Berkshires Hyperbaric Tour

People in the North Adams, Massachusetts, area have an opportunity to see a hyperbaric treatment center first hand. iBerkshires.com reports The Wound Healing Center at North Adams Regional Hospital will be hosting an open house on November 10th. This is an opportunity to learn more about hyperbaric oxygen therapy and talk with specialists about how hyperbaric oxygen therapy and other treatments can help heal chronic wounds.

The treatment center is operated in partnership with National Healing Corporation, a clinical management company specializing in wound care centers. The Wound Healing Center uses hyperbaric chambers built by Pan-America Hyperbarics, Inc.

For those who might be visiting from outside the region, the North Adams area is also host to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and Williams College.

ACHM Day 2: Old School Style and High Technology

We thought we'd take advantage of a lull in the action here at the 2010 American College of Hyperbaric Medicine annual symposium and mention what a nice venue it is for conference attendees and exhibitors (like us). A landmark in downtown Milwaukee for over 80 years, the Hilton Milwaukee City Center retains its full 1920's splendor. The ballroom, shown at right during another event, is a representative example. Among its features are actual windows, a rarity in exhibition hall venues.

A more modern innovation, the indoor water park on the hotel's sixth floor, undoubtedly provides an interesting diversion during long Wisconsin winters. (We haven't had a chance to try it.)

For those who don't have the opportunity to be hear in person, WebCME is offering the entire program via streaming video on their website free to ACHM members and for $299 to non-members. The program will also be available online after the conference. Highlights from today's sessions include:

• Ten Advances that May Impact HBO and Wound Care in the Next 5 Years,
• SupraMaximal HBOT,
• HBOT in Cerebral Hypoperfusion,
• Traumatic Brain Injury Hippocampal Salvage with HBOT, and 
• A tour of the Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center hyperbaric facility.

The videos will be available after the conference as well. Next week we'll feature news from the conference of particular note to healthcare consumers and referring physicians interested in hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Telepresence = CME Credits

Wish you could attend the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine symposium this weekend but don't have the opportunity to enjoy a pleasant fall weekend in Wisconsin?. You can attend virtually--that's through your computer for the less technically inclined--and earn continuing medical education credits just as if you were there in person. WebCME, a leader in distance learning for healthcare professionals, is providing the technology and expertise.

Best of all, it's free if you're an ACHM member, and membership costs just $50 per year, so you can get 20 CME/CEU credits for the price of one round-trip checked bag. Sign up on the ACHM website or e-mail admin@achm.org for a passcode and instructions if you're already a member.

Covering topics in practice management and clinical practice, this year's symposium will be helpful to anyone who's administering wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy or managing a hyperbaric treatment center. Streaming video gives you the option to attend just the sessions you need.

If Hulu can make it easy to watch 30 Rock or Masterpiece Theater at your desk, why not use the same technology for, you know, actual work? Jack Donaghy and the Kabletown executives will be impressed.

ACHM 2010

We're packing for the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine's annual symposium this weekend in Milwaukee and wanted to mention some of the program highlights we're looking forward to soaking up. The theme for this year's symposium is New Horizons in Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care and the program features presentations on advances in clinical practice and best practices in treatment center management.

• Given that the economic model for healthcare reimbursement sometimes resembles the work of M. C.  Escher, we're eager to hear what the experts have to say about cost containment and managing the complexities of reimbursement.
• As technology people, we're also interested in learning what others have discovered about advances that will shape the understanding of the patient population and improve their treatment.
• The tour of the state-of-the-art facility at St. Luke's Medical Center will be fascinating, as well as a welcome relief from sitting on banquet chairs.

If you are attending the symposium we'd be delighted to make your acquaintance and tell you more about what we're doing to improve the accessibility of information about hyperbaric oxygen therapy and treatment centers that provide us. We'll be in the exhibit hall.

Vaccines, Autism, the Supreme Court, and the burden of (scientific) proof.

The New York Times today reports the Supreme Court will consider a case involving the relationship between vaccines and autism. Given some of the Roberts court's recent decisions it's possible to infer the interests of large corporations and science will nicely coincide in this case, but in a group of nine people where one of the two most ideologically similar members describes the other as a "nut" there is latitude for surprising outcomes.

In recent decisions, notably Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Roberts court has demonstrated a muscular inclination to broaden the legal protections afforded to corporations. Cases the court has agreed to hear in the near future provide it the opportunity to continue to create an expansive definition of corporate rights.

There is no scientific evidence that autism is linked to vaccines, measles-mumps-rubella or any other kind. Despite the energy advocates pour into claims to the contrary, their position cannot be regarded as evidence-based.

Taken together, these factors would point to a slam-dunk in favor of the vaccine manufacturer. The issue before the court, however, relies not a determination of rights or preponderance of evidence but on the question of legislative intent: did congress intend to prohibit certain types of lawsuits against drug manufacturers? Their answer has implications for the effects of such lawsuits on evidenced-based medicine that reach beyond the absence of scientific grounds for the claim in the case in question.

Treatment of autism with hyperbaric oxygen therapy to facilitate development, improve behavior, or eliminate the condition remains experimental and without strong scientific support despite numerous anecdotal reports from respectable sources of positive outcomes. While changes in the legal standards for product defect lawsuits involving vaccines have no direct bearing, such a decision could be a bellwether for a change in evidentiary standards by a court that has demonstrated a willingness to overturn settled law.