SCOPE:
Emergency medicine is a speciality of medicine that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of acute illnesses and injuries that require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a wide array of pathology and undertake acute interventions to stabilize the patient.
These professionals practice in hospital emergency departments, in the prehospital setting via emergency medical service and other locations where initial medical treatment of illness takes place. Just as clinicians operate by immediacy rules under large emergency systems, emergency practioniers aim to diagnose emergent conditions and stabilize the patient for definitive care.
Chronic care management encompasses the oversight and education activities conducted by professionals to help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, lupus, multiple sclerosis and sleep apnea learn to understand their condition and live successfully with it. This term is equivalent to disease management (health) for chronic conditions. The work involves motivating patients to persist in necessary therapies and interventions and helping them to achieve an ongoing, reasonable quality of life.
Patient safety is a new health care discipline that emphasizes the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical error that often lead to adverse health care events. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not well known until the 1990s, when multiple countries reported staggering numbers of patients harmed and killed by medical errors. Recognizing that health care errors impact 1 in every 10 patients around the world, the World Health Organization calls patient safety an endemic concern.
Indeed, patient safety has emerged as a distinct health care discipline supported by an immature yet developing scientific framework: there is a significant transdisciplinary body of theoretical and research literature that informs the science of patient safety.
The resulting patient safety knowledge continually informs improvement efforts such as: applying lessons learned from business and industry, adopting innovative technologies, educating providers and consumers, enhancing error reporting systems, and developing new economic incentives. This patient safety page provides an evidence-based and peer-reviewed forum to learn about contemporary error and adverse event knowledge.
PRIMARY HEALTH CARE:
Primary health care, often abbreviated as PHC, is
"Essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-determination" (Alma Ata international conference definition)
It was a new approach to health care that came into existence following this international conference in Alma Ata in 1978 organized by the World Health Organisation and the UNICEF.
Primary health care was accepted by the member countries of WHO as the key to achieving the goal of Health for all.
As people all over the world people become more and more frustrated at the the inability of today's health systems and services to meet their needs, demand for a renewal of primary health care - and health for all - is increasing.
Four Essential components of primary health care:
*Universal coverage By ensuring sufficient supply of medicines and services; removing financial barriers to access and ensuring social health protection.
*People-centred care By transforming traditional healthcare delivery models (specialist, procedure or hospital-based) into people-centred primary care networks.
*Inclusive leadership By shifting from conventional "command-and-control" approaches, increasing participation of all stakeholders and moving from supply-led to demand-led policies and programmes.
*Health in all policies By ensuring that all relevant sectors (e.g. labour, environment, education) factor health into their agendas.
HEALTH PROMOTION:
Health promotion has been defined by the World Health Organization's 2005 Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World as "the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health". The primary means of health promotion occur through developing healthy public policy that addresses the prerequisities of health such as income, housing, food security, employment, and quality working conditions.
There is a tendency among public health officials and governments -- and this is especially the case in liberal nations such as Canada and the USA -- to reduce health promotion to health education.
HEALTH TIPS:
Eggs”iting news! :
Suffering from memory loss or stress? Do you feel “alert enough? Choline is the answer to these problems! Choline is the fat-like substance, akin to Vitamin B, found in eggs. This food component is known to improve memory amongst the ageing, reduces fatigue and makes the mind more alert! So, now you know why eggs are good for you…
The bony truth:
Calcium is a fussy mineral, and works better under certain conditions. Consider taking your calcium supplement at bedtime, rather than in the morning. If taken along with a 500mg Vitamin C supplement, calcium is absorbed better. Antacids, coffee and tea can hinder calcium absorption, so it is wise to take your calcium supplement prior to these..
Extra virgin Olive Oil:
Why olive oil? It can reduce blood pressure, control glucose levels in diabetics, and it has the ability to reduce the total cholesterol, that clogs arteries, and leads to cardiac problems. Extra virgin olive oil is got from the first pressing of the olives, and it is considered the healthiest for consumption.
24 Carrots:
Heard of Betacarotene? That is what imparts the bright orange colour to carrots, and betacarotene is converted to Vitamin A by the body. It works wonders: reduces the risk for cancer, improves vision, skin and hair, slows down ageing and wrinkles and delays the onset of cardio-vascular disease and osteoporosis. Carrots aren’t only for the bunnies….
Computer eyes:
Working for long hours at the computer can harm your eyes! The first indication is “dry eyes”. When you are working on the computer the tendency is to blink less often, than otherwise. This can lead to dry eyes. Try to blink as often as you can, and learn to take short breaks from the monitor.
Take a step forward:
We all know walking is good for health. Do you know why? Walking exercises every limb in your body. It improves circulation and builds up the heart rate. It also helps build collaterals: these are small arteries that connect two larger coronary arteries and they provide an alternate route for blood flow, a sort of detour in case of blocked arteries. Take a step forward! It could save your life….
Go Green:
So, you love your cuppa’! Did you know green tea not only has excellent anti-oxidants, it is also known to prevent heart ailments, cancer and arthritis. It protects the liver from degenerative diseases, since the antioxidants protect the liver cells and strengthen and stimulate the immune system.
Know your onions:
Did you know, onions are anti-clotting agents? Onions are known to be effective in controlling blood sugar, relieve bronchial congestion and improve cardiovascular health. The pungency in onions works as a decongestant, acts as an antibiotic and can help fight cholesterol.
Weighty Issues:
If losing weight is your dream, and it remains just that, you might be interested in knowing some golden nuggets….the inability to lose weight, despite diet control and regular exercise, may indicate an under-active Thyroid. Other symptoms include lethargy, memory loss and unexplained exhaustion. Don’t neglect these symptoms, consult your doctor rightaway.
“Hear & There”:
We often forget to take care of our ears! If you thought cleaning your ears with a mere cotton bud would suffice, think again! It is wise to have an annual examination of your ears by an ENT to ensure everything is well.If you have enjoyed these tips, do write in and tell us! We’re waiting to hear from you….and social marketing focused on changing behavioral risk factors.
QUOTES:
~ Happiness lies, first of all, in health. ~
George William Curtis
~ Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied. ~
Charles Caleb Colton
~ Old people have fewer diseases than the young, but their diseases never leave them. ~
Hippocrates
~ Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded. ~
Goethe
Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food ~
Hippocrates
~ The first wealth is health ~
Emerson
~ Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity ~
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
~ Breathing correctly is the key to better fitness, muscle strength, stamina and athletic endurance ~
Dr. Michael Yessis
