News in brief - June 29, 2009

Improving health literacy helps diminish disparities

Being able to read a consent form or fill out a health insurance form could significantly improve the health of elderly adults who are less educated, according to a study in the May/June Annals of Family Medicine (www.annfammed.org/cgi/content/abstract/7/3/204/.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and other institutions analyzed health data from a national sample of 2,668 adults age 65 and older.

Older adults without a high school diploma were 2.4 times more likely to report poor health than those whose education went beyond high school.

However, researchers found that when health literacy, which was defined as the ability to use health information from any source to make appropriate health decisions, was taken into account, disparities on the health measures diminished.

Back to top

Elderly patients awaiting kidneys often die before transplant

Nearly half of patients older than 60 who are awaiting a kidney transplant likely will die before an organ becomes available from a deceased donor, according to research published online June 18 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology cjasn.asnjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/CJN.01280209v1?/.

Researchers from the University of Florida in Gainesville analyzed data on about 55,000 older patients who were placed on a waiting list for a kidney transplant from 1995 to 2007. Projections of life expectancies suggest that 46% would die before receiving an organ, the study said. Blacks and patients older than 70 were at an even higher risk of dying.

Researchers emphasized the need to consider living donation as an alternative for some older patients or, alternately, to navigate the steps to receive a deceased donor transplant as rapidly as possible.

Back to top

New pediatric bioethics center launched

Prominent pediatric medical ethicist John D. Lantos, MD, will take the helm of the newly created Children's Mercy Bioethics Center in Kansas City, Mo., starting Sept. 1.

The center will develop educational programs for physicians and other health professionals at Children's Mercy and aims to "become a national center of excellence for pediatric bioethics," the hospital said in a statement.

Under Dr. Lantos' leadership, the new center "will have a truly significant impact both locally and nationally in shaping how care is provided for all of our children," according to a statement by Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics' president and CEO Randall L. O'Donnell, PhD.

Since 2007, Dr. Lantos has worked at the Kansas City-based Center for Practical Bioethics. He previously spent 21 years at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, where he was associate chair of pediatrics. He also has served as president of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics as well as the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.

In his new job, Dr. Lantos will provide clinical ethics consultation services and continue his writing and research on ethical dilemmas in pediatrics. Dr. Lantos has published more than 250 journal articles and book chapters, and written or edited five books.

The print version of this content appeared in the July 6, 2009 issue of American Medical News.

Back to top