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Department Of Health

The cost of DNA testing: is it worth it?

The cost of DNA testing can vary greatly depending on the type of test and where it is being performed. The cost of a dnacenter.com home DNA test kit, for example, is often much less expensive than going through a medical facility. However, the cost is not the only factor to consider when deciding whether or not to pursue DNA testing. The accuracy and reliability of the test, as well as the privacy and confidentiality of the results, are also important considerations. When it comes to paternity testing, for instance, many people choose to take a paternity test while pregnant after the 7th week, to ensure the most accurate results possible. Ultimately, the cost of DNA testing is worth it if it provides the answers you are looking for and the peace of mind that comes with them.

What factors determine the cost of DNA testing?

One of the biggest factors that affect the cost of a DNA test is the type of test being performed. For example, a simple home DNA test kit that tests for a single genetic condition is typically much less expensive than a comprehensive genomic sequencing test that analyzes a person’s entire genetic code. Additionally, the complexity of the analysis and the level of accuracy required can also impact the cost of the test. For instance, prenatal paternity testing that requires a high level of accuracy and involves collecting a sample from the fetus is generally more expensive than a simple cheek swab DNA test. Other factors that may impact the cost of a DNA test include the availability of insurance coverage, the location of the testing laboratory, and the reputation of the laboratory.

How to recognize a professional laboratory?

To determine if a laboratory is professional, one should consider its accreditation status, the experience of the staff, and the technology they use. A professional laboratory should have accreditation from organizations such as the College of American Pathologists (CAP) or the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). This indicates that the laboratory has undergone rigorous evaluations and meets high standards of quality and accuracy. The laboratory staff should have the appropriate qualifications and training in DNA testing, with experience in processing and analyzing samples. The laboratory should also use the latest technology and equipment, such as high-throughput DNA sequencers, to ensure accurate results. By taking these factors into consideration, one can determine if a laboratory is professional and if the cost of DNA testing with that lab is worth it.

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Health Articles

Transitioning From EMT to Paramedic

If you have worked as an EMT and found the career to be the right fit for you, you may want to consider the transition to becoming a paramedic. The primary difference between EMT basics and paramedics is the level of care that each professional is able to provide. Both are “emergency medical technicians” but the training of a paramedic is more extensive requiring more time and effort to accomplish. This is not to minimize the role of the EMT basic, as this level of care is the foundation for the emergency medical technician profession.
Many EMT basics have vast amount of knowledge and experience in emergency care and should be considered true professionals when it comes to emergencies, so long as they maintain their industry level standard of care and continue their education. They have the same responsibility of continuing their education as any other health care professionals.
Some EMT basics prefer not to take on the additional training and responsibility as a paramedic. Transitioning to a paramedic can be costly, very time consuming and comes with much more responsibility. The biblical saying, “To whom much is given, much is required.” is indeed a very true statement. It certainly is not for everyone, and EMT basics that choose to stay at the basic level of care should never feel inferior for doing so.
For those that choose to transition to the paramedic level, I have a few recommendation.
1. Get some experience as an EMT
Experienced EMT basics make for strong Paramedics. In addition, it is wise to actually work on an ALS unit with a paramedic. This will give you invaluable experience that will help smooth the transition.
2. Continue your education
Your academic level will certainly determine how you handle a paramedic program. Subjects like medical dosage calculations; pathophysiology and pharmacology can be grueling if you have never been exposed to them. Paramedic students who already have at least an associate’s degree handle the program much better then those without this education. This is not to say that you can’t do well without a degree, but it is to say that the more academically prepared for the program you are the better you will do.
3. Make sure you money’s right
You should be financially prepared for paramedic school. It is generally a 12 to 18 month full time program. If your budget is small, be sure to think ahead about how you are going to pay your bills and be very detailed with you financial plan. Running out of money during paramedic school can stop you in your tracks.
4. Want it for the right reason’s
Everyone is not cut out to be a care provider. You may have some experience, be educated and well financed, but that really is only half of what it is about. Knowing what to do and actually caring are about it are two different things. If your primary objective is to improve your career status and increase your income then I would seriously encourage you to look into another career. There are a lot of ways to make money. However, when it comes to health “care” you won’t ever be a truly great professional if you don’t truly care about your neighbor.…

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Department Of Health

The Global Guidelines Applied For Diabetes

At present, there is a widespread indication on the best possible management of diabetes, which offers the option of developing the instant and long-term value of the life of persons suffering from the said ailment. Unluckily, such finest management can not reach many possible patients who may benefit. The causes include the dimension and complication of the evidence and the intricacy of diabetes concern itself. One outcome is the deficiency of confirmed gainful resources for care of diabetes. Another outcome is the variety of standards of medical practice.
Guidelines are part of a method that seeks to attend those problems. Several guidelines have come out internationally, nationally and also locally in current years; however, majority of these did not use the accurate new instruction methodologies in identifying and analyzing the evidence. Therefore, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has produced a worldwide guideline, Global Guideline for Diabetes Mellitus type II. The worldwide guideline offers a unique challenge.
Several of the national guidelines attend to a group of persons with diabetes in the perspective of the health care scheme, with the level of nationwide health-care system. This is untrue in the worldwide context, wherein each health-care resource is likely short of funds and the financial support and skills obtainable for health-care differ extensively between nations and also between localities. Published nationwide guidelines appear from fairly resource-wealthy nations and might be of restricted realistic utilization in less resourced countries. Furthermore, they have tried also to make a guideline which is responsive to resource and cost-efficiency issues.
Levels of care approach – the move adopted was to advice the three levels of concern: Standard Care, Minimal Care and Comprehensive Care. The levels of care are new and inventive concept in research of diabetes.
Standard care – the care is based on evidence, cost-effective in majority of countries with well improved services based and having health-care financial backing system which consumes an important part of the national wealth.
Minimal care – it is the care which seeks to attain the prime objectives of the management. However, it is given in health-care set with extremely incomplete resources – drugs, technologies, procedures and personnel.
Comprehensive car – this is a care based on few evidence that is given in health-care system with significant resources.…

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Health Articles

African Americans May Not Seek Pain Managment For Cancer

An important question was asked many years ago: Why do so many people from various backgrounds, especially African Americans, not seek cancer care that is available to the population at large?
In 1987, The Drew-Meharry-Morehouse Consortium Cancer Center was instituted for the purpose of conducting research to reduce “the high incidence and mortality from cancer in the African-American population (focused mostly in Los Angeles, Nashville, and Atlanta. An article in the Winter 2008 edition of The Pain Practitioner, the journal for the American Academy of Pain Management, by Debra Nelson-Hogan, contained information from an interview with the former administrator, Dr. Patricia Matthews-Juarez, Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Associate Vice-President, Office of Faculty Affairs and Development at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dr. Matthews-Juarez cites several reasons why large numbers of people from various backgrounds, in this case specifically African Americans, do not seek cancer care.
* Lack of Trust – in the provider
* Lack of Respect – from the provider and the health care environment
* Racism and Discrimination – e.g., waiting longer for appointments
* Fatalism – belief that “God will take care of it”
* Lack of Pain Management – “notion that African Americans have higher pain thresholds
* Lack of Reliable Information about Resources for Cancer Care
Social work studies conducted in the 1960’s and 1970’s indicated that patients would tend to stay in treatment longer if the treating health care practitioners either looked like them or showed real empathy for their plight. In addition, historically, pain management has not been seen as a science nor as an urgent treatment necessity. In 2000, The Office of Minority Health at the Health Resources and Services Administration, (HRSA), encouraged the creation of the first guide for healthcare practitioners: Cultural Competence in Cancer Care: A Health Care Professional Passport. Although the role of culture in pain management and disease treatment is still often overlooked, there has been an increasing level of awareness and cultural sensitivity in this country.
The solution to creating treatment parity among different ethnic groups, including the socioeconomically underpriviledged is collaboration, collaboration among health facilities, health organizations, medical teaching institutions, professional health care providers and the public at large. We’ve come a long way but there is still a long way to go.…

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Good Health

Children With Type 2 Diabetes

The rate of Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents are now in alarming state of increase that lead to chronic health conditions such as loss of vision, limb amputation, kidney disorders, and cardiovascular risks. Most physicians suppose the growing rate of this medical condition is as a result of poor food choices, increasing obesity and the sedentary lifestyle experienced by children today.
Type 2 diabetes is a life long disorder of pancreas that fails to produce enough insulin in the body or fails to use the insulin suitably. This slows down the natural ability of human cells to breakdown sugar or glucose into energy and increases the amount of sugar to stay in the blood causing elevated blood sugar levels. The actual reason for the rapid increase of Type 2 diabetes in children is still unknown though there are various possible causes including family history or hereditary, overweight or obesity, physically inactive lifestyle etc. The release of hormones during teen ages can also lead to insulin resistance that can in turn cause Type 2 diabetes. Children with type 2 diabetes are also more possible to develop hypertension or abnormal levels of blood fats.
The disease is however hard to be found out because of the lack of strong symptoms at the early stage, provided mild symptoms such as thirsty feeling and frequent urination that are often left unconcerned. Losing of weight without any reason is also one of the symptoms of this disease. The disease usually comes into light when the blood or urine sample of the child is tested for some reason. Constant thirst, fatigue, frequent urination or bed-wetting, blurred vision and darkened skin around the neck or underarms are other telltale signs possibly include.
Healthy food choices along with physically active life style are the best method to keep away the disease from the very young stage. Eating healthy balance diet and limiting high sugar intake found in sweets, creams and candies can help in keeping the blood sugar level in your children normal. Children with Type 2 diabetics should also have control over carbohydrate intake as it can also negatively affect normal blood sugar level. High fat milk, yogurt, starchy vegetables also should be avoided. An expert dietitian can help you with useful information on healthy diet for diabetic children.
In addition to healthy diet, introducing your child to various physical activities such as sports, dance, jogging and exercise programs help your child stay away from diabetes. There are various natural remedies and health supplements that support the normal blood sugar level in the body that can be of great use. The overall goal of these products is to improve the control of blood sugar, slow down the development of complications of diabetes, and even lessen the existing medicine requirements. Such herbal supplements contain powerfully effective ingredients that not only help in preventing Type 2 diabetes, but also help to cover nutritional requirements for growing children. They supply the body with high-potency multivitamin, potent antioxidants, bioflavonoids, fish oils as well as different vitamins and minerals. Most of them can be taken together with insulin and other prescription drugs. Under the direction of your general practitioner, you might find that your insulin or oral medication necessities are reduced.…

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Department Of Health

How Economy and Health is Closely Related to Each Other

The dream of universal health might come alive
Singapore is one of those countries that is caught in the middle of the economic boom. It is not yet rich enough to join the most industrialized nations in the world yet it is not poor enough to be classified within the same group as under developed economies. On the face of it this might seem like a good deal for avoiding the pressures that face countries that lie on either way of the spectrum. However I think that it is important to recognize that the countries in the middle face certain challenges. Being in the middle is not always safe. One of them is health care and specifically the provision of free health care to ordinary people.
The models for free health care
The first model is one of fully public options. This means that all health care is a public service and it is fully owned by the government on behalf of the people. This would place an enormous financial burden on the Singapore government but it would also ensure that cost was no longer an issue that ordinary people would have to worry about in terms of health care. Therefore free health care would become a reality. The problems with this option are that it does not account for the fact that the government may not have the revenues to support such an initiative. It will almost certainly encounter some hostility from the public if it attempts to raise tax revenues in order to fund its project. No one wants to pay up the tax revenues that are requisite for the success of the project.
The second option is to look at a public partnership with private firms so that instead of having free health care in Singapore, you have affordable care. This seems like a pragmatic solution that will get rid of some of the excesses that we have seen when health care is managed by the public sector. There are some who say that it could even reduce the inefficiencies that riddle this sector with failure. I would put forward a word of warning to the effect that the private sector will not easily accept the position of proxy government body.
For the case of Singapore, they are not rich enough to the extent that tax revenues alone can support this worthy but expensive cause. At the same time they are not poor enough that they can ignore the health of their people or rely on foreign aid to provide health care. In this rather brief article I try to look at some of the models they might want to use in order to implement a successful health care policy. This might mean that they copy from the models of both the poor and rich nations in order to accomplish this objective.…

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Health Articles

Charlie Crist Program – What Is It?

If you are a resident of Florida, you may have heard some buzz surrounding the Charlie Crist Program, also known as Cover Florida. However, you may not be aware as to what exactly the program is, or even what it is intended to do. Here, we’ll go over what Charlie Crist’s new program, Cover Florida, is designed to do, as well as how you can take advantage of the opportunities it provides.
The Charlie Crist Program is essentially a new set of legislation under the Affordable Care Act that is designed to provide affordable medical insurance to nearly four million residents of Florida that currently do not have health insurance. Cover Florida works with insurance providers to create original health care products that are guaranteed to Florida residents, even those with preexisting medical conditions that would otherwise disqualify them from getting health care. It also helps provide health insurance do those who have recently lost their coverage because of losing or quitting their job, and to those who are unable to afford standard private health insurance.
The new Charlie Crist Program can help provide uninsured citizens of Florida the chance to take control of their health and get affordable, reliable care for themselves as well as their loved ones. The coverage provided under the Cover Florida legislation helps pay for preventative services and health screenings, visits to the doctor’s office, surgery and emergency care, prescription medications, supplies for diabetic patients, and medical equipment. The benefits you can receive from enrolling in the Cover Florida health care program don’t stop here, and if you do not have health insurance, this is a great opportunity to get the care you need for very little cost to you.
There were no tax dollars used in the creation of the Charlie Crist Program, but rather the state worked with six different private health insurance companies in order to create affordable health care plans. This means that the drain on the state was minimal, and anyone who has gone without health care for the last six months or recently lost his or her employer provided health coverage is eligible. If you have lost health insurance or have not had it for at least six months, and suffer from a preexisting medical condition that makes it difficult for you to find affordable health care, then the Cover Florida health care program can be the answer you’re looking for.
If you need assistance in locating particular coverages at a pre-determined price, we can help save 50% on health insurance.…