Are You Using the Right Electronic Health Record?

With the enactment of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act in 2009, hospitals and physician practices across the country converted from a system of paper recordkeeping to fully integrated electronic health records (EHR)., With financial incentives in hand, there was a rush to market to acquire and implement these systems. Fast-forward 10 years, and it is apparent that the EHR space has significantly evolved in technology, processes, and policies.

Altered physical pain processing in different psychiatric conditions.

Several reports indicate either increased or decreased pain sensitivity associated with psychiatric disorders. Chronic pain is highly prevalent in many of these conditions. We reviewed the literature regarding experimental pain sensitivity in patients with major depression, bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.

The impact of biological sex and sex hormones on cognition in a rat model of early, pre-motor Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is well known for motor deficits such as bradykinesia. However, patients often experience additional deficits in working memory, behavioral selection, decision-making and other executive functions. Like other features of PD, the incidence and severity of these cognitive symptoms differ in males and females.

Mechanisms of hearing loss after blast injury to the ear.

Given the frequent use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) around the world, the study of traumatic blast injuries is of increasing interest. The ear is the most common organ affected by blast injury because it is the body's most sensitive pressure transducer. We fabricated a blast chamber to re-create blast profiles similar to that of IEDs and used it to develop a reproducible mouse model to study blast-induced hearing loss.