Case for Prechemotherapy Statins medscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
January 5, 2021
Terry Matthews/Alamy; Everyday Health
Statins may have protective benefits for the heart in women undergoing chemotherapy treatment for early breast cancer, new research suggests.
Women on the cholesterol-lowering medications were significantly less likely to visit the emergency room or to be hospitalized from heart failure when on certain chemotherapy drugs than their counterparts who were not taking statins. The results were published in January 2021 in the
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The study looked at anthracyclines and trastuzumab, two types of cancer medications commonly used to treat breast cancer. While these medications are effective at killing cancer cells, they can also damage the cells of the heart muscle, leading to a weakening of the heart and increasing the risk of heart failure.
Opioid use may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found that opioid use might increase a person s risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
Published Jan. 6, the study, titled Opioid Use as a Potential Risk Factor for Pancreatic Cancer in the United States, is the first in the country to show evidence that opioid use may be an unidentified risk factor contributing to the increasing incidence of pancreatic cancer.
In fact, opioid misuse and overdose have evolved into a public health crisis. Approximately 70,000 drug overdose deaths were reported in 2017, 68% of which involved an opioid.¹ The use of prescription opioids for the management of chronic pain has increased remarkably, with more than 191 million opioid prescriptions given to patients in the United States in 2017.
Jan 07, 2021
To centralize hospital information in the fight against COVID-19, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) partnered with Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) to launch a comprehensive COVID data resource and exchange hub.
Described in an August 2020 paper, the project’s goals were to use standardized, interoperable data to generate insights on regional bed capacity, better capture of risk factors and clinical variables among COVID patients and reduce the reporting burden.
Launched in early December, the tool pulls CDPH-mandated data into a common platform, enabling better data reporting and case tracking while also highlighting trends and risk mitigation strategies.