Health. Care. | An Educational Blog

Despite recent controversies about the quality of care in VA hospitals, the network of 163 acute care hospitals and over 1,000 outpatient clinics is actually a national leader when it comes to many treatments and outcomes. Due to incidents of patient harm stemming from, among other issues, prolonged wait times for procedures, the VA instituted a rigorous self-evaluation as well as evaluation from outside experts. The results pointed to changes needed for improvement, but also revealed successes and positive outcomes where the VA exceeds private sector health care. One of those areas is in infection control, and today's post will explore how the VA achieved a leadership role in this area.

We at the Health.Care. blog value science and scientists. We trust the scientific method to propose new ideas, and then test, defend, critique, replicate and establish those ideas as quality research. We also recognize the value in stepping back and returning to the literature, reevaluating a premise, and even scrapping a project in order to begin again.

Today we celebrate the birth of a scientist known as the Father of Microbiology for his role in the use of lenses to observe the microscopic world. Optics and lens-making developed quickly in 16-17th century Europe, allowing research to expand to the universe. But just as lenses could sharpen light from far away, allowing Galileo to see Jupiter's moons, it could also magnify objects right in the laboratory. The microscope was invented by several lens makers at around the same time in the late 1500s and the technology spread throughout Europe. In the 1660s, however, the use of microscopes for intense research grew explosively. Discovery after discovery began to lay the groundwork for modern biology. 

The US government is one of the largest funders of scientific study in the world. The National Institutes of Science alone funds more medical research than any other source globally. How does the federal government allocate funds to study science? Who decides what goes where? And what role does the President play in this funding? Today we will delve into the complicated process of funding allocations, and how that money funds science.

As we enter the heated month before Election Day, we are going to take an opportunity to explore the relationship between science and our government over the course of a few blog posts. We’ll explore a few key questions: How important was science to the Founding Fathers who penned the documents that still guide us today? How have Presidents interacted with the advancement of science since the birth of our nation? Just how involved is our current government in science, and finally, how do the two major party candidates differ with relation to science? Stay with us over the next few weeks to find out!

It's Halloween week, so we are exploring one of the spookier microorganisms that can infect us. Today we explore the swimmer bacteria cell, Proteus, also known as the swarmer cell. This bacteria is one of the leading causes of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), but its ability to swarm makes it a threat to other organs as well.