Establishing an asthma action plan for your pediatric patients is a great first step, but helping them and their families adhere to it could be even more important. Self-management through an asthma action plan that guides patients in adjusting their medication improves quality of life, reduces use of health care and leads to fewer days…
Erythrocytapheresis (automated red cell exchange) increasingly is used to replace sickled red cells in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients as an alternative to transfusion. The procedure doesn’t significantly raise the total hemoglobin — a frequent result of other methods — when replacing sickled red cells with healthy donor cells. Erythrocytapheresis removes the patient’s sickled red…
Gregory Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., neurologist and accomplished memory disorders researcher, has joined Norton Healthcare as medical director of the new Norton Neuroscience Institute Memory Center. Dr. Cooper was most recently medical director of memory care for Baptist Health in Lexington, Kentucky, his hometown. He is a faculty member at the University of Kentucky College of…
UK HealthCare (UKHC) and Norton Heart & Vascular Institute are announcing a collaboration to expand advanced heart failure, ventricular assist device (VAD) placement and heart transplant services to Kentuckians. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Kentucky, and the commonwealth has one of the highest rates of heart disease in the country. Norton…
Sexual health is important for any adult’s well-being, but patients with cancer face a new set of challenges when it comes to sexuality. Laila S. Agrawal, M.D., breast cancer oncologist with Norton Cancer Institute, is spearheading efforts to develop a sexual health clinic at Norton Healthcare. “The World Health Organization says that sexual health is…
Starting on April 5, 2021, patients will have immediate access to most test results and progress notes through their MyNortonChart accounts. New federal laws taking effect that day require health care organizations to give patients immediate access to progress notes and test results as soon as they are completed. (These new laws do not replace…
The COVID-19 pandemic created not only a physical health crisis, but a mental health crisis that will likely outlast the virus, according to Kristie V. Schultz, Ph.D., a pediatric psychologist with Norton Children’s Behavioral & Mental Health, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine. “While life-threatening physical health effects may impact some personally, the mental…
Alexis Garrett, PA-C Urogynecology Olivia N. Benzing, APRN Hospital Medicine Claire Cornett, LCSW Behavioral Medicine Amanda D. Bliss, APRN Urgent Care Amanda J. Wade, APRN Urgent Care
The decision whether or not to take hormone therapy (HT) after menopause is not made in a vacuum. Breast cancer risk is influenced by lifetime estrogen exposure and genetic risk factors. HT is just one part of the equation, along with factors like age of menopause onset, obesity and whether or not the patient breastfed….
Cloaca — a severe anorectal malformation where the genital, urinary and gastrointestinal tracts share a common channel — can be observed through prenatal ultrasound, and pediatricians should be alerted to the possibility of persistent cloaca, according to a study published recently in Global Pediatric Health. Prenatal ultrasound findings may raise suspicion of a persistent cloaca,…
As a natural phase of life, menopause offers a perfect opportunity to reflect with a patient on heart health and potential lifestyle changes — before she loses the “protective” effect of estrogen. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer for both women and men, and the risk of heart disease for women rises significantly eight…
The majority of children with epilepsy respond well to medications. However, 20% to 30% of patients with epilepsy have seizures that are difficult to control even with two or more appropriately chosen antiseizure medications. When seizures cannot be controlled by two or three medications, this is referred as refractory epilepsy. High seizure burden in children…