SOAR Act
From the AARC:
AARC, the professional membership organization for your profession, is working diligently to advocate for new legislation benefitting respiratory therapists and their patients alike. But now is the time for RTs to take action for the SOAR Act! Advocate for your profession by filling out the form linked in the button below. The information you provide will be used to automatically reach out to your state’s senators and ask them to support the SOAR Act.
SOAR ACT INTRODUCTION
Senators Cassidy (R-LA), Warner (D-VA) and Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the Supplemental Oxygen Access Reform (SOAR) Act – S 3821. The legislation is based on the 4 pillars of Medicare oxygen payment reform that the AARC has supported with many others in our broad coalition of patients, providers and the durable medical equipment (DME) industry. The SOAR Act creates a statutory service element to provide adequate reimbursement for respiratory therapists to ensure supplement oxygen patients have access to their expertise.For more information about the SOAR Act, please go here.
Perhaps it’s time to revamp this site.
I started this site in 2006. At the time I had a notion about using blogs and websites for respiratory therapists.
It did not takeoff.
For a time I made some passive income, using Google AdSense – – on this site, and on other sites. The ads were straightforward and small. And the revenue was fair. But the default is now highly intrusive. It’s simply not worth it.
So as of this morning I’ve removed advertisements from AdSense. I may revisit that but they’re just horrendous.
I would like to see if there’s a way to make this site be useful to someone though.
The last time I posted here was in 2019.
COVID-19 changed the world in 2020.
It is unfortunate that I did not have the inclination and energy to revamp this site during COVID.
But maybe there’s something new to be done.
Asthma and Redlining
Heyo! It’s a blog post here at Rhonchi — check this article: Historically redlined communities face higher asthma rates
“Redlining maps that were drawn 80 years ago, partially on the basis of race, are still predictive of not only who lives in a neighborhood, but also what kind of health problems they are experiencing,” said Anthony Nardone, a medical student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, who led the analysis.
Rhonchi.com
So if you’re reading this — well — I’m shocked — my intent for this site was to be something for Respiratory Therapists. It’s named, after all, for a breath sound.
I’ve updated this site to WordPress version 5.1-alpha-43678. I did this via the good ol’ command line: wp core update --version=nightly.
But anyway, really I needed a site I could test my plugin Open Graph Protocol Tools with on 5.x to test that the new Gutenberg tools work. Mind you, there’s no real reason to believe that a plugin that injects things into the HTML <head> would impact Gutenberg stuff but better safe than sorry.
Free to AARC members: A Guide to Aerosol Delivery Devices for the Respiratory Therapist
A Guide to Aerosol Delivery Devices for the Respiratory Therapist — 4th Edition
CRCE: 6 hours | Cost: Free for AARC members, $15 for non-members
Lung on a chip
In a move that could signal a shift in the way we test pharmaceuticals, researchers at Harvard University have developed a human lung on a chip. The tiny device contains actual human cells, mimicking the way the human lung works.
Social Networking and RTs
Good article in ADVANCE: Social Networking Websites Dos and Don’ts:
- Don’t deliberately disclose protected health information
- Don’t discuss “OMG” clinical situations
- Do consider whether those compromising spring break pictures are really going to enhance your social standing
- Do use restraint when discussing your personal opinions
- Don’t expect any privacy when using your employer’s computer or mobile device
The whole thing is worth a read. In general, never put anything online that you would not be comfortable appearing on the front page of your local paper.
The bit about disclosing patient information is much more critical, and stems from a more general point about the incredible importance of patient privacy rights.
Hello RTs!
I’ve added a new service called TypePad Connect, which will be a way for people to comment on this blog from other kinds of accounts – OpenID, Facebook, Livejournal, Blogger, lots of different kinds of accounts. It’s just a test and I’m not sure how well it will work. Try it out!
Power failure kills woman who spent 50 years in iron lung
I never took care of anyone who was in an iron lung, but I did see one in action on a patient at UVa many years ago. The main thing I remember was that the huge piston which provided the actual pressure gradient to cause ventilation. As I recall, the vent sheets were different because an iron lung is so different from a mechanical ventilator.
The family of a Tennessee woman who spent more than 50 years in an iron lung says she has died after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing.
Dianne Odell said she died early Wednesday. The 61-year-old had been confined to the 3.5-metre-long machine since she was stricken by polio at 3 years old.
Brother-in-law Will Beyer said family members were unable to get an emergency generator working for the iron lung after a power failure knocked out electricity to the Odell family’s residence near Jackson.
Ms. Odell spent her life in the iron lung, cared for by her parents and other family members. Though confined inside the apparatus, Ms. Odell managed to get a high school diploma, take college courses and write a children’s book.
Any of our readers ever manage an iron lung?
Background on iron lungs, which includes some interesting links to other iron lung information.