
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Former President George W. Bush followed in the footsteps of his VP, going under the knife to receive an implanted stent to clear blockage in an artery 13 years after Dick Cheney.
A spokesman for the former President did not reveal which stent-maker developed the product now safely clearing the president’s blockage, but his and other public figures’ medical procedures sometimes have the power of an unintended celebrity endorsement.
Still, the former POTUS has a long way to go before he catches Cheney, who has has a laundry list of cardiovascular procedures. In March 2011 he was implanted with a left ventricular assist device or LVAD, a tiny pump that helps the heart get get more oxygenated blood to the body’s extremities.
Bush is said to be "in high spirits," and is slated to return to his home in Texas tomorrow, according TheHill.com.
Entrepreneurs are antisocial, says new study
When painting with a wide brush, a majority of entrepreneurs have anti-social tendencies and exhibit rule-breaking behavior in adolescence, a new study shows. The Swedish longitudinal study, which defined an entrepreneur as someone who owns a business, tracked 400 children over a 40-year period. The study suggested that these childhood differences tended to even out in adulthood.
Read more
WebMD released a consumer guide for patients, detailing the basic principles of healthcare reform and offering step-by-step instructions on how to buy insurance. Dept. of Health & Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius commented earlier this week that her department does not have enough cash to back such an extensive education program. WebMD is one of many groups working on a citizen outreach program,
such as the AARP, Walgreens, CVS and BlueCross BlueShield.
Read more
Peripherally inserted central catheters, or PICCs, have exploded in popularity based on the assumption that they are safer for all patients, but a new meta-analysis shows that their safety depends on how medically vulnerable the patient is. The analysis showed that hospitalized patients with PICCs were just as likely to contract infections as patients with other central venous catheters, but non-hospitalized patients were better off with PICCs than other devices.
Read more