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Plan To Reduce Red Tape Will Benefit Patients, Australia
Draft proposals by the Productivity Commission designed to reduce the red tape burden on medical practices will benefit patients, the AMA said today.
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Ginseng -- Nature's Anti-Inflammatory?
Laboratory experiments have demonstrated the immunological effects of ginseng. Researchers writing in BioMed Central"s open access Journal of Translational Medicine have shown that the herb, much used in traditional Chinese and other Asian medicine, does have anti-inflammatory effects.
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Sodium Bicarbonate Appears To Slow Progression Of Chronic Kidney Disease
A daily dose of sodium bicarbonate - baking soda, already used for baking, cleaning, acid indigestion, sunburn, and more - slows the decline of kidney function in some patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD), reports an upcoming study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "This cheap and simple strategy also improves patients" nutritional status, and has the potential of translating into significant economic, quality of life, and clinical outcome benefits," comments Magdi Yaqoob, MD (Royal London Hospital).
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Use Of Lawyers Linked To Increased Health Care Utilisation Among Trauma Patients, Australia

A survey of trauma patients reported in the Medical Journal of Australia has found that compensation-related factors are significant predictors of health care utilisation. Ian Harris, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of the University of New South Wales" South West Sydney Clinical School, and his colleagues approached patients on a hospital trauma database who had been admitted between 1 May 1999 and 30 April 2004. A total of 355 patients responded to the survey. After examining a broad range of variables, the results showed a definite correlation between compensation and utilisation of health care. "Most notably, we found a significantly higher utilisation rate among patients using a lawyer". This remained true "after allowing for the effects of time since injury, other compensation factors, injury severity, demographic factors and socioeconomic factors". "The reason for this effect is uncertain." The analysis "showed that use of a lawyer and claiming compensation both had a strong effect, but the effect of a compensation claim was not significant after allowing for use of a lawyer." "It is possible that patients with more severe conditions required more health care visits, and were more likely to have a complex claim ò€¦ however, we did not find that injury severity was a significant predictor of health care utilisation." The results also showed that a longer time since injury and having a head injury were significantly associated with lower health care utilisation, whereas being unemployed and having a chronic illness were associated with higher health care utilisation. Professor Harris said the study provided evidence showing both predisposing factors (such as age and chronic illness) and enabling factors (such as compensation) are significant predictors of health care utilisation. Medical Journal of Australia


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