Health and Science
Ferida Wolff's Backyard: The Best Nest & When Birds Get Busy
Ferida Wolff writes: Three years ago I noticed a couple of geese outside of a shopping center. I wondered if they were lost. They seemed to be scouting around looking for something, which I thought might be the rest of their flock. After a few days they had settled onto a garden display and it looked as if they were making a nest. The landscapers delayed planting until the geese left. more »
The Drug Overdose Epidemic: States Require Opioid Prescribers to Check for 'Doctor Shopping'
By tapping into a database of opioid painkillers dispensed in the state, physicians can check patients' opioid medication history, as well as their use of other combinations of potentially harmful drugs, such as sedatives and muscle relaxants, to determine whether they are at risk of addiction or overdose death. "We in the health care profession had a lot of years to police ourselves and clean this up, and we didn’t do it," Kentucky physician Greg Jones, an anti-addiction specialist.
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It's a Prototype! 2016 White House Science Fair
"As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Super Bowl winners. Because superstar biologists and engineers and rocket scientists and robot-builders ... they’re what's going to transform our society. They're the folks who are going to come up with cures for diseases and new sources of energy, and help us build healthier, more successful societies." — President Barack Obama more »
What is the Status of VA Primary Health Care Scheduing? Actions Needed to Improve Access to Primary Care for Newly Enrolled Veterans
"... ongoing scheduling errors, such as incorrectly revising preferred dates when rescheduling appointments, understated the amount of time veterans waited to see providers. Officials attributed these errors to confusion by schedulers, resulting from the lack of an updated standardized scheduling policy. These errors continue to affect the reliability of wait-time data used for oversight, which makes it more difficult to effectively oversee newly enrolled veterans' access to primary care." more »