Month: March 2024

An App Is Helping Those With Vision Loss Navigate Urban Transit

By: Maylin Tu: Click through for the full post…

From Vancouver to Barcelona, city transportation agencies are turning to NaviLens to make wayfinding easier for blind and low-vision riders.

The decal of brightly colored blocks on a black background looks like something straight out of the classic arcade game Space Invaders. But the goal of these codes isn’t to zap aliens — it’s to help people who are blind or have low vision find their bus or train stop.

As anyone who has ever boarded the bus going the wrong way can attest, wayfinding can be challenging for anyone, but people who have sight loss face special challenges.

NaviLens, a tech company based in Murcia, Spain, has developed an app that uses codes posted at bus stops or in train stations to provide real-time navigation via audio and haptic (vibration) cues, directing the user from the elevator in a train station, for example, to a nearby bus stop.

Online tool for Long Covid support

From University of Southhampton: Click through for the full post…

A website to support people living with Long Covid is launched today, Long Covid Awareness Day, by a research team led by a Southampton professor with first-hand experience of the condition.

The online tool offers a symptom checker, advice on seeking support, and encourages people to talk about their symptoms with professionals, friends and family. It is live at long-covid-care.org.uk from today, the second annual International Long Covid Awareness Day.

Nisreen Alwan, Professor of Public Health at the University of Southampton who was made an MBE in 2021 for services to medicine and public health during the pandemic, has led the development of the online tool using research she and colleagues have conducted into the stigma and barriers to seeking care for Long Covid.

This research is part of the STIMULATE-ICP study, the largest UK clinical study of Long Covid to date, led by University College London Hospitals NHS Trust and University College London. The tool is also based on research findings from the HI-COVE study, led by the University of Westminster, which focused on the impact of Long Covid in minority ethnic groups. Both studies were funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Announcing the 2024 Recipients of the AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards

From AAPD: Click through for the full post…

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is thrilled to announce the recipients of its 2024 Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Awards, an award given to emerging leaders with disabilities who exemplify leadership, advocacy, and dedication to the broader cross-disability community. 

Paul G. Hearne was one of AAPD’s founders who was passionate about cultivating leaders to advance the disability rights movement. Through the award, AAPD has continued Hearne’s legacy by recognizing nearly 70 individuals over 25 years in his honor. The funding provided by this award has supported advocacy, education, skill building, organizational infrastructure, and more.  

AAPD proudly recognizes Valois Vera and the Medical Students with Disability and Chronic Illness (MSDCI) team, Zainub Dhanani, Nora Newcomb, and Ifeoma Ikedionwu, as the 2024 recipients of the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award.

First Treatment Approved for Chronic Rhinosinusitis Without Nasal Polyps

by Elizabeth Short: Click through for the full post…

Daily sprays of Xhance reduced acute exacerbations by 56% to 66% in trials.

The FDA expanded the approval of fluticasone propionate (Xhance) nasal spray for chronic rhinosinusitis to also include treatment of adults without nasal polyps, manufacturer Optinose announced on Fridayopens in a new tab or window.

The drug-device combination product delivers the active ingredient, a topical steroid, to inflamed upper areas of the nasal cavity via an exhalation delivery system (EDS); roughly two-thirds of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, or chronic sinusitis, do not have nasal polyps.

The approval “is an important milestone,” said study investigator Rick Chandra, MD, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in a statement from Optinose. “Until today, we have been forced to use unproven therapies to try and alleviate the symptoms that these patients suffer. While we often resort to using nasal steroid sprays in this patient population, they have never been shown to be effective in large placebo-controlled clinical studies.”

In addition, acute disease exacerbations — which frequently result in antibiotic prescriptions for this patient population and which was a key secondary endpoint of ReOpen2 — were reduced by 56% to 66% with one or two sprays of fluticasone.

Do you support someone experiencing changes in mood or behaviour related to dementia?

From Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health: Click through for the full post…

The Behaviours in Dementia Toolkit is a brand-new online library of over 200 free, practical resources that can help you better understand and compassionately respond to dementia-related changes in mood or behaviour

State Medicaid offices target dead people’s homes to recoup their health care costs

BY AMANDA SEITZ: Click through for the full post…

As Salvatore LoGrande fought cancer and all the pain that came with it, his daughters promised to keep him in the white, pitched roof house he worked so hard to buy all those decades ago.

So, Sandy LoGrande thought it was a mistake when, a year after her father’s death, Massachusetts billed her $177,000 for her father’s Medicaid expenses and threatened to sue for his home if she didn’t pay up quickly.

“The home was everything,” to her father said LoGrande, 57.

But the bill and accompanying threat weren’t a mistake.

Rather, it was part of a routine process the federal government requires of every state: to recover money from the assets of dead people who, in their final years, relied on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded health insurance for the poorest Americans.

A person’s home is typically exempt from qualifying for Medicaid. But it is subject to the estate recovery process for those who were over 55 and used Medicaid to pay for long-term care such as nursing home stays or in-home health care.

This month, a Democratic lawmaker proposed scuttling the “cruel” program altogether. Critics argue the program collects too little — roughly 1% — of the more than $150 billion Medicaid spends yearly on long-term care. They also say many states fail to warn people who sign up for Medicaid that big bills and claims to their property might await their families once they die.

Kansas Plans to Phase Out Subminimum Wage for Disabled People

By JULIA MÉTRAUX: Click through for the full post…

On Thursday, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed legislation into law that would start to phase out subminimum wage for disabled people in the state. For decades, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 has made it legal to pay disabled people less than minimum wage if they have a certificate. Only fourteen other states have passed laws to phase out this practice.

“I’m signing this bipartisan legislation to create more opportunities for people with disabilities, grow our workforce, and ensure every Kansan can work with dignity and respect,” Gov. Kelly said. 

In states where subminimum wage is still legal, companies apply for 14(c) certificates which allow them to pay disabled people below both the federal and their state’s minimum wage. A US Government Accountability Office report found that most 14(c) workers earn less than $3.50 an hour. 

The US Department of Labor is currently reviewing the 14(c) certificate program, but it is not clear if they will end the subminimum wage. A list of companies with 14c certificates can be found here. 

In a recent Teen Vogue article, disabled journalist John Loeppky asked people to question what purpose 14(c) certificates serve—especially because the certificates are often given to workplaces that separate disabled people from other workers:

FDA Approves First-Ever Drug for Serious Liver Condition

by Kristen Monaco: Click through for the full post…

The FDA granted accelerated approvalopens in a new tab or window to resmetirom (Rezdiffra) as the first treatment for adults with noncirrhotic non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), also now referred to as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

A once-daily oral agent, resmetirom is a liver-directed thyroid hormone receptor (THR)-β selective agonist designed to target key underlying causes of NASH; the drug is specifically indicated for NASH patients with moderate to advanced liver fibrosis, consistent with stages F2 to F3 fibrosis, and should be used along with diet and exercise, according to the agency.

“Previously, patients with NASH who also have notable liver scarring did not have a medication that could directly address their liver damage,” said Nikolay Nikolov, MD, of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a statement. “Today’s approval of Rezdiffra will, for the first time, provide a treatment option for these patients, in addition to diet and exercise.”

A result of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) progression, NASH can lead to liver fibrosis and dysfunction, raising the risk of transplant and hepatocellular carcinoma. The condition is often associated with hypertension and diabetes.

Neurologic Conditions Now Leading Cause of Disability Worldwide

by Judy George: Click through for the full post…

Nervous system disorders affect 43% of global population.

Disorders affecting the nervous system were the leading cause of ill health and disability globally, affecting 3.4 billion people worldwide, a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study showed.

Neurologic conditions affected 43.1% of the world’s population and were the top contributor to the global disease burden in 2021, ahead of cardiovascular diseases (excluding stroke), according to Jaimie Steinmetz, PhD, MSc, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, and co-authors.

Globally, 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were responsible for 443 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) and 11.1 million deaths in 2021, Steinmetz and colleagues reported in Lancet Neurologyopens in a new tab or window.

The ten conditions with the highest age-standardized DALYs worldwide were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurologic complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.

In drug-ravaged northern Michigan, there’s money for help. But few counselors

By Ron French: Click through for the full post…

Michigan is receiving $1.5 billion in opioid settlement funds over 18 years to aid in the drug fight
Up North, those efforts may be hampered by shortages of workers and housing

In many counties, officials are still figuring out how best to spend settlement funds.

The phone alarm buzzes at 4 a.m. on weekdays in Brian Warsow’s room at an East Jordan addiction recovery home.  

He makes coffee and watches an episode of “Reacher” on TV to help wake up. Then, he embarks on the 52-minute drive to Gaylord for a 6 a.m. meeting with others in recovery from substance abuse.

In these coffee-fueled, early-morning meetings, Warsow doesn’t dwell on what he lost during his 14-year battle with addiction — a wife, children, job and his freedom. Instead, he acknowledges how lucky he is to access services to stay sober.

He’s now living temporarily in an addiction recovery home, a commodity as rare as cul-de-sacs in this rural, wooded section of the state. Access to treatment and recovery housing is something the more than 10 friends he’s lost to overdoses didn’t have. 

“There are no options here,” he said. “There are never enough services.”

Help is supposed to be on the way, as $1.5 billion is flowing into the state over 18 years to fill gaps in treatment as part of a national settlement with manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies accused of downplaying the risks and ignoring the perils ofprescription painkillers, fueling the opioid crisis.

Using those funds efficiently is critical to curb a crisis that killed 3,000 Michigan residents in 2022, more than auto crashes and gun deaths combined. 

But a convergence of crises could blunt the impact of that once-in-a-lifetime investment here in northeastern Michigan. 

Expanding recovery services is difficult because of the worker shortage vexing the state as a whole, and the region lacks affordable housing for new employees and transitional housing crucial to those new to recovery, community leaders and advocates told Bridge Michigan.