Rhonchi

South Bend Tribune: Surfers inspire new cystic fibrosis treatment

Hypertonic saline treatment was inspired by some surfers in Australia who, like Devon, also have CF.

They told their doctors that what made them feel especially good was a day on the ocean waves.

Researchers down under and also at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill put the surfers’ tale to the test.

With backing from the U.S. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, they had a group of CF patients inhale 7 percent saline solution twice daily for a year while a control group inhaled normal saline.

Those receiving salty mist had improved lung function and, more importantly, fewer serious lung infections requiring hospitalization.

Help for Seniors on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Posted on Web

The Website produced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide useful information on health specifically for seniors citizens continues to increase its content. Today, NIHSeniorHealth.gov adds information about the diagnosis and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.

Here’s the page: http://nihseniorhealth.gov/copd/toc.html

I also like the ability to change the text size and contrast of the page, and also to print all or parts of the articles easily. Definitely a Section 508 accessible site!

RTs in politics!

Flott to run for House seat
Respiratory therapist Darren Flott announced that he’s making another bid to represent District 98 in the Alabama House of Representatives.

Flott, 40, ran for the position in 2002, losing to the longtime incumbent in a runoff.

The candidate, who said he lives in Eight Mile, is director of the respiratory therapy and cardiopulmonary departments at Atmore Community Hospital/Baptist Healthcare .

An RT job board with RSS feeds? That’s kinda cool and strange.

Respiratory Therapist Jobs
The US Federal Government has the following 8 Respiratory Therapist Job openings.
Check this page often for the latest Respiratory Therapist job openings or subscribe to our Respiratory Therapist Jobs XML feeds.

I get a fair amount of hits because my RT resume at http://artlung.com/resume/respiratory/ is, and has been for a while, the #1 hit for a google search for “respiratory therapy resume” One of my goals for this blog is to have it be a place for job postings, and maybe resume postings. Something easier to use and more focused than a Monster.com. So who’s my competition? Where do RT jobs get posted? Do you have a job to post? Comments welcome below or via email.

In my quest to find RT mentioning blogs I found this December webMD post about Respiratory Therapists. I like the bit about RT being in the basement. That was true of several hospitals I worked at, but by no means all.

If you are new to a community and have asthma or COPD and want to know the best pulmonary specialist for your care, I think that a local RT will steer you to the best pulmonologist, based on their experiences with most of the doctors in your new community. RTs are easily found by going to your local hospital and asking for the RT department (often in the basement, because that’s where the ventilators were traditionally stored).

Main WebMD link.

Scary stuff.

Ground zero workers die from breathing debris laden air – The Cardio Blog
Workers who helped with clean up at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks are being plagued with health problems ranging from respiratory disease to heart failure. James Zadroga, Timothy Keller and Felix Hernandez all worked at the site in various capacities. They all began to cough up bits of gravel after toiling in the debris soaked air. And within the past seven months all three men have died from respiratory related illnesses.

This is an interesting use of the net to give patients information about how hospitals work. I know many times we would be understaffed and be working extra hard, but RTs generally work as teams and can call in one or two people and the slack will get picked up. Nurse staffing is much more acute. Still, nice to see they’re including information about other ancillary services. The site is at http://www.patientsfirstma.org/

Mass. hospital website is set to detail nurse staffing levels – The Boston Globe

The hospital project is impressive in its detail. For each unit at each hospital, consumers can see the average number of patients per day, the number of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nursing assistants working each shift, and any other staff available on each shift, such as a nutritionist or respiratory therapist. There also is a bottom-line number: the average number of hours a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse spends daily with each patient.

The site includes this definition of an RT:

Respiratory Therapy
These individuals perform testing and provide respiratory treatments to diagnose and manage the care of patients with lung and breathing problems. They also monitor and maintain respiratory equipment, and provide patient education.

The information about RT staffing levels seems to be pretty general. Staffing plans are listed but not staffing levels for Respiratory Therapists.

This is interesting. I had not heard that you could deliver insulin in a nebulized / aerosolized form. Intriguing. Pulmonary insulin delivery – which products will triumph?

The big companies currently pioneering pulmonary delivery of insulin are Pfizer, Eli Lilly/Alkermes and Novo Nordisk/Aradigm.Leading the pack is Exubera, which Pfizer now owns after buying the rights off Sanofi-Aventis for $1.3 bn this month.

Exubera is a fast-acting powdered insulin that is inhaled into the lungs before each meal, using a device the size of a torch. Both the formulation and device were developed by Nektar Therapeutics.

With a 2–3 year lead on other such products in clinical development, Exubera should make it to the market first, proving to be a sure-fire blockbuster for Pfizer.

In clinical trials Exubera was as effective as injected insulin, however, it has been shown to cause a short-term decrease in lung function and concerns over the long-term affect of inhaling insulin into the lungs has led to ongoing delays in US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the product.

In September 2005, an FDA Advisory Committee finally recommended approval of Exubera for the treatment of adults with type 1 (insulin-dependent) and Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin-dependent).

However, in October, the FDA extended its original review period of the drug by three months while it considers additional data submitted on its potential to decrease users’ lung capacity.

More on Exubera, it’s a “an inhaled, rapid-acting, dry-powder insulin”, and more about the Nektar delivery device. And this is what it looks like.

Update: LA Times Article on Exubera.

If passed, will pays less for home O2…

WHSV | One Act, One Less Breath
An act of Congress could take many people’s breath away, literally. A section of the “Deficit Reduction Act of 2005” will force patients who are on home oxygen to foot more of the bill. Currently, Medicare pays for the machine, supplies, and maintenance of the tanks; but the bill will stop the coverage after three years. This leaves many wondering what they would do without it.

“If I didn’t have it I’d be laying out on the floor passed out waiting for someone to find me which may never happen,” said Linda Kidd of Harrisonburg.

Linda Kidd has been depending on an at home oxygen tank for more than 10 years. Medicare covers the cost now but not if a new bill come through Congress.

Former President Gerald Ford is getting some RT care for his pneumonia:

thedesertsun.com | Doctors to decide if Ford can go home
Doctors are “currently in the process of assessing” former President Gerald Ford to see if the 92-year-old can leave Eisenhower Medical Center, his chief of staff said this morning.

Ford has been in the Rancho Mirage hospital since Saturday, getting IV antibiotics and respiratory therapy to help him recover from pneumonia complications.

“He is doing well and continuing to respond to treatments,” Chief of Staff Penny Circle said this morning.

…

By late afternoon, Circle said he was getting “continuing respiratory therapy using treatment measures that are not easily available at home.”