HBOTechBlog.com Going Real-Time, Subscription-Only

The web's best resource for HBOT techs will soon require an email subscription. It's free. HBOTechBlog.com is a nonprofit educational and friendly information sharing site for all hyperbaric techs, nurses, physicians, supervisors, safety directors, and administrators. Editor Roque Wicker tells us he's going subscription-only so he can better provide real-time information, build a larger community, and track hot topics. We're loyal readers, fans, and friends. Go sign up now!

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Easier Bookmarking And Sharing On HyperbaricLink

It's a small thing, but readers tell us it's important. Our new Diseases and Conditions page format now also includes one-click sharing and bookmarking. Maybe you already noticed the handy AddThis toolbar in the upper right-hand corner of our updated Arthritis page. Soon you'll see these familiar icons popping up all across HyperbaricLink. We do hope this modest improvement makes our content a little more shareable and (literally) remarkable.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Diseases/Conditions Upgrades And Updates

Look for important new information on HyperbaricLink in the days and weeks ahead. We are busy updating and upgrading our Diseases and Conditions pages and adding new pages for both approved and off-label HBOT indications. Our new format brings you even more information and more links to more resources. Each page will include:

• Definition and Causes - just the basics.
• Treatment with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy - distilled from the medical literature.
• Hyperbaric Approval Status - yes or no from FDA and UHMS.
• Evidence Index - our scoring of current evidence.
• HyperbaricLink Commentary - our views and opinions.
• Patient Resources - info, advocacy, and support communities.
• Clinical Resources - links to the evidence and new research.
• News - relevant posts from our blog.
• Related Terms - other key words and synonyms.
• Further Reading - suggested long reads.
• Sources - sites we consulted to write our content.
• Page Data - time stamps and authorship credits.

With these content enhancements HyperbaricLink now meets or exceeds the emerging standards for reliable, trustworthy health information on the web. We will keep working to better inform, guide, and connect our visitors inside and outside the hyperbaric community.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Hello, Cleveland: HBOT Gets The Plain Deal

What most hyperbaric medical communities wouldn't give to get the positive, instructive, and complete press coverage The Plain Dealer dealt Cleveland this week. Reporter Diane Suchetka focuses squarely on the unmet clinical needs and patient benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for nonhealing chronic wounds. The article acquainted us with a handful of treatment centers in the Cleveland Clinic hospital network. We also filled in one odd moment in HBOT history:

In 1928, Cleveland became home to a one-of-a-kind, 900-ton steel sphere, called the Cunningham Sanitarium, which used oxygen therapy to treat diabetes, high blood pressure and other illnesses. Its leader, Dr. Orval J. Cunningham of Kansas City, Mo., had the five-story steel ball—which contained 40 rooms and 40 baths -- built on Lake Shore Boulevard at East 185th Street for $1 million—that's $12.9 million in today's money. 

Finally! The excuse we've been waiting for to post this wonderful old photo of what some call the Hyperbaric Hotel.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Should Your Hyperbaric Physician Be Board Certified?

Every doctor knows the difference between holding a license to practice and earning board certification in a medical specialty, and every patient should know the difference, too. "How to become a licensed, board certified doctor," by pediatrician Roy Benaroch MD on KevinMD.com, offers some helpful insight into the board certification process and its value to the patient. Benaroch concludes:

Is your doctor board-certified? He or she ought to be—or have a good excuse to have skipped or delayed this step. If you don’t know, ask.

Specifically, you should ask your doctor if her or his certification is up-to-date, as most boards require education, exams, and other qualifying steps every 7-10 years.

The UHMS keeps a list of board certified undersea and hyperbaric physicians. ProfilePlus listings on HyperbaricLink include information on physician board certification, and we give you a rundown of the professional organizations that train, accredit, and certify hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment centers and clinicians.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
 

Chatroulette To Empower Patients? Not So Much.

Call us geeks, but we take Medgadget by RSS feed and consider its founders, the brothers Ostrovsky, brilliant healthcare web entrepreneurs. So what's with HealCam? It's like a Chatroulette full of sick people. You remember Chatroulette. It was the hot Internet craze last summer before it flashed like a firework then fizzled. Now the Russian kid who started it, and turned down generous buyout offers, makes all his money off the site's worst offenders: nude dudes. Not exactly an inspiring model for a site where people might go to discuss medical problems.

Still, one can see the utility of live video chat plugged into thriving online patient communities like PatientsLikeMe. Once members get acquainted in chat rooms, they can arrange to speak more freely face-to-face. Got it. And if brisk PR can save anything, it'll save HealCam. But even since the big ABC News story broke, 2 February, there's not a soul there wanting to chat about our (real but not serious) lung condition. You'll find a similar critique on the Target Health Global blog. Now here are we both, spreading the word, because what HealCam is trying to do is so important.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Restorix Health Mixes It Up In Greater Seattle

Suddenly one ambitious new HBOT clinic in Issaquah WA has become the darling of the local newspaper and the chamber of commerce, and raised the hackles of one leading authority in hyperbaric medicine. Restorix Health opened in December with "the largest collection of large monoplace chambers in the country" (6 Perry Sigma 40s) and plans "to lead the country in research using hyperbaric chambers to treat soldiers with traumatic brain injuries" and other investigational conditions by opening "15 to 20 new clinics along the West Coast in the next five years." Followup coverage last week ballyhoos the center's Innovation in Issaquah award for "space-age medical research."

UHMS past president Dr Neil Hampson is having none of it. Read his letter to editor of the Issaquah Reporter (see also our appreciation of his Virginia Mason program). Hampson casts doubt on Restorix's business model and its clinicians' research credentials, concluding:

I am skeptical that the Restorix Foundation will be capable of underwriting the expense of quality research in hyperbaric medicine, as I would be about most foundations in this country. My strongest hope is that they do not plan to charge patients for experimental treatment.

Restorix Research Institute chief medical officer Tommy Love shot off a quick rebuttal, insisting his studies (4 in the works) will be IRB-approved and peer-reviewed, adding:

Our research studies will never charge patients to participate.  Dr. Hampson’s claim that only large institutions can do credible research is simply untrue.

We're captivated by the debate and eager to learn more about the privately funded research Restorix has in the works.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Daily Show: Spider-Man's Understudy Kept HBOT Fresh

We promise plenty of real hyperbaric oxygen therapy news soon to follow, but right now this harmless meme demands our participation.

The Daily Show - Intro - Spider-Man's Understudy
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Valentine's Day: Science, The Senses, Health, Life

To celebrate Valentine's Day our good friend and colleague Mark Stinson serves up Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke, by 17th century author and physician Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma. Click here to read Mark's introduction and download the free e-book. Sweet. Health is life, after all, and we experience life with our skin and through the holes in our heads. So may we also highly recommend A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman, a book chock-full of science and so finely written you see, hear, smell, touch, taste it.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

#Hyperbaric Tweeting The #Grammys

Watching along with millions of the 190 million Twitter users breathed some life into tonight's ho-hum Grammys telecast, and produced some funny and not-so-funny #hyperbaric tweets. Astounding how many people thought Lady Gaga's egg looked like a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. We're not seeing it. Anyway, top prize goes to this entry by the Village Voice.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

HyperbaricLink Adds Video To ProfilePlus Listings

Now prospective patients and referring physicians can hear straight from the HBOT clinician and take a good look around select treatment centers on HyperbaricLink. Check out our listing for the Colorado Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. Just scroll down the right-hand column and click play to see and hear Kirk Hartley's two-minute hyperbaric oxygen primer and virtual tour of the facility. Video enlivens the connection between healthcare consumers and providers, and energizes the exchange of information with color and character. And of course the richer content adds even more value to our ProfilePlus premium directory listings. Please contact us at (617) 383-7159 or support@hyperbariclink.com for more information.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

HBOT Operational At The Tiger Woods Mansion

Okay, we're feeling a little icky about relaying this tabloid dreck (again!), and we really can't explain why it's in the news (again!), so we've backdated it 48 hours. Let's hope beyond hope we never again stub our toe on a line like: "He has a Michael Jackson hyperbaric chamber."

Now please accept these links as a hyperbaric reminder that, when it comes to HBOT, all your average man and woman on the street knows is Jacko and maybe the local football star slept in one. And when it comes to improving HBOT awareness and education, we've all got our work cut out for us—and miles to go before we sleep, and miles to go before we sleep.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Hyperbaric Wound Care Movement Hits Close To Home

Word of the newly expanded Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine at Oakwood Heritage Hospital (Taylor MI) caught this hometown boy's blogging eye. The $1.5 million investment, featuring a conversion from multiplace to monoplace chambers, seems especially prudent for a healthcare facility serving this hardworking and rapidly aging downriver Detroit community. More to the point, the hospital sits on the ruins of your faithful correspondent's old Little League field, wedged between his alma mater, the abandoned and soon-to-be-razed Taylor Center High School (Go Rams!); his childhood parish, the St Alfred Catholic Church; a funeral home; and the UAW regional headquarters. Rest assured we'll soon be adding the clinic to our Michigan treatment center directory. And of course we've already scored an invitation to tour the facility next time we're in town. (People in this business are so friendly.) Our best wishes till then for a successful and healthful practice.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Gingrich Slips HBOT Into The Obamacare News Cycle

Newt Gingrich spent most of his time slamming healthcare reform legislation and the State of the Union address, but he and South Florida television viewers also learned a thing or two about HBOT during his tour of the Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Program at Bethesda Memorial Hospital (Boynton Beach FL) today.

Visiting a cancer survivor undergoing HBOT for radiation injury, the former Speaker of the House praised the hospital's clinical innovation as well as its business savvy in partnering with National Healing to establish the program 15 years ago:

[Hyperbaric oxygen therapy] is rapidly becoming the standard of care to avoid amputations and improve quality of life. Centralized bureaucracies cannot get us into the future as quickly as local partnerships can.

Click the arrow to watch the video below. Read more about Gingrich's visit in the Palm Beach Post.



O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Florida Clinic Reopens Nearly Two Years After Fatal Fire

The first fatal hyperbaric chamber fire in the US, on 1 May 2009 at the Ocean Hyperbaric Neurologic Center in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea FL, sent shock waves across the HBOT community. (Click here to read our previous coverage of the accident and its aftermath.) The clinic reopened earlier this week, as Neubauer Hyperbaric Neurologic Center, under a lingering cloud of controversy.

Besides reteaching everyone some vital lessons in equipment safety and safe clinical staff and patient procedures, the Florida fire put HBOT providers and healthcare consumers on notice regarding the legal and truthful promotion of off-label indications for hyperbaric medicine on the web. Money quote from Monday's South Florida Sun-Sentinel article:

The US Food and Drug Administration doesn't interfere with how doctors use the devices. But the agency does act when a clinic starts promoting devices for unlisted conditions, violating federal law, according to Erica V. Jefferson, an agency spokeswoman.

Still, the clinic's website makes some rather bold claims about the treatment of "unlisted conditions," and the Sun-Sentinel piece includes the following video testimonial by a man who enjoys success with HBOT for multiple sclerosis.



Here on HyperbaricLink we insist that any and all information about off-label indications should be presented in proper context, clearly showing the current FDA status, the weight of published clinical evidence, our own views and insights, and links to other helpful and authoritative resources. Poke around our Hyperbaric Treatment Center Directory and you'll see what we mean.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

HyperbaricLink Weekly Roundup

This week, as our site developers worked some wizardry behind the curtain, we assessed the nation's hyperbaric preparedness for wars foreign and domestic. Ooh-rah to OxyHeal for aiding the US Department of Defense in its much-anticipated TBI investigations. Now who will rush to outfit our first responders and trauma centers on the home front? Wednesday we sure enjoyed a hot cup of Morning Joe with Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright. And yesterday we offered directory assistance to the burgeoning advanced wound care industry. In our spare time, via Twitter and twisted pair, we explored the wonderful world of mild or mHBOT, or personal hyperbarics, for some fun tweets and blogposts next week. Yet more providers and manufacturers got a load of our upcoming Profile+Plus offering. Contact us and we'll email you a link to our quick demo, or stay tuned for the promo and our first batch online. Stay safe and warm, dear reader, till Monday.

HyperbaricLink Weekly Roundup

This week we filed some new posts and tweets on familiar themes, while busily preparing our site for the New Year ahead. HCMC stepped up its fight to keep Hennepin County, the Twin Cities, and Minnesota fully prepared for carbon monoxide, smoke, and burn emergencies. Best Publishing ran a holiday sale. Kindred Hospital Kansas City won UHMS accreditation and an upgraded directory listing. We're also proud to have added ProHBO in Greater Atlanta (Marietta, GA) and made acquaintances with dozens of others. Select treatment centers and chamber manufacturers got a sneak peek at our new Profile+Plus feature. (The world at large needn't wait much longer.) And it was an especially productive week of social networking, as we enabled readers to preview our news and share nice with AddThis, studied up for a Facebook launch, and broke 1,000 followers on Twitter, where we tweeted, too, on topics ranging from home safety to chronic pain, migraine, flu vaccines, autism, lupus, fibromyalgia, and wound management. Thanks to all who corresponded, conversed, and commented.

O2.0 Is On The Air

With O2.0, the HyperbaricLink.com news blog, we'll be bringing you the top stories, choicest blurbs, and most clickable links in hyperbaric medicine every day. Subscribe to our posts by RSS and keep right up-to-the-minute. Or sign up for our free newsletter to catch up on O2.0 by e-mail every week. We always welcome your comments, questions, and story suggestions. Do drop us a line. And thank you for visiting.