Building on your new skills as an empowered patient, today's post provides links to some of the excellent resources from leading health care organizations.  ..read more

On a fall day in 1957, a young girl learns about the launch of Earth's first artificial satellite and falls in love with science. Perhaps she rushes home to teach her younger siblings - she is the oldest of 13 - about her new passion. Perhaps her parents overhear her gushing about her excitement, and start that day to encourage her to go to college to pursue science professionally. However the events aligned, a young Lizzie Johnson was smitten, and would go on to become a "trailblazing clinical microbiologist" responsible for the availability of many of the safe antibiotics we use today. As t ..read more

Human Metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a respiratory virus that can cause mild to severe illness, particularly in young children, older adults, and individuals with weakened immune systems. First identified in 2001, hMPV is part of the Pneumoviridae family and shares similarities with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza. While hMPV infections are often underrecognized, they can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia and exacerbations of chronic lung diseases. Given its impact, infection control and prevention strategies are crucial, especially in healthcare settings and commu ..read more

On a sunny day in the early 1950s a young girl, the daughter of a medical secretary and a waiter, witnessed a terrifying event. Her mother collapsed and began bleeding, right in the middle of the family home. The girl's terror and panic were magnified by her knowledge that the family did not have a car to get her mother to medical care miles away, nor health insurance to pay for it once they arrived. On that day, the young girl decided she would become a doctor, and not just any doctor - a doctor for everybody, regardless of race or income. In today's post, we'll see what impact this momentou ..read more

Designing for healthcare environments is a delicate balancing act. Architects and designers must navigate a web of constraints, making trade-offs to ensure that their creations support patient safety, staff efficiency, and infection control. While these compromises may limit aesthetic choices or design flexibility, they ultimately contribute to improved patient outcomes and safer healthcare spaces. Here are some key trade-offs designers face when shaping the healthcare environment ..read more

he neighborhood school blood drive is one of those events that is so common, so American, that it has just become a part of our national landscape. However, the blood donated at those events goes on to save millions of lives every year. The system of collecting, preserving, storing and transporting blood to hospitals around the country and the world is possible due to the pioneering work by Dr. Charles Richard Drew, a medical hero born into a country that tried everything to stop him from succeeding. But just as he dodged linebackers on the fields of Amherst on his way to scoring touchdowns ..read more

Any and every day is a good day to celebrate nurses! (February 6th, however, is the 37th Annual Black Nurses Day on Capitol Hill!) These hard-working healthcare professionals keep the medical field moving, providing in-person patient care, monitoring, and treatment. The COVID pandemic brought their importance into clear focus: As the pandemic swept the nation over multiple waves, it was nurses that took on the bulk of the impact as they cared for patients and their loved ones. Today's post gives us an opportunity to celebrate not only nurses, but also Black History Month, by spotlighting the ..read more

It's no wonder why we have long associated the heart with life and love. It races when we are nervous or exerting ourselves. It beats with comforting regularity, loud enough for us to hear when we rest our heads against a loved ones chest. Its pulse is an indicator of health and life, a central hub keeping our body functioning. And unfortunately, when this central hub is affected by an infection, the entire body is at risk. Today we will explore how hospital-acquired infections can affect the heart, often with far-reaching implications ..read more

COVID-19 and other infectious pathogens continue to make headlines, drawing our attention to the technologies being developed to fight these germs. Bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms threaten human lives. We want to know what kills them, and we want it now! Interestingly, plain copper, the stuff of pennies and the Statue of Liberty, has powerful antimicrobial properties. In fact, copper was used by ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and others to carry and store water, line pipes and barrels, and on boats because they could tell by observation that items with copper had the ability to keep w ..read more

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remain a significant challenge in clinical environments, and Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is one of the most persistent culprits. As a spore-forming bacterium, C. difficile poses unique challenges for infection prevention due to the resilience of its spores compared to its vegetative cells. A recent study represents a major advancement in combating this pathogen: copper-impregnated surfaces have been shown to significantly reduce C. difficile spore contamination ..read more