Recession and Cosmetic Surgery Trends

This being the worst economic recession in decades hasn't left an industry unscathed. Elective spending in particular has been clearly curtailed, and with much of cosmetic surgery being elective, it has been scarred right in the face by the turbulent economy's clout.

Recent figures from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) unravel the magnitude of damage caused, with the year 2008 registering a drop of 9 percent to $11.8 billion in the number of cosmetic surgery procedures in the U.S.

Mars & Venus Differ

The quest of looking more beautiful or handsome has traditionally been a woman's forte, while men only recently realized that they too have the potential to look good and reap its benefits. However, recession seems to have put men back on the track of regression in terms of cosmetic surgery, while they continue to use skin care products. Statistics uncover that for the past couple of years men had been competing quite well with women in terms of cosmetic surgeries, but in 2008, the male surgery decreased by 2 percent, whereas 29% more women have consulted plastic surgeons. Popular cosmetic procedures during the past year were blepharoplasty, liposuction, breast augmentation, laser hair removal, Botox (R) injections, and injectable fillers.

Survival For The fittest

The changed economic scene with all the job cuts, failing businesses, and uncertainty about the future pretty much seems to have snatched away the coziness of livelihood that we became used to during the good times. Jobs are now hard to find, and only if you are lucky, and are among the best of the lot. Increasingly, cosmetic surgery is being seen to make job seekers and holders more competitive and confident. In a survey 756 women between the ages 18 and 64, about 13 percent said that they would consider a medical cosmetic procedure to make them more competent within the job market.

While plastic surgeons may be reaching out for their surgical boxes somewhat less in the current scenario, the longer term outlook is a lot brighter. It is estimated that in excess of 55 million cosmetic surgery procedures will be conducted in 2015.

Heavyweight Stretchers – Size Does Matter

Today about two-thirds of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese, and much of the dramatic increase in obesity figures has occurred during the last 20 years. Just as the obesity statistics have changed, so has the capacity of patient transport systems such as stretchers and wheelchairs.

Overweight individuals are perhaps as likely as lean people to find themselves in a situation that requires them to be put on a stretcher, and be transported to a hospital's emergency department. But transporting larger individuals isn't the same as carrying thin individuals, as patient transport systems such as the stretchers generally have a standard capacity of handling humans weighing between 350 and 500.

As a consequence it has raised an issue that's too serious to be ignored. Transporting overweight individual could cause an injury to the patient or the medics or both of them. Undesirable instances could include low capacity equipment simply cracking under pressure, or a large-sized individual falling off a stretcher, or the medics not being able to handle the load and/or injuring themselves.

These and other such concerns have been on the top of the minds of medical equipment manufacturers. And, for some time now, they have been bringing out patient transport systems such as stretchers with thicker aluminum frames, extra spine supports, bulkier connectors, to easily handle loads of upto 650 pounds.

While these extended capacity equipment do solve the problem at hand, they also add to the cost of acquiring these products. Nonetheless, it seems to be safer for an ambulance crew to have these products in their repertoire, than be sorry later. A botched up rescue operation will undoubtedly be a pain for everyone involved.

The society is changing, though undesirable, more people are becoming oversized. And the health care delivery equipment too should change, because size does matter.

Europe Medical Technology Industry Profile

The medical technology and devices market of Europe is wide and varied, it accounted for a total sales of over US$ 84.66432 billion in 2006. The annual growth rate of the medical devices market in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK is close to 9 percent. Medical devices within Europe are regulated under three directives.

Read More at: TheMedica

How More Cardiac Arrest Sufferers can be Saved?

Not one or two but 325,000 people die each year in the United States due to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). However, when CPR - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is provided immediately after the attack it can double a sufferers chance of survival.

But administering CPR, unlike a pharma drug, is easier said than done, here's why? When in a study, thirty-eight doctors and nurses of both genders were evaluated for their ability to perform manual CPR, a considerable loss in their ability to provide sufficient compressions over a time period was found. And that men – supposedly endowed with more muscle power – fared no better than their fairer sex counterparts.

So what if there existed a medical device that was so portable that it didn't need to be transported using a hospital trolley, instead, could simply be strapped around a patient to aid immediate CPR, virtually anywhere and in any situation? Well it seems that the the wait could now be over, as scientists may have struck gold already.

A Life Saving Medical Device

Inventors of the device called, LifeBelt(R) CPR, may be on their way to make life safer with this appliance. This device is designed to overcome the limitation of "hands-only" CPR and is able to help the patient by producing chest compressions for about two minutes. Also, with the use of this device half as much force is needed to administer CPR, enabling the emergency response personnel or anyone providing the CPR to do it more effectively, and not lose steam out of fatigue, too soon. No wonder than this appliance also won a “Create the Future Design Contest” sponsored by NASA Tech Briefs magazine.

When Thomas Jefferson said “Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried,” I'm positive he didn't refer to life support medical devices!

US Medical Equipment Industry Overview

There were about 8,000 medical device companies in the United States around 2004. While the number of large and mid-sized medical device companies was less, over 80 percent of firms employed no more than 50 people. The world's medical equipment and supplies industry was worth $80 billion in 2005, with the United States being the the largest consumer country of medical and dental equipment.

Read More at: TheMedica

Medical Diagnostics Industry Overview

The medical and clinical diagnostic industry comprises businesses and laboratories that offer analytic or diagnostic services including body fluid analysis and diagnostic imaging. The world market for diagnostics was valued at $22.47 billion in 2000 and was expected grew at an annual rate of about 6 percent to $28.63 billion by 2005. The IVD product, point-of-care instrument and the medical diagnostic kit (MDK) markets have emerged as growing segments of the diagnostic laboratory industry.

Read More at: Themedica

Medical Instruments Market Overview

Being used since the seventeenth century, precision medical instruments today are an invaluable component of health care delivery. Used to in monitoring, diagnosis, therapy, treatment or alleviation of diseases, the market for medical instruments is forecast to reach $201.6 billion in 2010. In 2007, the USA accounted for 60% of the industry's world market at $8.3 billion for the minimally invasive medical devices industry.

Read More at: Themedica

How to Count Your Calories During Sleep?

Counting your calories is important if your trying lose excess weight, but it's often a pain trying to keep a track of them. However, if scientists are to be believed then they might already have stumbled upon an automatic calorie counting method.

People try many ways to lose weight including dieting, exercise, or weight loss supplements or a combination, but physical exercise seems to be pretty popular. And most of us using treadmills to burn calories know how much we've burned in a session of exercise simply by glancing at the pedometer reading. At the same time it's important to know that we don't just burn calories while we're on the treadmill, but even when we walk, drive, cook, laugh, talk, and even while we sleep. So who'll count all those calories consumed?

The count your calories technology

Apparently, a strap-on device has been invented that allows individuals to continuously track the calories they burn.

Being worked on by a group of Georgia Institute of Technology students and called HappyHR, It's a small, rectangular-shaped instrument, which can be strapped to the wrist or ankle. Once onto the wrist, the instrument begins collecting data pertaining to heart rate and exercise. Next, the information collected is sent to a PC via Bluetooth, where the data is analyzed and calories counted by means of a web-based software.

A subtle device resembling a compact MP3 player more than with an embedded fitness monitoring technology is pretty encouraging. In fact the researchers want to move ahead further and even try to incorporate advanced health applications such as respiratory and glucose monitoring. Which might earn it a place as a valued medical and hospital equipment supply.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) about 133.6 million or 66 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. And who may want to lose weight for better health. So if technologies such as these keep coming up, maintaining not just a healthy weight, but also fitness, might become a lot easier.

Can Heart Attacks be Predicted to Save Lives?

About one of every five deaths in the United States are attributed to heart diseases. However, scientists may now well be on their way to make heart attack prediction possible so that many lives can be saved.

Heart disease is term used for a range of different diseases affecting the heart. They are often treated by surgery and cardiovascular drugs.

Even though from 1995 to 2005 the death rate from heart disease declined 34 percent, there still is a lot of potential for it to decrease further with the aid of technology. A device is being tested to monitor the heart and raise a red flag in time so that early help can be sought.

The Life Saving Technology

Called the AngelMed Guardian system, the device is about the size of a standard pacemaker is meant to be installed inside the skin close to the collarbone with a wire placed in the right chamber of the heart.

It comprises an external telemetry device and and a programmer meant to help the medics assess the heart signals. The job of the device will be to monitor a person's heart's activity for signs that may indicate an impending heart attack.

As soon as the implanted diagnostic equipment finds that something's gone amiss inside the heart, making use of Bluetooth technology and pagers, it will sound an alert to others so that quick medical attention can be provided to the patient. Also, the more disturbing or acute the symptoms of an upcoming heart attack, stronger the alert this device transmits.

According to experts, the maximum damage to the heart occurs during the first two hours after a coronary gets blocked during a heart attack. And most of the time patients take about three hours to recognize an oncoming heart attack, so help often reaches late to the sufferers. However, the unique ability of this device is that it can recognize the warning signs and sound an alert hours before the attack actually occurs thus helping doctors save lives.

Still undergoing Phase II clinical trials, if all goes well then it may actually be able to predict heart attacks and save lives.

Posts, Possibly of Interest

Top 15 Tips to Manage Stress!

Video Game Surgery – A New Way To Train Surgeons

Medical Device Industry Overview

Pee on Paper to Treat TB – Here's How?

Gold Particles Could Deliver Pharma Drugs in Future!

Medical Device Industry Overview

The US industry with its high investments in Research and Development is regarded worldwide for making sophisticated and high quality devices incorporating advanced technologies. The country's market was valued at nearly $80 billion in 2005. In addition the U.S. medical technology companies are leaders in the world's medical device production. Further, to facilitate expansion, medical device companies are increasingly looking at developing economies as an opportunity to drive future growth.

Read More at: Themedica

Economic Recession - Hospitals aren't Spared

In its most recent update published on January 28, the IMF announced that world growth is forecast to fall to its lowest level since World War II. And with the US being one of the worst hit, the hospital business, an integral part of the medical marketplace, and often regarded as recession proof is beginning to feel the heat.

Despite the fact that hospitals aren't hit the way the way the automotive sector or the retail has been, and that people will continue to fall sick irrespective of the economy, it seems that the number of people seeking medical care and the profitability of hospitals don’t walk hand-in-hand.

Growth stunted & patients decreasing

A recent report by the American Hospital Association (AHA) finds that the sputtering economy has already led to 45% of hospitals to postpone forthcoming capital projects, with about 13% being forced to completely stall any expansion projects already underway. The AHA report included 639 hospitals in the study.

Further, experts believe that even though people continue to fall sick they're postponing, most treatments if not all, which can be classified as elective. The credit for the prevailing scenario goes to all the layoffs and the slowing economy. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics the month of December saw some of the worst layoff figures, as there were 2,275 mass layoff actions, involving 226,117 workers.

What seems worse is that aside from foregoing elective treatments, patients seem to be avoiding essential drugs, with many actually abusing prescription drugs, such as narcotic painkillers , sedatives and tranquilizers and stimulants.

As a consequence, hospitals are reeling under delayed hospital equipment and supply purchases, declining patient visits, reduced staff with no fresh hiring, unpaid medical bills, in addition to ceasing any construction projects. The AHA survey, released in November last year found that patient visits were static or had decreased during the third quarter of 2008, and the cases of unpaid medical bills for hospitals registered a hike of 8%.

The government's role in uplifting the spirit of hospitals is being thought to be instrumental as Medicare and Medicaid account for about half of the hospital business industry.

Posts, Possibly of Interest

Essential Tips to Import Medical Supplies

Financial Crisis – Survival Tips for Small Medical Businesses

2009: Top 9 Issues for Health Industries

Top 10 Cosmetic Surgery Trends for 2009

Are Best Hospital Lists Worth their Salt?

Top 13 Tips To Prevent Common Cold!

Personal Care Products - Dark Horse During Recession

Essential Tips to Import Medical Supplies

Importing medical supplies can quickly make your business more profitable as you discover new opportunities to save costs, compete better and grow fast. But to make your dreams a reality, you'd need to take precautions before you place an import order because a bad supplier can really affect your business within the medical marketplace. The good thing is that it's not all that hard to take effective measures for ensuring your business safety. A basic understanding and some essential tips can go a long way to accomplish a successful import. Read on to know what it takes to import medical supplies safely an effectively.

Read More at Themedica

Are Best Hospital Lists Worth their Salt?

Recently, a study found that the top-rated U.S. hospitals had a 27 percent lower death rate than other hospitals. So are the best ranked hospitals within the healthcare market really the best places for patients to seek treatment from.

They probably are to quite an extent and the ratings more credible if it's also known that the health care ratings organization is an independent one, such as is the case with HealthGrades.

So many top-rank lists

But consulting a single organization's ranking lists might not serve to be the final answer in your search for the best place to get medical care from. Perhaps, including the results of other agencies such as the Leapfrog Group, which surveys over 1,300 hospitals nationally, or The Joint Commission, which tracks different kinds of medical care rendered, or even the U.S. News' analysis of more than 5,453 medical centers to produce an Honor Roll based on 16 specialty rankings may also come in handy.

However, referring to several such reports, might at times, turn out to be confusing, because they might not appear to agree on who the best hospitals after all are. And some of the very best on one list simply might not figure on another. For instance, if one study analyzes just high volume and low risk procedures, while the other takes account of difficult and highly specialized treatments, the results would naturally be quite different. Or if one just assessed the hospitals' equipment & supplies, the outcomes would be radically different.

Cheeky Critics

Also, despite these lists being reliable in assessing the factors they rate the health care facilities on, are not without critics. The much debated Federal nursing home rating system is a glaring example, as some think that the assessment doesn't consider a broader view of all that takes place inside nursing homes. Nevertheless, it does consider something, which is better than nothing.

It seems in the end that many of these lists do provide reliable assessments, but search for a perfect hospital should always take into account the patient and her family's needs and limitation. As a result the top rank lists would be truly meaningful when they are used while considering the proximity, the abnormal medical condition, the medical procedure advised, affordability, and a host of such factors for which the patient and her family are perhaps the best judges.

Posts, Possibly of Interest

Hospital Reforms - A Must for the Future

Pee on Paper to Treat TB – Here's How?

Top 10 Cosmetic Surgery Trends for 2009

Top 13 Tips To Prevent Common Cold!

2009: Top 9 Issues for Health Industries

Is Greater use of Imaging Technology Justified?

During the past several years, the availability of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning has grown rapidly. An estimated number of CT diagnostic equipment units grew more than 50 percent between 1995 and 2004, while the estimated number of MRI units more than doubled. Apparently, the use of imaging technologies has associated costs and benefits, the question is whether the benefits are more than costs or not? An insightful study conducted by Stanford University researchers recently published brought the issue into the limelight.

Read More at: Themedica

Eye Diagnostics – A New Way To Capture Color Retinal Images

Monitoring and treatment of eye diseases with a potential to cause blindness can be challenging. However, with new advances in research, scientists may have just developed an effective means of taking high quality color photographs of eye inflammation with the help of diagnostic equipment.

Recently, scientists made a headway by taking high quality color photographs of the clinical stages of ocular inflammation in mice, using what they call “Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging (TEFI).” And it seems that mice are just the beginning, soon humans could replace the mice, and for the better.

How TEFI would help?

Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging or (TEFI), makes use of an endoscope (the good old diagnostic equipment) along with parallel illumination and observation channels connected to a digital camera to capture images eye images. The development of this technique is attributed to Michel Paques, et al.

In the new study a team researchers from the University of Bristol's Academic Unit of Ophthalmology tracked the changes in the mice retina, and the best part was that it didn't cause distress to the animals or was there a need administer anesthesia to the patients (mice, in this case). Quite a painkiller find!

The paper was published in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology journal Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science in a paper titled "The Clinical Time-Course of Experimental Autoimmune Uveoretinitis Using Topical Endoscopic Fundal Imaging with Histologic and Cellular Infiltrate Correlation."

According to experts, TEFI would enable monitoring of clinical disease quickly and in a non-invasive fashion. And based on the clinical observations, the investigators will be able to design experimental protocols. In addition, this new technique also paves the way to detect changes in the eye that were previously undetectable.

At the same time, while TEFI along with other histological methods does enable observation of clinical features and severity of disease, in order to gather information about the dynamics, phenotype, function, etc - a detailed analysis of cell populations during different stages of disease as it progresses might be needed.

For now only the mice used in the study seem to have benefited from it, humans may need to wait a bit.

I think the most exciting aspect of medicine is innovation. Not too far back Video Game Surgery provided new means for training surgeons. Or more recently, as it was revealed that Robots are the Future of Assistive Technology.

Hospital Reforms - A Must for the Future

Experts believe that value of hospital-based care will not decrease in the future, rather, hospitals will be required to meet the high expectations of the public and all stakeholders of a medical facility in addition to a progressively challenging medical industry environment.

Consequently, just like earlier, hospitals of today must be prepared to remain flexible to accommodate the changing healthcare environment and to remain sustainable. Recently, the Joint Commission released a report titled “Health Care at the Crossroads: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future” urging hospitals and public policymakers to use the guidelines in the report to prepare today's hospitals for the future.

More at: Themedica