Latest Health News

FRIDAY, March 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly half of U.S. health care facilities are already or nearly out of respirators worn by staff to protect against infection as they care for COVID-19 patients, a new survey shows. One in five facilities have no respirators and 28% are almost out of the filtering face masks, which provide advanced protection against viral infection, the online survey of 1,140 infection preventionists found. The survey also found shortages in face shields, hospital masks, goggles and other personal protective equipment (PPE) that hospital workers wear as they treat people infected with the coronavirus. "The results paint a disturbing and alarming picture," said Katrina Crist, chief executive officer of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control...

FRIDAY, March 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Kids who don't get enough sleep may be at risk for ADHD, anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, researchers report. "If we make sure our children get enough sleep, it can help protect them from mental health problems," said researcher Bror Ranum, a doctoral candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The study followed nearly 800 children over several years. It found that those who got the least sleep had the highest odds of developing psychiatric difficulties later. "We're seeing an association between sleep duration and a risk of symptoms of emotional and behavioral disorders," Ranum said in a university news release. The researchers measured sleep with motion sensors every night for a...

FRIDAY, March 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new study casts doubt on claims that artificial intelligence (AI) equals or surpasses the ability of human experts to interpret medical images. Many previous studies were of poor quality and may have exaggerated the benefits of AI, which could pose a risk to the safety of millions of patients, the study authors claimed. The investigators reviewed two randomized clinical trials and 81 non-randomized studies published over the past decade that compared the performance of a deep learning algorithm for interpreting medical imaging with expert clinicians. Deep learning is a branch of AI that has shown particular promise in medical imaging, the study authors noted. Of the non-randomized studies, only nine were prospective (they tracked and...

FRIDAY, March 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- As the coronavirus pandemic stresses the U.S. health care system, personal protective equipment -- including high-tech masks -- are in desperately short supply. But a new study suggests an innovative solution: Reusable respirators typically used by construction or factory workers may be a viable alternative to disposable N95 respirators used by health care personnel. The reusable masks are called elastomeric half-mask respirators (EHMRs), and they "provide the same level of respiratory protection [from infection] as N95 respirators," explained a team led by Lisa Pompeii, professor of pediatrics-epidemiology at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. One potential roadblock to nurses and other health care workers using EHMRs is the time...