Type 1 diabetes
Treatment almost always involves the daily injection of insulin, usually a combination of short-acting insulin such as regular or Lispro or Aspart insulin and a longer-acting insulin such as NPH, lente, glargine, detemir, or ultralente insulins.
* Insulin must be given as an injection. If taken by mouth, insulin would be destroyed in the stomach before it could get into the blood where it is needed.
* Most people with type 1 diabetes give these injections to themselves. Even if someone else usually gives you your injections, it is important that you know how to do it in case the other person is not available.
* A trained professional will show you how to store and inject the insulin. Usually this is a nurse who works with the health care provider or a diabetes educator.
* Insulin is usually given in 2 or 3 injections per day, generally around mealtimes. Dosage is individual and is tailored to suit the person. Longer acting insulins are typically administered 1 or 2 times per day.
* It is very important to eat if you have taken insulin, as the insulin will lower your blood sugar regardless of whether you have eaten. If you take insulin without eating, you could have hypoglycemia. This is called an insulin reaction.
* There is an adjustment period while you learn how insulin affects you and how to time your mealtimes and exercise times with your insulin injections to keep your blood sugar level as even as possible.
* Keeping accurate records of your blood sugar levels and insulin dosages is crucial in helping your health care provider take care of your diabetes.
* Eating a consistent, healthy diet appropriate for your size and weight is essential in controlling your blood sugar level.
Type 2 diabetes
Depending on how elevated your blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin are at the time of your diagnosis, you may be given a chance to lower your blood sugar level without medication.
* The best way to do this is to lose weight if you are obese and begin an exercise program.
* This will generally be tried for 3-6 months, and then your blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin will be rechecked. If they remain high, you will be started on an oral medication, usually a sulfonylurea or biguanide (Metformin), to help control your blood sugar level.
* Even if you are on medication, it is still important to eat a healthy diet, lose weight if you are overweight, and engage in moderate physical activity as often as possible.
* Your health care provider will monitor your progress on medication very carefully at first. It is important to get just the right dose of the right medication to get your blood sugar level in the recommended range with the fewest side effects.
* Your doctor may decide to combine two types of medications to get your blood sugar level under control.
* Gradually, even people with type 2 diabetes may require insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels.
* It is becoming more common for people with type 2 diabetes to take a combination of oral medication and insulin injections to control blood sugar levels.

Read more...

Hospitals are extremely expensive places to run. Not only does a hospital need to be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, administrators also need to pay for round-the-clock specialized personnel and the cost of the extremely-high monthly energy bills. It is no wonder that some hospitals and clinics simply cannot pay for those high costs month after month. If it is not a busy hospital, it is common for administrators to close down a wing or the hospital altogether. There are still many pieces of medical equipment, however, that are in working condition when this happens. In most cases, these machines and extra supplies are refurbished and sold to another hospital or clinic as used medical equipment. However, other places decide to donate this equipment to medical schools.

It is incredibly important that there is medical school equipment available for the future doctors of this country to use! As potential patients of these future PhDs, we need to make sure that these individuals are trained property in school so that they are ready to practice once they receive their degrees. Used medical equipment is the perfect tool on which medical students can practice their developing skills.  

Medical equipment includes everything from wrap bandages to electrocardiogram machines (EKG machines). Doctors need to know everything from how to apply bandages to stop bleeding to knowing how to interpret basic machines. Most medical doctors start out in the emergency rooms of hospitals where they are on call three nights a week. These individuals need to know how to make decisions in a split second, no matter how tired they feel. Therefore, when their nerves and focus have almost run out, they need to know how to do the most essential basics without even thinking. All the practice they have in medical school will help them become the best doctors they can be before they even make it into the work force.

If you have access to used medical equipment and supplies and would like to help the future doctors of America, or any country worldwide, you should look into donating them to a medical school. The gift of education is one of the best gifts you can ever give! 

Read more...

To write a successful medical device white paper a writer has to know the who, why and how concerning buying decisions in hospital settings. A typical hospital is a complex enterprise that owns a tremendous variety of devices, supplies, gauges and drugs for monitoring, diagnostics and the treatment of patients and disease prevention. Hence, to manage thousands of pieces of medical technology hospitals have a complex system of supervision, which consists of many departments, elaborate policies, procedures and protocols. A sales person cannot just walk in and start pitching. Protocols and procedures must be observed.

The sales process related to a healthcare facility is both a science and an art. Successful marketing depends on a thoughtful approach. It takes patience when selling to a hospital or a laboratory, especially when dealing with high-ticket items. No hospital will make a rush decision to buy a million-dollar MRI machine with $100,000 in annual maintenance costs, for example.

Healthcare facilities have a system in place that assesses and acquires medical technology. Any medical device on the market is scrutinized closely. There is also is an important learning phase in the process, during which a healthcare facility learns as much as possible about devices available on the market. During this learning phase, stakeholders read white papers among other sources of credible information. Stakeholders serve on the following types of committees (different hospitals may have different names):

 

The typical standing members of these committees are senior administrators, medical doctors, engineers, accountants, technologists and physicists, who are MDs, PhDs, PEs and MBAs.

Other stakeholders may also read white papers and influence decision makers, such as the Purchasing, Biomedical Engineering, Central Supplies, and Information Technology departments, clinical users, nurses and technicians.

As can be seen, the audience of a medical device white paper is diverse, professional, highly educated and skeptical. Therefore, a white paper writer has to grasp the complex technology and create a highly educational, persuasive piece of writing that resonates with the level of expertise and expectations of the above-mentioned audience.

Read more...

If you surf online or look at the supermarket shelves the variety of plasters that are available can become a very complicated affair. There are different materials, shapes and sizes and all claiming to be the best…but just where did the first plaster come from?
Well to trace the heritage of the modern day plaster you have to go back to 1920 when Earle Dickinson invented the first adhesive bandage. At the time Earle Dickinson was a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson and the story goes that his wife was “not very adept in the kitchen”. She was always cutting herself in the kitchen and because applying gauze pads and adhesive tape was difficult to do on her own, she often summoned her husband to complete the task.
Johnson & Johnson, the company Earle was working for, had been making sterile dressings and adhesive tapes for decades, but nobody had ever put the two together. Dickson affixed squares of the cotton gauze to a long strip of tape and covered the whole thing in crinoline, which helped to stop the adhesive tape sticking to itself. Mrs Dickson could now simply cut a piece from the strip, peel off the crinoline and bandage her wound.
Not that the first years sales were ground breaking, but over the next few years the product became more streamlined and grew into what everyone now knows as Band Aid –selling over 100billion over the last 80 years.
Nowadays the plaster has progressed into many different ranges, materials, sizes and colours and some of these are a legal requirement to stock. For example the blue detectable range of plasters are specifically designed for the catering industry and are required under the Food Hygiene Regulations Act that when handling or preparing food blue detectable plasters should be used on all cuts and grazes.
Washproof plasters offer a water resistant and ventilated adhesive plaster which helps to provide discreet protection when you don’t want the plaster to be seen, whereas fabric plasters are made from a breathable material that improves healing time and reduces the risk of further infection.
So that’s Blue detectable, washproof and fabric…but what’s this hypo-allergenic type? A hypo-allergenic plaster is a latex free adhesive plaster which reduces the risk of an allergic reaction.The First Aid Warehouse specializes in the supply of first aid equipment and diagnostic products to both the public and trade. They offer an extensive range of products including washproof, fabric and blue detectable plasters.With a wealth of industry knowledge, their online e-commerce platform provides a safe and secure environment to purchase from. They accept all major credit and debit cards and welcome orders from members of the public and health organisations including Primary Care Trusts, Care Homes, Surgeries, schools etc. If you wish to set up a business account, you can contact them either via sales@firstaidwarehouse.co.uk or on 0845 6121217

RESOURCES:
This article is brought to you by First Aid Warehouse, UK’s premier supplier of medical equipment medical plasters , blood pressure monitors, first aid kits , medical furniture, burnshield dressings and stethoscopes . We supply equipment to medical professionals, the care industry and the general public
Please feel free to visit any of our partner websites below: Read more...

A medical coding certification program can prepare coders for complex scenarios and provide them with indispensible skills that are sought by employers. Most programs involve understanding and solving real-life coding scenarios, so that you get your office the reimbursement it deserves. A certification allows coders to demonstrate superior knowledge and make use of the latest updates for an added advantage. Employers too, prefer certified professionals as it saves them from unnecessary fraud allegations and other compliance issues. From a number of programs, the most sought after medical coding certification program is CPC, which is what most employers would look for due to its quality benchmark. The CPC or Certified Professional Coder certification means you’ve passed a rigorous exam and possess the understanding of codes and modifiers. This certification enables you to know the purpose of CPT, HCPCS procedure and supply codes and ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes. The exam tests you for the correct application of these codes for billing professional medical services to insurance companies. You can take this certification exam if you work in a hospital, physician office, home health agency etc. Another sought-after medical coding certification program is CPC-H which validates your proficiency in accurately coding outpatient facility/hospital services. The CPC-H exam also tests you for the correct application of CPT®, HCPCS Level II procedure and supply codes and ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes, especially for coding and billing outpatient facility services to insurance companies. This certification program can prove extremely beneficial for those who are into billing Ambulatory Patient Category groups for facility outpatient services. Apart from these two medical coding certification programs, there are many specialty-specific programs which help coders to demonstrate their expertise and do proper documentation to avoid denials. These certification programs can give a new direction to your career and maximize the reimbursement for your provider by capturing every possible billable charge.

Read more...