Program Aims To Help Prevent Low-Income Patients From Losing Limbs To Diabetes
There's a disparity gap between wealthier patients who manage to save their toes and feet, and lower-income patients who are 10 times more likely to need amputation. A new program hopes to address unnecessary procedures.
LA Daily News:
Hoping To Save Limbs And Toes, California Moves To Curtail Diabetes
The word “amputation” threw a chill down Michael Rubenstein’s spine. The 67-year-old diabetic from San Mateo still winces at the thought. “They told me I’d need to cut it off right about here,” he said, sawing his hand across his left shin. Two months after that diagnosis, he’s on an exam table at the Center for Limb Preservation at UC San Francisco, his leg still whole, the threat of gangrene and amputation gone and his mood a lot less bleak and fearful. “Yeah, it turns out I didn’t need that,” he said. (Harr, 8/6)
In other public health news —
San Francisco Chronicle:
Stanford Researchers Start Concussion Study With High School Athletes
A Palo Alto company is teaming up with a Stanford health care network and several regional high schools for a study that will use virtual reality headsets to track eye movements to better spot concussions. ...But the four-year study on high school athletes, which begins Monday in partnership with Stanford Children’s Health, will mark the first use of the technology in an area of increasing concern: the health effects of head hits on youths, whose brains are still developing. (Aydin, 8/6)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Immunization Clinics Being Held Before School Starts
With school just around the corner, immunization clinics are being held throughout the county for children going into kindergarten and seventh grade. State law mandates a series of vaccinations for children entering kindergarten. When entering seventh grade, students must receive a booster shot of the whooping cough vaccine and the measles vaccine. ...BCSD offers free vaccinations to children who are uninsured, on Medi-Cal or are American Indian or Native Alaskan, at three of its on-campus healthcare facilities known as wellness centers. (Morgen, 8/6)