Though researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the long-term effects of head injury, few studies have looked at the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all age groups, including males and females, taking into account both mild and serious events. In a recent study published in Epidemiology, Mayo Clinic researchers applied a new, refined system for classifying injuries c... (read more)
Researchers have found clear associations between marijuana use in young males and cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS), where patients experience episodes of vomiting separated by symptom free intervals. The study, published in the January issue of Neurogastroenterology and Motility, looked at 226 patients seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, USA, over a 13-year period. These ... (read more)
Doctors have known for years that the incidence of deadly liver cancer is on the rise, but what is causing that trend has remained a mystery. Two recent Mayo Clinic studies published in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings offer a clearer picture of the rise of hepatocellar carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, which has tripled in the U.S. in the last three decades and has a 10 to 12 percent five-... (read more)
How sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, can alleviate heart problems is reported by Bochum's researchers in cooperation with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minnesota) in the journal Circulation. They studied dogs with diastolic heart failure, a condition in which the heart chamber does not sufficiently fill with blood. The scienti... (read more)
How sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, can alleviate heart problems is reported by Bochum's researchers in cooperation with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (Minnesota) in the journal Circulation. They studied dogs with diastolic heart failure, a condition in which the heart chamber does not sufficiently fill with blood. The scientists showed that sildenafil makes st... (read more)
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified critical steps leading to myelin destruction in neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a debilitating neurological disease that is commonly misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings could lead to better care for the thousands of patients around the world with NMO. The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc... (read more)
Could the effects of aging be delayed or even prevented simply by clearing the body of old cells? Scientists report in Nature that they were able to do just that in a study of mice. It is the first study to show that when "senescent" cells, those that have gotten old and stopped dividing, build up, they can promote aging in nearby tissues, contributing to such age-related conditions as cataracts, ski... (read more)
People who use over-the-counter "thyroid support'' supplements may be putting their health at risk, according to a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Thyroid Association. The supplements contain varying amounts of two different kinds of thyroid hormones apparently derived in large part from chopped up animal thyroid glands, says the study's senior investiga... (read more)
As we age, our bodies change in ways that challenge athletic ability. But exercise also can slow down — and in some cases even prevent — some of the physiological ravages of time. "A lot of things that we thought were just inherent to the aging process and were going to happen no matter what don't really have to happen if you maintain an appropriate lifestyle," says Jim Hagberg, a professor of kinesiology at the ... (read more)
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group located in three metropolitan areas: Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona, as well as the Mayo Clinic Health System, which consists of more than 70 hospitals and clinics across Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Mayo Clinic also operates several colleges of medicine, including Mayo Medical School, the Mayo Graduate School, and the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Mayo School of Health Sciences. Mayo Clinic specializes in hard-to-treat diseases, and is known for innovative and effective treatments for diseases that had gone undiagnosed or under-treated in the same patients with other doctors. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of most accredited quality standard listings. For example, it has been near the top of the US News and World Report of Best Hospitals for 20 years. It accomplishes high medical quality through values such as "The needs of the patient always come first", by coordinating the efforts of its entire group of doctors, and by devoting over 40% of its resources towards research (rather than just medical practice). Mayo Clinic has been on Fortune magazine's “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America list for eight years in a row.
The clinic started as a single, small outpatient facility, and later became America's first integrated group practice, a model that is now standard in the United States. However, Mayo Clinic integrates the practice of over 1,700 medical doctors, making it much larger than the typical group practice of three to 100 doctors.
Since about the year 2000, Mayo Clinic has also become known for achieving high quality at low cost. One extensive study found that the cost paid by insurers to treat Medicare patients in their last three years of life (the most expensive years) was only 54% of comparable costs in nearby clinics and hospitals. Mayo Clinic has been researched and presented many times during the passing of the 2009 healthcare reform bills in US Congress as a model to reduce healthcare costs while increasing quality for the nation. However, Mayo Clinic issued an open letter stating the healthcare reform bills as written in July 2009 would not reduce costs or increase quality nationwide.
Mayo Clinic pays medical doctors a fixed salary that is unaffected by patient volume. This practice is thought to decrease the monetary motivation to see patients in large numbers and increase the incentive to spend more time with individuals. Salaries are determined by the marketplace salaries for physicians in comparable large group practices.
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