Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare.
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Mobile app helps in-the-mood New Yorkers find condoms. The New York City Health Dept. launched the NYC Condom Finder, a free iPhone and Android mobile phone application for locating the nearest New York City venues that distribute free condoms, NYC Condoms to be specific. The application allows those in seek of protection to determine their location through either their phone’s GPS or by entering an address. “The NYC Condom Finder is a useful tool to ensure that New Yorkers have access to free condoms wherever they are in the city,” Health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said in prepared remarks.
Meanwhile, San Francisco lauched a female condom campaign. The Female Health Company (NSDQ:FHCO) is supporting the launch of San Francisco’s social marketing campaign to raise awareness and use of the FC2 Female Condom among people living at risk of HIV infection, the company said. Its FC2 Female Condom remains the only method of female-initiated HIV prevention available with Food & Drug Administration 510(k) clearance, according to the company. Feb. 13 was International Condom Day.
Study links dietary fiber intake and longer life. Dietary fiber may reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular, infectious, and respiratory diseases. Making fiber-rich food choices more often may provide significant health benefits, researchers reported in an NIH-funded study published in the Archives of Intern Medicine.
Study: Caffeine negatively affects youth and a majority consume it every day. Caffeine consumption in children is often blamed for sleep problems and bedwetting, according to The Journal of Pediatrics. Information on childhood caffeine consumption is limited, and many parents may not know the amount or effects of their child’s caffeine consumption, but in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal, researchers found that 75 percent of children surveyed consumed caffeine on a daily basis, and the more caffeine the children consumed, the less they slept.
Spinal surgery is on the rise, worrying some docs. The lower back pain-causing disorder known as spinal stenosis is one of the top reasons older Americans are seeking back surgery, and the condition is expected to affect more Americans as the country’s population ages. "Some orthopedic doctors are concerned the procedure has gotten more complicated than it needs to be as some surgeons combine traditional stenosis therapy with other procedures that fuse vertebrae," writes The Wall Street Journal.
Study calls for more FDA scrutiny of medical devices. A new study by the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that the Food & Drug Administration’s 510(k) program for the majority of the medical devices cleared for use might not be as safe as the device industry claims, reports MassDevice.
