Looking in at Iowa

From the University of Iowa:

The University of Iowa is alerting current and past staff members of the Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD) at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics that a computer application containing Social Security numbers and date of birth information was improperly accessed from outside the UI network.

As a precaution, the university wants potentially affected staff members to know about the breach so they can make an informed decision on whether to take steps to protect themselves against the risk of identity theft.

The breach occurred prior to March 2008 when Social Security numbers were removed from the compromised application as part of a campus-wide effort to reduce the use of Social Security numbers on computer systems. …

Additional information is available from this UI Q&A page.

From American Journal of Psychiatry:

Letters From Elijah

Linda Madson, M.D. [Department of Psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa]

I smile as I shift through my snail mail and spy the familiar small white business envelope. Each time it is the same: the envelope addressed in longhand to my large hospital, two sheets of plain unlined typing paper covered in black ink, the lines of text slanting slightly downward from horizontal. The letter has no margins, every available inch is used for script, and the last line is cramped onto the end of the page, shorter and smaller that the rest. Initially a nuisance, these communications have morphed into something far more meaningful. …

From HealthDay News via Washington Post:

A therapeutic vaccine to treat prostate cancer appears safe and may be effective, according to the results of an early trial.

The vaccine could give hope to men with metastatic prostate cancer by activating their immune systems to fight the disease. The vaccine was developed to enable a patient’s immune system to produce anti-antigens and attack cancer cells, which can improve quality of life and extend survival.

“The primary objective of the study was to determine whether or not the vaccine was safe or whether it induced any serious adverse events,” said lead researcher Dr. David Lubaroff, director of urology research at the University of Iowa. “The vaccine was quite safe.” …

Lubaroff Lab Home Page

University of Iowa faculty page for David Lubaroff

From PR Newswire:

NAMI Honors Exemplary Psychiatrists: 30 Doctors From 21 States

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is honoring 30 doctors as “Exemplary Psychiatrists” at the annual conference of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) this week. …

Iowa

Bruce Sieleni, MD - Iowa City

Nancy A. Williams, MD - Iowa City

From today’s Chicago Tribune:

Russell Haught [of Iowa City] was tired. In fact, for the last six years his energy had been deteriorating—so much so that he was barely functional after 3 in the afternoon. It wasn’t long before the 52-year-old was forced to take an early retirement from his job at United Parcel Service. …

The internist thought the best course of action was to run a series of laboratory tests, which revealed that Haught was suffering from hypotestosteronemia, or low testosterone, a condition that affects one of every four men over age 30.

And, like Haught, many men suffering from low testosterone levels are inappropriately diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression. …

Encyclopædia Britannica article on testosterone here.

More about Testosterone Replacement Therapy from Merck.

Image via Wikipedia

Includes a one-minute video of Dr. John Vargo inside the UI Lab.

From today’s Chicago Tribune special report:

Using sampling techniques and containers provided by the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory, Tribune reporters took samples on March 17 from drinking fountains at City Hall, Sherman Elementary on the South Side, and the Waukegan Public Library. Water from a tap at Tribune Tower also was filtered through a household filter before collection.

The water samples were shipped to the Iowa lab and analyzed for nearly 40 different compounds, including regulated pesticides and heavy metals and unregulated prescription and non-prescription drugs.

The tests did not reveal the presence of most of the contaminants But water from a drinking fountain on the 7th floor of City Hall, just outside the Department of Streets and Sanitation, contained small amounts of carbamazepine, a prescription drug used to control epileptic seizures and treat bipolar disorder. Also found was acetaminophen, an over-the-counter painkiller. …

John Vargo, the environmental program manager at the University of Iowa lab that conducted the Tribune’s tests, said he has found traces of carbamazepine, acetaminophen and other pharmaceuticals in the drinking water of other Midwestern cities. He declined to reveal the specific locations, citing confidentiality agreements written into the lab’s contracts. …

Recently moved to federal court system. From U.S. Courts - Northern District of Iowa:

After completion of construction of the Surgery Center [Ambulatory Surgical Center], the ceiling of the Parking Area was damaged by moisture and began to crumble and fall to the Parking Area.  

Investigation revealed that moisture had accumulated above the ceiling of the Parking Area, damaging the ceiling.  

St. Luke’s contacted Boulder Associates in late 2005 to inform Boulder Associates of the moisture and resulting damage. To fix the immediate damage and to prevent future damage to the ceiling of the Parking Area, St. Luke’s was required to replace the insulation and install tiles made of waterproof material installed by Jelinek Olmstead Construction, Inc. at a total cost of $179,698.00…

From PR Newswire: “A new report released today by the Treatment Advocacy Center reveals that for every 20 public psychiatric beds available in the US in 1955, only 1 such bed existed in 2005.”

Since the 1960s there has been a mass exodus of patients from public psychiatric hospitals. Data are available on the number of patients in such hospitals in 1955 and in 2004–2005. The data show that:

• In 2005 there were 17 public psychiatric beds available per 100,000 population compared to 340 per 100,000 in 1955. Thus, 95 percent of the beds available in 1955 were no longer available in 2005.
• The states with the fewest beds were Nevada (5.1 per 100,000), Arizona (5.9), Arkansas (6.7), Iowa (8.1), Vermont (8.9), and Michigan (9.9). The states with the most beds were South Dakota (40.3) and Mississippi (49.7).  …

1.  
   1. Critical bed storage (less than 12 beds per 100,000 population)

Nevada	5.1		Ohio	10.6
Arizona	5.9		South Carolina	10.6
Arkansas	6.7		Oklahoma	11.0
Iowa	8.1		Idaho	11.3
Vermont	8.9		Alaska	11.3
Michigan	9.9

From WSAZ.com:

The Chief Executive Officer at Huntington Internal Medicine (HIMG) is leaving to leaving to take a similar position with an out-of-state health organization..

A press release says Michael Sundall is going to Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa, P.C. and its sister corporation Medical Group Solutions.

Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa is a fifty plus provider physician group located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. …

From Nurse.com:

Iowa hospitals were the quickest in the country to provide emergency medical attention. The average emergency visit was 2 hours, 18 minutes compared to the national average of 3:42.

Nebraska rated second fastest in the nation at 2:26, followed by South Dakota (2:28), Vermont (2:32), and Wisconsin (2:34). The longest visits were in Arizona (4:57), Maryland (4:07), Utah (4:04), New York (3:58), and Florida (3:57). …

St. Luke’s Hospital, a 560-bed community hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, saw 51,632 patients in its ED last year and beat the state record by logging an average visit time of 2:10.  …

The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, a 750-bed academic medical center in Iowa City…has seen ED length of stay drop from 2:52 to 2:33. …

Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis saw 77,847 patients last year and averaged a 6-hour, 30-minute length of stay.