Outside the Box

Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the soccer pitch in front of a stadium packed with spectators last month. Around the same time 30 year old distance runner Claire Squires collapsed during the 2012 London Marathon. Muamba recovered, but Squires did not. Both were considered to be in excellent physical condition, but both were afflicted by a sudden cardiac arrest. University College London sports scientist Richard Weiler said in an interview with Reuters ,"There's so much we don't know." He continued, "We don't know what triggers sudden cardiac death. We don't understand the risks in different sports, we don't understand whether race and genetics have an impact, and we don't know why many cases of sudden cardiac death remain unexplained." To read more about this mystery click ahead.

National Nurses Day, also called National RN Recognition Day is always celebrated on May 6th and opens National Nurses Week. National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. National Nurses Week is an important time to recognize the accomplishments and work of nurses across the nation. It's also an important time to remember there is actually a shortage of nurses.

Registered nurses, also called RNs, are professional nurses who often supervise the tasks performed by LPNs, orderlies, and nursing assistants. They provide direct care and make decisions regarding the care for healthy, ill, and injured people. They have a diploma, associate degree, bachelor's degree, or master's degree in nursing at entry level, and after passing state board examinations, are granted the title registered nurse. Regardless of degree, RNs have many hours of clinical experience before graduating.

RNs are the largest healthcare occupation in the United States, with an estimated 2.3 million people employed as registered nurses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Spurred by various economic and demographic factors, demand for nurses is projected to increase for the foreseeable future (an increase of 23% between 2006 and 2016, according to the US Department of Labor).

QuickMedical supplies nurses with the medical equipment and supplies they need to do their jobs. Medical equipment and supplies for nursing applications is important. If you are a nurse and you need medical equipment and supplies click around QuickMedical and visit often for promotions. You're sure to find the medical equipment and supplies you need.

Click ahead to read the interesting statistical breakdown of nursing professions growth by percentage.

April 22-28 2012 is National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week. According to the American Society for Clinical Pathology, "National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week is an annual celebration of the medical laboratory professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in every aspect of health care. Since they often work behind the scenes, few people know about the critical testing they perform every day. Lab Week is a time to honor the more than 300,000 medical laboratory professionals around the country who perform and interpret more than 10 billion laboratory tests in the US every year."

To celebrate the American Society for Clinical Pathology held a video contest with the theme "Testing the Limits." Those over-acheivers at Johns Hopkins aren't just operating a world-class hospital, they also have superb filmmaking skills.

Lab results constitute a whopping 70% of a patient's medical record and are vital to the diagnosis and treatement of illness and disease. QuickMedical has applicators, face masks, QM Elite nitrile gloves, spin lift stools, and many other medical products that are integral to pathologists, phlebotomists, and other lab professionals.

If you know a lab professional, tell them thanks for their work in the treatment and diagnosis of disease. And if you are a lab professional, QuickMedical would like to thank you for everything you do. If you have a story or comment about any laboratory product you bought from QuickMedical please post it below in a comment in the 'read more' section below.

A recent report by the Center for Public Integrity details several dangerous ongoing problems in hospital sterilization practices. Medical equipment and devices must be carefully cleaned after use. Many health professionals are actually unaware of the sterilization techniques used in their facilities and take sterile medical equipment for granted. Some new complex medical devices are very hard to clean. Sometimes human error causes a piece of medical equipment to be improperly cleaned. The author of the report, Joe Eaton, told MSNBC, "We really don't know how many people end up with infections from surgical instruments. Studies that have looked specifically at dirty devices have shown that there is definitely a problem. A study at the University of Michigan, for example, looked at 350 suction cups that had been cleaned and sterilized. They found that every one of them contained blood, bone, tissue, even rust. If the devices are dirty it's not only gross but potentially dangerous, since there's a potential for passing on infection."

Having the right sterilization equipment for your hospital is the extremely important first step in making sure that medical equipment is kept hygienic. Medical autoclave sterilizers by Tuttnauer are the trusted standard in medical equipment sterilization. While not all medical equipment is autoclavable, many surgical, procedure, and examination devices are, and care should be taken to ensure that the autoclave process is done correctly to ensure clean instruments.

Currently if your clinic or facility orders a Tuttnauer EZ9, EZ10 , or EZ10k Autoclave they can receive a $400 rebate or a free Ultrasonic Cleaner with ss basket. Click read more for details.

The cost of operating a medical clinic is skyrocketing. Both older and younger doctors agree. When doctors leave medical school they are often in deep debt. The cost of maintaining an office, staff, and medical equipment is dwarfed by the cost of malpractice insurance, administrative costs, and fees for specialists in insurance provider "red-tape." Doctors who were trained in school as scientists and healers are thrown into an unfamiliar system of bureaucracy, advertising, marketing, consulting, and legal minutiae. Small mistakes in complex regulations and standards can quickly turn into big mistakes. While the availability of quality health care remains high in the United States compared to the rest of the world, both doctors and patients agree that there are serious flaws.

If you're a student of history, you might remember that the first tinkering with health care began in 1965 with the introduction of Medicare. In 1973 President Nixon signed a bill that made it possible for hospitals and doctor's offices to become for-profit business entities. The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 paved the way for advancements in medical technology and care while also leading to the organization of several large health insurance and health provider conglomerates. These two important pieces of legislation on the medical industry laid the groundwork for the American health care system as it exists today.

In 2010 compromise health care reform was passed by Congress. The controversial new legislation is currently under judicial review by the Supreme Court which will ultimately decide the fate of the new laws. Meanwhile costs for medical clinics and facilities continue to rise.

With this in mind, it's not self-serving to say affordable medical equipment is important. As your source for medical equipment and supplies, QuickMedical understands that in a changing system it's important to have some things you can count on. We aim to be that-- a simple online resource you can buy from with confidence no matter what legislation or regulations are enacted. Doctors who run clinics and offices can always come to QuickMedical for the affordable medical equipment they need. For instance the ADC Pro Combo II Colorful Aneroid Blood Pressure Kit is selling at QuickMedical for 50% off the retail price. For a clinic that needs high quality, affordable, but also fun and colorful medical equipment, ordering is simple. Just point, click, and the affordable medical equipment is delivered right to your door.

We have an entire page of professional medical equipment sales and promotion items. Get the best medical equipment from a trusted source-- QuickMedical.

Amy Norton writes for Reuters Health, "When a hospital patient goes into cardiac arrest, doctors and nurses perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, which includes chest compressions that need to be deep enough to move blood out of the heart and toward the rest of the body. But when the rescuer is short and the victim is on a hospital bed there's a problem: It's hard to get enough leverage to press down on the chest, and the rescuer has to rely on upper-body strength. It would seem logical that giving rescuers a boost with a step stool could help."

Could a low-tech piece of medical equipment be a key to life-saving?

In a study lead by Dr. Dana P. Edelson of the University of Chicago Medical Center, several CPR experts experimented with medical step stools and foot stools to learn whether these step stools actually improve CPR quality.

Do sturdy, high quality medical step stools actually improve CPR quality?

Scientists often use 'immortalized cells' to perform research. Essentially an immortalized cell is able to reproduce infinitely in a lab setting due to certain mutations which have occurred to it. Cancer is often thought to be the biological equivalent of these immortal cells. The first and most commonly used 'immortalized cell' is a cell line called HeLa, which was discovered in the early 50s from a cervical cancer biopsy.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women. It affects about 16 per 100,000 women per year and kills 9 of those women. In the 1950s far less was known about cancers than today, especially in women. Henrietta Lacks was as African American woman born in Virginia in the early 20s to a family only a generation away from slavery. She was raised by her grandparents after her mother's death and moved to Baltimore after marrying her cousin. In those days there was potentially more social freedom and higher wages in the booming steel mills to the north. Henrietta had 5 children before she was 31. When she was 30 Henrietta got sick.

In 1950 colposcopes and pap smears were not widely available and Ms. Lacks' access was probably limited because of her race. Her cancer had been undetected and had probably developed much earlier before symptoms began to appear. Cervical cancer is often asymptomatic until later stages.

QuickMedical and Germstar invite you to try answering these questions about hand hygiene. Hand hygiene isn't always as simple as just regular hand washing. Take this hand hygiene quiz, packed with hand hygiene and hand sanitizer facts and find out if you're a Hand Hygiene Hero or just a Germy Jerk.

1. After taking a patient's blood pressure, the doctor or nurse should wash their hands. True or False.

2. Wet or damp hands spread 1000 times more germs than dry hands. True or False.

3. In the 1960's rinsing hands with antiseptic was believed to be less effective than hand washing. True or False.

4. According to CDC the single most important thing we can do to keep from getting sick and spreading illness to others is to clean our hands. True or False.

5. Only 75% of female and 60% of male middle and high school students washed their hands after using the bathroom. True orFalse.

6. Hand sanitizer is not as effective in germ control as hand washing. True or False.

Do you know the answer to these questions? You've got a 50/50 shot! Don't cheat. Answer honestly and then click read more for the surprising answers on hand hygiene, hand washing, and hand sanitizers.

Have you heard of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis? Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician today known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. He discovered that childbed fever, which affects women during childbirth, could be drastically reduced by the use of hand disinfection.

Childbed fever was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal. In 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, Semmelweis was troubled that the doctors' wards had three times the mortality rates of midwives' wards. No one could figure out why there were so many cases of childbed fever in the doctors' ward. Semmelweis recreated the same conditions in both wards,but the doctors' ward remained a deadly problem. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with the doctors' ward. Then he realized that it might be something the doctors were doing outside the hospital.

What were the doctors doing outside the Obstetrical Clinic that was causing childbed fever?

You might have heard the sad news that musician Heavy D has recently passed away. He was one of the early artists who brought hip hop music to the mainstream. He rapped the theme song to In Living Color. He had several chart topping hits. He was also overweight and suffered from heart disease. You might assume that Heavy D's death was brought on by his unhealthy weight, but that's only partially true and just one part of the story.

What can you learn about your own health from the example of Heavy D? The answer might surprise you. Click ahead.